March 10, 2017
So I don't really like shopping. Never have, never will. But when I found myself with a gift certificate for a store in Capel Curig and too much fog to hike the trail I planned - I found myself doing just that in the 'Gateway to Snowdonia' - Betws-y-Coed.
I'd been planning a trip back to the area ever since we got a gift certificate from taking a class at Plas-y-Brenin, but given my dislike of shopping, had wanted to wait until I could actually do some walking. Once again using a 'Mountains of Snowdonia' guidebook - as in Craig-y-Garn, I had a whole day planned - drive, hike and shop.
Then I got to mid-Snowdonia, saw that semi-cloudy in Aberdyfi translated to low-lying fog in Capel Curig, and decided it was probably better to just spend the day trying to fulfill any parts of my wish list that I could remember.
The shopping and outdoors center of Wales
I hadn't spent all that much time in Betws-y-Coed on our last visit - in fact, I realized as I went back through the town that the last time I was here I could barely see given that it had been nighttime, pouring rain, and the windshield wipers had broken. Reminiscing about how different the various places we'd parked in town looked in daylight, when I was able to see out the windshield, and when I wasn't likely to get into a massive accident, I feel like I learned every nook and cranny of the town this time around. Of course this could be because I spent the first 30 minutes searching desperately for a bathroom, and then for a way to get 20p to pay for the bathrooms I'd found as I couldn't find any change in the car (answer: take out money at the Post Office, pay the bathroom attendant with a 10 pound note and get 9.80 in change.)
In any case, I learned that Betws-y-Coed not only boasts the 'most painted waterfalls in the UK' - Swallow Falls, and is considered the 'Gateway to Snowdonia' - with easy access to zip lines, hikes, and even an surfing pool, it also must boast the largest variety of outdoor specialty shops per square meter in the UK. Grudgingly (again, hatred of shopping) making my way through four or five different outdoors stores, I managed to find a headlamp, a hanging torch for the tent, a watch that's waterproof to 50 meters, and waterproof gear divider bags (among other things). I also found almost everything else on my list, including 572 varieties of rain jacket - but as I am wont to do when presented with too many choices, I decided to postpone any decision until I'd had a chance to narrow down my options out of the view of roving sales people trying to do their jobs and talk to me.
I usually realize I've had too much when I start thinking maybe I should buy really expensive specialty clothes simply to make any salespeople go away. It was at about this point that reminded myself I'd brought five suitcases of clothing, including hiking gear, from the US, and that maybe it would be a better idea to go home to Aberdyfi, pull out that gear and wash it, rather than spend several hundred pounds buying shiny new duplicates.
Scuttling quietly out of the last store with my head down, I later cursed my decision after having spent my Saturday afternoon largely in the bathroom, throwing my South African-bought down sleeping bag into a bathtub full of (what had quickly become) surprisingly brown water mixed with hand washing detergent.
I mean really, how could a sleeping bag that I hadn't washed once in ten years could possibly have gotten so dirty?
