Studying abroad in Bangor, Wales? You won't regret it!

I studied abroad in Bangor, Wales in the summer of 2011. This was a 4 week trip and our group of 7 stayed at an apartment flat that was on the Bangor University campus in North Wales. It was a great set up because we each had our own rooms and bathrooms, while also sharing a living area and kitchen. It was a nice mixture of privacy with our own rooms and social time with our common living spaces. We often made food together in the kitchen area, which gave us the chance to get to know each other better.

One of the best parts about the Wales program is Outdoor Pursuits (OP). Here is what my OP schedule was like: On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, we'd have full days of usually one outdoor activity (Outdoor Pursuits). Here are the 15 days, in order, of what activities we did... Low/High Level Ropes, Sea Level Traversing, Canoeing and Abseiling, Kayaking, Gorge Scrambling, Mountain Scrambling, Indoor Rock Climbing, Group Sailing and Camping, Individual Sailing, Surfing, Outdoor Rock Climbing, Climbing/Scramble (Adventure day), Mountain Biking, and Sea Level Traverse/cliff jumping on our last day! My fav. 5, in this order, were Surfing, Gorge Scrambling, Sea Level Traversing, Mountain Biking, and Kayaking. My least fav. was sailing because it was too slow and boring for me. Our 2 OP instructors, Sally Ward and Sadie Steele, were amazing and I'd recommend them to anyone!

On our 3 Wednesday trips that we went on, we saw the following things: Caernarfon Castle, Beaumaris Castle, Puffin Island boat tour, Marquess of Anglesey Column Tower, the longest named town in the world Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Penrhyn Castle (slate bed, long pool table, gma tour guide, Prince Edward 7th and Queen Victoria), Conwy town (Best Fish and Chips place in North Wales, Smallest house in UK), Llandudno (Alice and Wonderland was written here), and Liverpool (Anglican Cathedral- 3rd biggest church in Europe, Metropolitan Building, Beatles Experience, and lots of shopping.) Wednesdays were great because it gave us a day to rest from OP, and we had so much fun visiting and learning about different towns and places. This would of been impossible without the brilliant guidance of Tecwyn Jones, our legendary Wales resident director.

On our 3 weekends, we went to Dublin (Ireland), Cardiff (Wales), and two 1 day trips to Chester (England) and Llandudno (Wales). In Dublin, which was the one weekend trip built into the Wales program, we went to saw things such as the Malahide Castle, Guinness Factory, Temple Bar, Oscar Wilde statue.. and we did a lot of shopping and ate at great restaurants! My favorite memory of Ireland is probably the Temple Bar because it's not something you can experience in the U.S... The live music from Irish singers who actually sing popular American classics, tons of people from many different countries around the world, and just being with a close group of friends who were all singing and having a good time is one of those memories I will never forget. I won't go into detail about my other 2 weekends, but just know that they were our free weekends to choose where we wanted/could afford to go. Overall, the weekend trips were amazing!

At the end of the day, studying abroad in Bangor, Wales was one of the best decisions of my life and turned out to be the best experience of my life. I would recommend this trip to anyone who likes traveling, likes outdoor adventures, and isn't afraid to go outside of their comfort zones. I want to go back to Wales right now, if that gives you any indication of how much I recommend this trip!