Easter in Wales

Belated Happy Easter to you all! Whether you celebrate or not, I hope that you have had a nice, peaceful weekend blessed with good weather – because I don’t know about you, I’m thoroughly sick of winter weather now, I want some warmth, sun and lack of rain! Anyhow, for the Easter weekend my family decided to take a little trip to Llandudno, North Wales, which I took as an opportunity to make it an all-Lolita weekend. Which I’m pleased to report was successful! Bear with, please, this is a fairly picture heavy post.

| Innocent World Revival Sweets Teddybear JSK | Axes
Femme blouse | Mufish tights | offbrand bolero, beret
and boots | Madillustration brooch | Angelic Pretty
Charlotte's Bear brooch |

On Good Friday we drove down to Colwyn Bay, where we stayed, which is about 6 miles away from Llandudno itself. Since I was determined to only take the smallest suitcase we have, I wore my bulkiest things on me. The combination of sax and navy worked really well and this is the first time I took out this bolero, which I embroidered with a fleur de lis, although it’s still just an outline.

Colwyn Bay is a cute seaside town, not much different from any other seaside town I’ve been to. There isn’t much to do there in terms of any touristy attractions, but we found it to be a great base, since it’s so close to Llandudno and Conwy (which we didn’t actually manage to get to). You’ll like it if you’re an outdoorsy person or just like taking walks, since you can do that both on the seaside promenade and in the Queen’s Gardens, a small park. Or if you’re looking for somewhere that has that adorable seaside town feel and the cute little cafes to match, but with fewer people around – I can totally see plenty of people staying there to write or just get a break from city life. It certainly worked perfectly for us.

We visited Llandudno on Saturday. Since the forecast mentioned rain at the beginning of the day, I had to wear my only rain-appropriate boots, but I did bring flats to change into later. Still, this was a very comfortable outfit for all the sightseeing we have done.

| Fairytale Library skirt and bow clip | Mufish tights | offbrand
blouse, bolero, beret, boots and necklace |

Llandudno was actually a very popular seaside holiday destination for the Victorians and it absolutely shows. The houses by the promenade and many of the buildings on the main roads are still distinctly Victorian, which makes everything look so much better. You can enjoy the interior design of chain restaurants like Bella Italia, but it feels a lot fancier and more aesthetic when it’s nestled in a period building and made to blend with it.

Luckily, it didn’t rain much that day, but it was really windy, which meant that we took as many escapes indoor as we possibly could. This involved an impromptu stop at a small antique and vintage fair, which we didn’t even know about (I found a couple of lovely pieces of jewellery that were, unfortunately, outside of my budget), a café for a warming drink and the Home Front Museum, which we have planned. The museum is actually a private collection and aims to show what daily life was like for Britain during World War II, with some focus on the local areas of Llandudno where possible. Inside you strolled through a street with recreated shop fronts, as they would have been in the 1940s, you could watch some original propaganda posters, newspaper articles and clips, and take photos of absolutely everything. Knowing that this was a private collection made this actually tiny museum all the more impressive – it takes great passion, dedication and resource to create something so realistic and detailed. For a price of £3.50 for an adult it’s one of the best museum experiences I’ve had and I’d utterly recommend it to everyone.

Last on our Llandudno itinerary was a trip to the Great Orme, a nearby mountain. As none of us are into climbing or excessive exercising, we took the Victorian tram to the top and back. The tram ride in itself is a fun experience, albeit slightly on the pricier side, especially considering that the Great Orme isn’t a challenging climb (only 207 metres high and with plenty of gentle paths to take you to the top). However, if we thought the day was windy by the sea, we were in for quite a shock at the top, where it was really windy! So we took a few quick photos, had a speedy look around then went down on the next tram back to warm ourselves at the King’s Head, Llandudno’s oldest pub.

Easter Sunday was when we were meant to drive back home – and of course that’s when we had our short burst of truly spring-like weather, with some sun and very little wind! After two days of wearing those boots I decided that my feet needed some comfort, so even if I was to be cold, I’d bear it. Luckily for me, the weather persisted for most of the day and on the way back we stopped at Chester. Also, of the three, this is by far my favourite coordinate I wore that weekend, even though I wish my cutsew was a little more visible. While I didn’t pack much, I still haven’t exhausted my possibilities, which is some pretty successful packing indeed!

| Innocent World Revival Sweets Teddybear JSK | Bodyline
bolero and shoes | Axes Femme cutsew | Innocent World
hair clip | Madilustration brooch | offbrand tights and necklace |

Chester is an absolutely adorable place, I wish I lived nearer so I could visit more often! It used to be an important Roman settlement during Roman Empire’s rule in Britain and much of the later architecture, from medieval to around XVII^th century, was also preserved. And since it’s not a large city, you can easily visit almost all of the major attractions in a day. We saw the Roman city walls (although didn’t go on them, even though you can), the Amphitheatre, the main shopping streets and, most importantly, the Chester Cathedral. Now, my opinion on visiting religious places like churches in Europe or shrines and temples in Japan is that once you’ve seen a couple, you’ve seen them all. They don’t differ that much from each other, so unless you’re really passionate about a particular religion, a period of history or architectural style, you shouldn’t pressure yourself to visit them all. Having said this, I genuinely liked Chester Cathedral – it’s much smaller than some of the other cathedrals I’ve been to, but it’s packed with beautiful things like replica Roman mosaics depicting key moments from the Bible or the little garden in the centre. And it’s free to visit, so definitely worth it.

Although I think the streets of Chester were my actual favourite part. Just like in Llandudno, even the chain shops are made to work with the architecture, so as to not create a jarring image, yet architecture in Chester is older, XVII^th century. Plus, the shopping streets are actually on two levels: you have shops on the pavement and then little galleries on the first floor, which looks just precious and is a very clever use of the space available. We later took a tea and cake break in one of such shops, Katie’s Tea Rooms, which took all available floors. By the way, if you’re ever in the Chester area, I thoroughly recommend this place! It’s utterly delicious and really cheap for what you get, plus it has some A-grade interior décor which is screaming for a Classic Lolita photoshoot. The only downside to the place is that it’s not the most accessible, they even have a sign outside both warning and explaining why their restrooms aren’t accessible to those with limited mobility, so it’d be difficult to host a meet there without excluding any disabled members of your comm.

Overall, I had a really lovely Easter weekend and a great trip. Since my parents and I aren’t particularly religious, we don’t feel like we’re missing out on much by not having a typical Easter breakfast and thanks to the two Bank Holidays it’s perfect for little trips like this. We’d love to keep the tradition up and go somewhere else next year, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As for me – I learnt that it’s possible to have cute, but still practical Lolita-only three-day trip. There’s an article inspired by that experience already brewing inside of me, so keep an eye out on Wunderwelt Libre, if you’re interested.

How did you spend this Easter weekend? Did you do anything? Have you ever been on a trip where you exclusively wore Lolita? How did you find that experience?