Sleepover In A Library In Wales!!!!
Mar. 4th, 2026 11:19 pmOK, so, last weekend was INSANELY COOL!!! Forgive me if it sounds like this blog post is some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, and also is devoid of my typical "wit", because it isn't and sort of sponsored thing---I just found a new happy place.
Blue and I were both totally tired and we decided to have a weekend away. So, I pulled out of my back pocket the most EPIC place that I had found several months ago when doing research on what I wanted to do whilst in England! It's called Gladstone's Library and it's potentially my new favourite place on Earth. Basically, it's a library---started with the personal collection of Victorian-era prime minister Gladstone---that you can stay in over night! It has a restaurant and bedrooms, and it's a working library. Apparently some authors stay there for a month at a time to work on their projects and give masterclasses and talks, but sadly none of them were there at the time, at least to our knowledge. But I acquired a new goal: become one of those authors one day!
The library itself is really beautiful. Here's the Theology Room, which is also the area of the library with seating and desks for people to work on whatever.
And here's the outside of the library!
We arrived there on Saturday. We could have actually prolonged our stay by a day since Blue's tutor cancelled on him last minute Friday, btu of course we didn't know that when booking. It was about 6 hours of being on trains and waiting on trains to get to the little village (called Hawarden) in Wales that it's in from London, but at least I got to work on some creative writing on the train! But I was pretty tired by the time I got there.
We went up to our room---a cute little room with some twin beds, a view out onto the roof (full of scaffolding as they're doing construction) and a desk that inexplicably had no chair. And they also have a cute vintage radio in the room! I got the bed next to the window because I like waking up to the morning light, and then we went to tea!
They gave us an insane amount of pastries and sandwiches to the point we finished maybe half of what they gave us, and then we took a tour of the library before we went walking around the village! But we didn't see much, because we came upon this gate that led to "Hawarden Estate"---and if there's anything to draw in two Janeites, it's an estate! It turned out to basically be a bunch of fields open to the public to walk around---the kind of thing American parks wish they could be. Everything was so lush and green (because they actually get precipitation here) and we had an amazing walk. We went down into a valley and down an old path with little stone walls that must be hundreds of years old, and found a field of sheep! But the pièce de resistance of the Estate was when we went up a hill, and we found a Norman castle! There was a tower with moss between the bricks and a Welsh flag flying on top surrounded by what must have been hundreds of daffodils. It was beautiful, but we couldn't find a way to get up there, so we ended up going back to the hotel.
We watched the movie Crossroads with Britney Spears, which is surprisingly dark, first of all! Also, I'm surprised I never watched it back in my Britney Spears phase (about 2018-2022). The main character's love interest had bad vibes I couldn't quite pinpoint, and I think it's so gross that this movie, about freshly 18, freshly out of high school girls, has such a hyperfixation on the main character having sex for the first time, especially when the target audience was probably younger girls.
Then we went to dinner! For starters Blue had foccacia and beetroot hummus, and I had an UNBELIEVABLE mixed-pepper soup with really delicious bread. For our main course we got chicken chasseur, which is a French dish with chicken, green beans and mashed potatoes with some sort of sauce. It was pretty good!
I got to do some creative writing in the library after dinner, and since my laptop didn't connect to the library's Wi-Fi, I had a really great distraction-free place to focus on my writing! I'd love to go on a writing retreat there someday. After the library closed, we washed up and went to bed!
The next morning we got up and went to the complimentary continental breakfast. Somehow I took continental breakfast to mean English breakfast, so I was looking forward to fresh eggs, bacon, etc., and instead had to suffer through cold eggs, toast with marmalade (which I didn't realize I hated as I'd never had it) and wheat flakes. We then set off on a walk to the local Farm Shop on the Hawarden Estate. We checked it out and decided to come back for lunch, and in the meanwhile had another walk through the other side of the Estate! And eventually... came across the castle and were able to get all the way up! There were more ruins we hadn't seen, including a dungeon, and a more contemporary house below. It was amazing and the moment was really beautiful as we sat amidst the daffodils in front of a 700-year-old castle as a gentle spring breeze blew by.
We went back and had quite a nice lunch, but on our walk back to the library came down with stomach cramps that plagued us the rest of the day. I'm not actually sure if mine was a period or not. (For those reading who might be inclined to fight on that, yes, I know trans women don't have uteri and therefore can't menstruate, however we do have hormone cycles mirroring cis women's and therefore can get some PMS-like symptoms.) I'm not a doctor, and being relatively early in my transition, I have no clue what a period feels like. But maybe that's what it was? I do feel a bit moodier than general as well. I'm not sure. Agh!!
Anyways, I chilled in the library---napping/listening to my iPod as I was in a bit too much pain to do any writing, sadly---until we caught our trains back to our respective abodes. Overall, despite the cramps on the second day, it was a really amazing trip and we're both dying to go back there!!
And that's about it. Sidenote to any AFAB readers or other trans girls with period/PMS-like symptoms---how the hell are we supposed to deal with this? this immobilized me for the past three and a half days, and I dread having to work on this.
Blue and I were both totally tired and we decided to have a weekend away. So, I pulled out of my back pocket the most EPIC place that I had found several months ago when doing research on what I wanted to do whilst in England! It's called Gladstone's Library and it's potentially my new favourite place on Earth. Basically, it's a library---started with the personal collection of Victorian-era prime minister Gladstone---that you can stay in over night! It has a restaurant and bedrooms, and it's a working library. Apparently some authors stay there for a month at a time to work on their projects and give masterclasses and talks, but sadly none of them were there at the time, at least to our knowledge. But I acquired a new goal: become one of those authors one day!
The library itself is really beautiful. Here's the Theology Room, which is also the area of the library with seating and desks for people to work on whatever.
And here's the outside of the library!
We arrived there on Saturday. We could have actually prolonged our stay by a day since Blue's tutor cancelled on him last minute Friday, btu of course we didn't know that when booking. It was about 6 hours of being on trains and waiting on trains to get to the little village (called Hawarden) in Wales that it's in from London, but at least I got to work on some creative writing on the train! But I was pretty tired by the time I got there.
We went up to our room---a cute little room with some twin beds, a view out onto the roof (full of scaffolding as they're doing construction) and a desk that inexplicably had no chair. And they also have a cute vintage radio in the room! I got the bed next to the window because I like waking up to the morning light, and then we went to tea!
They gave us an insane amount of pastries and sandwiches to the point we finished maybe half of what they gave us, and then we took a tour of the library before we went walking around the village! But we didn't see much, because we came upon this gate that led to "Hawarden Estate"---and if there's anything to draw in two Janeites, it's an estate! It turned out to basically be a bunch of fields open to the public to walk around---the kind of thing American parks wish they could be. Everything was so lush and green (because they actually get precipitation here) and we had an amazing walk. We went down into a valley and down an old path with little stone walls that must be hundreds of years old, and found a field of sheep! But the pièce de resistance of the Estate was when we went up a hill, and we found a Norman castle! There was a tower with moss between the bricks and a Welsh flag flying on top surrounded by what must have been hundreds of daffodils. It was beautiful, but we couldn't find a way to get up there, so we ended up going back to the hotel.
We watched the movie Crossroads with Britney Spears, which is surprisingly dark, first of all! Also, I'm surprised I never watched it back in my Britney Spears phase (about 2018-2022). The main character's love interest had bad vibes I couldn't quite pinpoint, and I think it's so gross that this movie, about freshly 18, freshly out of high school girls, has such a hyperfixation on the main character having sex for the first time, especially when the target audience was probably younger girls.
Then we went to dinner! For starters Blue had foccacia and beetroot hummus, and I had an UNBELIEVABLE mixed-pepper soup with really delicious bread. For our main course we got chicken chasseur, which is a French dish with chicken, green beans and mashed potatoes with some sort of sauce. It was pretty good!
I got to do some creative writing in the library after dinner, and since my laptop didn't connect to the library's Wi-Fi, I had a really great distraction-free place to focus on my writing! I'd love to go on a writing retreat there someday. After the library closed, we washed up and went to bed!
The next morning we got up and went to the complimentary continental breakfast. Somehow I took continental breakfast to mean English breakfast, so I was looking forward to fresh eggs, bacon, etc., and instead had to suffer through cold eggs, toast with marmalade (which I didn't realize I hated as I'd never had it) and wheat flakes. We then set off on a walk to the local Farm Shop on the Hawarden Estate. We checked it out and decided to come back for lunch, and in the meanwhile had another walk through the other side of the Estate! And eventually... came across the castle and were able to get all the way up! There were more ruins we hadn't seen, including a dungeon, and a more contemporary house below. It was amazing and the moment was really beautiful as we sat amidst the daffodils in front of a 700-year-old castle as a gentle spring breeze blew by.
We went back and had quite a nice lunch, but on our walk back to the library came down with stomach cramps that plagued us the rest of the day. I'm not actually sure if mine was a period or not. (For those reading who might be inclined to fight on that, yes, I know trans women don't have uteri and therefore can't menstruate, however we do have hormone cycles mirroring cis women's and therefore can get some PMS-like symptoms.) I'm not a doctor, and being relatively early in my transition, I have no clue what a period feels like. But maybe that's what it was? I do feel a bit moodier than general as well. I'm not sure. Agh!!
Anyways, I chilled in the library---napping/listening to my iPod as I was in a bit too much pain to do any writing, sadly---until we caught our trains back to our respective abodes. Overall, despite the cramps on the second day, it was a really amazing trip and we're both dying to go back there!!
And that's about it. Sidenote to any AFAB readers or other trans girls with period/PMS-like symptoms---how the hell are we supposed to deal with this? this immobilized me for the past three and a half days, and I dread having to work on this.
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