Cowbridge Food and Wine Festival

Hello everyone!
Yesterday I had a wonderful "cultural experience." Myself, Hedd (wales), Marie (georgia... the country not the state), and Ondrej (czech rep.) all took a taxi to Cowbridge about 15 minutes away. The occasion: Cowbridge Food and Wine Festival. A giant tent set up with over 40 vendors displaying everything from Welsh whisky to homemade preservatives, to roasted almonds, to the giant chocolate fountains. The best part? For the two pound entry fee, you recieved the right to eat and drink the multitude of taster samples set out at each stall.
After a meal of pizza and garlic bread we began our circuit of the stalls. Although all I bought was some roasted almonds (the smell was irresistable), I really enjoyed seeing what Welsh culture had to offer. It's often said Welsh food is bland and boring, I found many traditional items that were very unique and good. We all got to try Laverbread, a traditional Welsh food that is made from seaweed. I found it alright, too fishy but not bad. Ondej didn't like it at all and proudly marked it so on the board near the stand selling it.
At one point as we walked through town amoung the multitude of Welsh people, we were graced with the oppertunity to stop and gawk at a Hippi Van rally coming down the main street in town.
We were planning on taking the bus home afterwards but had to promptly reevaluate our possiblities when, upon viewing the bus timetable, saw that all buses to Llantwit were cancelled. With no phone book and no phone we were stranded in Cowbridge. The red phone booth so typically British is actually a very good design; it was quite easy for us to find one. Unfortunatly there was no phone book so it didn't help. Instead we found our way to a cute little Italian coffee shop, bought some giant hot chocolates (it had been raining the whole day... surprise, surprise) and asked if they could phone us a taxi. Finally, after many games of tic-tac-toe using sugar packets, our taxi came and we took our expensive (13 pounds one way!... not too bad actually but not good either) ride home full of hot chocolate and culture! A very good day!