Pembroke Castle was the most fun of all the castles I visited. Even better than Edinburgh castle. Maybe because there were almost no people there and they let us climb all over it? There was also a secret cave underneath the dungeon that we had to go down dangerous windy stairs to get to. And a huge high tower that we had to go up dangerous narrow windy stairs to get to the top of... Danger = cool, I guess! ;-)

Waterstones is quite the posh bookstore. I went in the one at Picadilly Circus, London. I felt very underdressed. Still, I had to very carefully keep my itching fingers away from my pockets so I wouldn't buy anything! It's a British chain, so maybe that's why the Welsh stuff was in the "foreign" section?

It's hard to write about life in Russia, because I've lived here for two years, and I forget that what is completely commonplace to me is wacky to Americans. It's hard to see the incongruity enough to figure out what would be interesting to talk about. I wrote a lot about it when I first moved there and could still see the differences. I'll see what I can do for you, though. ;-)

Incidentally, I just posted a short piece of historical semi-fiction based on a mass murder in the small Russian town I'm currently visiting. ;-)