1. Have you ever stayed in a hostel? If so, where? Did you like it? If you haven't stayed in a hostel, would you?

Yes, stayed in many YHA youth hostels in women's dorms when I was younger. Some better than others in facilities or location but all excellent in price. I stopped because the people using them changed and I was no longer safe as a solo traveller. I was unlucky to be booked into a large dorm in the Lake District with the remainder of the dorm filled by one group of white middle-class women who decided to harass me. As it was my last night, and a Bank Holiday weekend so I knew there wouldn't be any alternative accommodation available nearby, I ignored them and went to bed early. I was subsequently "accidentally" kicked and trodden on several times. In the morning they got up early so I pretended I was asleep until they'd gone down to breakfast, then packed up to leave and have breakfast elsewhere. By the time I got downstairs they'd complained to the hostel warden and everyone else about me (don't know what lies they made-up) so everyone glared at me while the young warden, who was clearly relieved I was leaving and he wouldn't have to sort out a dispute, escorted me to the door. I'll emphasise that was my one and only negative experience in years of using many YHA hostels and was balanced out by many positive experiences, temporary friendships, safety in the companionship of other women travellers, and helpful wardens.

ETA: But if I'd grown up in a time and place where everybody had cameras in their pockets and immediate access to harassment via online posting then I probably wouldn't have risked hostel dorms, just for the record.
 
2. What is your favourite airport that you've been to? Why? 

Airports? No, thank you! Railway stations provide an endless variety of fabulousness though: architectural delights, public art, trains (most recently one with Paddington Bear on the side), and that atmosphere of humans in purposeful motion (outside depressing commuter hours, obv). Don't recall any notably good bus stations.
 
3. What is the best museum you have visited on vacation?

Recently? Plas Mawr. But I love almost all museums, especially the small quirky local ones about a single subject or obviously mostly run by one dedicated soul. The most unexpectedly good museum was the Cumberland Pencil Museum, now the Derwent Pencil Museum, that I was dragged to by friends. The best Big Day Out was the Black Country Living Museum. And my childhood fave was the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, which in those days was basically a bunch of slightly random old farm buildings I enjoyed playing in with my family (also my introduction to the concept of the garderobe, lol).
 
4. Have you ever made friends while traveling whom you keep in touch with on a regular basis?

Pre-internet I met an Aussie woman in a Youth Hostel in England who was my holiday BFF for a couple of days and we kept in touch by letter when she went to live in Sweden. Then she came over to London for a few days so we went to the theatre together to see the Rocky Horror Show, lol. Then she joined a Christian commune and we lost touch.
And a couple of lesbians from Yorkshire invited me to stay with them after I rescued them from a spider in the YHA hostel in Boscastle.
But best of all are the BFFs for a day: people you meet and share perfect hours with then never see again. My first ever cup of Lapsang Souchong was a gift from an older solo traveller from New Zealand who had camped near my home village as a Girl Guide and was the only person I've met away from there who knew where it was. Or even random strangers who poke their noses into my life to share their local knowledge with a passing visitor, such as the White Van Man in central London who stopped and crossed three lanes of traffic to tell me the bus stop I was waiting at was in a temporary diversion and I needed to walk around the corner to a different stop.

5. Have you ever had a conversation with a seatmate on a plane?

No, but on trains and buses, yes. Especially, to repeat myself, kind people sharing their local knowledge with a passing visitor. Cardiff commuter woman saved me several minutes of potential frustration by explaining the layout of Cardiff Central Station and where the back exit is. And on a train I once reassured a man leading a group walk he had prepared using a map and google earth that there was indeed an extremely unlikely set of stairs where he needed them to be and his group wouldn't have to detour a long way around.
The most recent was on my way back from North Wales when a woman carrying a balloon animal sat next to me, and I eventually asked her if she'd twisted it herself as I'd only ever seen them made by street entertainers at the seaside, and she explained that her party were travelling home from the seaside where they'd acquired the pale pink quadruped of dubious species.

6. Et vous?

- Art, or whatever: Still loving the GIANT mechanical bull named Ozzy (lol) taking up almost the whole concourse at Birmingham New Street railway station. When I passed he had purple eyes and was swinging his mighty head from side to side. Non sequitur: I recall the last Ozzy I saw at New St was a tram, lol.
Ozzy: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7555438

- Lexicophilia: I love the marketing slogan for the Wolverhampton Canalside development: "Bostin ay it".

- There's no pleasing some people: there was a baby boy about a year old on the bus and he said, "Mama!", which we were told by his excited mother was his first word. The passengers reacted by applauding and cheering and waving their arms in the air (ltjdc). The little boy stared at us in horror for a minute or two then burst out crying and yelling in protest. He'll probably never speak again after being traumatised by our loving encouragement, lol.

- There's gno place like gnHome: I noticed a corner plot garden in suburban Llandudno with the road sign feet actually inside the boundary wall and the homeowner had taken the opportunity to surround the sign with an army of unusually large but otherwise traditional garden gnomes. Fantastic.

- What goes around comes around: I found a £1 coin on the pavement and later paid a boy's 75p bus fare because his mum claimed she didn't have any money (although she did have four massive market bags of what appeared to be shopping). The bus driver probably wished I hadn't as she then tried to stay on the bus beyond the end of the route. And, yes, she kept the 25p change and neither she nor her son offered me a word of thanks (not that I require any).

Conwy is a town in North Wales, beside the estuary of the River Conwy and currently in the county of Conwy. The medieval town walls were built between 1283-7 to exclude local people of the Kingdom of Gwynedd (aka Cymry / Welsh) from a town of English colonial settlers planted by successful invader Edward I of England.

As the area within the walls is small and the streets are mostly gridded I decided to try a walk using the pattern first left then second right then first left &c. My starting point was the highest gate through the walls, which is conveniently called Upper Gate and provides staircase access up to the wall walk along the battlements (also currently accessible during Castle opening hours from Rose Hill St, and from Conwy Railway Station although the access here isn't obvious).

( Cut for your scrolling pleasure )

Spiralsheep's Quick Guide to Conwy

- Quirkiest feature: educational bilingual wall-plaques on Chapel St at the top of York Place.

- Best building: Tudor townhouse Plas Mawr (fabulous - best in show - but 3 to 4 storeys of spiral stairs + a ladder to the viewing tower). Plas Mawr on wikipedia.

- Best views of the estuary: currently from the wall walk of Conwy Castle (steep slopes, spiral stairs, and trip hazards), but the flattish walk along the estuary from the northwest corner of town also has glorious views. Example view on geograph.

- Must do freebie: town walls (ascend to the wall walk if you can - the highest watchtower, Tŵr Gwylio, has one of the best views of the town - or at ground level where the walls are best seen from outside and at the gates).

- Also known for: two of the three bridges, especially Telford's historic suspension bridge. Conwy suspension bridge on wikipedia.

Amnesty International, amongst many other local and international human rights organisations, have yet again warned the British government of Keith Starmer about its disturbing overreach in outlawing peaceful protest and enforcing the arrest and criminal charging of ordinary British subjects as "terrorists" for sitting quietly while holding anti-genocide cardboard signs in public places (such as below statues of Gandhi and Millicent Fawcett). According to my tally over 720+ politically-motivated arrests of peaceful protestors have been committed within the last few weeks. The 521 arrests in London on Saturday 9 August 2025 were the most in a single police action for at least a decade according to the Met. I will be thinking of Jeremy Shippam, 71, and Judit Murray, 71, and Fiona Maclean, 53, on 16 September when they become the first of these political prisoners to be tried for the "terrorism" of peacefully sitting where they could be seen silently expressing anti-genocide sentiments in public.

Amnesty International's statement on their website.

It horrifies me that I live in a nation state in which people peacefully protesting against genocide are targeted for the utter destruction of their lives through misuse of the legal system, although it's unsurprising that abuse of the legal system is Keith Starmer's choice of weapon and England does have recent historical form for destroying people who stand up against genocide by foreign powers (if that genocide is perceived as profitable for UK PLC). /the ghost of Roger Casement and every Brit who campaigned against genocide in the Belgian Congo stares over my shoulder... amongst many others....

The nation state of Israel continues its genocide of Palestinians in Palestine. The UK continues to export arms to Israel for use in this genocide. The UK continues to supply arms used in several ongoing genocides (and the UK taxpayer subsidises this).