Wish You Were Here: Why not Wales?

So, the producer of an NFL podcast posted something on Twitter the other day that gave me pause for thought. The tweet was positive, and expressed some of the same emotions I felt when I first found out that I was coming here:

This time next week I will be in London 😍 and then Scotland 😍😍 and then Ireland 😍😍😍 and this morning I woke up with a terrible chest and head cold. #thoughtsandprayers

— Erica Tamposi (@TamposiNFL) March 2, 2019

I began to pen a reply, but then didn't want to be That Guy trying to slide into her DMs. But the tweet made me recall something I often think when foreigners (usually Americans) consider the UK: Why not Wales? Why, when I said I was coming here the first time, did so many of my friends not know where it was, and why, even now, do so many of them say that they would love to come visit Whales some day?

Stereotypical American geographical ignorance aside, I just don't get why Wales is so often overlooked when people come to, or think about, the UK - especially those from the US who are tracing their Celtic roots. I mean, what do Ireland and Scotland have that Wales doesn't...?

Rich folklore and magical, mythical creatures? Check! The Welsh are considered by some to be the original Celts on the British Isles - archaeologists have traces the migration of the first settlers here from Europe, to (modern day) Wales, to Ireland, back over to Scotland and then back down again. Along the way, they developed a deep and passionate love of storytelling, especially through poetry and song. The first known written mention of King Arthur is in the Sixth-Century poem Y Gododdin, written by the bard Aneirin in 594 CE. You also get great stories of giants like Ysbaddaden and Rhudda; tales of cities being lost to the sea because someone was too drunk to close the floodgates, and of  tragically brave dogs who are given a hero's burial. You can keep your banshees, leprechauns and Broonies - the Welsh have them all beat.

Cool patron saint? Check! How is it that everyone knows about Saint Patrick (who was Welsh, by the way), most people know about St. Andrew and St. George, but nobody has heard of Saint David, the patron Saint of Wales...? Maybe it's because he's the only saint whose flag didn't make the cut for the Union Jack. Maybe it's because the Welsh don't tend to dye their rivers and get rat-arsed once a year to celebrate his day... it's enough to wear a dafodil, eat a Welshcake and wish everyone "Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!"

Funky national dress? Check! Well, kinda. The Welsh don't traditionally wear kilts (a relatively modern Scottish fashion, by the way), but they DO have a traditional costume. I've only ever seen it worn on March 1 (St. David's Day) or in the Eisteddfod, but it does exist. Why this one isn't more well-known, I can sort of understand: it's neither that unique, nor very flattering. But then again, neither is lederhosen, and everyone seems to get on board with that.

Cool flag? HELL YES. Don't get me wrong: I love Ol' Glory. I honestly think that the USA flag is special. But the Welsh flag takes vixilogical badassery to a whole new level. No crosses. No stars. No tree leaf. Just a great, big fuck-off  DRAGON. A. DRAGON. No wonder it was featured in the Black Panther, and has recently been voted the coolest flag in the world.

And then there's the country itself: modern, sophisticated and international in some places; depressed, poor and deprived in others; rural, grand and picturesque in others. Cities, hamlets, beaches, cliffs, mountains, rivers, fields and lots and lots of sheep. What more could you want? We recently played hosts to an old friend of mine and his family. As the Headmaster of an international school, my friend has lived in many countries, and traveled to even more. At 15 and 14, his kids have seen more of the world than most people will see in their lifetimes. But even with all of those miles under their belts, they still were in awe - literally - of what was in our back yard. I love those visits, even if all they do is to remind me how lucky I am to live in this little corner of the big blue marble.

And we could, of course, go on. Music, theatre, cinema, politics, civil rights, government, engineering, technology - the scope and breadth of Welsh influence on history is truly remarkable for a county that no one seems to know about.  Maybe I'll cover some of that later.

Maybe, another time, I'll look into the real question of 'Why not Wales?' I suspect, without any real research, that it's probably a combination of a lack of catastrophic diaspora, the lack of accessibility via civil infrastructure, the lack of an historically united and self-governed sense of nationhood, and, if we're completely honest, a lack of colonial ambition in the Welsh themselves. They seem to me to be a nation that is quite happy to stay in Wales, to keep Wales to themselves, and to take good care of it. And who can blame them, really? Living in one of the world's most beautiful, friendly and under-appreciated places suits me just fine.