Aberystwyth By Heart

right so if youve ended up here, you've probably just read the post. cheers for clicking through, genuinely

I didnt write this to be some glossy guide with stock photos and fake enthusiasm. its just everything I found out the hard way over two years of actually living here. the walks, the timing, the spots that arent on any list, the stuff that takes proper time in a place to figure out

I kept notes on my phone for months without even planning to do anything with them. then one day I looked back through it all and thought, this is actually worth putting together properly. so I did

whats in it

nothing fancy, just the real bits

• the exact spot on Constitution Hill where the whole bay opens up and stops you talking mid sentence

• which days to walk the prom without getting battered sideways by the wind

• the bakery, the pub, the corners locals actually use, not the ones all over instagram

• parking that wont ruin your morning before youve even started

• the one thing I found completely by accident that I still havent told anyone outside this book

why I actually made this

I nearly drove past all of it. that's the honest truth. and I didnt want anyone else to have that same near miss, spending years somewhere brilliant without ever properly seeing it

if youre thinking of visiting, or youve just moved here, or you already love this place and want to see it properly for the first time, this was written for exactly that

reading it

doesnt matter what youre on, phone, ipad, kindle, tablet, whatever. its easy to read on all of it, no fiddly formatting, no zooming about trying to make sense of a page. read it on the sofa, read it on the prom itself, either way it just works

the bit I still havent told anyone

theres one part in here that everyone whos read it messages me about. every single person says the same thing. im still not putting it here. youll understand once you see it

Aberystwyth isnt the punchline

it's the bit you only get once you actually stop and look