The Wrong Train

Diego is from Montevideo, and last spring he studied English in London for two months. One Saturday he wanted to visit Cardiff, the capital of Wales. He planned everything: he looked at the map, he packed a sandwich and he arrived at the station at eight o'clock.

At the station there were a lot of people and a lot of trains. Diego asked a man in a hurry: "Is this the train to Wales?" "Yes, yes," the man answered, and Diego jumped on. He didn't check his ticket. He didn't look at the sign. He just relaxed and watched the green fields.

Four hours later, the train stopped at a tiny station. Diego looked at the name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. He counted the letters. He tried to pronounce it. He failed. This wasn't Cardiff. This was a village in the north of Wales, next to the sea.

Diego didn't panic. He walked into the village and talked to the locals. A woman in a shop explained the name: it was the short name! The long name had 58 letters. "We just say Llanfair," she laughed. She helped him with the pronunciation, and he practiced it ten times.

He visited the old church, walked along the water and watched the boats. In a cafe, two old men talked to him about football and asked about Uruguay. He didn't visit Cardiff, but he wasn't sad.

That evening, on the train back to London, Diego called his mother. "Did you like Cardiff?" she asked. "I didn't visit Cardiff," he answered. "But I visited Llanfair... pwll... gwyngyll!" His mother didn't understand, but she laughed.