The valleys

cardiff is situated on the southeastern edge of wales, on the sea. north of it there are small mountains (huge in davis standards...) which create a nice network of valleys. now since i have arrived here i have been hearing about the valleys. for one, there is a definite stereotype of the valley people - and its slightly different than like 'the valley' in l.a.... the stereotypes say that the valley people are the ones who descend on cardiff every weekend and get smashedly drunk. they are the uneducated, ignorant fools that cause fights. half of the teenage girls there are pushing baby carts (ok, this stereotype is somewhat rooted in reality, the valley and wales in general have one of the highest (i think second) teenage pregnancy rates in europe). anyway, not a pretty picture do the people of cardiff have of the valley folk.
a bit of history, and some geography - the valley used to be a prime mining area. before WW2, they housed the world's highest concentration of mineral, metal, coal mines. now these mines closed, some before WW2, hastened by the great depression (or whatever they call it here...) and then during the war some were opened, yet heavily bombed. and then over time, more closed, with margaret thatcher really pushing some buttons against the miners when she tried to squash a strike. anyway, almost all of them are closed to actual mining. there are many museums and mines that you can go down to, and see what it was like (one is called the Big Pit, i am totally going to that one!!!). and there are rusty factories left and some other abandoned industrial buildings.
so this is the impression i have of the valleys from travel guides and locals. ready? here we go... (yeah, i know you can see these before, but still...)




doesn't exactly carry the written stories image... amazingly green. amazingly lush. soft hills with sharp cuts of the actual valleys, filled with large neighborhoods of villages that became towns. its not suburbia in any way, there are definitely rusty factories and beat up old buildings. it doesn't seem as if the hand of the government that sprinkles money on some areas has been generous with this part. the people i saw definitely had that roughness edge to them. cut up dirty t's. tattoos of the non-surfer, chinese letters variety (try not perfectly done scorpions, probably carved in a mid-drunkness state). definitely lots of teenage mothers pushing baby carts. and generally, a rougher look, i mean that's just the best word.
so at the end, you get this beautiful surrounding soft green hills, beautiful trees, white dotted prairies (the white dots = sheep...) and the roughness of what used to be mine towns, moving towards the 21st century (at 20th century speed, at best...). very interesting.