The Worst Things in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion*

The entirely missable and worth mentioning because of it

You can tell us more about Aberystwyth.

The Worst Things

• The violence at weekends. I've lived in loads of places all over the country and I still haven't found anywhere as bad as Aber for fights. Some can be really nasty so be wary.
• the nosh man
• Smallmindedness....and the F$%*ing Taffia
• nothing to do, not enough nightclubs or alternative nights, too much seagull poo
• Aber apathy.
• Penparcy Pikeys, and townies in the summer who take out there 'frustrations' on you.
• No decent jobs :-(

• We wandered in to Pebbles restaurant and attempted to sit down and have an enjoyable family meal for eight. This turned out to be an absolute disaster. Gordon Ramsey would be well advised to visit this place to show them how to run the place. They 'forgot' to cook the chicken, hence no roasts, the 'soup of the day' was Knorr packet soup mixed with a meagre volume of water, hence the soup was more like Jello, the waiter was scruffy, dirty, unshaven and had no comms with the kitchen whatsoever. After 45 minutes wait, 4 drinks and two bowls of inedible soup we made our excuses and left. Most disappointed indeed. Shame as this used to be the posh restaurant of Borth.
• Penglais Hill - why such a steep gradient? Ditto Llanbadarn Hill (but at least it's bendy and doesn't take forever to get up).
• The fact that Aberystwyth's only good if your a middle class, single/divorced parent family who've moved here from the cities (southern always southern cities)to inflict the locals with their posho accent, do-gooding/recycle-maniac ways, and snobish attitude (if you're Welsh or have moved here from anywhere above Birmingham like myself- then your the scum of the earth.)
• Being in Aber (if you haven't got an escape plan) The Clock tower The Goldfish bowl The lack of clothes shops Brummies in the Summer
• The students
• It's three hours to the nearest airport. The Council are all ancient, but the population is about 65% under 25, so the money doesn't always go to the right places. Everybody knows your life story.
• The Boars Head is no more-the single most tragic thing to ever happen in Aberystwyth. And what's with all these crap chain pubs i.e Varsity and Weatherspoons. Pile of wank

• It's so small that EVERYONE knows your business! Gossip is the no.1 activity. I call it Aber-incest-wyth, as everyone is somehow connected! If you hang around long enough you become part of Aber mythology, so you have to keep changing your appearance dramatically!! The lack of variety at night can be frustrating, and you have to provide a lot of your own entertainment! It is so remote, which gets you down, as its so hard just to escape for the day!
• The students, the bloody students - good laugh when the Tregaron lads come to town
• Escape is impossible you either fall in love with the place and stay or hate but cant escape because the train service is usless and buses out dont exist
• Nutbag business studies students. "Locals". Hippies. Those militant vegans: an occurance common only to Aberystwyth. Militant Welsh nationalists. Militant loathers of students. That lame anti-war protester who looks like John-Paul Sartre. Tacky pubs that try to be nightclubs but close at 11 and have no dancefloor. Pubs that disguise their shoddy decor by switching all the lights out. Having to queue for several days at the bar on a Saturday night. The apathy. The boredom. The rain. Penglais hill. The fact that when you are there, you always feel like you should be somewhere else. The old Welsh battleaxes who use any opportunity imaginable to lay into your own personal and spiritual beliefs, and tell you what you "should" think, because they're better than you, because they're Welsh battleaxes who read the Western Mail and oo arr they do ne like these there students around these parts oo arr. Ahem. The inevitable feeling that you'll never, ever, ever escape its overbearing grasp. Dead animals washed up on the beach. At Christmas everybody leaves, and there is tumbleweed. The ridiculous desire by the local council to bathe every single tourist object (including hills and other completely natural phenomena) in ugly orange light, thus blinding anybody who happens to be walking around in a paralytic state of drunkenness at 3:00 in the morning. Student halls. Upper Limits. Went in there once. Very ugly.
• You still get Monday at the end of a fine weekend.
• The place is so small and cut off, that in 1998 when a McDonalds (with drive thru) was built local villages organised special coach trips to marvel in awe at this modern symbol of the modern world. The kids couldn't believe it, poor things.
• Parking - especially for the disabled. Access to almost every shop on the main road is also difficult if you are in a wheelchair.
• The 24 Spar between about 10pm and 2am. This and the stretch of road outside at this time is the most dangerous area of town. Whether or not students realise this, local boxers and groups of fight-ready youths congregate here as it is a main throughfare to see what is going on in town.
• No train to Camarthen, Nothing to do if its raining.,
• Coming from Fflint in North-East Wales, not being a Welsh speaker and being treated like shit by the locals, there is no animosity if you go over to Eire between Gaelic and non-Gaelic speakers, we are all celts, have some respect.
• ALL of the pubs have been desecrated, renamed or closed.
• getting stuck upside down on a ride at the fair!
• the dole scum from liverpool/birmingham
• Explaining to the hundreds of Brummies, prior to the change in Cerridigeon licensing laws, that yes, the pubs where shut on Sundays
• Pier Pressure: Is this a new experience, that seperates Aber from the rest of mainland UK? Is it bollocks! Just the thought of the name makes me cringe inside and outside. If you're the person who like cheesy night clubs, Aberystwyth Pier Pressure won't let you down. If you're not this sort of person go there just for the comedy value, the shiny shoes brigade, the handbag dancers. If you are confused at any time, just understand that the regular crowd wil probably see Pier Pressure nights as the pinnacle of there youth and life won't get any better than this!
• *EVERY BLOODY THING being closed at 11pm on a Sunday night. *My best friend living there and me not (anymore).
• if you want to buy any thing specialist forget it, i bought a motor bike and could not get a crash helmet for 50 mile, or spares and the missues well the nearest proper womens clothes shop is again 50 miles away. thats a lot of petrol!!!
• It rains a lot here..........Wales' rain forest! Its quiet when the students go home,so quiet, you'll be able to get a taxi driver to open the door for you!
• Days with no wind or waves
• Professor RG Havard (aka Reg Holdsworth)
• Rain, Wind - being in wales, they can't really be avoided though.
• A certain whingy local paper which comes up with the must absurdly petty stories, such as the report on a large puddle in BeWise car park. (True). People with no idea of life outside Aberystwyth and consequently over-inflated ideas of the importance of themselves and of Aber. Anti-English feeling among some to the extent that even Welsh-born people are looked down on for not speaking Welsh. Forcing people to speak Welsh is wrong - and can't be disguised as "preserving our culture". But of course, racism works both ways and some English people can be pretty objectionable and have very narrow-minded opinions of the Welsh too. People with a chip on their shoulder, and a small minority of unfriendly locals. Very petty views - see letters page of Cambrian News. Crap public transport - bloody once-daily 'buses'. Petty corruption. Funny how in a row of cars being given parking tickets some are mysteriously "forgotten". And I'm sure it doesn't end there...
• the not so friendly local farmers and the endless parade of 14-yr old girls in skimpy clothing in various (ahem) establishments around town.
• THE WEATHER!!! In the summer, we get rain! In the winter we don't even get snow!!
• Underage drinkers vomiting everywhere.Too many juke boxes in pubs - with crap music on them.Tourists from Birmingham in the Summer leaving litter everywhere.
• Nationalistic locals and the Rain.
• Nothing you fools! This place is heaven on Earth (except when it rains)
• Varsity
• Its isolation is notorious and some basic things are missing. There is no second record shop no Marks and Sparks or other major shops
• Everybody seems to have forgotten the King's Hall on this website! All the decent old pubs have turned into brass and pine theme bars.
• not enough to do... the bowling place is as naff as can be, one half-decent cinema and an overpriced leisure centre.
• Welsh Nats. Best not to say anything to these people. These people are mad. You have an English accent?-Don't get into a political discussion with these types-the first disagreement and they'll want a fight!
• Crowds of oldies spewing out of coaches on the sea-front in summer.
• The price of the Vale of Rheidol railway! Appalling public transport links. Storms. First years and tourists love 'em. But they're dangerous. Watch for falling slates. I mean this!
• Student clientele of Glen insufferably shallow.
• Local beach made of dirt.
• Bronglais Hospital not too sympathetic to drunken casualties - familiarity breeds contempt.
• No where to skate in the rain. No skate shop for miles. Most skaters only skate when they cannot surf, rave, drink or smoke dope.
• alexandra hall not yet renovated-would solve town gown tension over hmo`s
• The worst thing about Aber is the lack of any decent raves / gigs.
• Nothing to do but sit around and drink.
• Miles away from anywhere... if you don't have a car then the train fair is quite cheap(ish) - trips to Birmingham have been known to be managed in a day, but if you don't have a car - forget trying to take a day shopping anywhere in one day - it's just not very manageable - and the shops here are really crap generally. I worked for Dixons here and they were OK though.
• The train trip from London, parking, avoiding the sidewalk pizzas on Friday and Saturday nights (let's face it, every night).

Parts of this information have been supplied by: Ferret, Fly, Mike Hirst, DJ, andrew, likkydee, irishwelsh, Ben Norwood, charles, Paul Stanway, Richard Johnson, Adam Clegg, Hi Ho, Ulrich Zwingli, Will, Andrew Jones, d.evans, Ralph, Chris, Marty, S. MacKian, Rob Jones, Rich, Al, Rhian, pete j, Mererid, J. Chung, Dom Roberts, Rhian Thomas, IT, HELZ, julie jones, Richard Everett, harry jackson, Kirstin Lea, dave crosby, adam gavin, 2005 Grad, dave, Dow, john davies, Tim Hollis, Chris Daniels, T. Gwynne, squaley, Jerry Irish, richard, DeathOnLegs, HTB, graeme, johndavis, steve, Bethan, Phil, Paul, elgan, Mairead, bdave crosby, christine silk, Matt Murphy, blackninjarat, Graham, AML, luci, sarah, Britney, Bethan Eldridge, Sir Thomas of Ones, Mz X, Sophie, Eli Jones, AKV, Phil from Aylesbury, The Toucan., Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer, Gordon, wellcoolbuds, Phillipa, VICKY, john, Mererid Williams, ben perrott, dele bucknor, Barbara Davies, Peter Tims, Pete Arnold, Ross Holland, Leanne Ashworth, Simon Burnell, Mike Dancer, Morgana Griffiths, generic, Morgana, Peter Whitcombe, Jonsey, kimberley, Jen Marsh, Alex, Susie floosie, LyndseyHughesJones, Gareth Matthews, Sis, Ben Nicholas, Anon, alun williams, J. Owen, tom, h, Dave Langstaff, Auriel Martin, jo, Robin Varley, john wakefield, nell, Mr. Monkey, Eli and Shelly, Ciaran Anscomb, Rob, Tim, Foxy, richard humphreys, daphne brownhill /nee jenkins the shop!!, pete d, Alan Hughes, Andy, george