Wales: Little Town Charm

Laugharne. The sharpies out there will know this town as the habitat of Dylan Thomas and the inspiration for the fictional town of Llareggub (the guy must have had a, um, quixotic relationship with the place; deceptively Welsh-looking, it is "bugger all" spelled backwards).

It will not take you long to figure out you are not in the busy place on the planet. But that does not mean you will be bored: the town is utterly drenched in Dylan Thomas myth--some of which is pretty rollicking. From his Writing Shed and Boathouse, to the trail immortalizing the path he took to fend off the writer's block, this is the town that fostered one of the greatest talents of the 20th Century. There has to be something to it.

Thomas wrote here, explored here, drank here (!), and finally, was buried here. But he also lived here. He experienced here. He listened here. Go to the Browns Hotel and you can see the allure. Grab a seat, get a pint, and the whole room is your friend! All I had to do was speak to broadcast that I wasn't a local, but in five minutes I had a girl from Yorkshire try out her Valley Girl accent on me (to which I responded in kind; I give as good as I get) and sang along to R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" with a guitarist named Dogman. No wonder Thomas was into Laugharne. This place rocks!

And yes, after 39 years of raging against the dying of the light, Thomas came to rest here. Always financially stretched throughout his life, his memorial, made of wood rather than stone, rises in the field next to the ancient graves at St. Martin's church.

The more and more I heard of Dylan, the most confusing the picture got. But if I met the man, as corny as it would be to hear and say, I could tell the man, yeah, I get why you came here.