Sarah Wallis arrived as a fresher in Aberystwyth in 1995. She graduated in 1998 and now lives and works in London. But like many others, she has fond memories of the University town where she studied and where she met her partner Dan.

In July 2003, Sarah and ten others returned to Aberystwyth for a reunion weekend. As they revisited old haunts, Sarah kept a diary about how things have changed since they were all students in the town.

Friday
"We all agreed that the journey to Aber has if anything got longer - there seem to be a lot more lorries on the road and we appeared to get stuck behind every tractor, caravan and jet ski in Wales.

On finally arriving I checked into our hotel - Harry's - and have to say that there has been a definite improvement since it was the Swn-y-Don (well, according to Dan who stayed there when he came to visit Aber before starting uni back in 1992).

We were directed to go to the train station for a drink and memories of tea in polystyrene cups drifted through my mind - but when we got there we found that Weatherspoons had practically taken over the station so we sat on the platform and had a drink.

This being the same platform that, at the age of 4, I had congered around with my Grandparents at some Victorian festival. This being the first pub outside of London I had drank in for a while, I was astounded by the amount of alcohol that my money could buy - three alcoholic drinks, a coke and a packet of crisps for less than £5! Aber always was value for money and still is.

The next stop was the Ship and Castle...The pub still seems to attract the same old characters but has a really great cider in a barrel on the bar.

We then took a walk over to the castle for a look at the sea and the bay - it's still there and the castle appears to be holding up quite well.

Dinner was at the Agra (Indian Restaurant) which sprung up in my final year and was a firm favourite with many of my friends - but you can still get a better curry in Birmingham.

With dinner finished - it's back to the drinking... mmm... where did we go next?? Had to be the Glen (Glengower) which is still the same old place that tries to charge you £2 to get into a totally empty pub - some things never change and as ever we pursuaded them to let us in free as we were on a reunion (and they had no customers).

Tired, full and contented we made our way back to our various pensions for a good nights sleep.

Saturday
Dan and myself were up early for a run. Dan went up Penglais Hill and discovered that a lot of the footpaths around the golf course have disappeared which led to an interesting time.

The rest of Saturday was shopping and sunbathing - the weather appears to have got a lot better and the shops don't really appear to have changed. We thought that we had heard that Marks & Spencer had set up a store in Aber, although this obviously wasn't true.

After lazing on the beach, we arranged to meet for tea in the Clockhouse restaurant (where the Treehouse used to be as the Treehouse doesn't open in the evenings anymore).

I don't think they are used to parties of 11 as it took two and a half hours to get two courses and some meals turned up 15 minutes after the rest, as did the vegetables. Most people thought that the standard of the food was generally good, although no longer being on student budgets and living in London has kind of altered most of our expectations from food.

After food, we did not have as much time as we would have liked to get round the remaining pubs on our list and so we just toddled along to Rummers which doesn't appear to have changed, although they have refurbished the toilets - and they really did need it!

Sunday
Our last day - we had really got back into Aber and most of us really didn't want to go.

We took the train up Consti (Constitution Hill) - I think the price has gone up by about 50p. At the top we tried to recreate some old postcards and found that the painter had used more than a little artistic license.

We had lunch at Harry's and the food their was great - the best we had all weekend - especially the puddings!. After lunch it was back in the cars for the trip back to London which I don't think anyone wanted to take.

Aber seems very small after 5 years living in London but that's why we all enjoyed it so much - you don't have to arrange to meet people days in advance you just bump into them walking around the town. You can change what you are doing very quickly as everywhere is only a 15 minute walk away maximum. Hopefully we shall be back very soon..."

Written by Sarah Wallis .