I awoke at 5:30 to shower, dress, and eat breakfast before catching the Tube at 6:30. I figured I'd need to be there an hour ahead of time to validate my BritRail pass and to board the train. Man, was I wrong. I got there, validated my pass, and then looked at the departure board. At London Paddington, they will only tell you which platform your train is boarding from after is has been completely cleaned and prepared for departure. This can mean you don't get your gate until a few minutes before your train is supposed to leave. I feel this is a stupid system that causes much needless stress as the clock ticks closer to your departure time and there is still no gate for you. So I had nothing to do but sit there in the freezing cold station on the frigid metal bench with all the other poor travelers hoping to get their gate in time. It was a fun time, let me tell you.
I, thankfully, got on my train in time and had two seats to myself the entire way minus about an hour when an obnoxious curly haired young teen boy sat next to me and slept on his tray table. The train took 5.5 hours and made lots of stops, so who was sitting around me was constantly changing as I was one of the very few to go all the way from London to Penzance. It wasn't bad really, very smooth with lots of gorgeous scenery to look at. I slept the first two hours laying across my seats and then read or listened to music the rest of the way.
We arrived in Penzance and I have to say it is a very nice town. It's main street is Market Jew Street which oddly enough has nothing to do with actual Jews but is taken from Cornish or something. There are lots of cute shops and bakeries and pubs and it was a straight shot down that street to my hostel. I couldn't check in until 5 so I left my bag in storage at the hostel and then took off to explore.
I made straight for the Promenade, a wide brick pedestrian thoroughfare right against the coast with benches for sitting and gazing at the ocean. I preferred to climb down some steps to the sea wall a few feet below the Promenade and sit dangling my feet above the clear water. I was shocked to see that I could see all the way to the bottom, being so used to the murky Atlantic of the Carolinas. Of course, this water was much, much colder, but that comes later. I just sat there for awhile taking in Mount's Bay and the surrounding cliffs and hillsides that contain the three towns of the bay Penzance, Newlyn, and Marazion. It was so stunning that i seriously teared up. I am getting so sentimental while I am over here.
After hanging out on the sea wall, I continued along the Promenade and passed the Jubilee Pool, an art deco enclosed seawater pool left over from the 30s. It cost to get in though so I just decided to jump in the ocean for free on my own, as is to come later. There was also the token war memorial right next to the Jubilee and a path leading down and around the Jubilee. I found my rocks on this path and sat there feeling like The Little Mermaid. I dipped my feet in the water and !@#$%, it was cold. It is just as cold as you would imagine it to be, much too cold to get in on the cloudy, windy day that it was. It was nice to just sit there on the rock and hear the sea crash around me and look out to St. Michael's Mount across the bay.
I eventually came to the quay and the end of the Promenade. There was a cafe and tacky beach shop called Buccaneers. I found it comforting to know that tacky beach shops selling overprices sea shells and pirate flags are international rather than being a solely Carolina thing. I then went to the cafe next door to get a snack. I picked up a Sprite out of the fridge and ordered a caramel slice, which is a shortbread cookie topped with a layer of solid caramel. The lady behind the counter looked at me funny and asked "Are you sure?" as if this was the strangest request she had ever had. I didn't know what else to do but say yes and pay. It was delicious but as my life would have it, I wasn't supposed to sit on the picnic tables outside because they had just arrived and weren't secure. I picked up my stuff to move inside only to have my caramel slice slip from my plate and drop to the floor. I took a moment to mourn my caramel slice before exiting the cafe to continue my walk.
Having walked the length of the water line, I turned uphill to explore Market Jew Street. I liked a lot of stuff I saw but it all was either actually too expensive or too expensive for my miserly taste which doesn't want to pay more than 5 pounds for anything. I also managed to find the cemetery and wandered about looking at interesting gravestones as we all know I like to do. Really, would a visit anywhere be complete without a trip to a cemetery? I think not. I turned back to the sea to make my "Yes Mom, I'm alive, No, no one has kidnapped me." phone call and then ate two jumbo sausages with chips at a seafront cafe for dinner. I had been fantasizing about sausage when I was hungry on the train so it was perfect. I have also discovered something rather odd: I like salt, pepper, and vinegar on my fries more than ketchup. Not something I would have expected of myself.
I then headed for my hostel to check in at last. If you need a hostel to stay at in Penzance, I highly recommend the YMCA Cornwall. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful plus students stay really cheap. A flash of the ISIC card and I got a bed for roughly $25 for two nights. The room itself was much cleaner than the one at Hostel Blue Planet and had a desk and a large armoire with lots of shelf space so I could actually unpack and arrange my stuff. It was a four person room with two bunk beds but I only had one roommate. She was a middle aged Asian woman who I never spoke to and who did nothing but chew loudly, belch, and mutter to herself. She also rose very early and went to bed very early which suited me since it meant less time with the two of us being awake in the room. We didn't have our own bathroom but the women's in the hall was clean so that was nice. I didn't have to pay for sheets and a towel was only 50p so again, it put Blue Planet to shame. I was very satisfied with my lodgings.
Here is where I ran into the flaw of traveling alone. What do you do at night? I had been perfectly content during the day but what was I to do when everything was closed and the sun was going down? I didn't want to go to a pub by myself and I hadn't seen a theater or a cinema so I just headed back to the Promenade. I called Jon but my phone credit ran out since my calling card didn't mean free minutes on my cell phone which I had been unaware of. This meant I had to return to the hostel, buy 30 minutes on their Internet, and top up my phone. This really annoyed me since I wasn't expecting to have to top up the entire time I was here. Stupid 20p a minute calls and calling card that doesn't actually do what it says. I was pretty tired from my early rising, long train, and then hours of walking around so I decided to go to bed at like 9:30. I had no troubles falling asleep in my top bunk though the pillow was rather overstuffed.
My first day was pretty chill, as I had wanted it to be. It was nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of a big city like London or Paris. The scenery was breathtaking and it was nice to just wander and gaze. I will complete the story of my weekend tomorrow but now I must go and work on my evil academic project some more and shower and go to sleep. Work in the morning is going to seem so difficult after my lovely holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment