Back in August, my boyfriend and I decided to take a little trip down to Cornwall to celebrate his birthday. We went down for a jam packed 3 days and had planned lots of exciting things to do whilst we were there. It was quite full on trying to cram everything in, in such a short space of time, however it was all worthwhile as we visited some amazing places! I may be a little late writing this (I am basically the queen of crap time keeping) but I feel like I just haven't stopped in the last couple of months, which has evidently affected how frequently I post. I am getting back into it though, slowly but surely! Anyway, I thought I'd share with you what we got up to!
We got up fairly early on the day, well I say that.. I am NOT a morning person and I will do my best to avoid waking up at all costs, or put it off for as long as possible. This was kind of an exception, as I actually had something to motivate me out of bed. We packed up the Mini and headed off to Little Chef for breakfast (IT'S STILL AROUND GUYS) and prepared ourselves for what we thought was going to be roughly a 5 hour journey. Oh, how wrong we were!
Almost 9 hours later, after sitting in the world's longest, non-moving 2 hour traffic jam, we finally arrived. The weather was beautiful all the way there, but just our luck when we arrived it chucked it down! We were staying in your bog standard Travelodge which was more than okay, because we weren't exactly going to be spending much time in the room anyway.
We had lots of spooky and geeky things to do in the few days that we were there, so we went off to a supposed haunted pub called The Bucket Of Blood, just up the road from where we were staying in Hayle. It was a very small, traditional pub with some old fashioned decor and some creepy posters dotted around, but other than we were the only people in there (minus the bartender and some locals sitting outside!) It was actually really nice to just sit down with Jack and chat, over a good old cornish flavoured cider. It's the little things you appreciate much more when you don't get to spend a lot of quality time with someone.
We then headed back after a swift one and popped to the pub in our complex for some food (..plus maybe a few more bevs!) It was a Brewers Fayre, so not exactly the classiest chain of pubs, being starving though neither of us really cared, as long as it filled the void!
After what felt most hectic day.. We headed back to the room to get some well earned rest, excited for what tomorrow had in store for us.. Jacks Birthday! :)
DAY TWO | Cute Villages, Creepy Attractions & Birthday Celebrations
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Mornin' birthday boy ;) |
The next day, we woke up bright and early to some more typical british rain *sarcy woop* (Thank god we didn't camp!) After a nice, hearty McDonalds breakfast and some present opening, we headed off to a tiny harbour village called Boscastle. It was around an hour away from our hotel, so we decided to stop off for an obligatory Starbucks (obvs). Not gonna lie, it had to have been the best customer service we have both ever received! Cornish people are so friendly!
An hour or so later we arrived in Boscastle. I think it is possibly the cutest and most photogenic place I have ever been to, I highly recommend it. We parked up and headed to a a place called the Museum Of Witchcraft we had found online, which Jack was really interested in visiting. We mooched around a few gift shops on the way and found a really nice National Trust Cafe/Shop. I immediately sniffed out their scented candle selection, whilst Jack made his way over to the board games. It was only right that we got the generic cornish pasty (oh my god, they are so good!) whilst hiding from the rain, before heading next door to the museum. It seemed everyone else had the same idea though, as it was absolutely heaving!
The museum wasn't really what we expected, it was very busy and small, making it hard to concentrate on what we were reading. Never the less, it was still very interesting! I've always been a bit sceptical about Witchcraft, but who would dedicate a whole building to something that was all made up..?! Food for thought.
Next up and on the way back, we headed to a small town called Bodmin. If you haven't heard of it, there is a huge abandoned prison there. It's not completely abandoned as they have turned it into a museum and a restaurant, so you're allowed free roam..after paying of course! It is obviously a very popular attraction, and with it being the Summer Holidays at the time, there were a lot of kids and tourists running around. The prison is renowned for being haunted & I for one am very open to the supernatural, so I kept checking behind me and taking lots of photos almost hoping that I might see, or capture something spooky!
Neither of us really felt that uneasy when walking around, until we went down the the basement level. It was just the two of us and I've never felt so on edge my whole life. I felt like the next room we went into, I'd see something or something would happen. Although boys being boys, I didn't feel safe anyway as Jack kept making me jump haha!
Needless to say, neither of us saw anything, but it was fine because it was proving to be my favourite part of the trip. I like how they really set the scene, like go into detail about some of the prisoners, or how harsh the systems were back in the early 1900's. It was really eye-opening to see, especially when they compared life in prison then, to what it's like now and how much of a luxury it is for people these days.
Annoyingly, we'd just missed the date for the overnight ghost hunt, which looked insanely creepy! You basically stay in the jail overnight doing all sorts of scary activities. If anyone has done it, I'd be really interested to know what it's like! Let me know in the comments!
Part Three | The Evening at Jamaica Inn
After we'd left the prison, we had researched a lot about Bodmin Moor and a very famous pub called Jamaica Inn. There's a big smuggler story behind it and there have been many sightings of ghostly figures around the building. They have a small smuggler museum as part of the Inn and it's quite interesting to read about everything that used to go on in such a secluded location. It's your typical country pub, roaring fires, locals coming in from hikes and huge portions of food! We saw a rack of ribs come out and oh my god, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I actually think there was a whole pig on the plate haha. Slight exaggeration, but y'know.. It was huge! So Jack and his manly ways insisted that we ate there!
When we left, it was like something out of a horror movie. It was still raining and there was a thick mist like you've never seen before. We could barely see 2ft in front of us, which made the journey back to the hotel much more interesting and treacherous!
An hour later, we got back both absolutely knackered, but still managed to go to our trusty Brewers Fayre for some celebratory birthday drinks for Jack! Soon after, we were both bloomin' knackered and crashed out so hard when we got back to the room, all ready for tomorrows shenanigans!
DAY 3 | St. Ives & Ghost Walk
Now this was the day we really needed nice weather, and I tell you what, it didn't disappoint. We were really excited about heading into St Ives as our hotel was situated slightly more inland, so we couldn't wait. It was really nice to have a lie in, as it was our last day of our trip. We had a very long day ahead of us, so we chilled in the hotel for most of the morning. We did wander out for our second day in a row of McDonalds breakfast, followed by a Costa, then popped back to our room and had a nice, relaxing morning watching TV! We aimed to leave the hotel around 2 to start driving there, as we had planned to do a ghost walk in the evening and didn't want to have too much day left to kill.
Everything was going smoothly until we hit St Ives town. If you have never been there, it's virtually impossible to find a parking space in the height of the season, and the roads are pretty much undriveable. Most of them are cobbled streets, laced with people strolling into the road without even noticing that you're about to run them over!
The first car park we saw we bypassed, as it seemed miles away from the actual beach, and trecking back to the car at 11pm (all uphill) didn't seem like the wisest option. We continued to go round in circles around the town for about 40 minutes trying to find a space. By this point, Jack was absolutely hating life. To be honest, I couldn't exactly blame him, so we headed back to the first car park we found originally. As it was a fair way down to the beach, there was a shuttle bus running to and from the car park for something as small as £1.. So obviously took that offer up!
We got off the bus at Porthmeor Beach, which is the most beautiful UK beach & coastline I have ever seen! Golden sand and light blue waters, with a church on a hill in the distance. I was originally going to take Jack for some seafood, as he has been dying for muscles ever since we got there, but I got confused and we got off the bus at the wrong beach! Turns out we were actually a 40 minute walk away from the actual restaurant! Could have fooled me, it looked really similar haha.
There wasn't really any point plodding around wasting anymore time, so we just started walking to find the main restaurants and shops. We walked for about 20 minutes through some lovely streets and seeing the most gorgeous little cottages, when we eventually came across a restaurant called Caffe Pasta.
It was a small little Italian overlooking St Ives Bay, where we had ended up for a spot of lunch. It was spontaneous choice and what a great one it turned out to be! I got a Bruschetta for starter and Jack got the Muscles. We were both completely blown away as they were the nicest starters we have ever had! We both got pizza for our mains and which wasn't the best, but you win some you lose some ey?!
After our cute little lunch, we continued our exploring! I am a sucker for gift shops and really wanted to try and find a decent keyring, which definitely didn't happen. There are some really cute, quirky shops in St Ives. It reminded me a bit of The Brighton Lanes, except not as high end and way more quaint.
We had browsed pretty much every shop in sight, but we still had 3 hours to kill.. So that could only mean one thing.. A drink! I had been banging on about this beast of a burger place I found online called Hub, which was also situated in the bay, so we went in there to see if we could grab a few drinks and sit on the balcony. Luckily some people were just leaving, so we got to sit there and people watch for a good hour or so. It's a shame we didn't eat there for lunch because the food they were bringing out.. Holy mother of god, it looked incredible <3
Once we'd finished our drinks, we headed out to get Ice Cream. Pretty much a must have if you're visiting a classic seaside town, right? We found a really cool place called Jus' Desserts which had the most enormous queue I had ever seen! It was obviously very popular if that many people were wanting to go there, so we jumped on the bandwagon. The selection was incredible, so I ended up going for Blue Bubblegum and Salted Caramel, with a free topping of Mini Marshmallows.. it doesn't sound that appealing but trust me.
We still had about an hour to go until the ghost walk (yep, we literally moved mountains waiting for this) and we stumbled across an arcade. You're never too old for an arcade. It was actually the most fun we'd had all day. We found Guitar Hero pretty much straight away and needless to say, it got very competitive and hilarious pretty fast! I think we also dabbled with the dance mat, because you basically have to do that and re-live your PS1 days!
So, the time finally arrived for the lantern ghost walk. It was organised by a man called Shanty, who is a local story teller and and does regular walks most nights for anyone who wants to come along. There is an earlier, more child friendly version which is called the St Ives Pirate Walk, but we obviously opted for the later one. The creepier the better!
We set off along the beach and then up some very STEEP hills, occasionally stopping for a story at a different location. The stories were really engaging with an element of fun to them, however he did tell us some really interesting information too. At one point in the walk, we started making our way to a graveyard where we stood and listened to 2 different stories. Even though they weren't overly realistic, lets just say the fact we were standing in a graveyard, in the pitch black at 10 'clock at night.. It was fairly nerve racking.
The graveyard actually looked over the sea, which for me added much more fear factor because I don't really like the sea or dark water! Call me weird, but there's just something very terrifying about it. I won't go into too much detail to spoil it for anyone, but I'd definitely recommend it as it's only £6 for adults and it's a really different way to spend your evening. If you'd like some more info, you can find out everything you need to know here .
It was quite late, but we finally made it back to the car and headed back to the hotel for a well earned sleep! We were both absolutely exhausted, but I think Jack really enjoyed himself, which was the main priority! It's a shame we only had 3 days there, but I'm really glad we managed to get everything done and enjoyed it all. I'd definitely be keen to explore more of Cornwall given the chance, but with it being so far away, maybe in a few years time!
(If you were wondering, the next day it took us almost 10 hours to get home..hence I don't think either of us would hurry back haha!) All in all though, it was the perfect little UK break away and I'm really glad we went :)
Where did you go this Summer? :)
Tania x