#cornwall is lovely in the summer and has palm trees at the beach!

[the-eren-plush-blog]

Eremika Week 2017 Day 7: Ocean

Eren and Mikasa took a holiday (vacation) to the seaside (beach).  They enjoyed a tasty picnic, paddled in the sea water and enjoyed the summer sunshine. Happy Days!

[kenyonexeter-blog]

Going to St Ives

England in the fall doesn’t get as much credit as it should, because the countryside this time of year is gorgeous. Picture luscious rolling green hills dotted with fluffy sheep and quaint cows, little streams cutting through a countryside that seems right out of a picture book, and trees decorated with leaves of bright reds and oranges and yellows. That was my view on the train to St Ives. However, the views on the train were immediately topped by the views of St Ives when I arrived. It looked utterly idyllic. A clear blue with only a few wispy clouds filled the sky over even bluer water. There were palm trees and sand and a real beach. You could hear children laughing, the brave ones venturing into the chilly water. It smelled like the sea and felt like summer, even though the weather was cool. I smiled; this was a place you go to to relax, to not think about school or homework or any worries. In that moment, everything I’d done to get there felt worth it, from the £13.50 train fare to the three-and-a-half hour train ride. Not that that was much to give up. I couldn’t believe it took so little to get to such a paradise.

My friends and I walked into town, past ice cream shops set up along the boardwalk and people advertising boat trips out to Seal Island—something I’d love to go back and do one day. I had a Cornish pasty for lunch, because, don’t you have to while in Cornwall? It was hearty, and meaty, but I enjoyed it despite the fact that I’m not a huge beef fan, so it must have been pretty good. And of course we had to get tea and scones. They too were delicious, soft and buttery with the sweet clotted cream and fresh cool jam balancing each other out perfectly. I still ate the scones in the Devon way though—it just tastes better with the clotted cream on the bottom. And the cream tea, of which they brought out three large pots for four people, was surprisingly tasty. My first interaction with cream tea, at Tea on the Green in Exeter, had been a bit unpleasant, and I had decided cream tea just wasn’t for me. It would simply be a necessary evil to order when I was getting my beloved scones. But this cream tea…I don’t know if it was really different or if my tastes are simply changing, but it tasted much better. Warm and creamy with the milk I put in, but not too sweet. And a fantastic complement to my scones: the perfect tinge of bitterness to offset the scones’ sweetness. I guess I now understand why tea and scones are so often paired together. I also tried Cornish ice cream and clotted cream fudge (which were both incredible). My love for clotted cream also knows know bounds, so that mixed with my other favorite food, fudge, was a dream come true. Creamy but also gooey, sweet but not overpowering, it was perfect. So yes, I ate my way through St Ives, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

After all of the food, we explored the town a little more, including the garden to their beautiful church in town, which had a memorial for all of the St Ives citizens who were killed fighting in World War I and World War II. That definitely made me think about how much more the wars affected Europe—I’ve heard about how much England had to rebuild after being hit so hard in the World Wars, but it’s still crazy to think about something you’ve read in history books actually happening to a place.

We then walked along the beach, taking in the breathtaking views and enjoying one another’s company. After a while, we came to an outcropping of rocks along the edge of the sea. Melissa had already started making her way through them to get close to the water. It was beautiful and slightly terrifying—there’s no way something like that would just be open to the public without any safety barriers in America. So of course I decided I had to climb along the rocks too. It wasn’t so much climbing as much as carefully stepping across them, trying not to slip on the damp ones, until I got to the edge, where several larger rocks were positioned between me and water. Melissa was already on top of one of them, and she coached me on how to get up. I was in tights and a skirt, but that wasn’t going to stop my adventuring. I hoisted myself up, successfully not even tearing my tights, and I looked in awe at the nature surrounding me.

I’ve never seen water look so clean and pure. It was the kind of aquamarine you draw as a child when depicting the sea, not the color I’d come to associate with the real ocean. The real ocean was dirty and green, I’d thought. But apparently not along this coast. The waves crashed peacefully along the rocks, and I just sat there taking it in, appreciative of why so many writers have gushed about nature. To be honest, I’d never been a huge fan of nature before—I admired its grandeur at places like the Grand Canyon, but it was also dirty and unknown and a bit scary. Yet being in St Ives, at the risk of sounding clichéd and pretentious, was simply awe-inspiring. My heart felt full from being able to take in such gorgeous natural beauty. I never wanted to leave.

But eventually I had to get off the rock. So after a while I carefully slid myself down (still avoiding ripping my tights) and made my way back across the rocks to solid ground. But there was still more to explore. Past the outcropping of rocks was a hill, lush and green and right out of a travel brochure. We climbed it and once more took in the incredible views. It was like looking at a painting; I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything look quite as idyllic as the town of St Ives along the seashore looked from above. I sat along the wall that surrounded a historic cottage on the hill and looked out into the water.

“If you just kept going,” I murmured to Melissa, “We’d reach America. Or maybe Canada, but still. That’s the same ocean that touches our home.”

That was amazing to think about. Way, way across the ocean, far beyond what I could see, were my loved ones back in America. I was so far from home, but at the same time, it was just there across the ocean. I sat there and took it in, feeling humbled by the landscape. But eventually we had to venture back, back to the train station and to Exeter. To school and real life again.

Being in St Ives made me realize just how much I want to travel in my life. There are so many amazing things to see around the world, and I’ve seen so little of it. England alone has already been full of surprises. Here was a country that I expected to be cold and grey and rainy every day, but though it sometimes is cold and grey and rainy, is also home to beautiful rolling green country sides and idyllic beach towns like St Ives. When our train arrived back in Exeter at 10:45 that night, I was exhausted but content. I’d seen an amazing town, and I had many months left to see more incredible sites during my time abroad. And hopefully many, many years left to keep discovering new places in throughout my life.