A Cornwall Adventure

"And I’d say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea:
'There’s nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me.'"
From The World of Winnie-the-Pooh By A.A. Milne 

Last month Allison and I got stir crazy. We were so done writing assignments, researching, and generally being locked indoors during the summer. So, on a spur of the moment, we decided to take the week of July 4th and go on holiday. The where was obvious - Cornwall. Why you may ask? Because they have beaches - why else?

Allison took care of the accommodations and I rented the car. As you may recall I had already decided that I was going to brave the next British driving challenge and rent a manual if the opportunity arose. Well, here it was! I selected the smallest car possible for rental and crossed my fingers. A few weeks later I realized my mistake - I had rented from a place where I had to pick up the car from the City Centre (not the place directly across the street from my house). That meant shifting with my left hand while navigating unfamiliar highways as soon as I slide behind the wheel! Thankfully this part of the journey I would be taking alone so I probably would only kill myself and not Allison.


Zero hour finally arrived and I picked up the car. Much to my disappointment I had been upgraded to a B size car (I know, I'm probably the only person who would complain about getting a bigger car). On top of that it was a Ford Fiesta (I hate Fords). The car was not the party which the name would imply (More on this later).  Much to my excitement driving a stick with my left hand wasn't as difficult as I'd feared - though both Anni and Manu had assured me I'd be fine - and it helped that the car was able to start in second gear from a dead stop (ops!), I made it to Tesco with almost no mishaps (cutting off a car at a roundabout doesn't count because it was totally parked until just before I pulled around it, I swear). I did, however, discover that when slamming on the breaks my right arm still goes out "to stop my purse" from flying off the passenger seat. Yep, smacking my arm into the door hurts as much as you might think.

Oh, I forgot to mention the biggest hitch in my life that added unwanted stress to this day: my dissertation supervisor. So part of the reason I felt I could take four days off and go to Cornwall is because my supervisor wanted a complete first draft of my dissertation by the beginning of July. You not sure you read that right? Let me clarify for you: My supervisor wanted a completed first draft of my 16,000 word dissertation by the beginning of July. Yep. Crazy considering most people I know haven't even started writing their dissertation yet. Yet that wasn't the hitch, I knew about this before hand and it was done by the end of June. What did throw a wrench into everything was the email I received on Monday night (we left on Tuesday) stating that she not only wanted me to drop off a copy of my dissertation (which was forty-four pages) to the English Department Office instead of emailing it, but I also had to mail her a copy. WTF. Really? But what was I going to say? 'No, I won't give it to you so you can tear it apart but help me get a better mark in the end?' Right, that wasn't ever going to happen. Thankfully Anni was going to be on campus Tuesday morning and I had paper. So between picking up the car at nine and meeting Allison at 10:30 I had to:

1. Drive to campus
2. Print two copies of my dissertation 
3. Go to the library to staple them (they were forty-four pages each, I had to use an industrial stapler)
4. Drop one copy off at the department office
5. Buy an envelop for the second copy
6. Post the second copy to London

No surprisingly I was a few minutes late to meet Allison - but not many. 

At last we were off. Snacks in tow and music blaring, we were ready to take our much needed holiday. 

In a little over four hours we arrived in Newquay (said New- key, seriously, who would think that "quay" wouldn't be said, well, quay? You know, kwa-ey. like someone who speaks English would say. Oh, wait, the British love to hate - or is that hate to love? - the French, so this is of course a word which originates from a French word. Makes total sense to me.) With little difficulty - thanks to GPS on loan from Manu - we found our B & B. Much to our joy and surprise we discovered our room had a Jacuzzi in the bathroom! This trip just kept getting better and better! We then braved the slightly wet weather and wondered the cliffs and beaches of the lovely coast just a few blocks from our front door.

On our first full day in Cornwall we decided to go north and explore a little. In general it was amazing. The countryside was beautiful and the coasts were breathtaking - I even saw purple rocks! So crazy! The only issue we had (well, really I had) were the roads. Let me first say - we were warned, several times, about the narrow roads in Cornwall - but nothing really prepared us for them. Overall it was just nail biting, afraid that at any moment a car would come careening towards us around a sharp corner (because the Brits don't believe in driving slow on these roads - hey the speed limit is 60, might as well go that fast, right?). Only twice did we get into much trouble. The first time was the worst.

Before I go on let me tell you why I hated this car. Okay, I admit, I was spoiled with my Mini Cooper. It was a little car with a lot of kick that handled great. But this Fiesta. Man, did it lack any sort of power! When driving up a hill on a duel-carriageway (aka, a divided highway, for my American readers) I would start at the proper speed -70 (or maybe slightly over, let's be honest). However, if I didn't down shift at some point, by the top I'd be lucky if I was doing 50. What car do you have to down shift to stay close to the speed limit on a highway! Ridiculous. Now, I could have lived with this if the car also refused to go into reverse. Reverse was in the usual spot, just below fifth gear, yet for some reason it fought me every time! Sometimes it would take me almost a minute to get the dumb car into reverse. Beyond frustrating!

And so began my troubles with the single-laned, but not one-way, road. In the worst possible place we met a car coming the opposite direction and he decided that it would be me, not him, who would have to move to thee side so he could squeeze past. I think it took me at least ten minutes to back up into a wider part of to road and squeezed against a side that I'm pretty sure was a vine covered brick wall that rose at least eight feet above us. I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my life. Driving forward when on the wrong side of the road isn't hard but backing up is a nightmare! I kept turning the car so I was too close to the right side of the road instead of the left. To make matters worse there was a Range Rover behind us who refused to back up any farther than he was, so I couldn't just keep backing up until I found a wider section of road. At last we got far enough over so the other car could get past. Thankfully the people in the cars were very nice about it. The second incident was must less harrowing because we were close to a village which had a tiny passing section at the bottom of a hill (which also doubled as the front steps of someone's house) and the lady in the car was kind enough to back down the hill so I didn't have to try to back up the hill. 

The stress of the road, however, was totally worth the lovely places we saw. I don't think I've ever seen water that color before. It wasn't the light aquamarine that I enjoyed in the Caribbean, or the dark, green-blue of many other bodies of water I've been around. It was the deepest, but brightest, aquamarine that sparkled even when the sky was filled with clouds. When the sun did come out on our second day and bounced off the water I was dazzled by more than just the light. 

One thing Allison and I have in common is the urge to get our feet wet. Since both of us come from places where water reigns supreme, and we are currently living in the city located farthest from the coast (for real, this is a fact! Depressing considering we live on an island) just about every beach we came upon we took off our trainers and walked onto the sand, letting the cool (okay, cold) water lap at our feet. It was lovely. We hiked both days, the second we chose to stay close to home (I was kinda relieved to not have to drive any overly narrow roads). I even got my requisite 4th of July sunburn. Overall it was an amazing and relaxing holiday!