Cornwall.. It sure ain't England..

Totnes - The Lizard - Cirencester

It was Tuesday morning, the sun was shining, our bags were packed. We were ready to head off. Leaving Manuel, our crazy beloved adopted Spanish brother was quite sad, but as travelling goes, we needed to move on.

It was sad to leave the lovely wise Olivia and Chris who's such a sweetheart too. Chris dropped us off at the train station to start our journey heading to Cornwall where apparently things are different there and the streets are much narrower. I was amazed when Chris said that, the streets in England are narrow already, how else narrow can it get???

After travelling for 4 hours, we finally got to Cornwall, sure enough the roads were a lot more narrower than other parts of England. As we hopped off the bus, a lady spoke to the bus driver asking for a schedule and the bus driver said "we don't have a schedule, it's Cornwall!" Hahaha.. That's funny!

We walked around the supermarket and spoke to the guy at the store and in the middle of the conversation, he said "well, it's Cornwall!" I love that! Secoond time in a day hearing that, just confirms how Cornish are relaxed people.

From left to right: The night before we left Totnes, celebrating Manuel's birthday with Rowan, Rafi, Manuel, Mats and me; Mats walking through the forest heading towards Porthallow Beach; A nice little garden at Porthallow Beach (random, just found it interesting really, with the colour coordination and stuff); Auuuuw, how cute, found a carved out heart shape on a pipe; The rest of the photos are Porthallow beach

We finally got picked up by our host Jonathan. His place is located in St Keverne, where he builit a BnB consisting of a few interesting buildings, such as the tree house and gypsy caravan. Beside his place is a massive Cattle farm. A nice place to stay but after been working there for a while and hearing from his own lips saying "I'm a control freak, I like things my way", Mats and I immediately felt uncomfortable helping out there. Jonathan is definitely not Cornish.

So, after staying there for a week, we headed off to Cirencester where Sue, our new host was expecting us to help out with her garden.  It was nice to experience a bit of Cornwall though, they are different to England, they speak differently and have a rather strong Celtic culture. Since we arrived at Sue's place, we've been working throughout Easter and it has been really fun and nice hanging out with her. Two days off tomorrow!! Yes!! Sleep in!!

From left to right: The tree house; The garden; The pond; The Hobit Hole; The Gypsy Caravban; Helston; Narrow road in Helston; Cheltenham Spa, waiting for our bus to Cirencester

My new home in Totnes, England

Totnes, South Devon, England

The last two weeks, Mats and I have made ourselves comfortable in our new home in Totnes. Our stay here is a very short yet most comforting with our hosts, lovely wise Olivia and remarkably witty and cool Chris as well as their children, Sole, Rafi and Rowan.

We had our own little summer house to live in which we share with our awesome and hillarious Spanish mate who is our brother now, Manuel. The summer house faces an incredible view of south Devon.

From left to right: On our day off, Mats and I went for a walk along the river and steam train track where we went for our cold little dip. We found a couple of beautiful ducks; Dew on the plants in front of our room; Me, posing on a log; Our cute little summer house with a huge rose plants that is ready to bloom in May, shame we won't be here to see it; Our view from our room, the typical Brittish weather with mist all day long; The walk along the river; Me, climbing up a tree on our walk; The beautiful river

On the weekend, Olivia and Chris took us to town to check out the markets where we had really good curry and where we discovered the uniqueness of Totnes. I love Totnes, it's a very cute alternative little town.

It was a nice sunny day on Sunday, so Chris took us and Sole to the beaches in South of Devon. It was a really nice day where we managed to get a bit of tan after all the rain we've been getting lately.

From left to right: One of the beaches Chris took us to in South Devon; Same beach; This is one of the rural beaches close to Dartmouth with incredible views; Mats, posing on the beach; Me, after dipping in the water preparing to sun bathe; Manuel found a hammock where he had his little siesta after lunch, not too bad at all; Sole, Chris, Manuel, Mats and me having a picnic on the top of the hill facing the beach; Our view while munching our delicious soup and sandwiches; Mats and Chris chatting away; The boys walking along the beach.

It's our last day of stay in Totnes and it was Manuel's birthday today where I cooked him a mix of my recipe and Olivia's recipe. I also baked him a nice big guiness cake. It was really touching how much he appreciated my gift to him. It was a very emotional birthday. I'm sad that we will have to depart tomorrow, but that's travelling for ya. I'm definitely coming back one day.