Monday 17 November 2008

9th Sept 2008 - Marazion, Falmouth, Bournemouth

Day 8

It's a dull and wet start. Didn't realize that it's almost 8.30am when I woke up. After checking out, I drove past Marazion town, which was quite an ancient town and looks pretty interesting. I didn't stop for the town except to take the photos of St Micheal's Mount. It is united with Marazion by a man-made causeway, passable only at mid to low tide, made of granite setts. After that, I head straight for Falmouth. Falmouth is a pretty big and busy town famous for its harbour. Together with Carrick Roads, it forms the third deepest natural harbour in the world, and the deepest in Western Europe. It is also famous for being the start or finish point of various round-the-world record-breaking voyages. Parked my car and went on a mini exploration around the town for an hour. At a square near the car park, there were some stalls which appear to be some sort of farmer's market. While walking on the streets, I saw this shop 'Morris' which claims to be 'World’s finest handmade pasties', on its window display there was a XXXL size pasties which you can make an order and delivered after 2 hours. The other normal size pasties (even the large size) look like a baby beside this huge pasty. So of course I need to try the finest pasties in the world. I bought a 'Miners' which is actually the medium size. I went back to my car and drove to the Cliff road, over looking the sea and also the Pendennis Castle to enjoy the pasty. Although the pasty is slightly more expansive (£2.40) than the other pasties in town but I think it’s worth it, and to be honest, this is my favorite pasty that I’ve tried on this trip so far. The Miners is generously filled with lean beef cubes and also mashed potatoes. Unlike the other pasties that I’ve tried, where the beef to potatoes ratio is about 30:70; the Miners ratio is at least 60:40. There’s definitely more beef than potatoes in every bite that I take so I’ll give it to Morris for their claim of being the finest handmade pasties.

After lunch, I head to Bournemouth. Along the route I passed by vast area of farmlands, rich in colours i.e. yellowish brown, brown, light green, dark green depending on the plantations. I also passed by quite a few small villages and one of them is Chideok village where the majority of the houses have thatched roof, making it a pretty unique. The weather is not very good today and I ventured into a stretch of road with very thick fog, reducing the visibility to only approx. 10meters. This is by far the thickest fog I’ve encountered in UK. After about 4hours, I finally arrived at Bournemouth. It is quite a large town and the traffic is definitely much busier. I’m due to check in an hour later so I circled round the town to search for a public toilet. Hmm, why is it that when you need one you can never find one? Finally, I managed to find one in Burger King outlet in town.

At 5.30pm, I checked into the Bournemouth Backpackers for £13pn. A nice old lady (the owner’s mom) checked me in as her son is away. We chatted for a while and she told me that they do not take Brits as they found most of the time, they were a bit difficult to handle especially when they got drunk. So only foreigners are allowed here, this is the first time I’ve come across this kind of policy but according to her, many Backpackers overseas too apply this regulation, to only cater for foreigners and not locals. I was placed into Room 2, a 6 bed-dorm, although there is only another German girl staying there at the moment. Mrs. Hellery told me that this is the worst year (summer) ever probably due to the bad economy and also the lousy weather.

After I settled my stuff, I went to a launderette nearby to do my laundry. This is the first time I went into a launderette so it’s quite an experience for me. The washing costs £3 while the tumble dryer costs £1 for 20mins. While tumble drying my clothes, 2 men and a lady walked in with beers in their hands trying to get warm. I’m not sure but they seemed like they were living on the street or something and they are a little tipsy. Five minutes later, a staff from the launderette came in and asks them to leave the premises. Yes, the launderette is under CCTV surveillance. Apparently 20mins of tumble drying is not enough to dry all my clothes, so I brought them back to my room. Since there’re only 2 of us in the room, I have plenty of space to hang my clothes.

The kitchen was not as equipped as the other hostels I’ve stayed in. and it’s not as clean too as there were some dirty dishes laid in the basin. I cooked myself some tomato noodle soup for dinner. The shower and toilets however are spotlessly clean with good pressured hot water. Nothing beats a hot shower in the cold weather.

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