Coastal Walk: St Ives

on friday i arrived at St Ives after a long journey by train leaving Exeter early in the morning. here i reached the south-westernmost part of England. Cornwell, home of the genuine Cornish pasty. as if anything else would not be called Cornish. in fact everything is Cornish there. Cornish Coffee, Cornish shoes Cornish everything. Faride, my sweet friend from Mexico told me that she wanted to visit Cornwall and buy some Cornish pasty for her dad. the story is that according to the rumour this pasty is very popular in Mexico thanks to English seamen who once docked in a small Mexican port village. In this village people started baking these pasties and this is the village where Faride's dad was born.
St Ives is a beautiful town with great beaches. but when i arrived i was more interested in the big 'WALK'. along the coast some 6 miles, up and down. u'll see why am i saying up and down.
looking back at the town.

the path was not everywhere as well maintained as here. in fact at places it was quite hardcore. i enjoyed it a lot, of course!! :)

just like in a film. it was stunning, i wish i had had more time and less package on my back. it was a real uninhabited beach!!! a pearl. pearl harbor :)

that's a funny story. no comment

beautiful. here was i climbing up and down...


this looked mega-giga funny. i was walking along the coast, everywhere sea, stunning cliffs, beautiful flowers and little streams and then suddenly a few separated squares showed up in front of me with cows eating inside. it's not extraordinary in England at all, maybe it is not extraordinary in normal means, only for me. it was a bit surreal. or what. :)

rocks


in certain parts of the UK you have to be very careful if you start tracking. if you don't make it on time to get the final destination, you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no public transport, no civilization in the near, and maybe even with no mobile network coverage. that's why after 6 miles i had to turn back so that i could catch the last bus back to St Ives. the (so-called) bus stopped in front of a hotel (there was nothing else in a big distance).
this is the greatest bus stop in the world (fine Cornish ale, yummie):

Rollin' on trains

As i already mentioned, i loved traveling by train in the UK. It's not like in Hungary. the first and most obious difference is the quality and frequency (!) of services and the cleannes of coaches. and what i liked the most: it's the athmosphere that pervades the railway in England, the place where it was born. the legendary Great Western Railway is still runnig services, near Birmingham I've seen a steam locomotive that was fuelled with coal. here we are:


but to be honest, this time i wanted to present the pictures i took during my journey from Exeter to St Ives in Cornwall. i don't have to tell you that it was amazing. Cornwall is one of the most popular holiday place
i like this one. lonely tree.

a bay near Exeter.

this is one my favourite pics. one of the many favourites :)

this place was called Red Cliff. i wonder why

this is Cornwall county already.

and this is the famous Royal Albert Bridge. This bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I don't know if any of you have heard about his name, but he made a huge contribution to the developing of railway in England and thus, to the English economy and its role as a world-power. His numerous bridges are still stunning and he created the Great Western Railway that aimed at stretching railway towards Bath, Bristol and Exeter.
'Brunel's solo engineering feats started with bridges — the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth...'
'The Royal Albert Bridge was designed in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway Company, after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze — the estuary of the tidal Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The bridge consists of two main spans of 455 ft (139 m), 100 ft (30 m) above mean high spring tide, plus 17 much shorter approach spans. Opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859, it was completed in the year of Brunel's death.'
source: Wikipedia.org

Bath, Exeter

After three nights in Cardiff i moved on (i think on Thursday) to Bath first. I'm not sure if I have told u already but i enjoyed traveling by train so much. not like in hungary. i guess because it is so much better organised, the services are a lot more frequent and coaches are nicer, cleaner and quieter. i think these are enough to explain the difference...
it wasn't different on my way to Bath. in general anywhere i was traveling the landscape was beautiful.
Bath is a small town in the western part of England. Everyone I spoke to said it was such a lovely town that i had to see it. well, it is nice indeed. but to be honest i wasn't that much fascinated. okay, nice, old buildings, Roman Bath, Cathedral, River Avon, Pulteney Bridge, all nice, but...
maybe i hadn't had enough time to explore eveything.
Bath is famous for its Roman baths. i wonder where it got its name:) in England this is the only source of thermal water.
if they knew that in hungary thermal water is coming even from taps and half of hungary is full of Roman ruins - much nicer than the ones in Bath... But i didn't want to spoil those people's enthusiasm... :)
and the other source of its fame is that Jane Austin lived there for quite a long time. i saw her house. - she lived in at least three houses there, then she left the town because it was, and still is, one of the most expensive ones in England, thanks to its wealthy residents and to its undoubtedly beautiful location.

to be honest, now as i flicked through the pics again, i like it much better :)
those building are very nice just like River Avon

to start off let's see the cathedral and the Roman Bath:


and the same subjects from inside the Bath. lots of Roman ruins.

I wonder if they are healing with mineral water :)


and the famous Pulteney Bridge on Avon. as far as i know there's only one more bridge like this i Florence: built in with shops and cafes and other things. or at least it is most often compared to it. since i've seen both of them i can understand this. both are nice and they have a special athmosphere. though Ponte Vecchio Bridge, as it is named, is a bigger architectural attraction and has a bubblier life in my opinion (the difference is competely understandable if we think of an English gentleman and an Italian gigolo)


the Roman Bath again and a square


still on the same day i moved on to Exeter - i booked accomodation there. when i arrived there it was already quite dark and i had to walk a bit to the youth hostel. despite this i managed to have a look at the town and i must say it is nice. it's a pity i didn't have more time.
now as I'm putting down these thoughts and presenting some photos i realized that half of my pics are about bridges and cathedrals... anyway, i like them. i also realized that i'm in love with water. all my tour was somehow connected to water (seas, lakes, waterfalls, etc.). not surprising in Britain anyway :)
all in all, here's a bridge from Exeter:

and the Two Towers. not from the Lord of the Rings... i took the photo the next morning while walking to the railway station, from where i headed for St Ives

i remember in Exeter i had a good chat with two ladies from London and a backpacker from Canada i think. it was a long day.

Welsh coast - Dreamland III.

from llantwit major i moved on to Swansea, the second biggest town in wales and the biggest port i guess. i took the train of course. silly girl. what is she doing?! :) she reminds me of myself when i'm doing exercises. my train is approaching

ok, i have to tell u that swansea was kind of a disappointment. its beach was supposed to be amoung the 10 nicest beaches in Europe (world?? -can't remember). well, that's right, it looks nice, it's shape is like drawn by a pencil. but swansea is still an ugly industrial port town... though i managed to take some nice pics n i had fun... da port: big one ehh?


i really love this pics. its colours are amazing, proper sand storm. or just golden glitter

hmm, as i said, i haven't seen much in swansea unless the sunset is much. yes, it is, so here u'll get some pics without any comments.




i got back to cardiff at around 11pm. on my way back to the hostel i noticed some live jazz music. of course i couldn't miss it, i checked it. it was very good, the band had a funny name, but i forgot it :( doctor sth.

i was having a heineken there, i remember i was quite satisfied. with the shape of the glass :)

Welsh coast - Dreamland II.

Llantwit Major is appr. 20 kms far from Barry Island. Little town, the coast is about 2 kms walk from the railway station. if that wednesday was the best day of my trip then llantwit major was the best part of that day.
as i told u before it wasn't very hot. in fact, it was cold like shit :). the nicest thing was that i didn't care! i was walking barefoot in the sea. -alright, only after i stepped into the water by chance... but i just took my shoes off and walked around along the shore. and not only around but let's leave for later...
to reach the sea u need to walk for about half an hour from the town. the way or rather the path is part of the coastal heritage. in fact, that whole area is part of the national heritage. no wonder: the Glamorgen Valley is really stunning. it's a valley leading right to the sea. the path that i took was up on the hill so i could see the whole valley. the northern part gives place to nice cottages whereas the southern part is wild nature, no civilization at all. Just like the shores: along the sea u can only see cliffs and where the valley reaches the sea, two bulidings are standing there and that's all.
it's not easy to describe u have to see it.
this was the view from the top of the cliff - I was walking along the coast right on the edge of the cliff. in the left bottom corner there's one of those buildings i just mentioned. the other one is an oldschool cafe with a design from the 70's. i felt home, it reminded me of old socialist furnitures :). anyway, i had a great beef stew there (it saved my life, i was f***ing starving :) )


to get to the sea (and to those buildings) i had to descend here (below) -funny thing, after walking almost for an hour, it turned out that right the end of this coastal path was closed because of works on it. of course i didn't want to turn back so i just ignored it. so this is the eastern end of the valley:

same place from a bit further away. stone sea.

one of the plenty of sights here is the fossiles. i can't remember how old these fossils (shells and other sea animals) are but certainly a few million years at least. and there's so many of them, amazing!

it was quite windy and there were good waves to surfing (i think i have some pics of some guys surfing there but not particularly good ones...) what i like in this photo is the waves and even more the caves in the background. i think i don't have add any comment on this.
i wasn't brave/stupid enough to get inside into one of them. they are not very safe... their condition is statically not satisfying... - to be politically correct :)

and why i said i wasn't only walking around: i noticed a castle in the distant and i thought i will have a closer look at it. in the beginning i wasn't even sure if it was a castle but soon it turned out that it was, indeed.

so i set forth, barefoot with my camera and some other stuff in my hand, no one around. i was in such a good mood! it was quite far, and i really couldn't see anyone, i was on my own. that time i enjoyed this a lot. i was even making jokes. for example i found this 'stage' on my way there. i couldn't stand acting for a while: :)


i spent so much time with these silly things that i noticed that the tide was coming. i had to speed up a little bit, i was a bit afraid that it would catch me. i didn't wish this as there was nowhere to run away apart from the cliffs which were also dangerous enough. anyway, i survived, i managed to reach the castle in time. the castle turned out to be a private high school, so basically i was trespassing there, but noone told me anything. good old welsh people, they don't expect any bad purpose :) anyway, i couldn't have gone back on the same route because of the tide, and to get to the main road, i had to walk through the castle itself which i would say was a good luck. beautiful castle, stunning views, nice gardens. the castle itself was built on a big slope (or cliff - i don't know). that's why the great view:


from the castle i walked back on the main road to the town. lucky cows here, what a pity that they don't appreciate the view...:

the best thing i liked in England (same in Wales and Scotland): after a long journey in beautiful surroundings u can always get into a pub in a nice little town or village and try some local ale. i always tried the local ones. of course i couldn't miss it in llantwit major either:
and remember: the lightest ales have the best taste. this is my experience. of course it is a matter of taste. :)

welsh coast - dreamland I.

on the day when i went tracking to brecon beacons, i visited cardiff bay too. well i enjoyed it, especially that i had a nice pizza and a beer in a posh pizzeria. i thought i deserved it as i had been eating sandwiches for two days. oh, and jacket potatoes in cleobury mortimer. it was ok, but quite simple. i can imagine my friends (arpi and bara) hate that food having it twice a week... so i visited cardiff bay. that's the number 2 sight in cardiff, after the centre where u can find a nice castle (haven't been inside), a big park and a cool, so called Millenium Stadium.
cardiff bay's got a cool atmosphere. it's lively, dinamic, many interesting, extravagant buildings and culture centres. i think they are trying to build up cardiff as a proper 21st century capital and they started in cardiff bay. good start.

colourful and sparkling:
cool tourist info, isn't it?
that's the way an exhibition hall looks like in cardiff.



looking back from a two months perspective i can say that the best part of my trip - on my own - was the following day. that was the first time when i could really enjoy myself since until that point i was missing Poziomka very much. then i was thinking on that the day was coming when i was gonna meet her again. even though it was quite cold, i was happy. i can't explain why. maybe because of the places i visited.
this was wednesday. my first destination was barry island. it used to be an island, but some time ago they connected it to the mainland -as far as great-britain is mainland :). so barry island is a little coastal town with a nice beach and of course as in these cases it is usual, lots of entertainment: funfairs and stuff like that.
this is how barry island looks on a lovely, cold wednesday morning. there's a long, but narrow neck of land in the background.
that's a panorama view from the neck of land (click for full size):
that's that long 'tongue':
grey, welsh coast with grey, welsh houses:

bacon

where did i finish last time? oh yeah, cardiff. well, from cardiff there's plenty of places to visit, most of them are easy to reach within an hour. on tuesday i went to Brecon Beacon for example. nothing in common with bacon. it's just deception. against the enemy. well, that day killed me. i made up my mind to do that walk long time before. i saw it in the guardian. hmmmm, i think i already made a remark somewhere that that booklet was not designed for public transport commuters. it sucked!!!! the nearest train station was appr. 6 miles far from where the walk started. but it forgot to mention that there was a huge mountain between the two points, and that there's only a highway along which is the only way you can get to the starting point. if you have never tried, i can only recommend... loud, dangerous, dirty and smelly. is there anything else you could wish? oh yeah, almost forgot: i huge rucksack on your back.
anyway, by one o'clock i got to the starting point. there was another affair: i couldn't find the car park where the walk should have started from. but i wasn't the only one: there was another family that wanted to walk the same route. we were trying to find the real starting point together and eventually we walked together all day long. very kind family, i can't remember names already. the woman was french but her english was almost at the level of a native.
Brecon Beacon is the smallest of the three welsh national parks but maybe the wildest one. when i was walking through the forest or climbing a narrow path sometimes i felt like i was in a rainforest. untouched absolutely green landscape. even the plants looked like those in rainforests. i guess because of the abundant rain...
the main attraction in brecon beacon - alright, during my walk - was the waterfall. i big one, but not a niagara waterfall. it's charm is not it's size but that you can walk behind the watercurtain.
yeah, after this we started walking back to the starting point - on a different way of course. at about 5pm i we separated coz i had to get back to a railway station somehow. that time we were in a small village so i thought there must a bus service on that road so i asked some locals. they were absolutely helpful, but it wasn't easy to understand them. in fact, it was very difficult. what's more, i could hardly understand them. but finally i took the bus to, holy shit these names are awful. it was, uhmm, aberdare. so from there i took the train back to cardiff. and on the way there i took the train to treherbert. i forgot to tell you that from there i hitched a hike. on that day i met many friendly, helpful people. both the people who gave me a lift and the family gave me their numbers, so that i could call them in case i needed.
by the way, that was the first time i was hitch hiking and i enjoyed it. maybe because i was lucky. though i know that it wasn't luck, it is the people who are living there.

anyway. here are some pics in case you don't want to visit the other page with many more pics from there.
if you want to see all my photos of Brecon Beacons here you go