You look like you're from London!

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Everyone kept worriedly informing us that when the sun is out, Cornwall is really stunning. Following that they assured us that it had been sunny just a day or two ago.

But it didn’t matter that it was raining and cold when we were there, it was beautiful anyway. I had met Dom, Maya and their friends Emma and Anna in Bristol and we drove the couple of hours to the coast! Emma lives in Cornwall so was kindly putting us up in her house.

On the first night we went to a lovely restaurant nearby, with windows that looked out over the wild and rugged ocean. We huddled in our coats and felt cold just looking at it, well most of us. Dom decided that he felt like swimming in it instead. With the promise of a free dinner if he did it, Dom ran outside, stripped off naked and went for a dip! The whole restaurant watched out the windows with a combination of glee and bewilderment. He said it was lovely, we said he was insane.

Emma is working in Cornwall as a vet, and unfortunately had to work most of the time we were there. Another friend and local Josie was around though and became our lovely tour guide. She drove us in her temperamental car out to a place called The Lizard, named because of its long wiggly shape. We had a lovely long walk all along the coast line, which was green and craggy. The ocean threw itself feverishly against the rocks, the whole landscape felt very dramatic. We stumbled and clambered our way along the path and down across a rocky beach to a gorgeous little café, perched in between the cliffs, looking out at the ocean. There we stuffed ourselves full of giant Cornish pasties and tea. We wanted to complete the meal with dessert but were too full, so continued to walk. The sun came out on this second jaunt, and we all revelled in the feel of it on our faces. We wandered among the hills and rises until we felt we had earned our meal. By then it was much nicer, so we sat outside and looked at the swirling ocean while we consumed a cream tea, complete with traditional Cornish scones and clotted cream, oh my.

That night we cooked dinner for Emma who was on call, and watched Made in Chelsea, another demonstration of fine British culture.

The next day we had a beautiful big breakfast at the café where Josie works, and spent hours ambling along the beach, including a cove with a huge collection of seals. We watched them from afar as they flopped and wriggled somnolently along the sand. After that we decided to have dessert for lunch and shared huge portions of amazing cake at a café on a local farm.

Following all our decadence, we decided it was time to move on, and the next day Dom, Maya and I set off to hitch our way back to London. It was also the day that the sky decided to shed every drop of water it could have possibly get rid of. We got our first ride just as the rain started, with a cute older couple who were travellers themselves and just dropped us at the next town. There we quickly met a flashy young businessman with a fancy car who agreed to take us about an hour further along the road. He dropped us in what seemed an impossible location, but within seconds a huge, burly pirate of a man and his wife picked us up. He looked terrifying, but turned out to be incredibly lovely and a hitcher from way back, and he drove us out of his way to a better place to get rides.

Luckily there was a little bus shelter there, because it took a while. We took turns standing with our dishevelled cardboard sign in the miserable rain, while the other two sheltered and tried to not feel freezing. After about an hour and a half of watching giant empty cars pass us by, a tiny little Mini stopped. In it was Annabel, who had just been at a yoga retreat nearby. She jammed us into her tiny car and informed us that she was going all the way to London, hurray! She turned out to be a total gem of a human, sharing her snacks, chatting about politics and philosophy and stopping off at Stonehenge along the way so we could see it! It was freezing there so we didn’t say long, but it was great to stop and see the mysterious rocks in their weird formation.

We got into London fairly late, and had to wrangle the tube back to our various destinations. Their friend Anna had had to return to London a day before us but had amazingly offered to let me stay at her place! I turned up dripping and freezing, but nothing that a warm shower and a lot of sleep couldn’t fix.

London was quite a whirlwind. In reality, I probably should have given it some more time, but I was beginning to feel impatient to get to Spain! But I made sure I saw as much as possible in my few days there.

On the first day, Dom and Maya were still in town, so I made my way to their pad in Piccadilly. After some porridge, Dom walked me to the Camden markets, which was a lovely walk along the canal, where there is a gorgeous community of people living in houseboats! After the walk, he had to turn around to get his ride out of town, but I continued on. The markets are crazy and brash and awesome all at once. There is a weird mix of trashy items and beautiful ones, but it is huge and just wandering through is great. I wasn’t going to buy anything, being content with ambling, but couldn’t resist a fabulous stand full of second hand books and another with flowing hippy skirts. Woops! There was also a delightful array of food and music all around. Beth had insisted that I go there, and I was very glad that she did.

After this I went to pick up my tickets for WICKED!!!! I was like most of the crowd; bursting with excitement, on the edge of my seat, and about 12 years old (hang on...) But it was so brilliant, afterwards I just felt high and like flying around just like they do on the stage. So glad I got to go after so many failed attempts on Broadway, and much cheaper too, only 40 pounds! To top it all off, afterwards I got a delicious curry from the Indian restaurant across the road. Yay.

The following day was my big tourist day. I set out determinedly in the relentless rain and was instantly pretty wet. But I did manage to visit Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Then I treated myself to fish & chips in a cute little English pub. After that I went over to St Paul’s Cathedral. Entry for general tourists was closed for the day, but you were allowed to go in for the Evensong mass. I realised I had never been to an actual mass before and this one was in St Paul’s Cathedral! And there was a choir from Sweden performing so I decided to go in. Despite being totally un-religious, it was a great experience. The cathedral is mind-blowing and the acoustics when the choir sang were spine tingling. I got a wine afterwards to celebrate my productive day. I had intended on going to hang out with the girls I was staying with at the pub after that, but I had been soaked through and was getting cold. It was time to go home.

The next day I had a train to Barcelona at 4:30pm. I spent the afternoon hanging out in Brixton with my friend Johnny, who I had travelled with in South America. He is living there now and showed me around the very cool and diverse markets, including the famous Electric Avenue. I found out from my genteel tour guide that it is so named because it was the first street in the area to get electricity. It is lovely and diverse there; I think that it would be a nice area to spend more time in. We ate some Colombian arepas and then I had to go and pick up my bags from the house and then to catch my train! I lugged my bags through the rain and finally got there, ready to make my way south.

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