Zennor, Cornwall

Zennor is a small (population 200) town close to the coast in Cornwall. Pretty much we were in the middle of the southwest peninsula of England... which is rad.
After we left Glastonbury we made the long trek to Minehead. On the way there we stopped at the Chalise Wells (still technically in Glastonbury) and then the town of Wells, where we went inside Wells Cathedral. I think I've seen about 10 amazing cathedrals by now haha. But it was very pretty and there just happened to be a traveling group of two men and a woman who went to the far north point of the cathedral, lit a candle, and just started singing what sounded like an old monk song... and it was INCREDIBLE! When I first heard it, I thought there was an entire choir and then it was only three people. I wished I could have bought a cd of them or something. When we got to our hostel in Minehead, it was like in the middle of nowhere, but nowhere was amazingly green and beautiful... and a couple of miles from the beach (the water is warm, but the weather is NOT!) But we went down to the beach anyway for about 30 minutes and I had my first encounter with the Atlantic Ocean. It was cool.
When we left Minehead, we drove straight to Tintagel, which has pretty much been the highlight of my trip so far. The ruins of Tintagel castle are on these amazing cliffs right on the coast and you can hike all around them and the view is spectacular. It was so amazing I can't even find the words to describe it. I'm dying to come home and show everyone my pictures and tell you all about it! Also you can hike down to the beach where you can go inside Merlin's Cave, which is totally cool. By the way, Tintagel Castle is supposedly the birthplace of King Arthur.
Other places we saw during our stay in Zennor were St. Ives, and a play called "The Alchemist" at an outdoor theater on the beach called Minack Theater. They were speaking English... but I couldn't understand what was going on most of the time. But it was still an awesome experience. It's so unreal as you're looking out on the ocean, when you realize that you're on a completely different continent, staring at a completely different ocean than you're used to. I just keep thinking to myself, I am IN Britain right now. It's crazy.
Then there was St. Michael's Mount (an island a ways off of the coast of Cornwall… at low tide you can walk there) which has a castle that sits on top of it. When we got to the shore we realized it was high tide, so we'd have to take a boat. Then it started to storm. We're talking strong winds, tons of rain, and humid coldness! Good thing I brought rain gear with me… wait… Oh and good thing I brought more than one sweater… wait… but thankfully someone gave me a huge poncho. For the record, ponchos save lives. The pictures are priceless. So we took the boat (in the middle of a storm… there were a few times that I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it alive… but don't worry, I did) out to the island and when we got there we realized that it was a huge uphill hike to the castle, outside, on slippery rocks. But onward we went. It's unfortunate, but I don't even recall what the castle looks like on the outside because I couldn't see it. The rain was coming down so hard that my head was permanently in the down position… especially since I was trying to watch where I stepped so I didn't fall and lose a limb or something. Once we were all in the castle, really all we wanted to do was get out of the castle because it was drafty and damp and all of us were soaked from head to toe. I wont lie, I thought it was a pretty bad idea for us all to go out there in the first place because of the weather, so the whole time we were there I was pretty upset about it.
Zennor is so damp that when we woke up in the morning, the walls to our room were wet. (Damp has become the joke in our group) At one point I definitely used the blowdryer to try and dry my jeans enough to wear them…
We also went to a place called Land's End (the very end of the south western peninsula of England). A lot of us only brought like one hoodie for the trip because we didn't anticipate that it would be cold, so pretty much everyone has been trying to find warmer clothes at shops around here... and when we got to Land's End they JUST closed the portion of the shop that sold clothing. So Ashley, Kathryn, and I decided to start the hike while everyone else stayed in the shops and we were gone for about 10 mintues taking pictures and complaining that we didn't get to buy sweatshirts, and right before we started the hike I said to the girls, "I just have this feeling like they're going to reopen the shop" and they looked at me like I was crazy. Not two seconds later was it that our cell phone rang and Ashley answered it and she just looked at me and Kathryn and we started booking it back to the shops. They actually did reopen the shop for us and I got a sweet Land's End sweatshirt for 15 pounds, which was a great deal! I was sooo happy.
I also found out that I'm officially a pansy when we biked across England, coast to coast (meaning 11 miles). It was a blast, but man did it work me! I definitely gained a ton more respect for missionaries today. But the bike ride was beautiful, and it felt SOOO good to get some exercise. Even though I am pretty sure I am now bruised in places that I didn't even know existed on my body. But I really cannot complain because that day we had quite the scare. Whilst biking, Natalie hit a rock and ate it in the gravel (by the way, England was pretty much designed for left handed people… and the back breaks on the bikes were on the left handle instead of the right, so that was interesting) right in front of me. At first I thought her leg was broken because she kept yelling the F-word (yeah I know… pretty much I'm on a BYU trip and I've heard more profanity than I have in a long time… it's kind of hilarious, but definitely a little uncomfortable) so I jumped off my bike and got her bike off of her and helped her roll over off of her face, and when I saw her face her mouth was like squirting out blood. She had some pretty big gashes in her upper lip and her lip was WAY swollen, but not to worry because no stitches were needed and she is OK. Once again, can I just say how appreciative I am of the Priesthood in my life. The guys were able to give her a blessing and I know that the Lord is watching out for us. It definitely could have been a lot worse.
Ok… so England has this stuff called Clotted Cream, and pretty much it is the most fantastic thing ever. It will probably be the death of me. For lunch we stopped at a little café and got hot chocolate with scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. FANTASTIC. Oh man. And the cheese here is outrageously good.