From Where You'd Rather Be

Marden, UK

One of my best friend's from Sydney was born in England and has relatives scattered around the country. He invited me to stay with his Aunt and two cousins in the country village of Marden. This was the perfect excuse to glimpse the much-recommended English Countryside. I really loved it. The atmosphere was very relaxed and peaceful, while the landscape was breathtaking. And don't even get me started on the scones...mouth-watering and smothered in jam and clotted cream. I had been hesitant to try 'clotted cream' in London as the title itself was reminiscent of clogged arteries and with such a blatant reminder of it's possible negative health effects I couldn't bear to stomach it. But wowee. Best scone ever, transformed into pure heaven.

One of the most enjoyable parts about my trip to Marden was experiencing the village life. The population is small and so everyone knows each other, or at least have heard of them. We would be walking down THE main street (where ALL the shops are located, all 5 or so of them (!)) and a tractor would drive by and my friend's cousin would say "There's Farmer J"; or there would be a man walking across the street and she would say "There's plumber B"... so very different to the anonymity of people walking around Sydney!

The local pub seemed to be where all the villagers gathered in the evenings and we went there on two of the nights. By the time I'd arrived my friend was part of the community and very popular with the ladies who were fascinated by a mysterious Australian man in their midst. We partied in the closest town called Maidstone on one of the nights and stayed out till the early hours of the morning. It was the first time I'd been out so late that I saw the sun begun to rise... mainly because in Marden the sun began to rise at the early time of 4am!!!!

My favourite part was escaping the village (which in itself was an escape) and taking a short drive to some nearby crops. We walked through the deserted crops for about 10 minutes and came to a lovely river and ate a picnic surrounded by a soundtrack of water flowing, birds chirping and trees rustling. This may all sound like I'm trying to paint a pretty picture... but it truly was picture perfect.