I went to the Isle of Wight yesterday. I quite enjoyed it. Well parts of it. I got up at the ridiculously early hour of 730 on a saturday to get there. So i was thinking as i grumbled down to the train station "this had better be bloody good!"
And it was. Well parts of it (like i said). I heard various things about the isle of wight before i went there. Most of it seemed to equate to the fact that the locals there were fiercly protective of the fact that they were from the isle of wight and not 'the mainland'. Apparently even if you had lived there 25 years you still weren't really classed as a local. Well i certainly wasn't a local but didn't give a shit. I tookthe boat over, and immediately got onto the train to shanklin which was a town at the end on the line. I loved it there. Part of shanklin, what is know as the old town was one of the most pretty little places i had ever been in my life. Very olde english country with thatched rooves, gorgeous gardens etc. I went to a little teahouse nad had a lovely cup of tea and scones with jam and cream and was in some sort of heaven. It was so beautiful. And so so so typically english (well at least to me - that happy thought of beatrix potter type set up). From there i got mildy lost in some of the lanes and gardens but eventually found myself at Shanklin Chind. Which was like this gorge type this that had waterfalls and little bridges as was ......tranquil. It led through this gorge thing, past thins wonderfully stereotypical english cottage and teahouse down to a pub on the beach. Lovely.
From there i walked right along the coast and beaches for a few miles to a place like 2 towns down. The beaches actually had sand too. Not rocks like those buggers in brighton. I finished off by having fish and chips (well kiddy burger meal) at a fish and chip shop called greasy joes (or something to that effect).
After this i didn't seem to enjoy myself as much (no it wasn't the food) i think it was just that i had enjoyed myself so much in the morning that everywhere i went after that was mildly disappointing. The wax museum was frankly quite unnerving (see phobias story), it was harder to get around, the weather got shittier, and everything was more spread out and seemed to require so much more effort to get to.
So i can quite confidently say that i had a lovely morning and lunch. I'll definately go back, because there was a whole side of the island i never got to (its quite big). But i think if i go back i might hire a car or a scooter or something to get to the places not on the trainline.
Shanklin was lovely though.
