As I was going to St. Ives...

... I met a man with seven wives
Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kits
Kits, cat, sacks, wives
How many were going to St. Ives?

Now that exams are over I've got four months of doing whatever I please before uni starts again, so as the sun has been shining for the past few days I decided to take a trip to St. Ives yesterday. The train journey there was beautiful, miles of countryside alive in vibrant greens, pinks, yellows, reds, blues... just the way summer should be. As it's half term St. Ives was packed with families who flocked to the beaches, and I assumed that squealing kids and swarms of people would ruin the day slightly by making it impossible to get anywhere. Thankfully that wasn't the case, as a lot of people had set up camp on the main beaches leaving the small beaches and the shopping streets at a bearable crowd level.

I started off my day by having a wander round the shops. As well as the usual chain shops and shops selling touristy things there are lots of little gems of shops tucked away in side streets which would be easy to miss if you weren't looking out for them.
There's a fabulous shop selling handcrafted Russian items, including some beautiful matryoshkas. I may have to go back and treat myself to one if I've done well in my exams!
I found a knitting shop which also sold bear-making kits, and I bought myself a kit to make a little 7cm tall bear.
After a bit of searching I also found a bead shop (I can never go somewhere new without knowing if there's a bead shop nearby! haha). The shop's called GJ Beads and they have a huge selection of seed beads as well as other beads, and they're all sorted by colour turning the shop into a beautiful rainbow. Make sure you have a look if you're ever in town! I bought a kumihimo kit from them which I'm going to try out once I've finished this post - from simply looking at the instructions it looks a bit daunting, but hopefully, as I often find, doing it will be a lot simpler than looking at a bunch of words on paper.
After I'd finished looking round the shops I was feeling a bit peckish so bought myself a pot of crab meat. I love it and would eat it more often if it wasn't so expensive, so for now it'll just have to stay as a holiday treat. Then I went to an ice-cream parlour and got some mango sorbet in a cone (which was absolutely delicious) and took a stroll along the beach while eating it. I managed to avoid getting attacked by seagulls who were after my food, even though some swooped down scarily close to my head!
I had such a lovely day, even though I did spend it by myself. I was able to take things at my own pace, and there were no arguments or insults like those that seem to have become custom when I'm out with "friends". It made a refreshing change to go somewhere other than Falmouth of Truro, especially as it was somewhere beautiful and picturesque. I'll definitely be seeing a lot more of St. Ives this summer!