Freezing in Falmouth.

Its been a long while since I`ve really got together with friends and had some enjoyable moments. Ironically, my friends circle was not a large or intense one during my university term, but has now improved to include a bit of socialising.
So, inspite of a busy week, when the opportunity came up, i jumped at the chance to spend the weekend on a day trip with friends, rather than catch up on missed sleep.
The University International students society chose to organise a trip to the nearby tourist town of Falmouth as a part of their usual tour programmes. Getting to see nearby places by oneself is a difficult proposition , especially for students here. Thus My Spanish friends Ovi, and Martha were just as keen as me to expand their list of english tourist destinations visited.Also with us were their former housemates, Megan and Matt from California.
Situated in Cornwall (why do i keep heading back there!), The town of Falmouth has one of the worlds deepest natural harbours and is a great sailing and water sprts centre. It also has abundant beaches and great natural beauty. however, the star attraction that we were looking forward to visiting was a castle - The Penndennis Castle.
The history of Pendennis castle is linked with its creator, King Henry VIII who is (in)famous for having had a succesion of 6 wives. Each one of them either died or was executed or divorced before he went on to the next. It so happened that when he divorced his Catholic wife , Catherine of Aragon, it angered the catholic counties of Spain and France who threatened war. Thus in order to defend his Kingdom, a series of fortifications were undertaken, one of which was Pendennis.
However the invasion never came and pendennis was only in use later during the civil war between the Royalists and parliamentarians, when the battered Royalists held out for six months in a seiged Pendennis castle, suviving on horse and dog meat before finally surrendering to the Parliamentarian forces.
We started our trip aboard two coaches from Plymouth. The temperature was near freezing, and Falmouth with its location just above the sea, was windy enough to freeze the marrow in our bones, however the spirit of adventure and resulting adrenalin was enough to put back some warmth in us.
The castle turned out to be rather small but, with ample displays and signs it was easy to imagine the battle that had been fought within the confines of its narrow spaces.It was surpising to know that people had actually lived in there, and that it had rooms like Kitchens and toilets. This pic shows all of us squeesed into a hole in the kitchen which was actually a toilet! and this one shows me sitting inside the oven in the kitchen.
I wont bore you all with more text, and will let you have a more graphical view of the trip and the antics of my friends.
Ovi trying his bowling skills with a canon ball!

Sergeant Martha!

A recreation of the medieval battle arena.

Megan and Matt..sending secret signals !
As usual if you are interested u can catch up on the photos by clicking this link

Apart from reliving moments of English history, Enjoying an english food in a seafarers pub, and freezing our bones in some English weather, it felt great to experience a piece of the english civil war, that led to the present state of government here. The experience was also valuable to me in sharing time with friends and building bridges....I only wish the weather was a little less freezing.