What I learnt in Luxulyan

After my mostly great day in Salisbury I set off for Luxulyan in Cornwall. I had booked two nights here to give me a little certainty and some breathing space to get a bit more organised. It kind of worked. 

I booked here because it was close to the Eden Project, which lots of people had said I should go to. And it was far enough in Cornwall to make it easy to get to other places.  I had booked on Airbnb. It was a great price and looked nice. After applying to not have a parking ticket I put the address into my google maps and set off. I did not carefully read all the instructions. I thought it would be easy to work out once I got there. It seemed straight forward. It was not as straight forward as I thought. Once I arrived, although I was basically parked outside where I was staying I could not see it because I was not looking for the right thing, because I had not carefully read all the instructions and looked at all the photos. This day was a day of learning. Some are important life lessons that I did not learn, and that cast us money  and stress. He aha!

I learnt

• I do not trust signs, and maybe should try trusting them. The people who put up signs for the parking and other things probably know where things are more than me.
• Be careful how you put parking tickets on your dashboard - don't just throw them in and assume all is good.
• Google maps is lagging, so if it says you should turn in 100m on the open road, that usually means now. 40m in built up areas. I missed a few turns. I did not learn this one very well, and ended driving a long way on a motorway before I could get off because of it.
• I need quiet to concentration. The means turning off books or music when I need to pay attention. I practice that now - a good lesson the learn and to say out loud to others.
• Read all the material or emails that I am sent. Do not assume I know what it will say. It might have more detailed photos and instructions - once I found those later I was a little annoyed at myself. It might have really useful information about other things like visas.
• be way more observant
• If stressed breathe. Don't just flip out. Go back. Re-read (or just read) all the instructions and go from there. Be even more careful and observant if at all possible.

Once I worked out where I was supposed to be, it was all good. Stu's Airbnb was comfortable. Parking was close. But, the front door opened onto a single lane road with a 60mph speed limit of 60mph, just under 100kmph. I was too bold walking out of the house on my first morning and nearly got hit. Getting to my parked car was an adventure in the morning. Apart from that this was a good place to stay. The pub in Luxulyan village served nice beer and great fish'n chips with mussy peas - I thought I would do enjoy the local cuisine - I planned out my next few days and tried to load some photos on Instagram. I have now discovered my phone was saving photos in a format Instagram does not like. I wasted a lot of time. 

The year before I was hosted in North Wales by Tim and Pauline Higgins. Narrow roads with little passing bays which people fly along, crazy spelling - Welsh has way too many consonants, and stunningly beautiful. Well Cornwall is very similar. I kept having to remind myself I was in Cornwall and not Llŷn Peninsula. I thanked God everyday for my little car on those roads, for other tourists who drove as carefully as I did, and google maps which took me (mostly) where I wanted to go with livable stress. I was in Cornwall. Let the adventure begin.