Cornish Pasties

In case you didn’t know, Cornish pasties are the delicious version of a hot pocket and they are LIFE. Having known this based only on the “fake” pasties I’ve eaten in London and other parts of England throughout my life, it was finally time to go try the real thing.

Okay, I didn’t decide to go to Cornwall JUST for the pasties, but they were a factor. My parents and I wanted to go on a weekend trip outside of London, and I’ve had my eye on Cornwall for a while. Cornwall has a lot of good options of where to stay, but after vetting all the pasty options, we decided to go to St. Ives.

Naturally, when seeing a castle hotel was an option, I had to choose it for our stay. I mean, come on, castle > everything. Tregenna Castle was perfect… once you got up the MASSIVE hill to the entrance. Would not recommend taking on this hill with luggage, it is a sweaty affair. Our room was a newly redone cottage/apartment with 2 bedrooms and a kitchen, and there was a cat wandering the grounds, so basically this is the perfect place to stay.

I loved that cat and she loved me. BFFs for life.

Anyways, Cornwall, right. After catching our breath and dropping off the luggage, we had some lunch at the hotel then made our way down the hill into St. Ives. The harbor area is just as pretty and adorable as I had hoped, and its got some crazy tide changes. Seriously, that shit is WILD.

Sadly on day one we did not get any pasties, but we scoped out all the pasty shops and planned our attack for the next day. You’ll be happy to know I did find some chicken tenders for dinner though, so its fine.

Oh, did I mention this was a bank holiday weekend? Yeah, well the people started rollin in on Friday night, so I knew if I wanted to enjoy the harbor without a bajillion people, I’d have to get down there early on Saturday. I was right, it did not disappoint.

Once I got a good wander in, my parents came down and it happened, I had my first of many (and the only one to be documented) pasties. It was glorious.

After eating breakfast pasties, we had to leave the scene of the crime before the seagulls found us, so we wandered some more and discovered there is water and beautiful views on both sides of St. Ives!

The weather was gorgeous that day, so we got in some (sitting next to the) pool time back at the hotel, then went back down and had another pasty for lunch on the beach. Sit on the beach at your own risk, you might get pooped on if you sit in the same place too long…just ask my mom’s shirt, and pants, and the picnic mat. No food was harmed though. You might also get aggressively sun burned in weird patterns because you underestimated the sun in England (see: still uneven tan on my shins.)

By the time we dragged our pooped on, sunburned selves back up the hill, we were tired, so room service for dinner happened. I never, ever regret room service for dinner. I do regret not using proper sunscreen and not packing aloe though. Live and learn.

We were heading back to London on Sunday afternoon, but we had some time to wander through the town again and do some shopping and shockingly did not have pasties for lunch, but we did sit at the cute old pub by the water (no one was pooped on by birds during this meal, praise be). Then after that we got some pasties to take on the train later. I’m addicted and I don’t care who knows it.

I’m a sucker for old pubs, and this one was no exception. They even have their own gin. Killing the pub game.

To-go pasties in hand, we headed for the train and the 5.5 hour trip back to London. I loved St. Ives and I definitely recommend going there, but if I go back, I will be making sure its not on a bank holiday weekend. Anyway, here’s a few more from our wanderings.