from wellington to whistable - part 1: (coz you know whitstable is way too cool to cover in just one blog post)

here's mr scrappy following our train journey from london victoria to whistable; on his iPhone using GPS.

"we're just about to go over a junction!"

"really?" shit, i'm glad i was awake for that...

actually, i DID discover one very cool fact.

just as we shot through faversham, or one of the many towns that end in 'ham', or 'born' (as in gillingham and sittingborn), we passed through ZERO DEGREES LATITUDE.

with wellington being at 177 degrees latitude - at that point we were about as far away from home as we could get.

LITERALLY. no wait....ACTUALLY.

..by way of a recap,

we had a week in rome
took the overnight train to paris
eurostar to london
2 nights in london
took the train to the seaside to meet bloggy sass
train back to london then all the way home

i should start by saying that even though whistable has a population of 30,000 - to me it felt like a quaint english seaside village.

we both fell in love with it instantly.
and why wouldn't you - just look at it

we came half way around the world, to find NEW ZEALAND MUSSELS?
life is full of fun moments like that

whitstable fun fact #1
the diving helmet was invented in whitstable.

oh. by the way - this is me and sass
i met me another blog friend - for real!

and this is peaches - it was much easier for her to get her head in here than it was for us

whitstable fun fact #2
whitstable harbour was the world's first railway connected port

of course we happened upon a saturday morning craft market
and OF COURSE i bought one of those bags hanging on those doors (nr the left)

whitstable fun fact #3
whitstable was at the end of the first steam driven passenger railway in the world

can you see why i fell in love with this place?

whitstable fun fact #4
whitstable is the only place of that name in the world

whitstable fun fact #5
many of the old weatherboard cottages near the beach were built by local fisherman for around 100 pounds.

these days (judging by the wheels parked outside), they're worth a little more!

i just loved harbour road, all cute and windy and bursting with such cute shops as "what's up cupcake?"

there was some drama over something to do with the fairy cake or something pink
the details escape me, but of course it was a BIG DEAL at the time!!!

but we got it sorted

back to the cute shop names...

then there's this one that you actually bend down and step down into!

i just couldn't get enough of this place!

miss 17's band is called flamingo pink which is why i took this pic
sadly, i never got to go into this store, because i KNOW i would have bought something
can u see those scarves hanging there?
they also had clothes and shoes and bags and jewellery, and, and...

I WANNA GO BACK THERE!!!

and let's not forget 'the cheese box'.
it took about 20 minutes to get served here. there was a line outside the door, but no-one cared. everyone has such patience. i mean, selecting cheese is a serious business, especially when they're all locally made.

wellington folks would NEVER have been so patient. there would have been a lynch mob forming as well as a queue!

then we rounded the corner to this inocuous looking building and sass goes to go in!
i'm thinking 'where ARE we?'
all she says, is 'you'll thank me later'
and i did!

so this is 'the fountain'.
sass and recaro's fave watering hole
we wiled away the afternoon here drinking gin and beer and eating cheese

check out that mural. local artist - can't remember his name, but props to him
this is way cool

like i said, cheese is a serious business and warrants serious discussion

but not from MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

whitstable fun fact #6

this is the prettiest girl in all of whitstable.

stay tuned for part 2!!!