Because We Can!

“A trip to Pittenweem? I would love to, but couldn’t possibly justify taking the time off.” That has pretty much summed up my responses to that particular question for most of the last two years. Whenever the weather gets ‘nice enough’ that such trips aren’t going to result in arguments and frostbite I always seem to have loads to do.

This is where fourth year syndrome kicked in again. ‘It’s your last chance to do it!’ style attitude gives it a sense of urgency, and since discovering The Cocoa Tree at the farmers’ market, a trip became somewhat of a must. Now that spare time is a little less of a scarcity hopping on the bus and ‘making a day of it’ doesn’t really seem like a problem! Luckily Pittenweem is a short half hour away from the Bubble on the X60, so really there was no excuse.

To say that there isn’t a whole lot there would pretty much sum the place up. The place was pretty much a ghost town (although, in fairness it was a Monday lunchtime in mid May), but a very picturesque ghost town, so all is forgiven.

We took a wander around the town (didn’t take hugely long) before wandering down to the harbour. It is still a working harbour (thus lots of boats, nets and lobster pots – the latter two of which pile up quite nicely on the wall) although very much scaled back from what it, presumably, once was. I am not going to go into an rant about EU fisheries policy – I think most of the world has an opinion on it – but it’s safe to say that I’m on the scientific side of the argument (being a biologist, having a brain, etc.). Whatever your opinion, it’s a lovely sight.

The weather was fairly against us on our little trip, the howling wind was fairly whipping the salty air into our faces, and the breakers were giving the rocks and harbour a bit of a battering. However, this does make for fun photos. I am a big fan of the dramatic nature of black and white shots, as I alluded to the other day with the teaser shots, so I had far too much fun.

I am not sure exactly how many photos I ended up taking, but I think it was probably a lot more than was strictly necessary.

As well as black and white, I am also quite a fan of my panoramic shots as well as ‘views’ along the pier. Call it what you will, but I had a great little trip to the harbour, even if it was a little windswept.

For some reason – presumably that I got distract by all the chocolate – I didn’t get any photos of the Cocoa Tree. The shop its self was pretty small, in a non-descript building at the end of the high street, however, the smell was fantastic. I came away with lemon flavoured chocolate, white chocolate to make muffins with and some ‘healthy[ish]’ dark chocolate for my flatemate to pretend was ‘better’ to eat than normal chocolate. The cafe is at the back of the shop and is decorated with a huge variety of old chocolate adverts from across the world. It took the poor waitress three attempts to get our order, because every time we went to look at the menu we got distracted by another poster on the wall. Woops. All in all, very good sandwiches, lovely scone, and the hot chili-chocolate was gorgeous.

After a little more wandering around town we headed back to the bus stop and headed back to the Bubble. It was certainly something different to do with part of a day, but it was thoroughly enjoyable, and I would recommend a trip to the Cocoa Tree (or their Farmers’ Market stall, to those strapped for time) for anyone who even vaguely likes chocolate.