My short holiday in Yoxford - Lifestyle Monday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
A few days before New Year's Eve, me and my family decided to go on a spontaneous holiday to Yoxford in Suffolk. It was so spontaneous that it was a bit stressful actually getting there. My parents booked a lovely cottage in a Medieval village, on the Friday, and we left on the Saturday. The trouble was that my sister began to feel very ill around midday on Friday so she wasn't able to eat lunch that day and for practically the rest of Saturday. She basically caught the gastric flu that I had a couple days before Christmas Eve. In fact, this whole polava of illness across Christmas came from my dad because he had to go on a work trip to London with a friend who was also very ill and that basically ricocheted throughout my whole family. My sister had caught a cold the week before and unfortunately, a day before we were supposed to be leaving for a nice holiday, she felt even sicker. It was a bit of a bother for her as she was worried about not getting all her so coursework done because she was ill, like the rest of us, for most of the holiday. Some of my friends and her friends were also ill so I think something was going around. I wasn't even certain if we were actually going to leave because it was an hour and a half drive to get there and I wasn't sure it was possible to do. We did have to stop a few times for air but luckily we made it to our destination and were able to sit round a warm log fire with a cup of tea.
Anyway, enough about illness. I think I've heard the word sick far too many times this holiday. The first day was great because we spent the entire day by the seaside. The first beach we went to was Dunwich. Historically, Dunwich is quite an interesting seaside town because it actually used to be a lot bigger. During the Medieval period, a huge storm hit the town and because of coastal erosion and flooding, the vast front part of the town ended up being completely submerged under water and it's famous port for incoming ships, was lost as well. I think fishermen to this day, keep on digging things up from the bottom of the sea bed. As the BBC said, it was quite literally Britain's lost Atlantis. It was strange because we took a short walk on the pebbly beach and I looked out at the sea, which would have been a once thriving town that economically made a lot of money from the port.
However, after walking a bit on the beach, we made our way more inland to see the other parts of the town. It looks more like a village now because of what happened in the 1400s. Where we were staying there were a lot of monasteries, castles, and churches, all of which mostly destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. However, we ended up walking past a ruin of a chapel that was beside a modern-day church. The chapel of St James, Dunwich, was said to house people in the town with Leprosy. This was a deadly disease where parts of your body would quite literally rot and fall off. The chapel had some of it's walls repaired to maintain the architectural features of it's time. It was a huge undertaking for a small parish as the generous grants from English Heritage, charities, and individuals made it possible. I found it really interesting to see such a pivotal part of British history.
After visiting Dunwhich, we also visited Orford Castle, by the seaside town of Orford. We didn't actually end up going in the castle because we were really there to get some lunch but I know that the castle we see today was not what it used to be. It also used to be a lot bigger and the part we see today was actually at the centre of the castle and it used to have big stone walls around it. Still, the remains that I saw were still pretty impressive, considering how old the castle was.
We were torn between eating at a nice ornate restaurant, and a pub. I could tell my mum and my sister were not exactly convinced by the pub so we chose the restaurant instead. 😂😂 I think the owners made it seem better than it actually was. You had a waiting area where you could have your drinks and choose your food a and you also had a dining area where you could eat your main meals. It's nice not to have your phone with you all the time but weirdly, you weren't allowed to have your phone to take photos. I still took a sneaky photo of my roast dinner though. It wasn't a bad roast dinner but for the price, it lacked a few things. The main thing was crackling on the pork. If you're going to serve pork in a roast dinner, you have to have crackling with it because that's what people expect. It wasn't just me who didn't have crackling, it was my mum and my sister. The customers next to us had crackling on their plate as well. I guess it's an easy mistake to make but it would have made the whole meal a lot better. The dessert was my favourite. It was big but me and my sister had a really nice ban a cake with caramel and passion fruit drizzled on the side. That was nice and a nice way to finish off a meal.
After that, we decided to go in the famous Pump Street bakery where me and my sister got raspberry jam doughnuts and my mum got a couple loaves of bread. The doughnuts were great and I could understand why they had such a great reputation for their food.
After all the visiting, we finally made our way back to the cottage where me and my sister ended up watching the rest of Step Up 5 that we saw the night before and we had a mini dance party for the rest of the afternoon. The walls of the cottage were really soundproof as my mum couldn't hear us and when we went to bed, although we were by a fairly busy road, we couldn't hear anything. For dinner we just had pasta and we ended up watching the first episode of Gordon Buchanan's Snow Cats, where he visits a man in Russia who tries to rehabilitate Lynx who have been living as pets in people's homes. It's really interesting and I would definitely recommend watching it. After that, we went to bed.
The second day was also spent by the sea. In the morning, after having breakfast, we went to Southwold to see the pier and walk by the sea. I always love piers because it's such a British thing. As my dad said, it's literally like a little fantasy world on the sea. The weather maybe absolutely terrible but the pier is always bright and fun. The Southwold pier had a cafe and a seating area at the front so that you could watch the sea. There were also weird shaped mirrors which made the shape of your body go all funny. My favourite mirror was the one that made my legs look really short because they're nowhere near like that in real life. There was also a wall completely dedicated to George Orwell and his most famous quotes. My favourite quote was "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." It's such a true quote!
After walking along the pier, we decided to walk by the sea, along the promenade so we could see the beach huts. I don't really know what's the point of beach huts because you can't live in them, you can only sit in them and watch the sea. Considering how expensive they are to buy, I don't really know why you would have them. However, again they are a very British thing and I think that they look beautiful and they signify each person's own little paradise.
On our walk, we walked past a cafe selling bacon rolls and the smell that was coming from the little kitchen area, was luring so many customers. I kind of wish we went there for lunch because the food seemed really nice but instead we decided to go to Aldeburgh to get some fresh fish before lunch.
We got some fresh fish from the fishmonger by the sea. The fish ended up being absolutely delicious but me, my mum, and my sister couldn't understand the salesman's strong Suffolk accent. My mum's lived in England for so long, she always looks like she understands what someone is saying even if sometimes she doesn't. I even thought she understood what the man was trying to say but in fact she didn't have a clue. I understood a few words but I think we all just picked up the fact that he was flipping the other stall off for not selling fresh and high quality fish like he'd advertised. My dad at this point had just come back from getting some cash and he was all puffed out because he had to run quite a way. Whilst that was happening, we managed to make a good 15 minute conversation that we didn't understand. 😂😂
The whole 30 minute period of time after getting the fish, was really stressful! Since we'd spent so much of the lunch period basically faffing around, all the places that we wanted to eat at were full. At Aldeburgh, there's a really good fish and chips place that is really popular. You can tell that its popular because it has a massive queue of people trailing around the street outside of the restaurant. There was no point in us standing in the queue outside because we were already quite late as it was and we didn't want to be standing around for another 30 minutes or so so we tried somewhere else. We firstly walked up to a hotel restaurant by the sea which I thought would be nice but the food looked really bad. We then went into a pub in the town but that was full of people so we had to move on. Lastly, we chose another seaside hotel restaurant called the White Lion and it was great. We found a place to sit down and despite it's simplicity, the food was great. My mum and dad had fish and chips, my sister had toad in a hole, and I had a pork and apple burger with coleslaw and chips. All the food looked amazing but I really liked my burger as the pork mixed with the apple was not too overpowering. We were so full up afterwards that we couldn't even fit in a dessert! That's how you know you've just eaten good food!
After lunch, we decided to go home. On the way home, we stopped by the antique shop in the village. We found loads of cool old items but I think my best find was the 1865 version of Robinson Crusoe. The illustrations in the book were beautiful and we decided to buy the book because it was really a collector's item.
After that, we went home. Me, my mum, and my sister decided to watch a nature documentary for the rest of the afternoon, whilst my dad took a nap.
In the evening, we all just ate leftovers for dinner and whilst we waited for the second episode of Snow Cats to start, we all played a game of family Jenga. It was actually surprisingly fun!
After watching snowcats, we decided to go to bed for the last time!
Do you like spontaneous holidays? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Tap one of the reaction boxes below to let me know what you thought of this post. It would really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this article with a friend who might enjoy it too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
P.s I hope that everyone in Australia is still doing well, despite the fires! I give you all my prayers.
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
A few days before New Year's Eve, me and my family decided to go on a spontaneous holiday to Yoxford in Suffolk. It was so spontaneous that it was a bit stressful actually getting there. My parents booked a lovely cottage in a Medieval village, on the Friday, and we left on the Saturday. The trouble was that my sister began to feel very ill around midday on Friday so she wasn't able to eat lunch that day and for practically the rest of Saturday. She basically caught the gastric flu that I had a couple days before Christmas Eve. In fact, this whole polava of illness across Christmas came from my dad because he had to go on a work trip to London with a friend who was also very ill and that basically ricocheted throughout my whole family. My sister had caught a cold the week before and unfortunately, a day before we were supposed to be leaving for a nice holiday, she felt even sicker. It was a bit of a bother for her as she was worried about not getting all her so coursework done because she was ill, like the rest of us, for most of the holiday. Some of my friends and her friends were also ill so I think something was going around. I wasn't even certain if we were actually going to leave because it was an hour and a half drive to get there and I wasn't sure it was possible to do. We did have to stop a few times for air but luckily we made it to our destination and were able to sit round a warm log fire with a cup of tea.
Anyway, enough about illness. I think I've heard the word sick far too many times this holiday. The first day was great because we spent the entire day by the seaside. The first beach we went to was Dunwich. Historically, Dunwich is quite an interesting seaside town because it actually used to be a lot bigger. During the Medieval period, a huge storm hit the town and because of coastal erosion and flooding, the vast front part of the town ended up being completely submerged under water and it's famous port for incoming ships, was lost as well. I think fishermen to this day, keep on digging things up from the bottom of the sea bed. As the BBC said, it was quite literally Britain's lost Atlantis. It was strange because we took a short walk on the pebbly beach and I looked out at the sea, which would have been a once thriving town that economically made a lot of money from the port.
However, after walking a bit on the beach, we made our way more inland to see the other parts of the town. It looks more like a village now because of what happened in the 1400s. Where we were staying there were a lot of monasteries, castles, and churches, all of which mostly destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. However, we ended up walking past a ruin of a chapel that was beside a modern-day church. The chapel of St James, Dunwich, was said to house people in the town with Leprosy. This was a deadly disease where parts of your body would quite literally rot and fall off. The chapel had some of it's walls repaired to maintain the architectural features of it's time. It was a huge undertaking for a small parish as the generous grants from English Heritage, charities, and individuals made it possible. I found it really interesting to see such a pivotal part of British history.
After visiting Dunwhich, we also visited Orford Castle, by the seaside town of Orford. We didn't actually end up going in the castle because we were really there to get some lunch but I know that the castle we see today was not what it used to be. It also used to be a lot bigger and the part we see today was actually at the centre of the castle and it used to have big stone walls around it. Still, the remains that I saw were still pretty impressive, considering how old the castle was.
We were torn between eating at a nice ornate restaurant, and a pub. I could tell my mum and my sister were not exactly convinced by the pub so we chose the restaurant instead. 😂😂 I think the owners made it seem better than it actually was. You had a waiting area where you could have your drinks and choose your food a and you also had a dining area where you could eat your main meals. It's nice not to have your phone with you all the time but weirdly, you weren't allowed to have your phone to take photos. I still took a sneaky photo of my roast dinner though. It wasn't a bad roast dinner but for the price, it lacked a few things. The main thing was crackling on the pork. If you're going to serve pork in a roast dinner, you have to have crackling with it because that's what people expect. It wasn't just me who didn't have crackling, it was my mum and my sister. The customers next to us had crackling on their plate as well. I guess it's an easy mistake to make but it would have made the whole meal a lot better. The dessert was my favourite. It was big but me and my sister had a really nice ban a cake with caramel and passion fruit drizzled on the side. That was nice and a nice way to finish off a meal.
After that, we decided to go in the famous Pump Street bakery where me and my sister got raspberry jam doughnuts and my mum got a couple loaves of bread. The doughnuts were great and I could understand why they had such a great reputation for their food.
After all the visiting, we finally made our way back to the cottage where me and my sister ended up watching the rest of Step Up 5 that we saw the night before and we had a mini dance party for the rest of the afternoon. The walls of the cottage were really soundproof as my mum couldn't hear us and when we went to bed, although we were by a fairly busy road, we couldn't hear anything. For dinner we just had pasta and we ended up watching the first episode of Gordon Buchanan's Snow Cats, where he visits a man in Russia who tries to rehabilitate Lynx who have been living as pets in people's homes. It's really interesting and I would definitely recommend watching it. After that, we went to bed.
The second day was also spent by the sea. In the morning, after having breakfast, we went to Southwold to see the pier and walk by the sea. I always love piers because it's such a British thing. As my dad said, it's literally like a little fantasy world on the sea. The weather maybe absolutely terrible but the pier is always bright and fun. The Southwold pier had a cafe and a seating area at the front so that you could watch the sea. There were also weird shaped mirrors which made the shape of your body go all funny. My favourite mirror was the one that made my legs look really short because they're nowhere near like that in real life. There was also a wall completely dedicated to George Orwell and his most famous quotes. My favourite quote was "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." It's such a true quote!
After walking along the pier, we decided to walk by the sea, along the promenade so we could see the beach huts. I don't really know what's the point of beach huts because you can't live in them, you can only sit in them and watch the sea. Considering how expensive they are to buy, I don't really know why you would have them. However, again they are a very British thing and I think that they look beautiful and they signify each person's own little paradise.
On our walk, we walked past a cafe selling bacon rolls and the smell that was coming from the little kitchen area, was luring so many customers. I kind of wish we went there for lunch because the food seemed really nice but instead we decided to go to Aldeburgh to get some fresh fish before lunch.
We got some fresh fish from the fishmonger by the sea. The fish ended up being absolutely delicious but me, my mum, and my sister couldn't understand the salesman's strong Suffolk accent. My mum's lived in England for so long, she always looks like she understands what someone is saying even if sometimes she doesn't. I even thought she understood what the man was trying to say but in fact she didn't have a clue. I understood a few words but I think we all just picked up the fact that he was flipping the other stall off for not selling fresh and high quality fish like he'd advertised. My dad at this point had just come back from getting some cash and he was all puffed out because he had to run quite a way. Whilst that was happening, we managed to make a good 15 minute conversation that we didn't understand. 😂😂
The whole 30 minute period of time after getting the fish, was really stressful! Since we'd spent so much of the lunch period basically faffing around, all the places that we wanted to eat at were full. At Aldeburgh, there's a really good fish and chips place that is really popular. You can tell that its popular because it has a massive queue of people trailing around the street outside of the restaurant. There was no point in us standing in the queue outside because we were already quite late as it was and we didn't want to be standing around for another 30 minutes or so so we tried somewhere else. We firstly walked up to a hotel restaurant by the sea which I thought would be nice but the food looked really bad. We then went into a pub in the town but that was full of people so we had to move on. Lastly, we chose another seaside hotel restaurant called the White Lion and it was great. We found a place to sit down and despite it's simplicity, the food was great. My mum and dad had fish and chips, my sister had toad in a hole, and I had a pork and apple burger with coleslaw and chips. All the food looked amazing but I really liked my burger as the pork mixed with the apple was not too overpowering. We were so full up afterwards that we couldn't even fit in a dessert! That's how you know you've just eaten good food!
After lunch, we decided to go home. On the way home, we stopped by the antique shop in the village. We found loads of cool old items but I think my best find was the 1865 version of Robinson Crusoe. The illustrations in the book were beautiful and we decided to buy the book because it was really a collector's item.
After that, we went home. Me, my mum, and my sister decided to watch a nature documentary for the rest of the afternoon, whilst my dad took a nap.
In the evening, we all just ate leftovers for dinner and whilst we waited for the second episode of Snow Cats to start, we all played a game of family Jenga. It was actually surprisingly fun!
After watching snowcats, we decided to go to bed for the last time!
Do you like spontaneous holidays? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Tap one of the reaction boxes below to let me know what you thought of this post. It would really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this article with a friend who might enjoy it too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
P.s I hope that everyone in Australia is still doing well, despite the fires! I give you all my prayers.
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
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