Brighton!

So this past weekend, Hannah, her friend visiting in town ironically also named Hannah, and I decided to take a spur of the moment day trip to Brighton. For those of you who don't know where/what Brighton is, it's a small beach town on the southern coast of England, about an hour and a half, to two hours driving south of London. By train, our mode of transportation, it only took an hour! Side note: I'm really digging trains now. My first train-that-wasn't-a-subway experience was less than two short months ago, and since then I'm converted. Obviously, the trains for international travel are real nice, but I've since been on many of the National Railway trains in the UK and it's always a pleasant experience. They're so much faster and easier than coaches, while only being a little bit more expensive. For example: our hour long journey tickets to Brighton only cost 18 pounds round-trip, while the 2 hour 15 minute coach  was 13 pounds. The train picks us up right in central London and dropped us off smack dab in the middle of Brighton- it was great. Fast, easy and relatively cheap. Had we planned a little better, we could have gotten the 10 pound round-trip rate on the train, but our indecisiveness and spontaneity left us with only the 18 pound ones left.

Anyways, back to facts about Brighton. I knew ahead of time that Brighton is a really popular vacation spot for Londoners and UKers alike, however while there I learned that it has been ranked on of the tep ten beaches in the world!?! Certainly shocked me, but seeing the town as crowded as it was in March, I no longer doubt it. The other unique thing about it is that Brighton has a pebble beach- not sand. I had only been to sandy beaches before, so I didn't know what to expect. The pebbles in Brighton were surprisingly big, maybe four or so average size ones could fit in my open hand with some smaller and some bigger ones. They resembled rocks that would be used for landscaping purposes in a garden or pond.It was really neat to walk on, almost like massaging, not painful like I typically anticipate of walking on tiny rocks.

We started the day walking through the adorable hilly streets of the town before heading to the beach. It was so refreshing walking through town- it almost reminded me of the city of Galway in Ireland. It's a really small, yet colorful town, filled with friendly people and places. Immediately you get struck with a beach town vibe- everyone just casually walks around, nearly every restaurant had a packed outdoor patio with people enjoying a pint, doors to all stores were wide open and welcome. There was a real sense of community there- a very welcomed change from the hustle and bustle of London. While walking around we all agreed we felt like we were in another place entirely, not a mere 60 miles from one of the busiest cities in the world. I felt like I could finally breath fresh air - not the smog filled yuck they call air here.

And then we found the Royal Pavilion. If we didn't feel in another world before, now we certainly did. See what I mean?

Things we learned about the Royal Pavilion? Well, not much because we weren't about to pay 18 pounds to go inside and find out. We did manage to figure out that it was built in the late 1700's as a retreat home for Geogre IV, and clearly it has heavy Indian influences in the architecture. The back part of the pavilion, combined with a theater and the Brighton Dome performance complex, enclose a small yet beautiful park that was packed Saturday afternoon. Lots of young families playing, couples picnicing, and a sitar player to set the mood.

Finally, we couldn't stand smelling the ocean and not seeing it, so we headed for the beach and pier. SO crowded. Granted it was a nice Saturday afternoon, but the beach and pier were packed. I can't imagine how busy summers there are. The beach extended as far as we could see in either direction, divided by a Ferris wheel and the Brighton Pier. The pier was so much fun, very similar to an OC boardwalk, but with far, far less shops. There were only actually four or five souvenir shops, the rest of the pier was rides, games, food vendors, and restaurants. We spent a good portion of the day on this HUGE pier just wandering around, taking pictures of the beach, and convincing London Hannah to ride a mechanical bull. It required a quick outfit swap since she was wearing a skirt, but we got her up there...only for her to fall off literally 2 seconds later. The first round she only lasted 1 second, so she doubled her time!! Atta girl Hannah!! I also had my first "99 cone" on the pier. I kept seeing everyone holding soft serve cones with this brown stick coming out of them. EVERYONE had them, I didn't see a single cone without a stick! So I took one for the team to play investigator and it turns out it is an ice cream come with a fondant-y chocolate log in it. Felt like a local getting one, threw the chocolate stick away two minutes later. It wasn't bad per say, just not really good. Tasted kind of like hardened chocolate icing shaped like a stick. Honestly, don't get the appeal, but hey, when in Brighton...

An older pier that burned down in 2003.

My "99 cone"

She's Up!

...and she's down!

We concluded the night with dinner at this hole in the wall Italian restaurant. Unbelievably good. According to not London Hannah, who has been to Italy multiple times, this was real authentic Italian food. Holy crap it was amazing, and came with an even more amazing price tag. My dinner of salad, garlic bread (which was actually a hot flatbread looking thing with garlic butter melting on top) and some sort of tube shaped pasta filled with ricotta and spinach was only 7 pounds! A typical meal in London, not including drink or an appetizer is usually 12-15 pounds, this was 2x as delicious at half the price. We joked that it would be just as expensive to eat in the city as it would to take the train out there just for dinner. Definitely a great cap to the night. We were only in Brighton for maybe 5 or 6 hours, but it was such a refreshing change from London. London Hannah and I decided we are gonna plan ahead to get the cheaper fares and pick a free day during our "exam month" to actually go to the beach for the day. It was way to cold to attempt it this weekend, but we figure by May it should be nice enough to at least get a tan, and a good way to relieve the "stress" of the one final I have. Rough life.

This week is filled with a good amount of school work- I'll have everything for two of my classes completely finished and turned in by next week, so this week is a lot of prepping for that. And then, Saturday my parents come!! Couldn't be more excited, and never been happier to see them (sorry Mom. PS if you're reading this, bring me mac and cheese!). I'm sure there will be lots of stories and pictures to update, so I'll try to do that when they leave next Saturday, because the following day I leave for spring break! Still working on some of the logistics of it, but there are 4 cites completely booked as of now, with rumors of Scotland and Portugal in the works! So exciting, I can't believe that this week is the last week of classes and I only have a month and a half left here!