 |
| Brighton Beach |
I can’t say Lydia Bennet was particularly correct in saying
that Brighton was the place to find a husband but I would definitely take her
advice on visiting Brighton! It was under an hour’s journey by train from London
and it really is a charming little city. It is exactly what you think a city on
the coast should be like, complete with peer, beach, and seafood but without
the annoyances of a normal beach-NO SAND. I’ll admit, the rocks washed up from
the Atlantic that form the actual beach are a bit uncomfortable to bear feet
but once you get past that, it’s wonderful. In fact, I was surprised at how
warm the water was! The English Channel in September was definitely warmer than
the Pacific Ocean in late March! Needless to say, the first thing we did was
throw our shoes off and get our feet in the water to which our British Life and
Culture professor (Fosdal) rolled his eyes and called us “Typical Americans.”
(SO worth it). I skipped rocks into the surprisingly calm waves (and by skipped
I really mean threw…my rock skipping teacher apparently didn’t teach me well
enough during our last session…) and we had some time to just sit and riffle
through all the rocks on the beach. It sounds silly but the way the water
smoothes them over, some of them are really pretty. I definitely filled the
pockets of my bag and brought home a jar-full to be appropriately named “Brighton
Rocks.”
After a quick lunch break, we toured the Royal Pavilion. It
was built by Prince Regent Charles IV but the really interesting thing is that
during the time it was under construction, all of the East Asian architecture
and fashion was becoming popular among the upper classes in England so Charles
had the palace built to resemble something from that part of the world.
Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us take pictures or video of the inside but it
was the perfect blend of Indian and Chinese décor from that time period. It was
really interesting to see the two different styles blend together and apart
from the blatant gaudiness of it all, it was really neat. There were dragons
and palm trees everywhere along with a ton of really amazing floral patterns.
My attempts at describing it to you want do it much justice so I apologize. You’ll
just have to take my word for it that the pavilion was really cool. |
| Fish, Chips, and Orange Juice |
After that we were free to be on our own. I stuck with a
small group that decided to explore the food and drink festival that was taking
place a few streets away. We stumbled into some really eclectic little stores
along the way and eventually, it was time for dinner. Fosdal gave us the option
of meeting him at a pub for drinks at 5 if we were so inclined so we headed
that direction for dinner. Since it was pub food and since I was in Brighton, I
decided to order my first plate of Fish and Chips. For someone who really doesn’t
like fish, it wasn’t bad. I’ll probably stick to chicken but I felt like I had
to try it. We stuck around the pub and Fosdal ordered us some drinks before we
decided to head back to London.
It was a really nice trip despite the on and off rain that
seems to follow you everywhere you go in England. I’m really enjoying these
weekend excursions that are set up for us. It’s nice that we get to see places
other than London and it feels like a mini vacation from everything that’s
going on in the city. I’m definitely glad to be back in the flat, though. We
were all getting tired and most of us had dried salt clinging to the bottom of
our pants from being sprayed by the ocean. But hey, it’s another body of water
that I can cross off my “To Stand In” list!
No comments:
Post a Comment