**WARNING: If you have to pee or maybe have been thinking about having to pee but aren't really sure.. Do Not Read This. There is an abundance of water associated with this post. You've been warned!
So I've found a place that I'm [more than] slightly obsessed with.. The city of Brighton! Here's a little map so that you know where it is because maybe you'll get to visit me there someday when I inevitably move there..
In actuality it's about a 45 minute train ride from London to Brighton, which is really quite close. I completely fell in love with it, it's by the water, has a pier, it contains a crazy Asian-style ex-royal palace and is filled with lots of awesome shops. (And very attractive guys.. heheh.) It's also known for it's gay culture, but alas, I am not a gay man so I wasn't really able to appreciate that to the fullest.
I had a lot of fun there, saw a scary swarm of birds flying over this abandoned jungle-gym-esque thing in the water which was creepy and unnecessary. Not really sure how that correlated in my mind with "I had a lot of fun there" but hey. Who cares. Onto the photos!
 |
Beach! Rocks! |
 |
A feather.. evidence of the presence of birds. Not necessarily of their presence of mind though.
Do birds even have brains? I don't think it's been proven.. |
 |
| The far end of the pier and crashing WAVES. |
 |
| Wavves. |
 |
| More pier. Because it's the only thing that juts out into the water. |
 |
This is the other thing that resides in the water. Eerie jungle-gym-lookin-like-thing.
It is also home to a swarm of birds at dusk, where they fly around in a large black cloud, possibly having a bird orgy
or plotting to take over the world. |
 |
| Me, being cool to try and compete with the coolness of Brighton. |
 |
| Water churning. |
 |
| Walking towards the pier. |
 |
| The sign lighting up! Weeee how festive. |
 |
| Ferris wheel and more beach/pier greatness. |
 |
| It was a little deserted, save for S Club 7 playing out of the loudspeakers. |
 |
| TURBO |
 |
| Warter warter fence wood. |
 |
| Me and Abby! |
 |
| The Taj Mahal!? No.. The Royal Pavilion! |
 |
| Gate to the Pavilion. The Royal Pavilion was built and used by George (IV), Prince of Wales from 1787 to 1811. |
 |
You aren't allowed to photograph the interior, but it's lavishly decorated in Chinese/Asian/Indian style.
It's kind of neat because hardly anyone at that time had traveled to East Asia, so the whole thing was how they
imagined things might look over there. |
 |
An engraving of the banqueting room; the ceiling is one of the large domes. And it actually does look like this..
It's so fantastic. |
 |
The interior ceilings of the domes are the most impressive.. and they both hold giant chandeliers that are in turn
held by giant dragons. I didn't just make that up. |
 |
| You can still see Asian influence.. by way of Big Buddha. |
 |
| Graffiti/street art. |
 |
| Your basic street. |
 |
Lots and lots and lots of stores and vintage/secondhand stores! Also, there was a ton of American clothing.. ie;
things like 'soccer' jerseys and things, sweaters from Cape Cod or with wolves. I wonder if we export our
Salvation Army leftovers? Hahaha. |
 |
| The Pier all lit up! |
 |
| Sunset over the Channel. :) |
 |
| The pier at night.. I really had no idea I took this until I looked at my camera later on, haha. But it's nice! |
Like I said, I really love Brighton a lot. If you ever visit London, it's definitely worth a cheap ticket and 45 minute ride down there for the day!
No idea what I'll post next.. I don't even know if I have anything planned. Maybe I'll go try to take pictures of Christmas lights or something. Never too early for the lights! (But if you're the kind of person who listens to Christmas music before it's December.. I give you a judgmental look through the internet. Feel shame.)
x
