Brighton! Or ‘London by the sea’ as the locals call it. It was a bit scungy and sleazy on the pier, but the beach was fun and the shops were fab. Just the place to run off with Mr Wickham. I had a fabulous time – though honestly, it had more to do with the calibre of my companions, Maddie and Alice, than it did with the location.
The trains were playing up – as always – so we arrived in Brighton around about late morning. It was Pasty Time for Alice and I, and we munched as we wandered down into the Lanes from the station. The Lanes are full of quirky little shops.
There was one shop that particularly stood out due to its Alice-suited exterior.
And I found a little something-something for that smorgeous dog of mine:
We finally stumbled out onto the pebbled beach and reverted to toddler-hood, building pebble-castles and making pebble-angels and leaping into the air for Toyota poses.
It was great. Whoever said that pebbled beaches are depressing for Australians was severely lacking in imagination, or clung too hard to their dignity.
Next we went and visited the Royal Pavilion – a very Aladdin-looking building in the middle of a park. It was visually unexpected. We ducked inside, saw the museum entry prices and ducked out – but not before I’d completely embarrassed myself by loudly admiring the museum worker’s accent, only to discover him standing directly behind me with a Cheshire-cat grin.
We ran away to sit on the lawn and admire the building some more.
We then headed back to the beach and got delicious ice creams which we ate on the pier. As mentioned above, it was a shoddy sort of pier. The highlight was watching some teenage boy being repeatedly bucked off a mechanical bull. That and climbing into kiddie rides.
Once we’d gotten all nice and frostbitten, we hurried back up the main streets in search of a good Brighton chippie. Like Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve, our hunt for a good pub was fruitless until we finally stumbled across something of a miracle: a really incredible vegetarian pub. This pleased us all immensely, even me with my fish-and-chips appetite, and we had a great feed.
It was a really fun day. I wouldn’t say Brighton is a must-see, but it was good to briefly experience the British seaside.
No comments:
Post a Comment