A Bright Day in Brighton

March 18^th

Woke up this morning at 8:30 am after a late night. Got somewhat ready for my day trip to Brighton that I had planned with Claire. Around 9:40am I decided to double check my text from Claire to make sure that I had the location of where we were going to was right. I read that I was supposed to meet up with her at a quarter to ten, not a quarter past ten!!! Ahhh!!! I ended up calling Claire quickly to let her know I was running late, and she asked me if I would be able to make the train since they are every hour and if I couldn’t catch the train then we shouldn’t bother going. OH NO!!! I grabbed my jacket and bolted out to the bus stop by the Mitre, which has a higher chance of me being able to catch a bus there than by Aldi. When I called Claire to check if the U6C had arrived at Aldi already (seeing that I would be on the same bus) she told me that she was walking.  Bugger, it took me 3-5 minutes of running to get to the bus stop, I could have easily have met up with her at Aldi and now I have no idea if I’ll be able to make the train or not. The bus came at the stop around 10:02am and I sat in the bus avoiding the seat next to me that had some chewing gum stuck to it and worrying about making it to the train on time. Arrived at the station around 10:18am, and I bolted in a run from the bus to the ticket machines where I came to the confusion of which route to take to get to Brighton. The first option I clicked told me that the trip would be 55 quid!! I started to phone Claire, when a train employee came over to ask if I needed help (there were about 15 people behind me).. luckily at that time I figured out which route I needed to get the ticket through and I bolted through the train station running to platform 3 when I heard the train conductor blow a whistle and I heard a pound on the window of one of the train cars which turned out to be the one with Michael, Claire, and Emmeline. They were surprised I made it, so was I.

After a two hour train ride, we finally made it to Brighton. The city was bustling with people and the buildings were so colourful! On our way to the beach, we went through the North Lanes where there happened to be a Chocolate Festival happening. It turned out to be a delicious detour to the beach. 

Passing through the winding alleyways that were filled with shops, at one point Claire grabbed my arm and took me to show me one of her favourite shops called, Cath Kidston which was absolutely adorable. It took me by surprised as I haven’t seen Claire get so excited over something like that before, she is so cute.

Getting sights of the beach the one obstacle we had to face was crossing the busy four lane street that stood between us and the pier. Claire immediately joined a few people as they stood in the middle of the street and then ran to the other side. Michael shortly afterwards looked both ways and bolted across the four lanes with one of the cars honking for him to get out of the way. Emmeline and I just looked at each other and decided to walk the 50 meters to the crosswalk and went across that way. I rather attempt to cheat death another day.

On the pier there were so many food vendors and people about. The blue skies were starting to come out and we searched for a vendor who wold decent and somewhat reasonably priced fish and chips because Michael claimed having fish and chips by the sea is the only way to experience fish and chips in England. Off the pier by the ferris wheel we found a nice place for our lunch. The fish and chips were a lot better than the ones I tried with Sami earlier in the year at ‘Sunny’s Place’ which was just a grease pit. Once done with lunch we wandered on the chert stone covered beach towards the water. Everything was just wonderful.

Back on the pier we relaxed on foldable lounge chairs that are free to use on the pier; with our feet up on the fencing and our heads lay back towards the sun we spent a good ten minutes or so just taking in the atmosphere of the beach, the surf, and each other’s company.

 

Soon enough Michael, Claire, and Emmeline wanted to go to the penny arcade near the end of the pier. Going in there I kind of felt like I was in Chucky Cheeses or Illusionz, it was the same set up where you put money in and hope you win a prize. I played a game or two with a couple pennies but didn’t feel like spending much more than that. Lady luck visited Michael as he ended up winning a keychain. Outside the arcade now nearing the end of the pier there were many festival rides including bumper cars (they call it something else in the UK but I can’t remember what), a roller coaster, and a haunted house. At one point we came across the mechanical bull and Claire had the idea of talking whoever was in charge of that ride into letting each of the girls take a try since there was a deal of three tries for two pounds. When we got there though no one manned the ride, but Michael and Claire thought since I never went on that ride before I should at least get a picture on it. At first Michael had the idea that I would run up and get on it long enough for him to take a picture, which we figured would ultimately result in us being escorted off of the pier which was alright since we were leaving anyways. I wasn’t quite ready for that thrill though, so Claire asked an attendant of one of the nearby games if I could get a picture on it. He said sure and even turned it on so the mat inflated below the bull and the bull could be adjusted for a good angle for the photo. Hopping on, Michael took some pictures as I pretended that it was on. I guess when I got off the attendant told me he was tempted on actually turning it on so he could see my reaction as I would be thrown off, though he didn’t… kind of happy for that, but it would have been amusing either way. 

We went back through the Lanes where we looked into the shops and went into a few as well. Michael was immediately drawn to one of the circus like shops, where he could check out the devil sticks. It was a cool store and the guys who worked there were really laid back and pretty neat people. I overheard one of them asking another “hey we’re going unicycling on the beach tonight, want to join?” How cool is that?! After Michael was getting his thrills of playing with the devil sticks, one of the employees of the store showed off for us as he started juggling three knives on a balance board. I felt like we were getting a free show- the guy was really good! Michael tried the balance board afterwards but couldn’t quite get it yet as all beginners tend to struggle with it. I gave it a shot afterwards and was up immediately (do note though that I have one at home so I had plenty of practice). I also tried getting low in it, but I wasn’t as comfortable on this balance board as I am on mine back home to attempt on sitting on it. The guy who was juggling before was kind of impressed of my ability on it and told me to try jumping a 180° and landing on it… I gave that a pass as I wasn’t quite there yet in my comfort zone, not that I am sure I would be even in five years.

After a good day spent the train ride back seemed way shorter.