Adventures in Brighton

On Friday morning 8 of us took a train at 10:36 am to a town on the coast of England called Brighton. We took the tube to London Victoria Station and then transferred onto the train, which took about 50 minutes to get to Brighton. It was a beautiful day and it turned out to be a lot warmer than I thought it would be even though it was on the water. The town was very quaint with small cobblestone streets and it was a nice escape from busy London. After leaving the station we went down to the coastline and walked along the beach for a while. I was excited to be right along the English Channel for the first time! The beaches were stone, not sand, which was different but nice because I was wearing clogs which could have gotten very sandy. On the "boardwalk" (more like a winding pathway along the beach) there were a number of outdoor cafes and little shops. For lunch I stopped at a fresh seafood stand and bought a cup of fresh crab and prawns (which are basically like shrimp except a little larger). Both were VERY good but they didn't tie me over so I later bought an ice cream cone with a flake. Basically, it was a vanilla ice cream cone with a chocolate cookie in the side of it, which is called a flake. It was delicious! After sitting by the water for a while we went to Brighton Pier, which jutted out over the channel. The pier has a lot of amusement rides, arcades and shops. It reminded me of a pier at the Jersey Shore. I loved it because I love amusement parks and rides in general. After that we went back into town to the Royal Pavilion, a beautiful palace where George IV lived I believe (we didn't go inside to tour it). Instead we went shopping! There were several streets of boutiques, antique and vintage stores that Kelsey, Amy, Lisa and I went into. The 8 of us split up into 4 and 4 during the day which I think was easier. For dinner we went to this italian restaurant (I have no idea what it was called- all we saw was "All you can eat pizza and pasta for 6 pounds" and we were there). We decided to split the Pizza Overload which came with two pizzas, chips (fries), garlic bread, all you can eat salad bar, and two enormous sundaes. We were full before the pizza came out and we ended up bringing like 10 slices home with us. It was still delicious though! After dinner we met back up with everyone at a pub near the train station and hung out there before going back. I had my first Fosters, which was good but after all of the food I had eaten I could barely finish a pint. All in all we had a very fun day in Brighton!

Yesterday was a rather lazy day. Catey and I slept until almost noon since we had no particular plans. I was happy to get some extra sleep! Basically my afternoon consisted of doing my wash and booking a trip to see my friend Julia in Germany! I'm going to fly out of London-Stansted on October 22nd to Nuremberg, Germany, and then return to London on October 25th. I'm going to stay with Julia in Bayreuth for a day or two and then we're going to Munich. I met Julia when she was a foreign exchange student who came to my high school for a year. We've kept in touch since and I'm really excited to have her show me around for a few days! Last night a bunch of us went out to Imperial for a while to hang out and that was pretty much the day.

Today I've been reading "As You Like It" for my Shakespeare class. Tomorrow our class is cancelled because there is a FIE welcome reception at the International Student House which we have to take the tube to get to. There is free food, two free drinks, a raffle, and other fun activities. The only class I have tomorrow is International Marketing from 1-4 pm. We are going to Camden Market (our first of several field trips). I just want to get a head start on the Shakespeare since it takes me longer to get through. Tonight we're going to the Thames Festival along the Thames river. It has been going on yesterday and today, but tonight there is a Night Carnival and fireworks so we're leaving around 6:15 pm to head over there!

Hope everyone is doing well! Cheers!