Brighton Pier

The Brighton Pier (actual name: Brighton Marine Palace and Pier), is a pleasure pier located on the Southern Coast of Great Britain. It was built in 1899, which means it's been providing "pleasure" for 115 years. Whew! It must be exhausted! 

Obviously the pier and the beach are a huge tourist attraction for the town. The pier is very family friendly with carnival games, rides and entertainment for all ages, so be prepared for a lot of HIGH ENERGY. The pier was fun to walk down, although I was nervous about losing my fedora the whole time. Quite windy! We were in Brighton on a Wednesday during work hours and it was only slightly  crowded, so I assume this place gets pretty crazy on the weekends. Oh! And go ahead and feed the seagulls. There are signs all over screaming, "DON'T FEED THE SEAGULLS YOU A$$HOLES!" but people were doing it anyways. Can't fix stupid.

The pebble beach was much more calm. Plenty of beach-side restaurants to sit and have a pint, a carousel and a few attractions for young children and lots of little shops to pop in for souvenirs. I love how you can rent those super iconic chairs to layout on the beach, they make me think of the 1950's. The weather was pretty chilly while we were there mid April, but I'm sure once the weather picks up this area will be swarmed.

Click the link for pictures from Brighton Lane and Royal Pavilion!

Brighton Royal Pavilion & Lanes

Brighton is an easy day trip from London. It is located on the southern coast of Great Britain and it takes just about an hour and a half to get there. Brighton is an adorable little coastal town with winding "lane" streets and a sweet village-y disposition. I went with a friend and her parents and it was just nice to walk around aimlessly and get some fresh air. 

Brighton has a lot to offer, much more than I probably know, but for our day trip we mainly focused on the Royal Pavilion, the Lanes and the Brighton Pier. The first landmark we came across was the Royal Pavilion. I typically don't do audio tours for a couple of reason, one: they cost money and two: I'm just too cool, but I am glad that I paid the extra £11 to go inside and listen to the history of the Royal Pavilion. 

Okay, so this palace was the Prince Regent, a.k.a. George IV's getaway from the ordinary and mundane. Trust me this gets better...  He loved Indian and Chinese culture and architecture, so the exterior of the palace was Indian inspired and the interior was Chinese inspired. (Sorry, no pictures were allowed from inside and the sneaky ones I took were really poor! Oh well.) 

The most amazing part of this audio tour was hearing about how. much. of. a. LAD. George. was! Basically, he built this exorbitant palace (and went bankrupt many times trying to complete it), to entertain, have crazy parties, play by his own rules (example: sit boy, girl, boy girl at the dinner table, HOW CLEVER?! ), drink a ton of booze and sleep with A LOT of women. Like, A LOT. Like I said, straight up lad. 

Eventually, he got super fat from his awesome poor lifestyle and his health seriously deteriorated. Y'all, this guy created underground tunnels so the service staff couldn't see him because they would make fun of him for being so fat. He also used a walker *with wheels and a seat* that connected around his whole body to glide around the palace. OMG! I neeeeeeeed that! I mean, this guy was a serious boss, for shizzle! In his defense, he wasss one of the first people to have a bathroom connected to the Master bedroom because he was big to go much further than that. So, basically he is a genius in my book!

I think many of us will agree that if he were alive during our college years, he would have been our friend, or maybe even our boyfriend... I mean, frat fat is okay, right?!

LOL! Anywayzzz, there were many other fun facts about this guy, but I will save something of the tour if you choose to go!

There isn't much to say about the Brighton Lanes, except they are these narrow interconnected streets and alleyways that house cute shops and restaurants. Basically, it's just a cute area to walk around and peruse. Very relaxing, very quaint. I don't specifically know the actual dimensions of the Lanes, so I just included other pictures from our walk around Brighton.

Click the link for pictures from Brighton Pier!

Week Twenty-Nine

I am always a sloth the week after traveling. James hates this about me, but I avoided a tongue lashing because he was very busy last week. No matter how hard I try to keep the flat in order while packing I always manage to destroy it at the last minute. We came back to a flat in disarray and I hate to say it, we are still living in a flat in disarray. (Eye-roll). I swear it's on my to-do list, but I just haven't been able to get motivated. I think I am in Barcelona withdrawal. I've been spoiled by sunny and warm weather and now I have no interest in what London's throwing my way. The weather here in London has been pretty dry, but still chilly. And mama is ready for some serious rays.

Wednesday morning I met up with Kristen and her parents at the West Hampstead train station and we set off to Brighton for the day. It was nice weather, but again, chilly. I think we all wish we had bundled a bit more. Brighton is a sweet, quaint town on the coast about an hour and a half south of London. Easy peasy. I really enjoyed spending time with Kristen and her parents walking in and out of the winding lane streets and down by the pier. Kristen's parents were super sweet. I secretly adopted them for the day, or at least that's the way I played it in my head... It definitely made me miss my parents since it's been over four months since I've gotten to see them in person. Hopefully, that will change pretty soon!

While I was on my little adventure in Brighton, James was on an adventure of his own accompanying his boss on a couple site visits around the UK.  To meet the schedule they hired a private plane. balla shot calla.

Friday, we met up with two of our Charlotte friends for a makeshift London Pub Crawl. We had pints in many of the oldest pubs in London. Luckily, all the oldest pubs are in the City of the London, so we weren't trekking all over Greater London... that would be annoying. It was really good catching up with the Williamses and hopefully we will be able to see them again in the future!

Saturday morning, we got breakfast at the Elk in the Woods and relaxed for most of the day until we met up with a bunch of our friends at Crazy Bear in Fitzrovia. It was pricey, but the sushi was awesome. We might not be heading back anytime soooooon, but it's definitely a nice date-night place. 

Overall it was an enjoyable week for us. I hope everyone had a Happy Easter and ate lots of candy!

Happy Monday! xx