Visiting Brighton

Bit of a rough day, but it was still super fun.

When I got to Victoria station. The departure board said that the 10:36 train I had planned on traveling to Brighton on was cancelled. There was another one for 10:50 so I waited around the area. Check the board again, it got cancelled. I went to the information desk to ask what was going on with the trains traveling to Brighton. Apparently an earlier train was having problems and was blocking the path so other trains could get by. So then I asked for an alternative route and the info lady said I could take a train to Hove and take a local train over to Brighton. When I asked when the next train for Hove was leaving, she replied in 4 minutes. I had to speed walk (the people wouldn't let me run for fear of a collusion) like no other to make it in time. Made it right when the doors were starting to close.

I managed to find a seat and was starting to get comfortable when the speaker announced that when it reached Haywards Heath, the train would split and you needed to make sure you were on the right part of the train. Whoopee. As I was studying the little map in my book to figure out which part of the train to get on, the French lady behind me asked if she was in the right part to go to Gatwick Airport. I told her that yes she was in the right coach and she thanked me. I finally figured out that I needed to be in coach 1-4 to go to Hove. I was in 10. Not going to lie, it was actually pretty fun to walk through the train. Sure it was less thrilling compared to the scene in the Anastasia movie, but I couldn't help playing that scene in my head as I was walking from coach to coach.

When I got to Hove, there was a HUGE thunder storm. The rain was coming down hard, the lightening was flashing brightly, the wind was blowing, and the thunder was LOUD. Luckily there was a waiting room. As I waited, there was a little family with a little boy who started singing "rain, rain, go away". That made me smile.

About 20 minutes later I arrived in Brighton. Luckily, the thunder storm wasn't over here but it was still sprinkling. I got a map from the travel info centre and headed straight for the Royal Pavilion. As I went through the main gate to the ticket office, there were some French students on a school trip to the Pavilion (seriously, why do I keep running into these groups?). I went through a bit slower then everyone so I could actually see everything. I was expecting to see something similar to Windsor or Hampton Court when I went inside, but nope. Nothing like that at all. Instead, I was in China. Almost everything in the Pavilion was Chinese decorations. The Long Gallery had all sorts of bamboo decorations in the furniture and on the walls. There was some cool illusions going on.

The banqueting hall was GORGEOUS. There were Chinese paintings everywhere, bird sculptures, dragon sculptures, and just numerous beautifully crafted decorations. The center chandelier was absolutely stunning. The ceiling had painted palm leaves with 4 actual pal leaf sculptures coming out for the illusion effect. Then a huge dragon sculpture holding the giant chandelier. Towards the bottom were four dragons that had lotus shaped lanterns in their mouths with lights inside. It looked like the dragons were breathing fire! That room was defiantly my favorite (gave the detailed description because I wasn't allowed to take pictures T_T).

After I finished walking around the rest of the pavilion, I decided to go eat some lunch. When I went outside, the rain was coming down a bit harder. I tried using my umbrella but the wind was picking up so I put it away since the rain wasn't too bad. About five minutes later, the rain was getting worse. Decided to try the umbrella one more time. But the wind was getting stronger and cause my poor umbrella to break (not just the wind blowing it inside out. The little metal supports actually snapped and broke). I thought that the restaurant wasn't too far so I could not get too wet. Boy was I wrong. The restaurant was a lot farther than I realized. The rain by itself would've been alright but the wind was blowing it so hard it felt like bee-bees being shot in my face. I eventually had to use my sunglasses for goggles. As I was walking I kept thinking "this restaurant's fish and chips better be worth this" (my guidebook highly recommended the place). When I finally got to the restaurant, a lot of the customers were shocked by my appearance. I was soaking wet, but just the front part of me. My back side was almost completely dry (very funny wind). The service was super quick so what felt like 15 minutes later, my food was out. Best fish and chips I've ever had. Defiantly worth going through bee-bee gun rainstorms for.

When I went back outside, the rain had lighten up so I went inside a store that sold some umbrellas. Of course when I went back outside, it was bright and sunny. Like it never rained at all. Oh well, I needed the new umbrella anyway. I gazed out over at the wild waves on the beach (they were HUGE waves btw) and enjoyed the lovely scenery.

I then made my way over to Brighton Pier to see the rides and such. I ended up playing at the arcade. After an hour of gameplay of Bejeweled, Fruit ninja (I knew all that training on my phone would be worth something!), a hammer hitting game, and deal or no deal (I actually won the 100 tickets once!! The other time was 70) I earned 528 tickets. When the couple behind me saw how many I had from the counting machine, the girl said "Honey, she beat you by like 200 tickets" and the guy replied with "oh be quiet." Sweet victory. After much pondering, I decided my prizes. I got a I love London keychain, a karate rubber duck, giant mickey mouse pen, a foil art thing, a incense kit and two lollys. Was pretty tempted to get the glowing shoelaces but the rubber duck was just calling out to me (haha).

Just a heads up, I don't have a whole lot of pictures of Brighton due to lame "no photography" rules and the weather. And I didn't get to take a picture of the life-changing fish and chips. My stomach did the thinking on that one.

Take care, and remember: You are great.