Island in the Sun

I don’t know what’s up with the weather here, but it’s simply lovely all the time! It may be a little windy right now, but it is still sunny and fairly warm (as long as that pesky wind keeps it down). So Saturday I went to Brighton. I don’t know what happened in two years, maybe it was just the company I had, but Brighton seemed a lot nicer and cleaner than it was before. Perused the Royal Pavilion, built by George IV (Victoria’s Grandfather) in an Asian style both inside and out. It was apparently the thing to do back in the early 19^th century to recreate Asian influenced design in your home in England. Ironically George never went to Asia, or even got close to it, but he had many friends (as any King would) and they told him all about it and brought back pieces for him that fit into the décor. The Palace itself was meant as a summer or weekend getaway house, so it’s not an actual “palace”, but it is in my eyes. The whole thing was sold to the city of Brighton by Queen Victoria when she had no use for it (the actual size of the Pavilion was too small for her family of 9 children plus all the servants and staff that it took to run a Queen’s house).

After the Pavilion we went to the Pier area, had lunch, basked in the sun of the English coast, buried a friend of ours in the rock beach (like you would with sand, only with rocks), then rode the rides and perused the Pier itself. We climbed on rocks ledges (well I just took pictures of everyone else doing it, I didn’t really feel like climbing that day, plus I was wearing the wrong shoes for something like that) and then explored the small alleyway’s of Brighton. Unfortunately for us (fortunately for the wallets though) most things were closing down for the day when we got there. But it was such a cute little are and everyone seemed pretty nice that we all decided that we should go back sometime. 

Ended the day sitting on the beach watching the tide roll in and the sun go down. My friends however decided to go and sit on a group of rocks off the seawall when the tide was coming in. They waited a little long however and many of them had to clamber through the water to get down. They didn’t mind too much though considering they all decided to jump in the water in their underwear. I didn’t really want to go home in cold wet clothes, so I took pictures instead and laughed along with the group of people from Brighton who were cheering and whistling everyone on. 

Sunday

Essay writing day. Nothing exciting

Tonight: Uncle Vanya at the Arcola Theatre