We left for Brighton the morning of March 14th. Brighton is a little seaside town, about a 4 hour train ride away from Leeds, and I was so excited to be near the sea again (I miss California)! As soon as we got there, we checked into our hostel (which was directly across from the pier!), then went to grab some fish and chips for lunch. And it was delicious! We haven't gone out to eat too much since being here so once we finished eating, we sat at the table for another 10-15 minutes before we realized that we actually had to go pay for our meals at the front of the restaurant rather than have the check brought to us.
After lunch, we went to wander around the town. We were hoping for some sun while we were near the ocean, but in true English fashion, it was freezing cold and extremely foggy! As we were walking toward the pier, you will never guess what we came across... the Doughnut Groyne! I guess it's used for preventing beach erosion or something, but we had a good time laughing at the name and taking pictures on it! :D
We walked down by the water and took some pictures of the pier. It looked so pretty surrounded by all that fog!
There's rocks on the beach instead of sand... *shaking my head*
Walking around the pier was my favorite part of the day! It was huge and there was so much to do! They had an arcade, a carousel, a fun house, and a bunch of rides! It was like being at a carnival and I can imagine it being so much fun and packed with people in the spring and summer.
Even thought it was freezing cold outside, we just had to buy ice cream while we were near the ocean! They even came with a 'flake', which was a flaky chocolate stick! Yum!
That night, we went wandering around a little shopping area in Brighton called The Lanes. It was full of little alleyways lined with shops and cafes (I forgot to take pictures of it... oops!). I could imagine myself strolling through The Lanes on a warm, summer day.
We decided to head back to the hostel a bit earlier that night after a quick dinner at Subway because we had to catch an early train to London the next morning. We had stayed in a hostel before, but it had been rented out just for our group so we hadn't actually had a true hostel experience until this night. And it turned out to be very... interesting. Our room was directly over the bar, which was blasting music until 2am! So I just accepted the fact that I wasn't going to get much sleep that night. Other than that, it was pretty similar to what I imagined staying in a hostel would be. But the same was not true for Jennifer!
When we checked into the hostel earlier in the day, there was a girl in the room (I believe she was from somewhere in South America) that had been asleep all day because she was sick. Apparently, as I was attempting to fall asleep that night, Jennifer (on the bunk above me) was trying to get situated and fix up the bed so that she could go to sleep as well. But the beds were extremely squeaky! Because I didn't have my contacts in, I had no idea what was going on, but the same girl that had been in the room all day (and that was playing music on her laptop as I was trying to sleep) was not happy with the beds squeaking. Jennifer tells the story a lot better, but apparently the girl just sat up in the dark room (while her face was being illuminated from below by her laptop) and glared at Jennifer for a good 10 seconds. Once Jennifer realized it was because of the squeaking bed, she was careful not to make any more noise, but because I had no idea what was going on, I continued to move about and get comfortable. This led to Jennifer getting more glares from this girl before she slowly lowered herself back into her bed. The way Jennifer tells the story reminds me of something from a horror movie right before the creepy girl comes out with her knife. Lol. I didn't know all of this had happened until the next day so I thought it was hilarious, but Jennifer was scared for her life that night! Hahahaha. Good times.
We left bright and early the next morning for London. Aside from the hostel experience, Brighton was very nice and I was so glad that I got a little reminder of California near the sea! Now if only it would warm up a little bit over here! ;)
Even thought it was freezing cold outside, we just had to buy ice cream while we were near the ocean! They even came with a 'flake', which was a flaky chocolate stick! Yum!
That night, we went wandering around a little shopping area in Brighton called The Lanes. It was full of little alleyways lined with shops and cafes (I forgot to take pictures of it... oops!). I could imagine myself strolling through The Lanes on a warm, summer day.
We decided to head back to the hostel a bit earlier that night after a quick dinner at Subway because we had to catch an early train to London the next morning. We had stayed in a hostel before, but it had been rented out just for our group so we hadn't actually had a true hostel experience until this night. And it turned out to be very... interesting. Our room was directly over the bar, which was blasting music until 2am! So I just accepted the fact that I wasn't going to get much sleep that night. Other than that, it was pretty similar to what I imagined staying in a hostel would be. But the same was not true for Jennifer!
When we checked into the hostel earlier in the day, there was a girl in the room (I believe she was from somewhere in South America) that had been asleep all day because she was sick. Apparently, as I was attempting to fall asleep that night, Jennifer (on the bunk above me) was trying to get situated and fix up the bed so that she could go to sleep as well. But the beds were extremely squeaky! Because I didn't have my contacts in, I had no idea what was going on, but the same girl that had been in the room all day (and that was playing music on her laptop as I was trying to sleep) was not happy with the beds squeaking. Jennifer tells the story a lot better, but apparently the girl just sat up in the dark room (while her face was being illuminated from below by her laptop) and glared at Jennifer for a good 10 seconds. Once Jennifer realized it was because of the squeaking bed, she was careful not to make any more noise, but because I had no idea what was going on, I continued to move about and get comfortable. This led to Jennifer getting more glares from this girl before she slowly lowered herself back into her bed. The way Jennifer tells the story reminds me of something from a horror movie right before the creepy girl comes out with her knife. Lol. I didn't know all of this had happened until the next day so I thought it was hilarious, but Jennifer was scared for her life that night! Hahahaha. Good times.
We left bright and early the next morning for London. Aside from the hostel experience, Brighton was very nice and I was so glad that I got a little reminder of California near the sea! Now if only it would warm up a little bit over here! ;)
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Part 2 will be up sometime in the next couple of weeks! Our Spring Break just started, so we are heading to Scotland tonight for the weekend, then will be going to Paris and a couple cities in Italy! I will be sure to take lots of pictures and will have a ton of posts to update you guys with when we get back!
