Or so I was told. “Be prepared for shit weather” everyone kept telling me.
Thankfully, after the first day of overcast skies the sun broke through and if it wasnt for a fairly strong breeze it would have almost been like summer in sydney (well, without the sand at least).
I arrived in Brighton on the 20th June, since I had not made any firm travel arrangements the first stop was to find a room for the night.
Neridah had already done some scouting and I got a room in the seaside for 65 pounds. Not cheap, but it was the best I could hope for in Brighton on a Friday night.
After checkin we set about having a drink, afterall the alcohol from my flight had most certainly left my system.
Later we met up with Jess and some of the girls from her work (very nice spanish restaurant on the beach, more on that later).
By this time I Was getting a little sleepy but they assured me that fighting through so that I actually slept that night was important so I could recover from any jetlag.
Called it quits around 1 am and fell asleep in my king size bed (they had to give me something for the 65 pounds I was dishing out).
Since Neridah had to work the following day I set about exploring down town Brighton.
Neridah suggest I check out the Lanes, these are a group of small lane ways that are jam packed full of shops and restaurants/cafes/pubs/you name it.
It was all very cool, but being the male that I am the shopping did not exactly interest me so I set about wandering along the beach.
As most people know, the beaches in England are not exactly famous for their surf and sand. Brighton is no exception, they are both non existant (except when the wind picks up and blows the sand down the beach from the man made beach volley ball court).
This didn’t stop people from laying around on the beach trying to catch a glimpse of the illusive sunlight, or a group of guys playing some sort of football (soccer).
Brighton beach has 2 piers, well 1 these days but the remains of the second can still be seen sitting out in the ocean like the set from waterworld.
i walked along the path that follows the beach up past the old pier, along the way there was a number of things to catch your eye. From the pubs that were literally 2m away from where the sand should be, to the countless places to get fish and chips or the skaters trying their best not to break an ankle.
Possibly the craziest thing I was was the guys doing Parkour off the remains of the old peir.
Frontflips, backflips and some crazy looking sideflips off various hight pylons landing on their feet on the pebbles that make up brighton beach.
I wandered back towards the main pier and my new hotel for a bit of a rest and to check if neridah was finished.
Once she was done we headed out for more drinks, again meeting up with Jess for some after work drinks we managed to stumble upon the “boom bus”, a double decker bus painted and kitted out with DJ’s and a large audio system pumping tunes for people to dance and drink to on the side of the roda near the beach.
EVentaully called it a night around 3 am.
Sunday 22nd was the day Vlad was due to arrive in the UK. Originally I was to pick him up at the airport but since it was a good 2 hour trip by train and about 40 pounds I opted to try and contact him via phone. Since his phone was not working in England this proved to be impossible, thankfully he thought to call home and got my mobile number off mum.
After I spoke with him and instructed him on how to get to brighton I set off exploring the other end of the beach.
The sun was out (who says it doesn’t do that in England) but the wind was rather strong which turned the usually placid brighton beach into somewhat of a washing machine.
The far end of brighton is a Marina, 100’s of boats moared there along with a casino, bowling and movie complexes, hotels and various restaruants.
I wandered back towards the hotel and then up to the station to collect Vlad.
We spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the beach and doing some general sight seeing.
Later that night we again met up with Neridah and Jess for some drinks (anyone starting to see a pattern here?)
The next day we set out to explore more of Brighton. We took in a bus tour of the town and then wandered out on the pier to have a better look at some of the stuff that we missed the previous day as the wind was too strong.
Sampled the hot doughnuts from one of the shops on the pier and then set about drinking again.
Having had a busy few days we kept it fairly quiet and headed for bed at a reasonable hour.
The following day we decided that we really needed to figure out where we were going next so we go out the laptop and sat down with a couple of cold drinks to nut out the next part of our trip. Once that was sorted it was time for some more drinks and food.
We ate at a really nice italian restaurant then met up with the girls for a drink.
Our last 2 days in brighton consisted of more sight seeing and more drinking.
Eventually we checked out of our hotel on the Thursday morning and headed for Portsmouth (photos and hopefully a smaller writeup to come).
Overall I really enjoyed Brighton, if you can ignore the fact that it is the gay capital of the UK then it is a rather nice place. Not sure if I could live there, but I can see myself heading back for a long weekend or 2.
Photos from this portion of the trip can be located in the Brighton gallery
More from me later.