So this last weekend was May Day in London. That's Canada's equivalent to May Long weekend (obviously a couple weeks earlier than Canada).
Mel and I decided to take advantage of my last couple of weekends here and headed off to Brighton, a 2 hour bus ride from London.
We arrive in Brighton and the weather is already beautiful. There is a festival going on, so there are tonnes of tents, adverts for shows and people everywhere. We quickly decide to get rid of our stuff and go explore - and find a patio to enjoy the great weather!
We round the corner near where our bus let us off and instantly see the shingle beach and English Channel that makes the coastline. It's beautiful and we definitely feel like we have 'got away'! Being vetran travelling partners, Mel and I decide to start finding our way to the hotel... After the vetran traveller who I didn't mention aren't great with directions, ask for directions, they soon make it to The Brighton Beach Hotel.
We climb 4 flights of shanty steep stairs and enter our room... we are a little worried of what will be behind the door - the apprearance of the inside of the hotel explains why it was so cheap to book a room!
We open the door
"Ohh! It's well cute!" Mel exclaims.
"Yeah, we'll be just fine to pass out in here!" I laugh.
Sniff, Sniff
"Ew, what's that smell Katie?" Mel asks as she walks into the bathroom.
"OH MY GOD!" Mel shouts and runs out of the bathroom.
Now I was quick to think 2 things:
1. The last guests left a little brown present in the toilet for us
2. Something was dead in the bathroom
Well it was neither. It just turned out the water in the hotel was very stale and sour smelling. Reminiscent of an old egg really. We quickly decided the best way to cure the problem was to put the toilet seat down and close the door... AND hold our breath everytime we entered!
So off to the beautiful streets of Brighton. We walked along the strip and the Channel flanked us the entire way. Our first stop was Brighton Pier where there was everything and anything! Casinos, arcades, pubs,restraunts, vendors and even an amusement park. Yes an amusement park with rollercoasters, bumper cars and cheesy games alike! And yes it was on a wooden pier that jetted off the ocean... I'm not going to lie, as a non-swimmer I was wishing I had a lifejacket as we cruised the pier!
Our first adventure was the amusement park games. We opted for the game where you throw a bunch of balls and try to get them in the slots and that moved your dolphin in a race for the finish line. Mel and I got right into it, almost winning twice! But to no avail, we did not win a stuffed fish. wah wah.
Next we headed for the token machine and then to the rollercoaster. The rollercoaster was quite shanty when we hopped on and I soon had visions of us plummeting to our death into the water! So of course the way to forget my fear was to scream bloody murder the entire time! GREAT FUN!
Now Mel and I bond over a fear of birds. Imagine this:
2 girls, 1 Pier, 1 Tonne of garbage and food stuffs.
What does that equal?
MILLIONS OF SEAGULLS!
As we were walking a seagull literally swooped down towards a man with a doughnut and tried to steal it right out of his hand! Mel and I of course screamed in fear and ran for the closest cover. We walked with our hoods on for extra protection.
After fun and games we got a little thirsty... so our next adventure was to find a patio to enjoy the sun and some drinks. We ended up at a pub called Legends that had an awesome patio... and it also had the one key ingredient which MADE our trip....PIMM'S!!
What is Pimm's you ask? It is a GLORIOUS drink that not only tastes delicious, it gets you right tipsy!
Ingredients:
Pimm's rum, Lemonade (7up to Canadains), chopped up strawberries, rasperries, oranges, limes and cucumber and LOTS of ice!
We bought pitchers of this our ENTIRE trip. And it made our nights SO eventful!
It was 3pm when we began drinking Pimm's. We decided to do our own pub crawl down the beachside. We bought pitchers of Pimm's where ever we could. We entered one pub called Doctor Brighton where we met a guy who resembled Marc (from home). It was wierd because this Mini Marc (as we will now call him) appreared to be hitting on us. Mel and I noticed he had a girl with him, so we weren't sure what was going on. We chatted about where we were from, what we were doing in England etc when
Mini Marco asks:
"So are you 2 girls a couple?"
"ha ha, what?! NO!" We say in unison.
"You do know this is a gay bar right?" he questions.
"That's fine, they sell booze so that's all we need" we reply.
He then turns and introduces us to his girlfriend (as we had suspected) but then continues to flirt with us... His girlfriend seemed fine with it...So it made us curious... Were they into Menage trois or something? We didn't stick around to find out!
It didn't take until 9hours later when Mel and I were dancing at OHSO bar that my body decided all the alcohol must now leave my body. I run outside with Mel trailing me and find a nice cement post to leave my mark by. Mel's having a smoke when we hear
"Excuse me? Do you have a camera?"
Mel "No sorry"
"Oh that's too bad, I wanted to give you the opportunity to take a picture of the best looking guy in Brighton!" he shouts back.
I poke my head up behind the post
"Whoah! Is SHE okay?" He yells back.
"Yep I'm fine thanks!!" I shout back... Man I'm classy sometimes.
Then, like a dog, I kick rocks over my little present to Brighton and take note of the post... Remembering not to return there the next day.
Now we need food... But nothing appears to be open at 12am. We ask a rather portly security guard if he knows where there is somewhere to get food...meanwhile a man walks by and states "Of course he'd know where to go to eat!" We felt so bad for him!
We ended up at 'Buddies' where I ate my first hot dog in England...Mel got chips.
"Excuse me, may I have some ketchup for my chips please?" Mel asks.
"On the weekend when people are drunk we charge 10p for ketchup" the cashier replies.
"WHAT?!? YOU WANT 10P for ketchup? I came all the way here from Canada and you're charging me for ketchup?" Mel exclaims.
"Yes." the cashier says.
"Fine, here's 10p" Mel gives in.
The cashier hands her ONE packet of ketchup.
"I only get 1? Can I have another please?" Mel says.
"That will be 10p" the cashier states.
"I can't believe this! Your charging me for another ketchup?! ... Fine give me 2" and Mel spends 30p for 3 packets of ketchup. Of course while she eats she makes sure to let the cashier know how GOOD her 30p ketchup is!
The next day we head down for breakfast hostel style (in our pj's). Apparently this is looked down upon by the other hotel guests! As we enter the breakfast room we get stared up and down. I personally think my dishevelled hair and large scrub pants and Mel's joggers and racoon mascara eyes looked alluring! So we ate and went back to bed!
We spent the day cruising around Brighton - we went in King George's Pleasure Palace (no not what you're imagining... Dirty dirty!!) where there is a museum and art gallery. We then headed to the shops. Brighton is so peaceful and laid back. It definitely has a west coast feel to it. I loved it. We didn't want to leave!
Before we went out for the night Mel had to go to the shop to buy... ahem... lady products (sorry Mel if you're reading this, but IT HAS to be told!!). As she's paying for her stuff I hear Mel say...
"Oh that's nice"
I ask "What?"
Mel points beside her. There is a screen that is facing the store and EVERYONE in the line. On it in nice BIG BOLD letters "PANTY LINERS".
I burst out laughing and have to step out of the store as the tears are running down my face. Mel is now laughing and looking at the cashier who is trying his best to keep a straight face. Why on earth a screen that big needed to be facing the line is still beyond us!
We get to our room to get ready to go out. We sit to relax for a moment and start taking in our room...
"There's a stain on the ceiling" I point out.
" The bathroom smells" Mel laughs.
"And that light shade looks like a china man's hat" I laugh.
"ha ha ha, I guess we got the oriental theme room!" Mel bursts out.
We now can't stop laughing.
We go to leave our room and now the door will not lock. We try opening the door wide and letting it slam, we try pulling the handle tight. Mel gives it a go... She grabs the handle and slams the door hard.
CRAAAAAAAACK!!! Mel shoots me a wide eyed stare. I start laughing.
Mel has pulled half the handle off the door! We then run, an obvious choice.
We then spend our evening drinking Pimm's (again). We bought tickets to see a late night comedy at The UdderBelly... which was literally an inflatable purple tent shaped like a cow on his back! We queue. They then put up ropes for us to stand along and Mel and I are at the back of the line... burn. But then a voice calls out,
"Can you please queue this way please?"
I turn around and the guy is right behind Mel and I!
I scream out "YES!!" and run while pumping my arms... I know, I'm very discreet... but we got to be first in line!
The comedy acts were really funny... however some of the jokes didn't quite make sense to us (the whole being from Canada and not having the same lingo, celebrities or politicians kind of hindered us!). Of course when they asked if there were any travellers in the crowd I yelled "YEAH CANADA!!"
The comedian heard and assumed it was Mel that yelled it and proceeded to heckle and interrogate her!! bah ha ha.
Then the ginger jokes started coming. The comedian kept eyeing me as he told them... I think he was trying to gauge my reaction to see if I was heckle material... but I laughed it off (even when people were turning around and looking at me!) and got away just fine.
We finished our night off making spectacles of ourselves cheering for the Pittsburg Penguins in a pub and of course, continuing to drink our faces off!
Our last day before we left we spent on the beach in the sun. I came home with a lovely souvenir from Brighton... A sunburn! But it was definitely worth it!
I am happy to have been able to spend one of my last weekends in England with my new AWESOME friend Mel. We had great laughs, good conversation and definitely made more travel memories. I'm lucky to have met such a good friend while here in England, I think we lasted here so long because of eachother... Thank goodness for good friends!
Follow the dream.......
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