Brighton, the escape I needed to the seaside

Bank holiday weekend in England is not to be missed. We were all expecting it and unfortunately is has come to an end… next one only in August. But let’s not despair, most of us still have some nice holidays before that 🙂 At least, I do!

In this long weekend I mostly wanted to relax, to spare some time just to do stuff I liked. Saturday was exhibition day – The Pink Floyd: their mortal remains at the V&A is something not to be missed – and Sunday I took a train to the seaside, more exactly, to Brighton.

To be completely honest, I just wanted to get away from busy London and have a glimpse of the ocean. I wasn’t expecting to do any sort of tanning, specially because the weather forecast was predicting thunderstorms throughout the afternoon (hello England, am I right?). So going for a stroll by the seaside, visiting some small shops from a small town (not Oxford St. madness) it was all I wanted, and I got all of this is Brighton.

I found Brighton to be much more lively than I imagined. Perhaps because the weather ended up being much better than we thought, or even because it was bank holiday weekend and everyone was out and about, but Brighton brought to me the strong desire to be at the beach all the time, doing nothing apart from reading, tanning and swimming like the old sweet days. Oh yes. Thas was life.

The Brighton Pier was for me like being at an American movie or TV show. A fun fair and Arcades, the smell of sweet cotton, churros and donuts, the typical fair environment was in there, but having the breeze from the ocean as refresher. The arcades were loud and bright as they are supposed to be, with everyone trying their best to win a prize and obviously the infuriating noise of coins falling everywhere except in someone’s pocket. I guess you just need to keep trying.

We also thought it was very interesting the way Brighton offers entertainment for everyone: from little shops for the home décor enthusiast, bars for young people looking for a night out, pubs for everyone fancying a drink, carousels for the children. There are art galleries for the artistic souls and a huge variety of places to eat for foodies. I was actually amazed with how much diversity you can find in Brighton, as I had in my mind the image of a small town.

Contrasting with the scenario at the shore, there’s the beautiful Royal Pavilion. It looks like something that has come out of 1001 nights tale, transported from Arabia to the cold English lands. The gardens surrounding it have the most exotic species of plants. I have never seen such big poppies in my life, and specially violet poppies.