Brighton: The Jersey Shore of England

Last Friday I went on a day trip to Brighton. As you should be able to tell from the title, Brighton is the British equivalent of the Jersey Shore, except not in the sense that there is an overpopulation of "guidos" and "guidettes," but rather in the sense that people go there to sit on the beach, eat junk food, and go out and get drunk on the beach at night.

I went to Brighton as a field trip for my British Youth Culture class, since in addition to being a big draw for young people like myself, it is also the place where Quadrophenia (the movie, which we had to watch for class) was filmed. I actually watched the movie even though I was too sick to go to the screening. It sucked, and didn't add too much to my experience of Brighton. But the town itself was awesome and I had an awesome day.

We got there around 10:30 am and went on a tour. Our tour guide was this old man with a rainbow tie wearing a calf-length trenchcoat and a Russian-style fur hat. This was very confusing, since it was about 65 degrees and sunny out. Regardless, he took us on a tour of the town and told us about various selling points such as the carousel from 1888 and the alley where the famous Quadrophenia sex scene took place, which is apparently some kind of weird rock shrine even though no actual rock stars were ever there. This came to highlight that people care about weird stuff. Apparently to this day lots of people still go there to try to reenact the scene from the movie, which is really bizarre since now it's just a garbage alley for a restaurant. So if garbage is your thing, this seems like a good place to come with your significant other. Otherwise, not a necessary landmark.

We had a break for lunch where we ate at a cafe and then walked around this shopping area called the lanes. There were tons of cute stores and we walked around for a while until we had to meet up with the tour again to go into the Royal Pavillion. The Royal Pavillion is the palace in Brighton and is also probably the tackiest palace I've ever seen in my life. It was inspired by Chinese artwork so some rooms felt like the lobby of a Chinese restaurant. Some rooms were beautiful too. I guess all in all it was just a very unique place.

After the Royal Pavillion is when most of the IES kids went home, but I decided it would be worth it to stay later and do some more exploring and shopping. Max and Sarah stayed overnight at a hostel, but after being in bed for half the week I figured that this was probably not the best idea to go out partying in Brighton, so Keetin, Louise, and I just stayed until the 10 o'clock train. We all walked around the lanes again, popping into shops and buying souvenirs. I got a bunch of different things ranging from earrings to a vintage Sgt Peppers record (I couldn't resist!). When the shops started to close we found a nearby Mexican restaurant and took advantage of their 2-for-1 pitchers during Happy Hour before heading back to the pier to have dinner at a touristy fish and chips place while the sun set. We walked around the rides on the pier and got some dessert before heading to the train station and taking the train back to London. It was a really fun day, definitely glad I stayed late, and even though I would've liked to stay over, I'm glad I didn't seeing as I am STILL battling this damn cough.

Saturday I woke up and decided I wanted to go explore some markets that aren't Portobello Road, so after some research I decided that Broadway Market was going to be my first victim. Everyone else was otherwise preoccupied so I went alone. I took the tube to an area of London I hadn't been before, expecting that there would be signs pointing me in the direction of the market. There weren't so I walked 15 minutes in the wrong direction before taking a bus back to the tube station and starting again. Even in the right direction, I walked about 15 minutes and was just about to give up when I saw a tiny sign pointing to Broadway Market. When I finally got there, I found a cute little market selling all sorts of different things. They had some really unique jewelry stands with some really gorgeous things, and there was a little clothing designer who had apparently sold some of her designs to Urban Outfitters for their fall collection. There were also lots of food stands and flower stands and good people watching. I walked through the whole market almost three times before deciding it was time to leave. I wasn't exactly sure how to get back to where I came from and my feet were also killing me because of my shoes so when I saw a bus stop at the end of the main market drag, I figured I would get on the bus and get off at the first tube station and figure out my way home. When I got on the 236 bus, I was the only white person on the bus and it drove through the literal ghetto of London. When I finally found a tube stop, I saw that the bus that  goes back to my dorm stopped there, so I got on the bus without realizing that it was literally the complete end of the bus line and it would take me nearly an hour to get home. Oh well. Even though I did work for the rest of the day, I was happy to have seen another market, and it was such a beautiful day I was glad I got to be outside.

Sunday I wanted to check out Brick Lane, which is London's Indian area that also has a market on Sundays (what can I say, I'm a market junkie). I went early in the morning with Louise, Christina, and Jordan, and we walked down the street to this market that was in an abandoned warehouse/brewery. They had all sorts of ethnic food stands as well as tons of other cool stands too. Lots of unique jewelry and clothes, and it was a lot of fun to look around. I wound up getting two pairs of earrings at this stand that had all this jewelry that was made from putting together different parts from old jewelry items. I really like them and am definitely glad with my purchase. I had to leave relatively early because I had two papers and two projects due Monday morning so I had to get to work.

Monday was the first day of my last week of classes. I had two, and then went to Covent Garden to check out the transport museum. I was supposed to go for class, but there were a lot of cool exhibits and it was interesting to see the history of the tube and how it came to be how it is today. Definitely glad I went, but not sure that I'm running back...I guess that's the best way to put it. After the museum I went over by Tottenham Court Road and decided I was going to try to get tickets to see We Will Rock You. I've been wanting to see it since I got here and figured that now's the time, seeing as I have just over two weeks left in London. I got a ticket and went by myself, since I'm really cool like that. The show was like a two and a half hour long, really well done Humo production. It was really goofy but a lot of fun to watch. I'm definitely glad I went to see it, although for a few hours afterwards I was really depressed about how Freddie Mercury is dead. I had been reading about him in a magazine about a week earlier. He was really so talented and such an amazing performer and seeing the show really kind of highlighted how great he was. So, in that way, sort of sad.

Tuesday I had work all day, which was extremely uneventful, and then headed home, thinking I would get to bed early. I wound up hanging out with Louise and some people on my floor until nearly 3am. Nice work, Lex.

Today was my last day of classes. I can't believe how quickly the semester has gone by and I honestly can't remember a time I was ever this sad about my classes ending. For all the shit that I tend to give IES, I really did like all of the classes I took this semester and the teachers were awesome and all that jazz. So for now, I'm hanging out in my room, thinking I'm going to try to do some work on my architecture final project tonight so I won't have to work on it this weekend, but I guess only time will tell.