Brighton, Day 1

So I went various places for spring break and got some good pictures and some pretty terrible pictures. I now fully understand WHY Wales gets shafted all the time. It's because Wales is miserable. Easily my favourite part of the trip were the two days I spent in Brighton. It's a little seaside resort town and it is beautiful.







A little history on what you're seeing: This is the Brighton Pavilion. It was built by George IV when he was still Prince George. He was very into orientalism and so built this massive hybrid of Indian and Chinese fakery. And I wish they would have let me take pictures inside because it is beautiful.












They were in the process of fixing up the water features for spring. There were little ponds and pools that were filled with murky leaves. This one was drained- you can see that they do try to keep them filled with very clear water during the tourist season so that you can see the patterning on the stone.

Because of how ornate the palace was, the gardens are able to be restored to their 18th century plantings. Thousands of political cartoons and paintings were made involving this place.

After the Pavilion, I went to the art museum and the Brighton museum, both places that wouldn't allow photography. Afterwards, I decided to go across town to Brighton Pier, stopping at the War Memorial...

Next to the pier is the Brighton Aquarium, the oldest working aquarium in the world. I visited this the next day.

Brighton Pier is a pleasure pier built in the 1890s. It's something of an icon and is seen in a lot of movies and films to set things at Brighton. Because it's a listed building, its look has been mostly unchanged since then.

See what I mean? Of course, they digitally altered it to remove those pesky things like electric bulbs... and that is DEFINITELY not Brighton Beach.

As you can see, Brighton Beach is a pebble beach. Tsk, tsk Sweeney Todd.

There's been arcades at the pier since, well, since arcades were a thing. I poked around inside for a while. Arcades aren't really my thing unless I'm with other people.

I did want to feed a few coins into this, though.

The seagulls were pretty amusing. Bold and brassy and all, but what was great were these two tourists who were actually feeding them. The seagulls really didn't trust the food, but at the same time, they weren't going to SHARE it.

See this thing? This part of the sea wall is the site of one of the dumbest decisions I've ever made. After roaming around on the pier and having tea, I went down there. First, I stood on top of the wall and got pictures.

Then I climbed down to the beach.

I made the decision to go to Brighton based solely on the recommendation of a Queen song- and I'm not entirely sure it was a recommendation. It's called Brighton Rock, which I assumed meant a rock song set in Brighton.

Turns out, Brighton Rock is a kind of confection thinger... and you can get Brighton Rocks right off the ground. Along with some really cool shells. I walked around on the beach for quite a distance, picking up shells and interesting rocks. And then I walked back to the sea wall.

It was a really warm day. For England. In March. And although I knew that it was still early in the season, it had been so long since I'd set foot in an open body of water...

This was a terrible idea. I planned to walk out to the sea wall and stand on it and let the tide roll over my feet for a while. I hadn't taken a few things into consideration, though. 1. Rocks are SHARP. 2. While cold numbs pain, there is a certain level of cold that only intensifies it. 3. The English Channel in March is exactly that temperature. 4. Wet rocks are REALLY SLIPPERY.

Suffice it to say, it didn't go well. At all.

I will now leave you with this creepy fish skeleton! Stay tuned for Day II.