brighton

bold & beautiful brighton. we managed to nab super-cheap train tickets down to brighton, which was our main incentive for coming down here. before now, i never really knew anything about brighton - except that it's a seaside town which inspired the name of brighton beach in melbourne...

the sun shone the whole time we were here, which made our time in this gorgeous part of the uk even more incredible. our hostel was just off old steine street - a 5 minute walk down to the beach, and the same to the lanes. perfect location - and meant we were able to wander around easily, as we pleased. 

the famous brighton pier lies at the end of old steine street, reaching some 500m out into the ocean. all dark timber and white railings/buildings - it's a beautiful pier, especially at sunset. it's home to a few restaurants and crêperies, as well as a bunch of rides (rollercoasters, bumper-cars & the like) at the end of the pier. for those who want to soak up the sun, there's also blue & white stripy deck-chairs that you can kick back in...

from the pier you can also see the slightly ghostly-looking remains of west pier.

my favourite place in brighton was in and around the lanes & north laine, where you can't walk 10m without coming to a vintage clothing shop, funky café, vegetarian/organic eatery or an art gallery. it's basically an area of winding cobble-stone lanes, where it's impossible to be bored & there's a contagious happy mood everywhere. despite having full, heavy bags back at the hostel - j & i still managed to emerge from the lanes with hands full of shopping bags & considerably lighter wallets...

we also squeezed in a visit to the royal pavilion, king george IV's party-pad palace that was built in the late 1700s. at that time there was a fascination with everything from the far-east, so the whole palace is decked out asian-style - with bamboo & chinese murals flanking the walls, dragon & lotus flower chandeliers, and indian-style domes on the exterior. it was quite bizarre, but so extravagantly beautiful.

before coming to brighton, i was told in no uncertain terms by a brighton-ite that "you can't go to brighton & not have fish'n'chips on the beach". so, we made our way onto the beach, discovering that brighton doesn't have sand, but rather a mass of yellowy-orange, brown & white pebbles. we nestled ourselves into the pebbles, and - with the pier to our right & the vast blue ocean in front of us - dug into our deliciously greasy fish'n'chips - all while watching the golden sunset. oh, so very picturesque.

S.

the ticket machine went overboard with the # of ticketos, all 9...for 1 return journey

which seat can i take?

bought some delish mandarins at the fruit market before jumping on the train to brighton

dank....e

royal pavilion

where are we??

'welcome to the lanes'

princess di stamp collection from 10's of diff countries

royal wedding inspired beer?

australia pebbles

ahh, the serenity

aaaand, back home to london ♥