Brighton Beach - Jonathan Edwards

Last weekend I looked out towards France across breaking waves on the English Chanel and enjoyed the grandeur of the natural world. I left London Saturday morning with 11 of the others and we headed for the Brighton coast. Brighton is on the south-east coast of the U.K. directly across the Chanel from France. This was my first chance to leave London and experience some other areas of the U.K. including the green, rolling hills of the countryside.

We arrived in Brighton by train around 11am and went to a nice pub for lunch with great food. After filling up, we proceeded to check into our hostel. The hostel was a bit far from the pier and other things but it was nice. We had 12 people but booked a room for 16, therefore we had a few random people to share a room with but they didn't bother us. After getting settled in we headed out for the evening.

It was extremely windy which made it super cold. The wind was so strong it would almost blow you sideways, but we continued and finally made it to the pier area. We walked along the beach for a while and had a quick photo shoot before dipping into some local shops and another pub for dinner. We discovered not only did the pub have great  food but also board games! We enjoyed a few games of Connect 4 before moving on. Walking around Brighton we found an amazing venue with great music and decided to check it out. It was just us and a few others at first, but soon it erupted and people were lined up outside just to get in. We danced, and danced, and then danced some more until finally we grew tired and hungry again. On our way back the hostel (it is now about 1 am) we stopped at one of the only places open to eat. I ordered the fish and chips, little did I know this fish was going to be gigantic. They brought me a plate with a small whale on it and about 2 pounds of fries, and it tasted amazing.

Getting around a new city is always hard, but when you try to do it at about 2 am it is really hard. After walking though some rough looking areas, we found a cab and went back to the hostel glad we didn't have to walk back the whole way.

The next morning started off with a free but terrible breakfast in the hostel before checkout. We walked outside expecting more wind but it was such a beautiful day. We headed directly for the beach where we used out backpacks for pillows and just sat there watching and listening to the ocean. I sat there for about half an hour just enjoying the beauty and feeling completely carefree. We headed to the pier to look at the food, rides, and more ocean views. We took a lap around the pier and headed to the train station around 1 pm. All in all, the trip was fantastic! At times it was windy, cold, and rainy but the good far outweighs the bad. Only one more day of statistics class and then I head out across the U.K. and Ireland for my spring break. Stay tuned

                                                                Me on the beach!