This weekend we headed off to Brighton which is on the south coast of England. We booked bus ticket
s a fair way in advance, meaning it was cheap, but also it was a gamble on the weather. Turned out a bit grey and chilly but could have been worse. We didn’t swim! What we hadn’t planned on was the town being so busy that all the accommodation was booked out. We got lucky in the end, booking online the week before. Apparently the hostel we booked was full, however a problem on the website allowed us to book anyway. The staff were great and managed to find us some beds in the end.
The town was so busy as there were two festivals on. One was a 3 day music festival with artists performing in venues rather than stages in a park like most festivals. The other was a 3 week festival of performing arts.
When we arrived in Brighton we did not have directions (or a confirmation) for our accommodation. We wondered through town, got a map at the tourist info, then headed to the Brighton Gallery. The main reason for this stop was coffee and lunch, although we did spend a bit of time looking around also.
We found our hostel and dropped our bags, into a crowded an
d messy 12 bed dorm. Were only here for one night so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We then headed back into town. Looking around there was a lot of street performers and people promoting shows. We grabbed some churros at a busy market stall and sat in a park to eat. The park is right next to the King’s Summer Palace which is not huge, but quite an interesting design.
We spent the afternoon walking along the foreshore which has a spectacular exhibition of wildlife photography. We also walked out on the pier which is very old and covered in amusements, from merry-go-rounds, slides, bars, dodgem cars, roller coasters, karaoke and pokie machines.
When we arrived we had no idea that all the shows were going on, but we soon found one that we thought might be interesting. It was a school teacher doing a comedy show. It turned out to be more of a scripted performance than a stand up act. When we enquired about tickets we were told that it was sold out. Still we decided to head down to the venue. Despite being sold out we were told that we could wait til the show was about to start, on like a stand by list. Turns out we were able to get some tickets which was a bit lucky. The venue was tiny, the basement of a café, probably only held 50 people. The show was amusing but not a witty as we had hoped for. We ended up staying for the second show which was a bit more entertaining, a skit show based on the film and media industry.
Sunday morning we were up early, in comparison to everyone else in the hostel! Breakfa
st was included, coco pops, yum! The peculator coffee was strong and there was only one other person awake. This was lucky as an hour later when we were leaving the small breakfast area was packed with people! After breakfast we got a nice surprise, Mel sent us a message saying she was coming down for the day, we knew she was thinking about it, but wasn’t sure if she would make it.
We met her down by the beach, and wandered along the foreshore. This morning there had been a Mini Cooper car rally from London to Brighton, and they were all meeting up along the foreshore. There were hundreds of Mini’s mostly old but a few of the new model. We checked out all the different cars and played about on the (rocky) beach.
Again there was performing arts randomly around town which we got to see a few of, dancing in the streets etc. We walked around the Lanes which is the old part of town, had lunch in the gallery again followed by huge sundaes before we headed back to the coach station for the bus to London.
Brighton was really nice and very vibrant with so much happening while we were down there. Many of the buildings are painted different colours which also livens the place up a bit. Despite being so busy, the town had a nice relaxed feel about it, that makes it seem a bit more livable than London, although I’m guessing the costal weather would be quite extreme over winter.
s a fair way in advance, meaning it was cheap, but also it was a gamble on the weather. Turned out a bit grey and chilly but could have been worse. We didn’t swim! What we hadn’t planned on was the town being so busy that all the accommodation was booked out. We got lucky in the end, booking online the week before. Apparently the hostel we booked was full, however a problem on the website allowed us to book anyway. The staff were great and managed to find us some beds in the end.The town was so busy as there were two festivals on. One was a 3 day music festival with artists performing in venues rather than stages in a park like most festivals. The other was a 3 week festival of performing arts.
When we arrived in Brighton we did not have directions (or a confirmation) for our accommodation. We wondered through town, got a map at the tourist info, then headed to the Brighton Gallery. The main reason for this stop was coffee and lunch, although we did spend a bit of time looking around also.
We found our hostel and dropped our bags, into a crowded an
d messy 12 bed dorm. Were only here for one night so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We then headed back into town. Looking around there was a lot of street performers and people promoting shows. We grabbed some churros at a busy market stall and sat in a park to eat. The park is right next to the King’s Summer Palace which is not huge, but quite an interesting design.We spent the afternoon walking along the foreshore which has a spectacular exhibition of wildlife photography. We also walked out on the pier which is very old and covered in amusements, from merry-go-rounds, slides, bars, dodgem cars, roller coasters, karaoke and pokie machines.
When we arrived we had no idea that all the shows were going on, but we soon found one that we thought might be interesting. It was a school teacher doing a comedy show. It turned out to be more of a scripted performance than a stand up act. When we enquired about tickets we were told that it was sold out. Still we decided to head down to the venue. Despite being sold out we were told that we could wait til the show was about to start, on like a stand by list. Turns out we were able to get some tickets which was a bit lucky. The venue was tiny, the basement of a café, probably only held 50 people. The show was amusing but not a witty as we had hoped for. We ended up staying for the second show which was a bit more entertaining, a skit show based on the film and media industry.
Sunday morning we were up early, in comparison to everyone else in the hostel! Breakfa
st was included, coco pops, yum! The peculator coffee was strong and there was only one other person awake. This was lucky as an hour later when we were leaving the small breakfast area was packed with people! After breakfast we got a nice surprise, Mel sent us a message saying she was coming down for the day, we knew she was thinking about it, but wasn’t sure if she would make it.We met her down by the beach, and wandered along the foreshore. This morning there had been a Mini Cooper car rally from London to Brighton, and they were all meeting up along the foreshore. There were hundreds of Mini’s mostly old but a few of the new model. We checked out all the different cars and played about on the (rocky) beach.
Again there was performing arts randomly around town which we got to see a few of, dancing in the streets etc. We walked around the Lanes which is the old part of town, had lunch in the gallery again followed by huge sundaes before we headed back to the coach station for the bus to London.
Brighton was really nice and very vibrant with so much happening while we were down there. Many of the buildings are painted different colours which also livens the place up a bit. Despite being so busy, the town had a nice relaxed feel about it, that makes it seem a bit more livable than London, although I’m guessing the costal weather would be quite extreme over winter.
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