London and Brighton

So when I left you last I was leaving France on a ferry. I waved goodbye to the French coastline and spent most of the journey looking (in vain) for a way to get on the top of the ship (they only have an observation deck about half way up) and watching the cliffs of Dover approach. It was a gorgeous clear day, but really windy which also made it cold.

We made it to Dover without any trouble and I bought a bus ticket to London. I had planned on watching the English countryside, but instead promptly fell asleep on the bus and woke up as we were in traffic outside London. The bus dropped me off at Victoria station, which was conveniently where I needed to be to catch the train to Brighton. I bought a train ticket, decided it wasn't worth 8 pounds to store my bag, and set off for some brief sight-seeing of London. I decided I wanted to see Hyde Park, by way of fish and chips, so set off in that direction looking for food. I found a place near Buckingham Palace and so bought a late lunch and picnicked in the park across the street from the Palace. The queen's flag was flying, so she was at home, but I didn't see her. Oh well. I then walked through the park and took pictures of flowers and then went off to continue my search for Hyde Park.

I thought it was really cool, there was a cross walk that instead of a person as the walk sign, had a horse and a bicycle. It was awesome :) I passed a square with WWII monuments in it and across the street was Hyde Park. I walked along one side of it and saw some cool statues, the Speaker's corner, and lots of trees and green. It would be a great place to spend a sunny afternoon! At the end I didn't know where to go next so I looked at one of the maps from those tourist buses and decided to go to Trafalgar Square. I made my way in that direction and passed lots of shopping, the Eros statue, and Leicester Square. At Trafalgar Square I took pictures, climbed on a statue, and was sad to find that there were no pidgeons :( I did have a really weird feeling that the restaurant the Texas Embassy was nearby, which was weird because I had driven past it 3 years ago and so I shouldn't know where it was, but I felt like it was around there. I decided that would be a fun way to pass the time before my train, as I didn't really have enough time to go across the city, so I asked some tourists but they hadn't heard of it. I continued onward and saw Big Bend, the London Eye, and the Thames. At Big Bend I asked a policeman if he knew of the Texas Embassy and he told me where it was, next to Trafalgar Square! Pretty crazy, I either have a really good memory or a Texas homing device :P I headed back there for a drink. At the bar I met a guy trying to start a new clothing line who was meeting up with a producer and photographer to talk advertising. I talked to him and then his friends when they arrived. He took pictures of me and my English margarita, shared some wine with me, and then insisted on buying my drink. They were all very nice and I said good bye and good luck before heading back to the station and to Brighton.

The train ride was uneventful, I slept through most of it and then in Brighton caught another train to Falmer where Kristin met me and we walked back to her apartment. She's studying at the University of Sussex in Falmer. That night we went to the student bar on campus to meet some of her friends and have a pint of cider - drinks in England are so much cheaper than in Dublin! I was super excited for a pint to be only 2 pounds. After talking for a bit we went home and went to bed.

The next morning Kristin had class so I walked along some of the paths in the hills behind her apartment. There were a bunch of cool walking paths that I took, and I met some really sweet dogs :) I also climbed a tree that was just too cool-looking to resist. I met her back at her apartment and we went to a creperie on campus for lunch and then took the bus into Brighton. We spent the afternoon exploring - we went on the pier and saw what will be a crazy carnival when the weather gets nicer, looked at the beach, and went shopping in the Lanes which are lots of shops with tiny walk ways between them. There was a cup cake store that I had to go in and got a carrot cake cupcake with plenty of cream cheese frosting - delicious! We also had tea at a tea room, complete with cheddar scones for Kristin and pistachio cake with ice cream for me. After exploring we returned to her apartment and made a delicious cheap meal complete with pasta, bread, and wine. We were definitely very classy :P We spent the rest of the night planning for our upcoming trip across Europe :D

The next day I went into Brighton while Kristin had class and did some more shopping. I got a new phone since my other one broke and was rather excited about that, spent way more time in cooking stores than clothing stores and laughed at myself because of it, and then met Kristin in Borders to begin our afternoon adventures. We took a bus to Rottingdean to get cream tea, tea and scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream. It was super tasty! We then walked around Rottingdean and headed back to Brighton to see a movie. We decided upon Slumdog Millionaire, it was definitely good! Afterwards we went to a pub for some drinks and waited for Kristin's friends to join us. We split a few pitchers and then had yummy cheese fries before taking the bus back to Falmer and going to bed.

Kristin was headed to Dublin for the weekend and I had booked the same flight, which left the next day so we spent the morning being productive students and then packing before taking the train to the airport. We got there pretty early and so chilled for a bit before getting the plane back to Dublin!

I spent Friday in my room recovering from traveling, posting pictures, and fighting with my computer... I think I have to buy a new battery :( Hopefully I'll figure that all out later - I'm traveling for most of the rest of March so I won't need my computer much until Trinity term starts :P

This morning I woke up really early to pick up my sister from the airport, she made it safe and sound from Texas to spend her spring break visiting me :D I'll update on our adventures later though. ttfn!