A Day in Brighton

For several weeks Ilse and I have been trying to plan a trip to Brighton. We both went there before, she with a friend and I with my parents several years ago, but really wanted to go there again. It took us several weeks before we could actually go – I had friends over one week and another one there was a train strike and so on – But on the 5th of February we finally went!

Welcome to Brighton
The train tickets we had bought were from Clapham Junction to Brighton so we had to change trains once – since neither of us lives near Clapham Junction. Ilse took the train from Kingston and I hopped on the same train when it arrived at Wimbledon. It took us about an hour to get from Clapham Junction to Brighton and when we got out there was a very colourful sign welcoming us to Brighton.

We did not have anything planned, since we rather wing it when going on trips like this, but we had decided on the train that the first thing we would do when we got there was: go for lunch. We walked towards the boulevard and passed several restaurants and café’s before we found ‘The New Club Restaurant’. The sign outside was funny and got us interested and it looked lovely inside so we sat down, had a cup of tea/coffee, a delicious lunch and ended the meal with a cocktail. While we were waiting for our food we were talking about very personal topics thinking that no one would be able to understand us anyway – we are both Dutch – but halfway through our conversation, we found out that the couple sitting next to us was Dutch as well…. whoops!

Along the shore
After a lovely, and slightly embarrassing, meal did we head out to walk on the stone beach towards the Brighton Pier. We came across a beautiful photo exposition about Brighton along the way.

This exposition inspired us and we started making some photo’s ourselves in black and white and from interesting points of views. We, of course, looked like idiots doing that but we didn’t mind and had a great time and a good laugh. Not only did we pass the photo exposition, we also walked past some adorable shops and tiny museums about Brighton. I bought a tea cloth, with the text ‘Be aware Brighton chip thieves’ and a picture of a seagull with a chip in its beak on it, at ‘The Ghost Cat Phantom Revue’ but if I had had more money I would have emptied that shop.

To be worn again
Ilse knew that Brighton is very well known for its vintage shops, so we headed in that direction and after a quick coffee/tea run at Starbucks found a very colourful street with loads of vintage shops. We both got a book at ‘Books for Amnesty’ and I bought a quite new looking sweater at ‘To be worn again’. When we were on our way towards the station Ilse changed her mind, she did want that big University sweater after all. We went back and she bought an XXL one so she could wear it as a pyjama. We had a pint at ‘The Grand Central’, a lovely pub with twinkle lights in front of the windows right next to the station, and headed back home.

It was a wonderful and exhausting day in Brighton