Brighton & Hove

On Monday and Tuesday, I visited a friend of mine from Taiwan in Brighton, which is a seaside town in England that is second to London in the number of restaurants and clubs it has. Random, I know.

Anyways, the town reminded me of a mash of SF and Santa Cruz on the beach, and like SF, it has a lot of small streets with tiny shops.

Do you guys see it? Or is it just me?

The beaches were pebbled instead of sandy! "Trudging" describes walking along this beach exactly.

 One of Brighton's most famous attractions is its pier, which is a super, super tiny version of Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

The entire pier lights up at night.

I really like this photo. Anyways, that's the extent of the theme park...if you can call it a park.

 Its other main attraction is the Royal Pavilion. It was built during the time period where Europeans were absolutely fascinated by the Far East, so the entire palace was built in the fashion of how Europeans perceived Asia. The outside has influences from India, while the inside is as Chinese as it could possibly be for people who had never been to China before. If Moulin Rouge put on a play about China, the set for that performance is probably what the inside of this palace looked like: rooms with pink, yellow, or blue walls, with painted glass lights in the shape of lotus. Dim lights and lanterns hung on the ceilings, with wood painted to look like bamboo. In the old days, they would burn incense throughout the day as well. The dining hall was an elaborate affair with paintings that looked like guilded leather, East Asian paintings, and a one ton chandelier that was held in the talons of a dragon adorned with glass lotus lamps on the side.

It was definitely one of the best homes I've ever visited, but it took a whopping 35 years to build.

Also, can I mention that Brighton had some of the best fish and chips I've ever had?