Brighton
March 11th, 2023
To start this day, me and Bryce hopped on the tube to Victoria Station where our train to Brighton would leave around 10:30 am. I got another Americano before we left for Victoria Station and looking back, Americanos seemed to be my coffee drink of choice the entire trip. I made sure to also pack some snacks for the train ride so I wouldn’t be starving right when we arrived in Brighton.
Our first stop once we got to Brighton was the beach. We made a beeline to Brighton Beach immediately after stepping off the train so we could see the ocean. The weather that day was freezing and a bit gloomy, but that didn’t matter because we were so excited to explore. The beach was rocky instead of sandy, which was still kind of difficult to walk on so instead of walking along the shore we walked on the sidewalk along the beach. We made our way to Brighton Pier and wandered around there for a while.
After the beach and the pier, we explored the streets of Brighton the rest of the day. There are tons of storefronts there so we just popped in and out as we pleased. When we got hungry, we stopped at a pasty shop for lunch. We both got chicken and leek pasties and oh my goodness, they were so so delicious. Heavenly little handheld pies, I probably could have eaten five of them.
After lunch, we found a little vintage shop, which is my bread and butter. I absolutely love thrifting and vintage clothes and I think this was one of my favorite finds of the whole trip. I didn’t buy anything, unfortunately, but loved looking around. We found a coffee shop a little bit after the vintage shop and we sat there for quite a while. We sat in a bay window and drank our mochas while we journaled and just relaxed. This was also one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was such a relaxing moment and I could just soak it all in.
We stopped at a chocolate shop a little while later and I bought an orange and geranium dark chocolate bar for my boyfriend. It took a lot of willpower not to snack on that until getting back to the States to share it with him. When our trip was coming to an end, we sat at a pub and waited until it was time to hop on the train back to London. I had my first international beer and first genuine pub experience where I got to watch the Manchester City vs. Crystal Palace soccer match. I am an Arsenal fan with my boyfriend, so while I wasn’t necessarily rooting for Crystal Palace, I was rooting for Man City’s downfall … which didn’t pan out, they actually won that game but that’s fine, it was a fun experience anyway.
We got a £3.50 meal deal from Sainsbury’s Market for dinner, which was also another common thing for me during this trip. The meal deals were a main, a side, and a drink and was always a tasty and affordable option for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We went to bed fairly early that night and were ready to do some central London sightseeing the next day before we officially started our study abroad programming.