Friday July 13th

Friday, July 13th. Another awesome day on the books!!! Me and some newly found friends (Kate, Katie, Julita, Matt, Becca, and Holly) all got on the BritRail and went to Brighton, England. This was such a cute little town! There were little shops lining the roads. As soon as we stepped out of the train station, you could smell the ocean and hear the seagulls. This was such a relief after being rained on in London all week. We walked around, solved some wardrobe malfunctions (as expected with multiple girls... Matt is such a trooper!) and finally made way to the beach. Of course, it was windy and quite chilly on the beach. But it was so pretty! I loved it there. I could imagine myself sitting there when I'm old and grouchy(er) and just taking it all in. We walked up and down the shore for awhile and then decided to brave it out on the pier. The pier had an amusement park on it, but it was nothing too special or worth the money they wanted.

I asked a tourist shop worker what he suggested we do with our time there. He recommended the Royal Pavilion. I had no idea what it was (nor do I really know now either) but it was amazing! We couldn't take pictures of the inside, but it was awesome. It's the biggest and prettiest building I've ever been in so far. It was indescribable, but I'll try! Every room had a different theme. One of our usual houses could have fit in just hald of their foyer. The kitchen not including the dining room was bigger than a school cafeteria. The dining room had a table that could accommodate 56 guests at any time plus the ability to double in its size. Obviously, this house was amazing! I do remember that a prince had lived there and got ill and could no longer go upstairs, so the upstairs hadn't been touched at all since he left it. After he passed, Queen Victoria moved in for a few years and then had 9 kids and "didn't have suitable room" in this PALACE for her kids.  Likely excuse! Hence, Buckingham Palace royalty!

Anyway, after that, we ate a popular French restaurant. Cafe Rouge! I remember going to Walmart and seeing posters of this place long before I left! I was dying some real food, so I got a steak. You'd think I was a starving child at the way I devoured that steak after going without anything besides "chips" for the past week. It was awesome! We then caught a train back to London. When we got back, a few of us girls broke off and went to downtown London. Piccadilly Circle in downtown is awesome at night. It's not really the touristy stuff like the Tower or anything, but it's lots of shops and pubs. You can look nearly any direction here and see a pub! We were all tired and had sore feet, so we called it an early night and came back to campus.