Brighton
Thursday April 27, 2017
I spent the weekend in Brighton, catching up with Dale and Becca. It reminded me of Wellington to some extent, it's a small, cozy town with a great cafe culture and a good vibe. There's lots of little art murals everywhere, and I can imagine the beach getting super busy during summer when it's warm and sunny.
We walked down the waterfront on Saturday after having brunch. Dale and Becca are also big Pokemon Go players, so there was plenty to discuss and share and gripe; unfortunately they're on a different team to me, so we couldn't go on gym runs. We ended up at Brighton Pier, where we went on some of the rollercoasters there - not too shabby! We went biking in the afternoon past the white cliffs when suddenly we got an alert for an Ampharos that had spawned about 13 minutes bike ride away. We had 15 minutes to get there.
There began an awful uphill bike ride for 13 minutes. It has been a long time since I have ridden a bike, and even then, I've never used a bike with gears before, nor have I ridden on the road, so all of that was new to me. It wasn't easy but we made it, the last stretch I ended up getting off the bike and pushing it up the hill because I was so sick of pedalling. There marks the last Pokemon that I can catch for this region - my remaining two are Steelix and Scizor, which require an immense amount of luck to get their items to drop from a PokeStop.
We returned to the white cliffs for a few photos and then went home, via a Dragonite that was also slightly up the hill. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony with some other expats, enjoying cheese, tomatoes, crackers, cider and truffle oil, because we are grown adults and we are fancy. Dinner was at the pub nearby, and I ordered a massive platter of delicious things.
We went up to Devil's Dyke on Sunday. It's a valley carved out by an immense water flow into the chalk rocks during the Cretaceous period, and it's a short bus ride north of Brighton. Though it was a bit cold, the scenery from the cliffs was amazing, and we trekked down one side of the hill to the Shepherd and Dog for an awesome traditional Sunday roast lunch.
I left Brighton on Monday, stopping by Choccywoccydoodah, an eccentric chocolate shop with the most stunning displays of chocolate and cakes I've ever seen. I got a white hot chocolate from there, very reminiscent of the hot chocolate that Ned Flanders serves Bart Simpson in the Simpsons Movie.
I'm off on my next big adventure on Sunday. It's been horribly cold back in London, with rain, wind, hail and thunderstorms hitting yesterday. I barely left the warmth of my bed, venturing out only to get food. This trip will take almost 6 weeks, and I'll be covering France, Switzerland, Spain, Morocco and Portugal!
Posted by Jeremy at 7:15pm on Thursday April 27, 2017 :: 0 comments :: 