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Published: August 8th 2010
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What a long day we had yesterday! Mariel was still sick, so Lauren and I adventured to "the sea" with her cousins Alex and Adie. We went to the town of Brighton which was very, very cute. There were streets lined with shops--vintage clothing shops, music shops, candy shops, bakeries--everything! Alex, the older cousin who is now 25, went to the university in Brighton so for him it was his home away from home.
We had to take a bus, the Tube, and then another overground-train, to get there, but it was worth it.
The boys wanted to take us to Brighton because there was this HUGE gay pride festival going on--for free (everything in London/England seems to be free!). I feel like living in Santa Cruz, visiting San Francisco often, we know how proud and crazy gay people can be...but MAN there were some serious characters there! There were many transvestites, a ton of drag queens preforming, rainbows everywhere, speedos with nothing else worn on top, gladiators, a lot of 1/2 naked people...it was sure a show. There were thousands of people there, going on rides, listening to music, dancing in one of the 4 huge tents set
up for a party.
The weather was what I pictured as classic English weather--gray skies, and a slight drizzle. The rain never became too much of a problem though.
The festival ended at 8:00pm, and after that we walked through the streets toward "the sea" (it's adorable how they all call the beach the sea) to celebrate one of Alex's friend's birthday.
The walk was nice, a bit chilly, but beautiful. Down by the beach they have this awesome walkway that is lined with shops and places to grab a quick bite to eat. Below the walkway are all the bars, which are pretty much directly on the beach. It reminded me of Hawaii or Mexico, except a LOT colder. They people go inside the bars, grab their drinks, and go sit on the beach.
The "beach" though, is not our type of beach. As Adie descried it, "You Cali girls would think our beach is just a small pile of rocks". That was a pretty accurate description I'd say. They literally sit on huge pebbles and call it a beach. My dad would hate it because it really hurts your feet. But I did indeed
The mysterious palace
We still do not know the story behind this building, but one of the guys said one of the kings took a visit to India, and wanted to build a palace when he returned! touch the English Channel...and it was even colder than the water in Santa Cruz (again, my dad would've hated it)
Lauren and I were getting pretty tired after a long day partying on the day of "The Pride", so we headed back earlier than the guys (they weren't going to head home until 6am or so :/ )
At the overground train station, everyone is trying to get back to London, so as we were waiting for the train to arrive, we were literally being treated as cattle--stuffed in a crowed line, behind a gate that would not be opened until the train(s) arrived.
Well, once the gate opened, it was complete madness. People were pushing and running in all directions. There were 4 trains, but NOTHING was labeled. Everyone just kept saying "It's going to London." I tried to ask one of the workers which train to get on to get to Victoria Station, but his response was "They all go to London"
Naturally, Lauren and I got on the first train in sight...headed to London Bridge. Well, about 1/2 was though the ride, we were at a train stop letting people off, and I
look to my left and see a train about to leave called "Victoria Station". We started freaking out and decided to just get off at the next stop, because it was clear we were on the WRONG train.
At the next stop, we got off and found a train that said something about Victoria Station. We hopped on the Gatway Express, which looked much nicer than the train we were on previously, and hoped we were going the right way. Later we learned that this is basically a 1st class train from the Gatway airport, and we were definitely not suppose to have boarded it! Oh well 😊
We arrived at the station, hopped on the Tube, and literally the doors closed like 30 seconds after we boarded. Then, all these people ran up to our car and started banging on the closed doors. The people in the train told us we had just made it on to the very LAST TRAIN!!!
Had we been 30 seconds later, we would have been stuck at the train station until 6am...
Needless to say, we were quite glad we hadn't had any other set backs!
A long
Pride
Look closely at the people in this photo... adventure of a day, and then a long night's sleep. Now, off to Paris!!! It's 1:00pm, and we're waiting half an hour longer to head to the Chunnel Station and get to France!
Love and miss everyone at home!
xoxo,
Em
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Mom
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What a day! Wonderful pics. Can't wait to hear about Paris. Hugs and kisses to you!