Brighton

On 26 Dec, Steve left for the States (sad!) and I continued on from London to Crawley, where I'm staying to do my rotation here.  I'm so lucky to stay with my preceptor and her family, who have so generously opened their home to students over the past few years to get some experience with the much vilified (by the US) socialized medicine system here.  Since the UK celebrates the 26th as Boxing Day and since Christmas was a Sunday, we also had the 27th off of clinic.  I took the train from Crawley down to Brighton, a short 20 minutes away.  Brighton was and is a seaside resort town, popular since the early 1800s.  It was so beautiful, a mix of old and new.

The beach in Brighton is absolutely not like any beach I've ever been to before.  For starters, the only sand there was the sand that had obviously been imported for the beach volleyball courts!  It was just all pebbles everywhere else and made this wonderful sound when the water receded.  I don't know how well you can hear it here, but I made a short video of the ocean at Brighton (Can I call it the ocean?  I think it's technically the English Channel...I'm exposing my ignorance of waterways here!)

(So this was my first video message and not the best video you could ever hope for...sorry! Guess I didn't know where to look.  Also, my voice cuts out several time...sorry.  I know, I know, but I can't go back and film it again)

After visiting the beach, I headed off to the Royal Pavilion:

Like so many places here, I couldn't take any pictures inside.  But the history of this place is fascinating!  This was the favorite residence before he was king of King George IV, the son of the mad King George III of American Revolution fame.  His father was very frugal, which George IV thought was silly.  He lived an extravagant lifestyle in London until a mistress brought him to Brighton, which he fell in love with.  he rented an old farmhouse, to stay in Brighton and party.  People thought that he had become frugal, until he converted it to this Asian-inspired building.  The inside is so far out!  Seriously, you should google-image search the Royal Pavilion dining room chandelier.  Totally over the top.  It fell out of favor with the King later in life and Queen Victoria, his successor, never really fell for it like he did (mainly because it surprisingly only had like 5 bedrooms and she had like 9 kids.  Really.)  At one point, it was even converted into a hospital for Indian soldiers at the beginning of the 20th century.  It was a cool place to walk through and learn a little more about English history.

After I walked through the Royal Pavilion, I walked through a shopping area known as The Laines.  I likened it to an English version of Boulder shops.  Very eclectic, hippy-ish, and lots of handmade bags.  No pot shops here, though.  Refreshing!

After all that, I still had a few hours before returning to Crawley.  I had a nice picnic on the beach, walked through the after Christmas madness of the mall, which was very very similar to our malls.  Except that the stores were not what I recognized.  Anyway, here are a few more pictures of my day at Brighton:

Sunset on the Brighton Beach: I was so happy to see the sun for a brief minute

The pier: full of games, fried foods, and amusement park rides

I didn't take off my shoes or socks to get my feet in the water, but I definitely got a little wet.  Glad for my Goretex trail running shoes I got for this trip!  And yes the water was very very cold!