England Travel Diary Day 4: Brighton

2004.06.05 England Travel Diary Day 4: Brighton

The fourth day of the England trip actually began with bad news from the previous evening: my digital camera broke in Bath Spa >.<'" I had used that camera for four years, and of course it chose an overseas trip as the time to die...

Luckily, we had already planned to visit my wife's cousin in Brighton, where she was studying. That meant I could borrow her Casio for the day. So Brighton, for me, was not only a seaside city in southern England. It was also the day after my camera failed, when the trip had to keep going with borrowed equipment. I did not take a huge number of photos, but each part still preserved a very real piece of that day's mood.

Starting at the Royal Pavilion: beautiful, even if I did not know much

Brighton is a well-known seaside resort city in southern England, and the places people most often mention are the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier. We started with the Royal Pavilion. Its shape is hard to ignore: in the middle of an English street scene, a building with Indian and Eastern-style elements suddenly appears. Just standing outside, it has a strong "why is this here?" feeling.

Exterior view of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. — The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, striking because of how different it felt from the surrounding English streets.

The Royal Pavilion is also called the royal palace, and it was the residence of the Prince of Wales. As for who that Prince of Wales was... sorry, I did not know him either... So at the time I did not approach it like a history lesson. I simply looked at the building, the rooflines, and the way it stood apart from the streets around it.

Royal Pavilion building details in Brighton. — The Royal Pavilion, which I looked at more for its unusual presence than for any deep historical knowledge.

Royal Pavilion and surrounding grounds in Brighton. — Another view around the Royal Pavilion area.

Looking back at these photos now, this feels like a very familiar travel moment: you know it is a famous sight, and you know you are supposed to look at it, but what caught my attention was not the dates or the names. It was the oddness of finding something that did not feel very English, yet was clearly sitting in England.

Fish and chips: once was enough

After leaving the Royal Pavilion, we went into town for lunch. Since we were in England, we had to try fish and chips at least once. My conclusion from that meal was simple: expensive, and not good...

A plate of fish and chips from lunch in Brighton. — Fish and chips in Brighton: very English, but not something my Chinese stomach wanted every day.

Fish and chips is one of the most common foods in England, and many people naturally treat it as a proper meal. But for my "Chinese stomach," it belonged more in the category of "local experience to try once." If you asked me to eat this every day... absolutely not!!

This part is funny to reread now, because some travel memories are not left by landmarks. They are left by a meal you thought was impossible. Whether or not I liked it, it was very English, and therefore hard to forget.

A wedding and the sound of bagpipes

After lunch, while walking through town, we happened upon a couple in traditional Scottish dress taking wedding photos outside a restaurant. It was not a planned stop, but it was exactly the kind of scene that makes you pause during a trip.

Wedding couple in Scottish dress standing outside a Brighton restaurant. — A couple in traditional Scottish dress taking wedding photos outside a restaurant.

They had also invited a fully dressed bagpiper to play Scotland the Brave~~

Once the lively rhythm started, the whole street felt different. Even as passersby, we could not help being pulled into their happiness ^.^

A bagpiper performing during a wedding scene in Brighton. — The bagpiper helped turn a chance street scene into one of the day's warmest memories.

You cannot really find this kind of moment in advance through an itinerary, and the photos do not always capture it completely. But it made Brighton more than just "we saw the Royal Pavilion and walked to the sea." Sometimes a city becomes warm because of these small, accidental scenes.

Every road seemed to lead to the sea

As we kept walking, the city gradually brought us toward the coast. Brighton is interesting that way. You may not always see the sea while walking through town, but the direction of the streets seems to keep pushing you toward it.

A Brighton street leading toward the seaside. — Walking through Brighton, every road seemed to lead toward the sea.

Every road here seemed to lead to the sea @.@'"

It was not sunny, and it was not a holiday. In theory, it should not have been the perfect beach day. But there were still quite a few people on the beach. More precisely, it was a pebble beach, not a sandy one~~ People were sitting there, sunning themselves, reading, talking, or simply... getting blown by the wind??

People sitting on Brighton's pebble beach under grey skies. — Even on a grey, non-holiday day, people gathered on Brighton's pebble beach.

When it comes to foreigners' love of the seaside, it is really not something those of us from a subtropical place can easily understand. People where we are from are terrified of the sun, almost to a ridiculous degree. It is hard to imagine lying on the beach under a hot sun and calling that "enjoying life"... (mysterious voice: that is clearly roasting hash browns...)

Even more impressive, they were not only lying in the sun. They were reading novels under it. What was going on, were they training fire eyes and golden pupils? @.@'"

Understanding the sun only later

This was something I only truly understood later, after spending a year in Europe because of work.

That winter, across three long months, the number of sunny days could probably be counted on two fingers ~.~'". By the end, I felt almost moldy myself . No wonder people there, once they met a wide open sea and bright sunlight, wanted to rush straight into it.

So when I saw people leaning toward the sun on Brighton's beach in 2004, I found it hard to understand. Years later, I realized it was not exaggeration. The climate and everyday experience really were different.

Brighton Pier stretching out over the sea. — Brighton Pier in the seaside view.

Brighton seaside view with the pier and pebble beach. — The grey sea, the pebble beach, and the pier made the coast feel very different from home.

People and structures along the Brighton seafront. — Another seaside view from Brighton, where the beach culture felt surprising at the time.

Brighton Pier appeared in that seaside view. The pier itself was a classic seaside-city image, but what I remember more is the contrast: grey weather, a pebble beach, and people still treating the coast as the most natural place to be.

The Lanes: shopping until there was no time for photos

After that, we returned to the small lane area near the Royal Pavilion, The Lanes. The shops there sold pretty and distinctive accessories, and the atmosphere was different from the big sights earlier in the day. It felt more like a neighborhood to slowly wander through.

There, we were busy shopping... no time for photos... (mysterious voice: only now did I discover that traveling is not only about photographing scenery...)

The sun finally came out later, when we were getting ready to return to London @.@'"

A late-day Brighton street snapshot with sunlight. — A casual final snapshot before returning to London, just as the sun finally came out.

So this Brighton entry is not a complete city introduction. It is more like a day held together by a borrowed Casio after my own camera broke: the strange Royal Pavilion, fish and chips that did not fit my stomach but felt very English, a street wedding with bagpipes, a seaside-and-sunlight scene I only understood years later, and a lane area where shopping made me forget to take pictures.

There were not many photos, but they preserved the rhythm of the day.