A nostalgic day in Brighton
Anna and I woke up early to get ready for a trip back to the very place we had met, Brighton! After enjoying another lovely shower in Charlotte’s bathroom, I fed Anna crumpets for breakfast, for the first time. I couldn’t believe that in all of her many visits to England she had never had a crumpet!
There are usually half a dozen different ways that one can get around the London area on public transportation with all of the various combinations that the tube, bus, and rail systems provide. I thought it would be best to take the train from Streatham as we were already in south London and thus that much closer to Brighton. I figured I had better use the Streatham train station at least once! We found it right off of Streatham High St in the center of town, about a 15 minute walk from the flat. We purchased our tickets, subtract another £18 from the bank account. We had to make a couple of transfers, but eventually we were on the fast train to Brighton.
About an hour and a half later, the train slowed down as it approached Brighton. The train track is quite elevated as it enters town so that you can seen streets upon streets of brick stone houses, and beyond that the English channel in one direction, and rolling green hills in the other. I had a little flashback of my arrival to Brighton 7 years ago to study abroad. The sun was out and there was barely a cloud in the sky, the best weather I had had the entire month.
We decided that we would start our day off with a hike at the Seven Sisters Park. This area is about a 1 hour (slow) bus ride from the center of Brighton and offers beautiful views of the chalk cliffs along the English Channel. When we got off at the train station, we asked a bus driver which bus would take us to Seven Sisters. He directed us a block from the station to wait there for the bus. Two British girls were also waiting for another bus to go to Peacehaven. The four of us were waiting there for 30 minutes wondering where in the hell the bloody buses were! We were passed by loads of other buses but not the ones we needed! The one girl was quite cheeky and humorous so she at least offered some entertainment. Eventually, their bus finally came and Anna and I were left scratching our heads. Anna suggested we call the bus hotline to find out what was going on! Well, the operator on the phone informed us that the bus stop at which we had wasted 30 minutes waiting, only is in operation for that bus route early in the mornings. That was pretty frustrating and we were cursing that guy for the rest of the day as he used up a precious hour of our time.
We walked down to bustling Churchill Square, the center of Brighton, and found our bus stop. In the meantime, we checked out the place and decided it hadn’t changed much since 2002 which was quite comforting really. Finally, our #12 bus arrived and we excitedly jumped on and took a front row seat on the top deck of the bus. The route that the bus takes hugs the coastline for probably a good 10 miles. There are gorgeous views of the English Channel, rolling hills, cute towns, golf courses, posh ocean front homes, and the stunning white chalk cliffs. The only annoyance of the ride, besides the guy behind us blasting techno music from his iPod, was the fact that the bus stopped so damn much! We felt like there was so much we wanted to see and so little time in the day.
Finally, one hour later, we jumped off the bus at the Seven Sister’s park. By that time, it was about 1pm and we were starving. There is an inn/restaurant right on the park premises that I had been to on nearly every visit to the park in the past. We stopped and ate there and it was warm and sunny enough to enjoy our meal on their patio. We didn’t linger too long though since we knew we had the early sunset to beat.
The Seven Sister’s park is a large area, in fact I am not sure how large, but it appears to go on and on. The South Downs Way, a long hiking trail, traverses this park as it makes its way through south England. If one chooses to follow this trail, it could possibly be a week in itself if one stopped and stayed at the little villages along the way. Seven Sisters Park also is full of grazing sheep and cows. From a distance, one can see the little fluffy white sheep dotting the green hillside. Walking through the park, the sheep can be quite close. I tried to get some good photos of them, but they were a bit afraid of people and definitely preferred to nibble at the grass in private. It was interesting to look down at the ground and see how the grass was clipped short and groomed by the sheep! There was a pasture area also with a lot of hefty looking cows also minding their own business but leaving large poops behind.
We made our way through the park towards the water. I couldn’t get enough of the views both of the cliffs ahead, the animals grazing, and the water that runs throughout the valley of the park. Eventually, we started to make our descent up a steep hill that is essentially the start of one of the cliffs. It can be a pretty intense hike up but with many chances to rest and enjoy views or take photos. The views are even better from the top. The view to the east is of the Seven Sister cliffs as they undulate in the distance and culminate at the lighthouse at Beachy Head. The view to the west, towards Brighton, is of the black rocky beach below which contrasts against more white cliffs in the distance. It is said that this is the biggest suicide spot in England. One look over the edge is certain to give even bravest person vertigo. The edge of the cliff is really like a crumbly piece of chalk and probably 100ft or more below are the waves hitting the cliffs.
We didn’t linger as long as I would have wanted to since the day was dwindling. We took the really steep path down and came out right on the beach. The beach is made of huge black and grey pebbles and unfortunately, littered with a good amount of garbage. England is such a clean place overall, that it has always surprised me that the park is not better kept. We tried to walk down the beach as fast as we could, but it was really hard to move that fast when walking on a bed of pebbles! A good work out though. Finally when we hit solid ground again, we sped off on our way to the street. The last thing we wanted was to miss another bus. We were about 100 feet or so from the bus stop when the bus came lumbering down the road. I made a sprint for it but Anna couldn’t keep up and the bus driver certainly wasn’t going to linger for us. After the disappointment of missing the bus, I decided we should reward ourselves with ice cream. There is always an ice cream truck at the park. I had something called in oyster which was a wafer made in the shape of an oyster with some marshmallow fluff and coconut filling and then topped with lots of soft serve vanilla. Yum!! We were well sugared by the time the next bus came!
On the ride back, I noticed that the bus was full of elderly people. Looking out among the rows of seats, all I saw were white and gray haired heads! There were all very cute, coming and going, linked arm and arm with one another. It seems as though the desire to move to the sea at retirement is a trend that spans across cultures!
When we got back to Brighton, we stopped at a square called the Old Steine to transfer buses. Anna wanted to visit our old campus at University of Sussex before it got dark. Campus is located in the town of Falmer which is less than 5 miles from the center of Brighton. It is a pretty rural area with green hills as far as the eye can see. We had our own little tour of the campus and stopped at the school store to buy Sussex t-shirts and hoodies, and also some yummy Kinder Happy Hippo chocolate biscuits (my favorite). The campus mostly looked the same, but since we were there they built a new medical school and added a couple more buildings. It truly is not the most beautiful college campus. Even though I remember reading that the buildings won some architectural awards, I always found them to be pretty ugly. The sun was starting to go down so I suggested we catch the approaching bus back to Brighton.
Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Brighton, it was already dark! We had a little walk down by the water and by the brightly light Brighton Pier which holds lots of rides and cheesy boardwalk games. From there, we wandered in land further and walked through The Lanes. This is an area in town with winding little pedestrian streets lined with cute shops, restaurants and quaint pubs. All of the shops were closed, but we found a cute pub called The Druid’s Head and enjoyed some lager. We were having fun sitting there relaxing in the cozy pub and remembering the fun we had back in 2002! From there, we made our way over to the student house where I lived on York Rd, right off of the main drag in Brighton.
We were quite giddy as we walked through Brighton. We even got nostalgic about the Waitrose grocery store where we would shop back then. Anna insisted we go inside and of course I ended up leaving with a bag full of crumpets and shortbread. At last we walked up the hill to 10 York Rd, my old home! This was a “two family” house style with mirror image homes attached by a door in between. It was reserved for University of Sussex students and while we lived there, was mostly full of international students. Back then, we had the following countries represented under one roof: England, US, France, Sweden, Wales, Chile, Canada, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. In fact coincidentally, a guy who was in my high school class and also lived in our neighborhood in Mountain Lakes also lived in that house in Brighton with me!
Anna got so excited that she decided we should ring the doorbell and have a look inside! I was feeling shy but she insisted, rang the doorbell, and pushed me in front of the door. A grungy haired 20 year old boy answered the door. We explained to him that we had lived there 7 years ago and wanted to take a peek. He got a kick out of the idea that we had lived there before and was happy to let us in. We just browsed around the first floor, stepping into the kitchen where we had many a memory and posed for a few silly pictures. It truly had not changed in seven years and I could still see the same curtains hanging in my old bedroom upstairs!
It was about 8pm at that point, and Brighton was hopping with people walking in the streets, heading to the pubs, enjoying their Friday night. We regretted that we hadn’t packed a bag and stayed over, but we figured it was due time that we grabbed some dinner (curry) and ate it on the train ride home! It was a great trip down memory lane.
No comments:
Post a Comment