Brighton

Ah, beautiful Brighton. An ideal seaside resort conveniently located close to (and inexpensively from) London.

When I set out today there was not a cloud in the sky. To my infinite surprise there never was, either. It was the most beautiful winter day humanly possible. Therefore I could take in all of Brighton's beauty and cheap splendor.

And I mean cheap. Actually, the whole place is a bit fake. It has a pier with mildly creepy kids rides on it, old people playing slotmachines and flashy lights. The person who made this place famous, the Prince Regent back in 1810s (how I know this I will come to shortly), built a gaudy pseudo-Indian monstrosity for himself to play in and turned this seaside place into a den of debauchery. It still is - there are more bars and scantily dressed women in this place then I've seen in all of London.

However, Brighton is actually quite lovely anyway. Its shopping is a bit on the weird and annoying new-agey side but its actually not bad for a thrift shopper (2 pound used books?! - win). The Regent's old place supports a wonderful garden and a free (!!!) awesome museum with a number of quite interesting exhibits. One is on Brighton, which is how I know stuff about it. One has a diverse and interesting painting collection. And a random one about chairs. I would like now to rant about chairs for a moment. Skip this if you like modern art.

A CHAIR IS SOMETHING YOU SIT IN!!! OKAY! It is not a stupid wire structure which stretches the boundaries of our imagination about what a chair can be. NO. It should be comfortable. I better at least be able to imagine myself sitting in it. It'd be nice if it would work in conjunction with a book and a fire place. If my fat cat would find her blob sifting through the cracks then you are a stupid artist and when I am ruler of the world you will clean streets.

Right, now with that out of the way ... the coffee shops are excellent and atmospheric. Also win. In short, if you love freedom and equality then you'll love Brighton. If you have your doubts about them you'll still probably love Brighton. Brighton gets a thosesunglassesaretoobigforyourheadandnothey'renotoriginal/hookersholleringattraffic.