Brighton: The City of Bromance

Made my lonesome way down to Brighton -- the British Miami -- this last Friday to visit Barbara for part of the weekend and to see the school/town I almost studied in this summer. It's strange to think how close I came to not coming to Cambridge! Either way, it was a very chill weekend. Seeing Barb was, of course, awesome!

First, the place is huge, and so bright!! Basically, if Santa Barbara and San Francisco had a baby, it would be Brighton. It's so much like coastal California except it's gayer, if you can believe it. Because not only are there gay men everywhere, all the straight men act/look/sound gay too. Or "gay," rather -- the stereotypical sense of the word. And the accent doesn't help. My gaydar went haywire and then ceased to work after about 15 minutes of walking around The Lanes, which is a very windy, English-esque collection of streets that have pubs, shops and, well, people (gay men?) galore. I can't even say that I saw a lot of gay men while being there.

They may have been straight, who knows!

We went out to a club after hitting up a bar on Friday night, but the club was... well, it was Babylon, for those of you who I've forced "Queer as Folk" upon. Just with straight people, and girls. But not more girls than guys... on the contrary, guys were everywhere, which is strange, considering they aren't as prevalent in Cambridge clubs. Not that it really mattered: the guys (the straight ones!) had no interest in any girls, unless they were there with them. They were just interested in dancing with each other.

Yes, you read correctly: each other. I dunno, this place was whack. I wasn't drunk enough (or tipsy enough) not to laugh at most of the guys, who looked like models, but in a creepy, artificial kind of way.

It was a lot of fun just to watch people, 'cause it was SOOOOO different from being in Cambridge. The girls at least stand a chance of meeting someone here, even if they aren't as "attractive" or as good at dancing. It's all relative, I say. I like the intellectual, dorky, non-muscle-y types. =)

Pubs, pubs, and more pubs. Even in the middle of the day -- it is Barb's favorite activity. Heh, what else was there to do to distract us from shopping?

Didn't help, though. I bought three pairs of shoes. :|

On Saturday it was just wandering around, shopping, sitting in the park with cider and then going out to the Brighton Pier before heading back to campus (a whopping 20-minute bus ride away!) to get my stuff to leave.

On the pier.... we got donuts. Really good, warm, sugar-y donuts.

Here's me, enjoying my first bite! See that bird in the background? See how it looks like it is plotting some Hitchcockean destruction??

Just like my canon incident, this picture was taken about 5 seconds before a bird swooped out of nowhere and snatched my entire donut from my hand!

It happened so quickly, I could barely process the strange whoosh! and nip that grazed my thumb before seeing my poor donut plummet to the rocky beach below.

I didn't know whether to hunt it down or give it a gold medal. Barb and I like to think he did it on a dare. Hopefully he got a nice girl seagull out of it, the little dick.

The beach, as you can see, is enormous, but all rocks. But they're not sharp, at least, just smooth and round. It really is a British paradise, if ever there was one.

Good two days, overall. Travel wasn't a problem, though it took longer than I would have liked. I was just proud of myself for not getting on the wrong train.

Didn't get to see Charlie, unfortunately, didn't get to meet too many of Barb's friends. But it was still great! It was so very different from Cambridge, and while Brighton is totally happenin', I am glad (for me) that I came to Cambridge. Just simply for knowing that the building I'm currently sitting in is older than ANY BUILDING in the United States. That's pretty trippy.

Peace.

PS. Here are additional links to more photos:
Sheringham + Stonehenge
Bath + Salisbury
Brighton