2 days 1 night in Brighton. A relief after the hustle and bustle of being in London for 3 days. London’s great, but it really is too hectic (on a side note: I’ve been giving some thought to whether I am a city girl or a country girl).
When I planned for this entire trip, I booked all bus tickets and all accommodation in advance, except for Brighton. I decided to take a gamble on a hostel that didn’t take reservations thinking that it not being the peak tourist season i.e. not summer, there shouldn’t be a problem with accommodation. We didn’t end up sleeping on the streets (I knew that wouldn’t happen!). We got 2 beds in a room with 3 other girls, decent toilet and shower facilities.
Arrived in Brighton around noon and enjoyed lunch in a quaint little Italian restaurant that was celebrating their dunno-how-many-th anniversary and was having a promotion. All pizzas and pastas at £1.50 – as advertised here.
Elli joined us in Brighton for a day trip so we spent a couple of hours roaming the beach and the pier…
Brighton beach has no sand! It has pebbles instead!
After that, we went back to the hostel and chatted while Elli waited for time to pass before catching the train home. Turned out well because Cui then had a chance to get to know Elli a bit better… We ended up reading our horoscopes from some British tabloid and now on hindsight, it was not entirely on the dot but there were elements of accuracy in it. Cui’s horoscope said something about a person in green bringing her a jackpot – me, me, I was wearing green! And she did chance upon a “jackpot” *blush*. Elli’s horoscope said something about meeting somebody on the train and when she took the train home, she happened to sit next to this girl who turned out to be reading the same book as she was and they had a chat! We had all forgotten about the horoscopes until I re-read it at the end of the week and realized!
That night, we contemplated going to the pub. And decided against it. For the most ridiculous reason ever: we wanted to preserve the memory of the night before. Hahaha… (yes, looking back at it now, I can laugh). Instead, we stayed at the hostel, took up the big comfy couch and… gossiped. I know… Terribly exciting! Not. But it was really nice to catch up with each other after not talking for half a year. There were things going on in her life that I vaguely knew about and there were things going on in my life that she vaguely knew about so this was a great time to change “vaguely” to “definitely”. And the most shocking event of the evening? At 9:45pm, the owner of the hostel said: “15mins before lights-out!” Un-*mumble*-believable!
Day 12
The weather was wet and miserable so we stayed indoors with a hot cuppa tea and talked about Thailand (Cui and I are going to Thailand in September!) and loads of other random things… After a long draggy afternoon, we finally caught our bus back to London.
We were staying in a different hostel this time because the previous one was fully booked. This hostel looked much nicer (big TV room with a huge flat-screen TV, nice clean room and we didn’t have to put on the bed sheets ourselves!) but was kindda way out from the “happening” part of London. Anyway, we ended up sharing the room with 2 other people and when we tried to unlock the door after checking in, we realized that it was latched from inside. So we yelled at the people to open the door and we heard a deep guy-ish voice telling us to wait. Then there was giggling. Then Cui said she heard noises that sounded like people putting on their clothes and zipping their trousers up. *gasp* Not for the first time, I wondered who were the people we were sharing the room with.
Well, it turned out to be 2 “ladies” from Holland. “Ladies” because I suspect they were hyenas really… How can humans possibly be capable of laughing at almost anything and everything ALL THE TIME? And laughing until they can’t talk and are practically wheezing? Seriously, we had a hard time figuring them out.
Day 13
The hyenas were really bizarre. They got up real early in the morning, went to the shower, got themselves all dressed… and went back to bed. Someone please support me in my belief that this is NOT normal?!
The day was spent roaming around London, we had seen the sights we wanted to see so the rest of the time was for shopping or wandering. Cui ended up buying a qipao *resisting the urge to comment on her purchase from London* and I left halfway to go to meet a new friend.
Met up with Matthew at night! Matt’s a friend from college and he moved to London a couple of years ago. The last time we met was when we were both on duty for National Day (arrghh…I can’t remember which year!).
Day 14
Final day of the trip. Cui goes back to Singapore today and I return to Aberdeen. But before that, we met up with Elli, Rachel (Elli’s sister), and Steph (who brought a friend along).
Rachel, Steph, Elli, Cui, Minz
Zafar and Steph
Elli (who came from her home near London) and Steph (who came back from France) have come to London so that the three of us can take the bus back to Aberdeen together. It’s a 12-hour bus ride from London back to Aberdeen and the only 2 reasons we’re taking the bus is because 1) it costs only £1 and 2) we have each other’s company. Strangely enough, it turned out that I wasn’t much company because I slept all the way (yes, ALL THE WAY) from London to Aberdeen. I don’t normally sleep for 12 hours and yet on a squashy bus journey, I can sleep for 12 hours. I amaze myself sometimes. Elli’s dad said that the reason I can sleep so much and so soundly is because “Mae has a clear conscience”. I’m inclined to agree.
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End of trip, Cui and I are still friends!!! Sure, there was tension at some points along the trip (it was an intense 14 days) but I think there were 3 main reasons why we didn’t fall out with each other:
1) There were only 2 of us on the trip. Falling out with each other meant…ermm...being on our own? (Note: Not that we’re incapable of surviving independently.)
2) We arranged to meet others (Julia, Elli, CJ, Matt, Steph and Rachel) along the way so that gave us opportunities to take a break from each other.
3) Compromising and knowing when to keep our mouths shut.
So yes, it is possible to go on a trip and not fall out with each other... *bright smile* Looking forward to the Thailand trip now... Cui's turn to plan and organise! I just have to turn up on that day! :)
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