England or So Cal?

Every Wednesday we take a day trip to somewhere around England. As if coming to London isn't great enough we actually get to spend a lot of time going elsewhere to see the beauty of the United Kingdom. This week was amazing! We've done a lot of overnight trips, which have all been great, and even though this day trip was just s short one day trip, it was definitely one of my favorites.

We went to the Royal Pavilion, which was really interesting to see. It's basically a palace, and on the outside it really looks like one, though not one from England. It almost looks Middle Eastern. It looked so exotic especially next to the traditional English buildings I've grown so accustomed to. After the initial shock of seeing the outside, we went inside, and that surprised me even more.

It's this massive building that doesn't look like all the other palaces we've seen so far. It felt more like a home and not a place that is decorated for the pleasure of visitors. It had rooms that felt like rooms a real person would actually stay in. Not that it wasn't grand: on the contrary. In one of the dining rooms there's this massive chandelier above the table that as you continue looking up, seems to blend in with the ceiling picture above. The whole thing on top are these massive dragons that looked so real. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and completely unexpected in the Royal Pavilion. A dragon? Let alone a really big one above the dining room table? It was incredible. The chandelier at the bottom where the actual lights were had all these little dragon heads on it. It was amazing and definitely my favorite thing about the whole building.

I also loved the decorum because it was so varied through out the whole place. Some of them were full of gold like the traditional palace decorum. They felt rich. But others had a less expensive Asian look. It almost looked how a lot of people today would decorate their front room. It was so fascinating to see how each room changed in its decoration.

After the pavilion we, which is in Brighton, we walked to the pier. Yes, there's a pier! Next to the water!!! I love that concept! I was not expecting Brighton to look like it does. It looks like any beach city in Southern California! I thought I had walked in to a dream or something. The major difference besides the much warmer climate of So Cal? No sand here. Nope. They have little pebble beaches. Looks cool, but I think I'd rather take the sand. But for the time it was great and I loved it. On this particular beach it was like going to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. There were a bunch of roller coasters and carnival games. There were also ice cream and hot dog stands and a large arcade. It was so fun to walk around and go on the rides. We walked around and enjoyed the scenery and the city of Brighton. It made me smile so much!