Brighton

Brighton was somewhere I have always wanted to visit. When I was studying eighteenth-century Britain in university I read about Brighton Pavilion, one of my course mates had previously worked there doing archiving work and I remember him telling me all about it before adding it onto my list of places to one day see. When we decided to spend a few days in London I made sure a day trip to the coast was in order to see what it was all about. On arriving I was a little bit disappointed the sunshine hadn't followed us, it wasn't too busy which was probably a good thing as I'm not overly fond of crowds in hot weather. Our first port of call was the iconic pier, we had a wander down taking in all those lovely seaside smells of fish and chips and candyfloss.

After being dragged off the pier we headed up to the Pavilion. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take photographs inside, which I completely understand, but it was absolutely stunning inside, the colours of the decorations are still so bright and vivid in places. The dining room and music room were both so beautiful and would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in Brighton.

I must admit the shops in Brighton were fantastic. I think my favourite would have to be Tiger which I hadn't heard of before, it reminded of a stationary and quirky things version of Ikea, just the way you were directed to walk around the shop had all the Ikea hallmarks. They aren't from Sweden but are Danish so it does make sense. The only drawback is all the stores are currently located in the South East and London and you can't buy anything off their website but hopefully they might open more shops across the country, the temptation to buy lots of little trinkets was quite high!

After the shops started closing we went back for another walk along the front and the lights had come on just before we headed up town to catch the train back to London, a thoroughly good day out and hopefully we'll visit again soon.