Everything looks brighter in Brighton.

Quick shout out to birthday boys Nate and Derek. Don't know where I'd be without you both :)

I'm on my way to Paris, but I had to make sure to catch up on the last of London before I had new adventures to post about.

Anyway, last Sunday, I escaped the confines of the city and took a train to Brighton; a lively seaside city that provided just the relief I needed.

The waterfront. Such a beach town feel, I was immediately nostalgic.

Brighton is the second most popular destination in England - there were so many people but it didn't feel crowded to me, the mood was so light at festive!

The beach was made of pebbles instead of sand. Not the easiest to walk on, but definitely cleaner and adds some really cool coloring to the scene.

The pebbles almost matched my dress.

I believe you would refer to this woman as a fishmonger. And yes, that's all raw seafood mixed together in "seafood salads" in little cups. Best idea ever. I wish California would pick this up, but I doubt it would pass sanitation standards. Soooo yummy too!

The orange stuff is shrimp cocktail sauce in case you're wondering.

Brighton is famous for it's pier. It's like a big carnival on water with arcades, rides, restaurants, bars, and the best donuts I've ever had (outside of Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon of course).

Antique sewing machines in a shop window a few blocks inland. They filled two giant glass windows into this shop.

Wandering around, I came across the Royal Pavilion, a Russian inspired palace plopped right on the coast. The juxtaposition was a little weird, but it was worth poking around in, if only for novelty's sake.

Sunset in Brighton.

Famous fish and chips from a restaurant on the pier.

Ok this is totally random but I saw it walk home to the train station and thought it was one of the weirdest advertisements I'd ever seen. I don't know if the bars across it make it better or worse...

Oxford

Saturday was Oxford Day. Before catching my early afternoon train over, I stopped outside the House of Parliament to play London tourist for a bit. I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture of this building. Here are a few I took:


After Parliament, just an hour's train ride took me to Oxford; home of Oxford University (duh) and the friendship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

I didn't really have a set schedule for Oxford. It's smallish, so I really just wandered around, taking pictures of fantastically old buildings and ended up stumbling into most of the main sights anyway.

This ox statue was the first thing I saw when I walked out of the train station.

Between the train station and the center of town, there's a small river with a trail along it that sort of winds through very English woodsy-ness. I had time, so I followed it for a ways, and discovered a community of nomads living on long, picturesque boats parked along the bank.

Bridge along the river.

Part of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

The Bodleian Library's iconic dome. They seems to be following an Italian theme. There was an Oxford Bridge of Sighs right down the street from this "duomo."

Most of the Oxford University campus was closed to the public that day, but I was able to sneak back into the students only sections to explore the dorms (hidden by ancient stone walls) and this pretty garden/quad area.

I camped out in this quad-like meadow for a while; snoozing and studying French and pretending I belonged there. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon in England.

Leaving the grassy area. So England-beautiful.

After cruising the university, I stopped for tea at a local shop (possible called The Rose?), frequented by well dressed 20 somethings and even more well dressed 50 somethings. Best tea of my life.

More Oxford perfection. My favorite part is that the guy running on the left matches the house...

The Botanical Gardens were closed, but a side gate was open to the rose garden so a browsed through it as I wandered around.

Ramdonly glorious sights like these are what I love about taking the time to simply wander. This was up a random back alley!

After a few hours of exploring, I stopped at pub/restaurant The Metre for a light dinner of appetizers and wine. As I sat there, I wrote the following rather silly pondering:

Tolkien used to live in Oxford. I wonder how often he sat as I sit, wine in one hand, pen in the other? I wonder how many greats have also sat as I sit now? And how many of those single, contemplative diners went on to rule their worlds and how many faded into the turning pages of history to be forgotten next to the exploits of greater beings? And which will I be? How are the pages of my history to be recorded? In bold, italicized lettering, splashed gloriously across the page? Or a mere footnote, in tiny font at the bottom, noted by a barely identifiable asterisk?

On the way back to the train station, I passed by Oxford Castle. It was closed, but I hopped the fence and climbed the castle mound for a quaint view of Oxford at night. Then it was back to the train, and back to Kings Cross just before midnight.

A little culture

I feel a bit guilty that I still don't have a post up for last weekend, but the insanity has continued! Glorious insanity only, of course. Monday night was Oliver - an absolutely spectacular rendition of the Dickens classic. I've always loved the show, but seeing it in London with such a stellar cast took it to a whole different level. My favorite actor? The lad who played the Artful Dodger. He was brilliant, and so full of energy, but having worked with kids his age in theater before, I'm pretty sure he was probably quite a lot to handle backstage. Oh, and lyrics like "who will buy, this beautiful morning?" and "I'd do anything for you, dear, anything, for you mean everything to me!" are ridiculously infectious.

Tuesday night I spent working at an event for the Labour Party in Mitchem and Morden. A Q&A with leadership hopeful, David Miliband. Just to note, I am in no way affiliated with the Labour Party and neither do I support half of what they do. I was working the event as part of my substitute internship. It was quite an experience though, to see a potential future prime minister walk in, shaking hands and kissing babies and see six hundred suburban constituents gape in awe. (As for Modus PR, a promo video we shot last month for Uniqlo went live on their website today and they DIDN'T edit me out. I'm impressed. To check it out, follow this link: http://bit.ly/aNeZag I'm the last one with way too many accessories.)

On a completely different note, I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum last Friday. Amazing. There's SO much crammed into that building - I heard somewhere that if you were to spend 30 seconds on each piece it would take you 12 years to see everything! Here are some of the pictures I took:

Gold. There was a giant hallway brimming with treasures from all over the world. This was just down a hall or two from a giant room full of hundreds of large swatches of fabrics dating back to Medieval times.

The original Peter Pan flying harness. Yeah, I was geeking out a bit. :) Looks even more uncomfortable than the one I had to wear!

My favorite piece from the special exhibit on the style of Grace Kelly.

Amazing riding jacket from the 1700s. Could have been straight off Christopher Decarnin's sketchpad.

My dream jewelry box from Japan. (Nate, if you're reading this, this is a hint...)

Italian gazebo. I want one hidden away in the gardens of my fantasy estate. You can sort of see the other statues and monuments in the background of this picture. There were two giant rooms full of castings of at least 50 major Italian sculptures, all crammed in together. It was actually really creepy. I can imagine if the world became completely industrialized and all of the great works of art were tossed into a storage facility it would look like this. That or an artsy version of the White Witch's courtyard.

Guardian Angel.

I'm usually not a fan of Medieval art, but this was pretty amazing.

The end of a very very long hall of statues.

The courtyard.

Outside of Oliver. A theater-goer's dream come true.

A blurry shot taken subtly from inside my purse (no pictures in the theater, please!) of the gorgeous theater. I bought my tickets ahead of time from the tkts booth in Leicester Square. Half price and sitting in the 6th row. That plus the Israeli mother and daughter sitting next to me who became my adopted family for the night, made the evening great even before the lights went down.