the ski trip that wasn't, part two: winging it

[Part one here]

Since precise planning led to nowhere but trouble, we decided instead to throw planning out the window and go on a spur-of-the-moment tour of the coastal towns of southern England. First stop: Brighton.
We've all decided that we love Brighton. The seaside was the perfect way to get our spirits back up. Plus, the fact that the beach is pebbly instead of sandy is great--no mess! Also, I love beaches in the winter because of the whole not-getting-burned-to-a-crisp thing. So we spent a nice relaxing hour or so just chilling on the seashore, and then we meandered over to Brighton Pier.I rode the bigger roller coaster and the big crane-arm-swingy thing (yes, that is the technical term for it), but most of the rest of the group were too chicken to go on the scary rides so they did the slide and the twirly one. Then we got noodles from a vendor, and Leonore got hers stolen by giant seagulls. Serious, these birds are totally Hitchcock-esque. But we got chocolate waffles on sticks, which made it all better.
Après ça, we walked up to the Royal Pavilion, which is this very cool building that George IV used to hang out in.After a few pictures, we headed back to the beach to watch the sun set.
We had originally thought that we would only spend a few hours in Brighton then head somewhere else or go back to uni, but we were having such a good time that we decided to stay overnight. So we found a Walkabout hostel that had rooms for £10, and went down to the pub area for dinner and drinks. Fortunately, because we were in an English pub instead of a Norwegian club, I got to watch the Arsenal FA Cup replay. And of course we all know what happened there.The rest of the group weren't into football, so they couldn't understand why I was flipping out so much about Eduardo's brace. But I didn't really care. After the 4-0 win and the triumphant return of the Crozilian, nothing could spoil my mood. We stuck around for a while, and met some British randoms after an awkward picture-taking incident. One of them was in love with my friend Victoria, and gave us £20 to spend on drinks, so we got lots of shots. Which did nothing. We suspect they weren't real alcohol.

We eventually got bored of the pub, so we left and walked around Brighton looking for a dance club open on a Monday night. The guys followed us, claiming they knew where to go, but we ended up at a grody hole-in-the-wall pub far away from the beach. So we left (after Mark got Victoria's number) and went back to the hostel. One of the windows in our room was broken and they didn't have enough bedding for all of us, so even though I was sleeping right next to the heater it was absolutely freezing. But I guess you get what you pay for. It was still totally worth it, because we had a fantastic time.

Part three, coming soon.