Brighton

Have you ever been to a place that looks as if it came from a painted card? Every corner in Brighton somehow brings a delightful surprise, calling of romance and adventure til you think - this is so wonderful, I am walking through a dream.

There isn't a lot of places in this world where I can call home, yet Brighton falls into this category. For the number of times where I have rushed through Victoria Station to catch the next fastest Southern train service for the trip, for the number of times I've cried and cooked and laughed and did stupid things - Brighton was a venue for much of my growth while living in UK. It's a beautiful and picturesque town, but there are people in my life that I wouldn't trade living here :) 

Via train, it's roughly 1 hour and a half from London. There's more frequent service from Victoria Station than other London stations. If you buy tickets more than a week in advance, you can get them as cheap as 5 pounds, for one way :) Be sure to enjoy the engineering design of Brighton Station! It's so beautiful. The best time to go is in summer, where the town lights up with circus and carnivals and the pier is made so much more beautiful in the pink sunsets. 

Places to visit: North Lane (and just a walk around the lanes in general), Brighton Pier, and sit around at the famous pebble beach, Brighton Pavilion (you can go ice skating here in winter) and perhaps Brighton Marina.  During weekends, there's also a lot of markets around town selling old books and weird clothes. There's also a toy museum underneath the bridge of the station. 

Things to eat: Desserts at Foodilic, fish and chips or oysters at the Regency Restaurant, hot chocolates at Choccywoccydoodah (there's branches in London too), or just any restaurant that catches your eye at the lanes :) There are so many artsy cafes for food - but to be honest, nothing beats Kanok Thai Restaurant. (Thai?! You come all the way to UK for Thai?! Hehe there is never a bad time for Thai food!). Also, it's halal. Hahaha.

They say this is arguably the best city to live in UK. If you enjoy cute little shops, pretty streets, English tea shops, puffy pastries, fairy tale piers and skies, take my word that you'll have a wonderful day trip here. 

If you have more than a day, take a trip to the Seven Sisters :D

This one's for Afra, Amin, Nana, Kuchik, Azad, Izzy, Idrina, Nuar, Faiz, Imran, Emira, Faizal, Nasyat, Farah - thank you for the memories and for being my family away from home.