bright side

T R A V E L || U.K.

where || brighton

Seventeen excited ladies descended onto Brighton-town over the early May Bank Holiday for miss Jessica's hen-do, one of my loveliest and longest-known friends [we met age eleven!]. The weekend had been planned out well in advance thanks to the super organised maid of honour Rosie, consisting of excellent activities like life drawing and dressing up as grannies for a big night out. In between the schedule, we also had some downtime to explore. I think I've dropped through Brighton a couple of times before but have never properly looked around it so pretty much saw this as my first visit. We were really lucky and had glorious weather over the whole weekend which was the cherry on top of a top weekend.

Some of my favourite discovered places include the classics: [1] The Royal Pavilion, a proper Indian-style palace in the middle of well manicured gardens [2] Brighton Pier, the dominant fun-filled landmark sitting proudly off the beach [3] Brighton Wheel, or as I like to think of it the Brighton Eye [4] General Brighton architecture: curved bay windows, princess balconies and colourful townhouses perfectly blended against a sea backdrop. It's hard not to love.

Brighton has such a relaxed atmosphere and made for great exploring. On our first day, we ended up chilling on the cobbled beach chatting, playing games and getting to know the group over tasty chips and drinks. We also got a chance to browse some of the cute shops under the walkway [local pottery heaven] called The Artist Quarter and even had a little carousel ride to add to the seaside fun.

The second day of exploring led us to the famous Brighton Lanes - a haven for all of us who love to browse and shop in the hustle and bustle of a city. Bunting galore, street stalls, people having lunch and coffee outside independent shops and cafés, the lanes felt like a massive community street hangout. Definitely worth a visit, for at least the experience and an opportunity to discover some hidden gems [like hot kinky spicy soft olives!]. We found a sweet little shop were I managed to pick up some souvenirs: some colourful postcards and a matching teacup necklace and ring set.

Great food was in abundance throughout the Lanes too - independent cafés and street stalls serving homemade bread, scotch eggs, cakes, salads, you name it it was there. This meant a constant smell of delicious food wherever we went [prepare yourselves]. A few of the girls and I ended up in this great little vegetarian restaurant where we had the most delicious pea and parmesan arancini [my sides were broccoli salad, couscous, houmous and beetroot chutney]. We also had some great froyo [there were a few of them so it was hard to resist!] and I found my future birthday cake [a homemade blueberry sponge with orange icing, yum-yum-yummy]. We also spotted some great named eateries including Mac Doner and my personal favourite O'Fishly Healthy [a fish and chippy].

Brighton is a great place and being only one hour or so from London, the girls and I think it would be a great day-trip destination. I can't wait to organise another visit soon so that we can do more browsing, shopping and eating. We really had an ace weekend celebrating with Jess and couldn't have hoped for a more fun little hen-do adventure. We love you Brighton, 'till next time!

C: 

T W I T T E R | I N S T A G R A M | B L O G L O V I N | G O O G L E + | P I N T E R E S T