So far I have taken two trips within England to a few very different places. They were both a beautiful and welcomed breath of fresh, clean, non-city air.
My first adventure was a day trip with my friend Cailey to Brighton- a seaside town in Sussex. First on the agenda: the Royal Pavilion. Actual first activity: getting mildly lost. The wonderful thing about small towns though is you can’t really get too lost so we managed to stumble across the Royal Pavilion after only looking like stupid tourists for a few minutes. The Royal Pavilion was definitely unlike anything I’ve seen in the UK so far. You kinda have to double check that you’re actually still in the UK when you see it. Its’ extravagant, Indian-inspired architecture is striking to say the least. The Royal Pavilion is the former seaside retreat of King George IV and is very extravagantly decorated on the inside. Now I will leave you to google images of that and spend my time describing tea. Yes. We in fact did have tea in a palace in England. And yes, it was fabulous. I had tea, hand-made soup and fresh bread. It was the kind of soup that you know has been simmering all morning whilst being stirred by the person who made the recipe. Across from me, Cailey enjoyed her scone and clotted cream- more on the wonders of clotted cream to come. Overall, it was the perfect brunchy-palacey-homemadey meal.
Next we wandered to the sea (Jack Johnson would be proud). It was a very beautiful beach but had a completely different feel to it. The white sands I am used to from Hawaii were replaced by pebbles and stones in beautiful shades of charcoal, white, and everything in between. The sunscreen scented air and inviting waters were replaced with chilly winds and waves that even sounded different when they washed up on shore. The whole soul of the sea was different there.
After agreeing that we could spend all day there we forced ourselves on to destination #3- a hike... or shall I say trail walk?
45 minutes of countryside bus riding later, we hopped off and followed our little pamphlet trail guide. To give you an idea of how countryside-y it was, let me copy some of the directions from the pamphle (from the official tourism website)t:
“turn right at the cattle grid and down the valley to Hope Gap”
“At Hope Gap turn left at the unfenced cliff edge.”
and my personal favorite from a lady on the bus “oh yes, it’s right up here past some sheep.”
And past some sheep we walked! Over mossy grass and along an unfenced cliff edge right on the sea. It was fantastic. We were right next to the Seven Sisters which are these seven beautiful chalky cliffs right along the sea. The trail spit us out right by this cute little pub which served the largest fish and chips I have seen since arriving here which is an impressive feat in itself. Thus ended our perfect teeny tiny little holiday to Brighton.
The next weekend I went to Harrogate with Toria and Nicole. Toria used to live in Harrogate so she and her mom helped us plan an awesome trip there! Harrogate is way up north, pretty close to York. Our first stop there was a beautiful old tea shop called Betty’s. We had the most wonderful afternoon tea there in this really nice room donned with chandeliers, flowers, and little melodies floating from the piano in the corner. Our three-teared platter included finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and little desserty things on top. I will now expound on the wonders of clotted cream. I do not know how life in America exists without it. It is the perfect topping for scones or really anything for that matter. And it’s name is appropriately frank. Eat too much of it and other things are bound to become clotted.
After tea at Betty’s and a good look around the gift shop, we headed out to Pately Bridge. When we got on the bus, we weren’t expecting fare to cost as much as it did and a nice gentleman behind us saw our surprised looks and offered to buy our tickets for us. This is a perfect example of the kindness and generosity of the people I have encountered further away from London. As lovely and helpful as Londoners are, it’s still a big, busy city and people are just trying to get to where they’re going. Life is much more relaxed outside of the city. While we didn’t actually do much at Pately Bridge, our bus ride was beautiful! More sheep and grassy hills and just plain ol’ gorgeous countryside. That night, we slept in real beds. This was a lovely treat seeing as my bed at school, while functional, is quite tiny and not super comfortable. The next day we went to the Turkish Baths, England’s first spa. It involved a steam room, and three heated rooms ranging from 40-70 degrees Celsius. That’s up to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Each of these was interspersed with plunges into a super cold pool which lowered your body temperature, enabling you to be able to take in more heat. It was so relaxing and a nice treat to end the trip.
So those were my two trips out of the city so far. They were both wonderful and welcomed retreats from busy city life.
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