Fish and Chips and a Beautiful Coast!

(I really ate that and kinda enjoyed it! Everyone should be so proud that I ate FISH!)

Today we went to Brighton! What a beautiful town! Well, I guess its not really a town... more like a coastal city, but still! It was so pretty! 

The day was epic and started off super well! We woke up around 4:30 in the a. m. which meant I only got about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep last night. Then we met up with everyone and we were out the door at about 5:45. When we got to the tube station at Nottinghill Gate, we realized that we were cutting it very close and were going to have to run to make the train. The 6 of us (Garrett, Kaitlin, Melissa, Sarah, Tricia, and I) literally ran through Victoria Station and luckily caught our train just on time! We were able to sit back, relax, and enjoy an hour long ride through the English countryside.

Once we got off the train, we all knew exactly where we wanted to go next! We wanted to see the ocean! Its not technically the Ocean, its the English Channel, but whatever! We didn't care! We started walking down and, at one point, even running to see the beach! It was a pebble beach, which kinda hurt our feet (a lot) but we were enjoying the salty air and ocean breeze anyway! It was a little chilly at first, but not too bad. We took a nice LONG walk down the beach for a while. We walked pretty far on the rocks, but our feet, legs, and backs quickly started hurting so we jumped up to the boardwalk and enjoyed the weather and interesting sights. 

Around 10:30, we met up with some other BYU kids, Rubie, Addison, and Anna, to hit up the Brighton Aquarium! Its the oldest working aquarium in the world and it was pretty awesome! I don't think I've ever been to an aquarium before, at least not one that I vividly remember, so I really enjoyed today! 

I saw lots of cool fish and some creepy ones too! I think my favorite part was the "Lost in the Amazon" section of the aquarium! The fish in there were cool, but just the set up of the exhibit was awesome! It was super dark and had a lot of fake trees and things which were cool. But the thing that made it so fun were the mirrors they had everywhere. Kaitlin and I jumped a lot and it was really funny! 

(The picture above is of Lulu the Sea Turtle that we saw! She was really cool! She swam past us and splashed us at one point during our visit!)

During our visit, we sat down and listened to "Turtle talk and Feeding." It wasn't anything super special, except Melissa answered a question, so she got to feed Lulu! We mostly just listened to this British kid tell us random facts about the turtles and why we should stop over fishing and stuff. 

Then we headed downstairs and got to walk through this tunnel that went through the tank where Lulu and the sharks and lots of other fish were! It was soo cool! Madeleine would have died! There were a bunch of awesome sharks swimming literally right over our heads! So crazy!

After the Aquarium it was lunch time! I was feeling super adventurous and so I decided to go all out and eat some fish! Fish and chips, that is! I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite, but I ate it and that's all that matters right? haha! 

Then we hit up a couple of the markets on the board walk, but then decided to go check out the Pier. 

The Pier was cool. Nothing super exciting. It didn't feel like England, but it was a fun place. Kaitlin and I did Dance Dance, which I found super fun and exciting, but I am pretty sure I was the only one. haha Then Tricia and Melissa rode this crazy ride! I thought and still do think they're insane! It was the scariest looking thing I think I've ever seen! But they loved it! :) 

Then we did some more shopping and ended up splitting the group up a little bit. Melissa, Sarah, and Garret went off to find something they could do sitting down and the other three had disappeared earlier that day so Tricia, Kaitlin, and I kept shopping around and had a blast! We found some pretty interesting stuff. Laws are different in London to put it simply. But other than some scandalous stuff, the clothes tend to be fun and cute :)

Kaitlin, Tricia, and I went off to have dinner at this pizza place where they had all you could eat pizza, pasta, salad, and bread sticks. It was pretty good. My favorite part was the lady sitting next to us! She was soo cool! We started talking about High School Musical actually. haha :) But then she told us about some fun things in Brighton and about her family and where she lives now! It was fun and interesting! I love it when people just start talking to us! Its so great! 

By this time, we were absolutely exhausted. I don't think my feet have ever hurt this badly in my entire life! We walked so much today! After dinner, we still had a few hours to kill before our train left, but we didn't have much else to do. Most places were closed and we didn't really feel like walking all the way back down to the beach. We ended up just heading to the train station and reading/resting for a little over an hour until our train showed up. 

It was a super fun day! The weather was beautiful! It was a little cool, but nothing to really complain about. I loved it! I don't think my feet have ever hurt this badly, but it is totally worth it! 

Tomorrow: Lots and lots of homework/studying and letting my body recover from all this exercise! 

I love you all! Hope you're having fun!!! 

Melissa, Garret, Sarah, and I on top of this thing on the beach! We have way too much fun!