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Brighton was an interesting place. It was a mix of the typical narrow British winding cobblestone streets with quaint historic architecture, along with the Coney Island carnival atmosphere on the sea shore.
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The Brighton Pier has all the trappings of a carnival - games of skill where you can win stuffed animals, a video arcade, food booths, and rides. Heck, they even fit a flume ride and a small rollercoaster on that pier! It reminded me of an amuzement park called Rocky Point that was on the ocean near where I grew up in Rhode Island.
Down the beach from the glitzy pier is the torn wreckage of another pier. Apparantly it had been destroyed by gale-force winds several years ago. It was a nice quiet contrast to the other pier. Yin and yang on the ocean's edge.
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After taking a wander about the trendy shopping district of Brighton (including a stop in Starbucks for an obligatory hot chocolate), I was pleasantly suprised to find myself in front of a Lego shop.
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For a while I had this obsession with Lego, perhaps because I never had any as a child. And now, after thinking I was over this mania, I found myself in front of a whole store dedicated to them. So of course I had to stop in. Bins of loose Lego pieces lined one wall - like a candy store. You could fill different sized cups with the pieces and pay a fixed price. There was also a large barrel filled to the rim with Lego minifig body parts. It was a build-your-own minifig for something like £l. I managed to escape the store having spent only £6. Phew!
As I was leaving Brighton, it was getting dark and the pier was now all lit up in its full carnival glory. I tried to get a snapshot of it, but my mobile phone doesn't do too good with pictures in low light. At least you can get an idea of how large the pier is.
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I think I took a few too many pictures of the Royal Pavilion...
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*yawn* Ok... that's enough pictures of the pavilion. You can wake up now.