[Europe Trip] On visiting Brighton

Brigthon was a pretty, small town located on the south coast of England. We went there by train from London Victoria station. The most famous landmarks of Brigthon are the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier.

Royal Pavilion was an amazing, lavish place, built by King George IV. It was distinguishable for its Indian architecture and Oriental interior design, even though the King himself never visited China. He first went to Brighton as he was told that the seawater was good for his health.

The first room we entered was the Octagon room, followed by long gallery of antiques. The most stunning of all was the banquet room, with its intricate design - the long table, chandeliers, carvings, paintings on the ceilings, and details such as carpet, wallpaper, cutleries, tablewares. Behind the banquet hall, they built a huge kitchen which allowed sophisticated cooking techniques and preparation of upto 100 dishes to be carried out for the 30 seated guests. There was also a special smaller room in between the kitchen and banquet hall, dedicated for the chef to give his dishes the final touch before they were presented to the guests.

The supper room was where the lady guests could touch up their make up after dinner, while the gentlemen were still smoking and socializing in the banquet hall. The ladies were using bee wax at that time, and when it was too hot it would melt. That was apparently how the term 'long face' was invented. There was also a music room, a dancing hall with pipe organ, and the saloon.

On the second floor they built the king's apartment - his bedroom (with secret door leading to bathroom), library, maid room, etc. The last person who inherited the palace was Queen Victoria. She felt overwhelmed by the place and finally sold it to the town. Too bad no phototaking was allowed inside the palace, thus the absence of photos.

We took a brief look at Brighton Museum as well, as entrance was free, but were not really interested to continue the tour, so we proceeded to the Brighton Pier. It's a calm, picturesque pier on a pretty beach with big pebbles instead of sand. The long pier had food stalls at its entrance, benches, and game room cum casino in the middle of it. We enjoyed a big portion of fish and chips on the bench facing the sea.


For the journey back to London, we had already booked the bus tickets. But the station which we were supposed to depart from was under renovation. After making a few queries and running here and there, we finally saw the big bus at a bus stop near the pier *wipe sweat*.

Three words for Brighton: laid-back, touristy and panoramic.