Behold, for Brighten Call-eth!

That's correct folks, on Saturday I spent the day in Brighton in Hove and before you say anything, Yes, I am aware I was there only but a few months ago but I gotta admit to you folks, I find myself wanting to go there more and more often.

Me and my girlfriend set the alarm for 8am Saturday morning and were awoken to the shrill, bossy, Female voice of my Mobile phone informing me “The time is Eight AM, Time to get up!” That's right, it actually says the time AND shouts “Time to get up!” all in a Northern accent no less. Well we hauled ourselves out of bed and after a healthy breakfast (A chicken sandwich) we made our way to the train station. The last time we went we travelled by National Express coach which I highly recommend. It costs £1 there are £1 back and it really is the easiest way to travel, but seeing as we were only going for a day, we wanted to get as much time in as possible so we opted for the old fashioned train. £21 later, and we are on our way to Brighton.

After falling asleep on the pink train I awoke to find myself one stop from Brighton station. When we got off the train it was pissing down and the skies were grey. Depressing? Not at all. The thing I notice about Brighton is, despite the greyness of the skies, the place is still the most colourful of all places I have visited (and I'm not just talking about gay pride flags) There's this strange upbeat mood about as people carry on doing what they do knowing it will probably clear up by midday. It's a very multicultural place, and I really don't know where London gets its title as the most multicultural place in England because I really think Brighton gives it a run for its money.

Because the weather wasn't at its best we just explored the town. Through “the lanes” and various shops there's a lot to be found. Its all pretty alien actually. We walked through a free “Test your Aura” centre. It wasn't really my scene though. Maybe a bit too “far out” for me, but it was fun to see. We went in a lot of “tat” shops and for some reason they all have “I love london” merchandise in them despite being no where near London. Then we had probably the best pizza's ever in Donatello's. If you're ever in Brighton go to Donatello's. You can get a 2 course mean for £6 and its wicked. On the way back to meet some friends we found a little art exhibition made of paper called “the elephant bed” which was pretty cool.

After that we met up with out friends and went to a few pubs. We found a “Club” that had just recently “re opened” although it didn't look like much restoration work had been done. Its hard to find a pub in Brighton central that isn't a gay bar (not that we were looking) so we just presumed it was. It had very pretentious Banksy-esque artwork on the walls and the door had a pink banana on it. The soundtrack was hard underground electronica and apparently the “dance floor” was downstairs. Now I have seen some shoddy toilets in my time. I have been to “the Dirty South” in Lee Green, but until Saturday I had never been to a toilet with Saloon doors. After coming out of the OK Coral Toilets I decided to look at the “Dance floor” which turned out to be a black dungeon with some UV lights. As I ascended the stairs I was greeted at the top by a man of about 35 – 40 years in age wearing an orange tutu and tights. A real life Fairy man. Now despite what you may think, Brighton isn't actually as “gay” as everyone will have you believe, but this ladies and gentlemen may have been the gayest place we have visited so far. It was reasonably early in the day so we left that club and went to a quieter pub where we talked about movies and the like.

On the journey home I couldn't help but think that Brighton was the exact kind of place I would like to live someday. I love London, don't get me wrong. But after living here for 19 years you kind of want something different. For me Brighton has the perfect City to Beach ratio you could want. It has a great high-street with all the consumer focused shit a Londoner like myself needs along with a great stone beach and pier thats literally right around the corner for when you want to get away from it all and the best thing about it is that if you never turned that corner you wouldn't even know the high-street is there.

So in the short, if you want somewhere great to go in England, go to Brighton. Just go by National Express and not extortionate train. You Could literally go 11 more times in National Express for the price of a 1 day return on the British Rail.

Just beware that Fairy man. Don't enter the club with the pink banana on the door.