The day started way early and a bit miserable. The weather was super cold and gray, and we were running a little late. Then we get almost to the Earl's Court station, and four of us realize that we don't have our rail passes. We hadn't realized that we were taking a train train, so we'd neglected to grab them. We had to run back to the hotel, and because the schedule was so tight we assumed that we'd have to catch the tube and then the train by ourselves so the rest of the group could go ahead, but they did end up waiting for us. So everyone was kind of stressed and grouchy and we felt really bad for forgetting the rail passes and setting everyone back, so it was just not a good way to start the day.
The train took us to Brighton, somehow making up lost time, where we were on time to catch our coach bus. It was called The Big Lemon and it was painted bright yellow and it ran on used cooking oil. So that was nifty. It took us out to Charleston House, which is the preserved home of Viriginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, and her husband and a number of guests. I stood in John Maynard Keynes' bedroom this morning, which was pretty awesome. The whole house was very interesting - all these artists and writers who were clearly ahead of their time. All the paintings all over the walls and doors and fireplaces and furniture was really impressive and different.
Afterwards, we took the coach back to the station, and walked from there to a little park outside the Royal Pavilion to set a time to meet back there after we broke for lunch. I actually got brave, and Cara and I went to this little Swiss restaurant and I tried Swiss food! Nothing elaborate, but still rather out of character for me. Cara and Paul and Jayme were proud I avoided a chain restaurant. The lady at Swisstorante (love the name) was soooooo nice and explained all the different dishes to us and let us try the cheese before we got it with our meal. We got rosti, which is like a huge, soft hashbrown, with some kind of melty cheese. The cheese was a bit stronger than I like (which may be why my stomach's a bit nervous at the moment and I haven't attempted dinner yet) but it was quite good and we both really enjoyed going there. And after we finished eating, we popped into a BBC SHOP THAT WAS PRACTICALLY NEXT DOOR! We had passed it on the way to the Royal Pavilion earlier, and Paul made sure that I saw it. Oh, I had. I had definitely seen it. Big standups of the 11th Doctor and Amy in the window. Yessssss. So we popped our heads in after lunch to see what they had and just looking around a bit made me certain I'd have to come back after class was done. But more on that later!!!
So, after lunch we went into the Royal Pavilion. I had no idea what it was, but we soon found out that it was one of the homes of King George IV, where he liked to impress people when he was acting as regent for his father, King George III. The outside looks much more like something you might find in Russia than England, with onion type domes and such. The inside was much inspired by the concept of China, if not accurately like China. The inside. Oh man, the inside. We have seen some lavish places while we were here, but nothing like this.Wow. Just...wow. Chandeliers and thick carpets and patterned wallpapers and paintings and gilded everything in enormous high-ceilinged rooms. No photography allowed, so you'll have to google pictures. So worth it though. The main chandelier in the dining room looks to be held from the ceiling by a three dimensional dragon and the chandelier itself weighs one ton. One TON. Hanging from the ceiling! Craziness! But so gorgeous!
After the Royal Pavilion, another classmate gave a presentation, and Paul and Jayme told us we could split off for the rest of the evening, and find our own way back to London whenever we were ready (not hard - trains from Brighton to London every fifteen minutes and then take the Jubilee tube line to Westminster to switch over to the District line to get off at Earl's Court). They did encourage us to go down and see the ocean, since it was only two and a half blocks away. We had some time, and I knew that the BBC shop closed at 5:30, but I had never seen the ocean before and I really wanted to. When I announced that I hadn't seen it before, both professors seemed surprised and Jayme said that we had to fix that immediately. So off to the ocean we went! Well, technically the English Channel, but still! I put my hand in salt water today for the first time, so it counts! It was sun - Cara and I picked up shells and cool stones with the professors before we high-tailed it back to the BBC Shop.
We got there a nice chunk of time before it closed and looked around and drooled over things. It was mostly DVDs which was a bit sad since we couldn't bring anything of the wrong region back with us because it wouldn't play in our DVD players, but there were also books and some shirts and some little window clings and magnets and mugs and things that we managed to find. It was glorious. I can't detail everything that I bought because it includes gifts for certain people, but I can say that I got myself a Doctor Who t-shirt, a copy of Hound of the Baskervilles with an intro by BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, a Doctor Who annual book (free poster included!), a DW window cling, and BBC magnet. So all that, plus the presents, was under 30 pounds. I love half off sales!!!! Also the guy at the register/till was really great. He looked at my pile of stuff and sort of smiled and said "We've been getting a lot of Americans in here lately buying Doctor Who stuff." To which I said "We can't get it in the States!"
Him: "Are there a lot of Doctor Who fans in America?"
Me: "You'd be surprised. There's strong little pockets here and there. There's actually a pretty big group of us at my university."
Him: "Really?"
Me: "Yeah! We're known as the Hiram Whovians. It's wonderful."
Him: "That's really cool."
We're cool guys!! We're cool!!
After that very successful shopping trip, Cara and I caught a train back to London. We took that by ourselves, as well as the tube stops, and we didn't get lost! We made it back to the hotel all by ourselves, no problems! We were exhausted from the long day, so we didn't go out for the evening - just stayed in and journaled and sketched until it was time for bed.
Only a few more days!
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