It was nice to see them again, and especially my cats, as they came straight to me. unafraid though slightly cautious - I wonder if they even recognized me? After all, the youngest cats I spent 7 years with and the oldest, 12-13 years.
The next few days were not really 100% enjoyable; they were very costly (33 pounds for 1 week bus tickets for example). We did get to see the pier, a few shops, sit in the pavilion garden (got asked by a few tourists to take their photo) etc, but the evenings were spent revising for my all-important university exam.
The pier has a unique aspect of being quite relaxing, despite it being a typical hangout for kiddos and chavs. We did have some fun blowing away a bit of money in the arcade in the vain hopes of winning something. While our small gambles in the 2p and 10p machines didn't quite go so well, we were fortunate enough to win (over a period of 2 days) not one, but two angry bird teddies - the standard red one and the black bomber one. We figured the 'claw' one was just a scam and didn't bother with them, but there is also one with 2 pinchers that we were using to knock them over the side :)
We also had a go at the hello kitty version, and came extremely close but sadly didn't get it in the end. Even though it was costly, it was fun, and I suppose on a holiday that's what really matters - especially after such a stressful 3 days of traveling, revision and examination.
This shot was taken at night-time on the pier, amazingly with a 1/70s shutter @ 1.8, 50mm and ISO200.
I did miss my cats very much. In fact, for a long time, I even dreamt about coming back and seeing them. I had that dream many times and it was one of the things that helped me to fall asleep. Now that my year-long awaited trip is over, I wonder what I can think about now? I miss them again, but I have my own two cats - Shrimpy and Biggy, and I love them both too (even with the evilness)
Osiris seemed to really love Magdalena; always coming to her and laying on her lap! That said, I was fortunate enough to get him for a few minutes at a time and I enjoyed that. They were all so different - they looked different, felt different and acted different (comparatively speaking) to how I remember them and how I am with my cats at home.
We went to the Brighton Sea-Life center. Bloody hell are their prices extortionate? 16 pounds for a ticket, per person, after VAT. Though I did get a pound discount with my student ID...3 goes at angry birds!
Many of my pictures didn't turn out well, I was surprised because the last images I took in an aquarium at the old zoo turned out really nicely. I suspect the varying lighting conditions in the building itself, plus the bizarre lighting inside of the tanks, coupled with the awful dispersion and refraction glasses they used to magnify the fish made focusing very difficult. Even with high ISO and an aperture of f/1.8 - f/2.8, my shutter was often too slow to be able to get a decent picture, specially given that they were quick and I was unable to use flash (understandably, of course). This jellyfish was gorgeous though, and I found it more interesting than the majority of the other creatures there, including the stingrays, the giant turtle and the sharks.
I don't remember what kind of fish the above is, but it looks remarkably like a lion fish (though we did see some of them, definitely) perhaps it's a part of the lion fish taxonomy?
I remember a spot close to me which was called aptly the "Dew Pond". It's a small pond right at the summit of Wild Park's big hill. When we left home, it was cold and we wore our big, elegant winter jackets, but after climbing the steep hill to the top - not only were we reaffirmed of our need to get a bit healthier (the pier's daily donut dosage was not exactly helpful in that regard) but also we got pretty damn hot. Though the trip - for my partner more so - was difficult, I think we both enjoyed it and the views at the top of the hill, showing the whole of Brighton, were quite worth it. A nice little relaxing lay on the grass with the views was just what we needed.
The walk back down was much more enjoyable though; it was less stressful for the cardio and the prospect of going into town to get a few things before we got home and began packing was cheery.
Sadly for us, the return journey was not at all pleasant - though it was quite eventful. Unfortunately, the only way we could go back home with our ridiculous amount of baggage weight we had, was to fly with WizzAir from Luton, because each checked-on bag (17gbp) allowed 32kg compared to Ryanair's 15gbp for 15kg or 25gbp for 20kg. That's not the worst part! The worst part is that despite Luton being closer to London (and consequently Brighton) than Stansted is, there are very few options to get there. Our flight was at 8.a.m. and the only way to ensure we got there on time was to leave my mum's home at 19:30, depart Brighton at 20:50, get to Victoria at 22:50, leave there at 23:30, get to Luton at 00:35 and wait there for 8 hours - joy!
When we got on the coach at Brighton, the coach driver was very nice, friendly and quite funny. However, when we started reversing to leave, some idiot started knocking on the window, asking the driver to let him on. The driver said "sorry, you're late" and the guy began making excuses, saying that he was waiting there, but the driver would not let him on and the guy began to become aggressive. He threw himself in front of the coach, screaming, hitting the window etc. The driver tried to pull away, but each time did, the guy jumped in front of the bos. Then, when the driver opened his window to speak to him, he became more aggressive - shouting all the expletives under the sun. When the driver drove off, he kicked the bus enough times and significantly enough that it dented the bus and left marks on. It was quite amusing - albeit slightly concerning. It gave us a conversation topic for the journey, and the driver was speaking with us about it a lot. It became quite serious and the police became involved and we were asked to give our names and email addresses in case they want to contact us for witness statements. Everybody on the bus was speaking with each other, there was a friendly atmosphere and the driver was always speaking and joking with us even while moving. By far the best coach journey I ever had.
Sadly, the good start didn't last long. We got into London 5 minutes late (understandably). We went all the way from arrivals to gate 1 to find out that the National Express to Luton was leaving from gate 20. After walking allll the way to gate 20, we were told that our reservation was with another service called Green Line, which left from another building outside of Victoria, but by this point we had only 10 minutes to go. So... we ran, carrying / dragging 50kg (the 29kg suitcase's wheel broke, resulting in the need to drag) all the way back to gate 1. Now, only 6-7 minutes to go, we were told that it's across the street, about 300m down the road.. We walked as quickly as possible and made it with 2 minutes to spare after packing our own stuff on the bus. We were so stressed and tired it was unbelievable.
Eventually we arrived in Luton at 00:35, and the first impression of this airport was "terrible". Indeed it was! We spent 1.50gbp in 2 minutes weighing our bags. Then we had to find a way to kill 8 hours. There was no where to sleep;all the seats were taken and the floor was very cold and uncomfortable. So we went to Starbucks, ordered a coffee and a grilled sandwich and sat for a while. After an hour or so, one seat opened up, which Mag took. 45 mins - an hour later, another seat opened up, which I grabbed. Now we had an opportunity to sleep and rest! The time went by a bit quicker, and at around 6:50ish, we went to check in, took our suitcase to outsize baggage and deposited it... But oh no! There was a ridiculously long queue to security, it stretched throughout half the airport because of damn "heightened security measures". It took us about 50 minutes to get through security, and along the way we encountered two rude bitches. The first - a stuck up middle-aged, middle-class snobby woman. She walked in our way and Mag's suitcase went over her foot, we both said sorry, to which she replied "a sorry would be appropriate" before skipping the queue to her husband and moaning to him about us. Later, after getting through security checks, we were putting our trays back when Mag put the tray of another girl down because the girl was too lazy to do it herself. In the process, her arm gently touched the girl's, and she said, in a really bitchy way, "oh come on, please be careful". I told her to shut up and said to Mag not to worry, it's what Britain is famous for after all - moaners and naggers, to which the girl very loudly shouted "so don't come back!". I was tempted to say "No worries, I won't. My taxes won't pay for your JSA, you tarty, ill-educated slag" but alas...I refrained.
We got to our gate and a few moments later boarding began. We were practically the last on the plane because of a huge queue, but my strategy of sending mag to the window seat, me in the middle and coughing and stretching all the time whenever the seat next to me was at risk of being sat on, worked. For the 2nd time (both inbound and outbound flights) I had two seats to myself. I thought that would mean a good flight, but it didn't. A family of three in front of us kept sitting back hard in their chair hurting Mag's knee and irritating us. The woman in front tried to recline back onto me and, when asked not to, got bitchy. Three pigs behind us kept kicking the chair, knocking our armrests back down, drinking and eating smelly food. Couple the constant kicking with smelly food, terrible service, a delayed take-off by 20 minutes, AND a screaming baby and we had the worst flight of our life.
Never again will we fly with WizzAir and from Luton! Absolutely appalling. We got back to Poznań and were out of passport control with our luggage and in a taxi in less than 25 minutes from landing! Back in our home at around 12:30pm...
It's been an experience. A (mostly) positive one and I'm feeling a bit refreshed now. I have more pictures to go through and they'll make it to another post (no worries - very little writing in the next one!) If you made it all the way to the end of this one, then I salute you!
Ta ta for now
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