Nicole's Happy Place

If you follow Nicole on Twitter, then you probably already know how much she loves Brighton as she was ranting about it just this morning. We both love the city and it's definitely much more exciting than campus (for one thing, there are actual British people in the city...).

Stefanie spent the morning in class, while Nicole worked on reading and research for her paper. Then, we decided to try out taking the bus into town (it's a lot simpler than it seems based on the fact that we can't seem to get any information on it). It took about a half an hour to get from campus to downtown Brighton (versus 10 minutes on the train, plus the walk to the station and the walk into town). 

We started off with lunch at EAT because we had heard it was yummy. Well, everyone who said that was definitely right! 

Stefanie's "Rainbow Salad" and hummos & falafel wrap

Nicole's tomato-brie-basil baguette, crisps, and Pink Lemonade
(which was kind of life-changing)

There was an adorable market out in the square with lots of fresh food, including sushi and food imported from Spain.

After finishing lunch, we decided to explore the mall in Churchill Square. We went in about a dozen stores and Stef bought some adorable clothes at H&M. Nicole was beyond thrilled to find Ed Sheeran's new CD in a DVD & CD store, which was one of the things we had set out to find today. 

We found this Ed Sheeran poster outside the store!

I'm addicted to trying on these hats.
They make me feel like Taylor Swift!

Then we went into Topshop (where neither of us found anything) and Primark where Nicole went a little crazy. We've both watched some of the vlogger Zoella's youtube videos, because Nicole is obsessed with them, and she frequently shops at Primark...in fact, she shops at the same Primark we went to because she lives in Brighton! We found fun things galore, including British flag beach towels!

Nicole strongly identified with this shirt;
Stefanie was not amused. 

Following this, we bought some more practical items like hand soap (which we FINALLY found; we were beginning to think it didn't exist in this country), an adaptor for Stef, groceries, and books for Nicole's class. 

We decided to take a stroll and ended up down at the beach. We frolicked over the rocky beach before sprawling out for a little while. Then we decided to eat at one of the restaurants down on the beach, where we had disappointing veggie burgers (the view was great though!). 

We could see the Grand Hotel, a Victorian hotel built in 1864

We could also see West Pier, which was built in 1866,
but burnt down in 2003 

Our view from the restaurant

Then, we caught the bus home (we caught one just as it pulled up which was a nice surprise!). We're hoping to have a low-key (and hopefully less expensive!) day tomorrow as we rest up to head to Wimbledon on Friday.