London, Brighton and Edinburgh

Just to prove I did it.
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One of the last things I did before leaving London was go to The Momument, a memorial to the Great Fire of 1666. It's a tall, monolithic sort of thing, about 60 metres high. The views were great. I didn't really have my head around just how big London was until I did it. I mean, I knew it was huge, but you don't really get that sense of it being enourmous as cleary until you can see it all at once. Travelling around on the tube doesn't help, cos you just hope on, disappear into the darkness for a bit, then reappear somewhere else, and miss out on that sense of how everything is connected together. So basically, from The Monument, London stretches as far as you can see, in every direction. Huge.

The Monument
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Cat and I decided we were going to go down to Brighton, a Seaside town on the south coast last weekend. We didn't realise until we booked it, but it was the Brighton Gay Pride Parade that weekend. We decided to go anyway, and as it turned out, it didn't invade too much on the weekend, except that because we probably got the last two spare beds in town, we were stuck in an 18-bed dorm (yes! the biggest I've been in yet). Horrible. Wonderful Hostel, called Baggies, with so much character, but a horrible sleeping situation. The parade provided an hour or so's entertainment on the saturday, and otherwise we just poked around town, visited the famous pebbly beach (they're more small rocks, really), and otherwise relaxed. Also visited the Royal Pavillion there, which was built by Charles IV, who used as a bit of a debauched pleasure palace. It's a weird building, Indian-looking on the outside, decorated Chinese-style on the inside: not very English at all. It's amazingly lavish inside. Brighton's a place I could see myself spending a bit more time, very relaxed and liberal, with a huge nightlife scene (they have these clubs that are built under the main road that open, literally, right onto the beach). I reminded me a little of a larger version of Byron Bay, it's that sort of vibe.

The Monument
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Went back to London for a night, then caught the train up to Edinburgh. The Festival is great fun, there's stuff going on everywhere all the time. I've been to at least one show every day so far -- went to see Ed Byrne last night and Dylan Moran (both comedians) the night before, and before that went to 'The One Man Star Wars Trilogy', which is pretty much what it sounds like: one guy re-enacting star wars beggining to end, doing all the voices and sound effects and everything himself, and cracking fun at some of its more ridulous elements. Never realised what a whiny prat Luke Skywalker was before. All very entertaining. Going to stay here for a while to enjoy a bit more of the Fest and see Glasgow and bit of the rest of Scotland, then over to Ireland at the end of the month.