"Brighton - "London-by-the-sea"" Brighton by annase

Brighton is probably the most well known seaside resort in the UK alongside Bournemouth. It is particularly popular amongst the Londoners as it is the most accessible beach from the capital. One of its major attractions is indeed, its pebble beach, which has a range of bars, restaurants, night clubs and arcades offering various amusement. Someone has once counted all the venues finding that there were over 400 pubs in the city.. What a great task it would be to go around them all. A full pub crawl would literally take weeks to complete.

I went to Brighton on a pretty, but windy and chilly Saturday in February. The weather was a far cry from a beautiful summer's day and sunbathing, but whatta heck. The city became a health resort during the 18th century and after the arrival of the railway in mid-19th century, it soon became a popular destination for Londoners travelling down to the beaches for a day. It still is a popular resort for the Londoners although it might be an absolute pain to get to from other parts of southern England. The city also houses 2 Unis and every summer loads of loads of youngster arrive to Brighton to study English. :-)

The Victorian era saw the building of many of the famous landmarks in Brighton including the Grand Hotel (1864), the West Pier (1866) and the Palace Pier (1899). The latter is a must - at least to see. It's an enormously pretty, white construction. Unfortunately, it is filled with junk (noisy games for kids and adults, a fair ground, a few pubs, fortune tellers and junk food, in short).

Local flower shop

Brighton is known for its somewhat alternative and open minded scene. The city has a substantial lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community and it is often referred to as "the gay capital of Britain", in a similar vein to San Francisco in the USA. This flower shop can be found in the more alternative neighbourhood of the city where they have estate agents, cafes, restaurants, night clubs and whatever you can imagine flagging all the colours of the rainbow. Gay couples walk hand in hand on the streets and it's all very relaxed and funky. In addition, Brighton hosts a Gay Pride carnival every August, which attracts thousands of participants and spectators. It consists of a carnival style parade through the city and a party and funfair in Preston Park.

You wouldn't have guessed that this shop actually sells flowers when you look at the window at first, would you?! Pretty cool, huh?

Devil's Dyke

This is a place called Devil's Dyke. Basically it's on a hill and you could walk miles and miles to either direction. On a sunny weather you can have a pretty good view of the Sussex county all the way to places like Guildford and some others. It's located a few miles away from Brighton.

• Pros:Unconventional, brassy and in your face with a large alternative scene,
• Cons:Tacky and cheap at some parts, an absolute pain to get to!!