Paradisio

So I got to see some really cool stuff today. We first visited Lewes Castle in Lewes. It was one of the first castle's in England, going all the way back to 1066. This castle, compared to Windsor Castle which I visited yesterday, is a ruin. Windsor Castle is much more "palace-y" if you know what I mean? The Queen still lives there on occasion, and it is all decorated and elaborate. As you might see in one of the pictures, even the lights have crowns on them! Both castles were very interesting, but very different. I thoroughly enjoyed Lewes Castle because I was able to get much more of a feel of what it was like to have lived in a place like that back then. This castle actually got used for what it was built for (defense), whereas Windsor Castle is and has been much more of a fancy residence. I got to see what it was like to look out of an archer's window, and really get an idea of what the view was like from way up on top of the towers. Its VERY impressive, absolutely beautiful. Words and pictures can't do it justice.

After that we wandered around the town of Lewes for a little bit and then began to make our way towards Brighton. About 40 minutes and however many miles later, we actually began to be driving in the correct direction towards Brighton. Gotta love ambigous street signs :P. Brighton was awesome though. It's on the southern coast of England, and has a very pretty beach. It felt much like any of the beaches around Los Angeles, of which I always love. Helpful was the fact that it was sunny and warm (always a plus), which apparently is actually pretty rare for Brighton, and England, in general. Like 80% of the time its not that nice at all. The result of this was that there were tons of people out enjoying the sun, laying out on the beach. This beach had no sand, however, but rocks. All smooth, but rocks. It was tough to walk on without shoes of some kind, so in that sense its quite different from the California beaches. Regardless I had a very nice time there, and enjoyed all of the little beachy shops. We found a little clothing store called Plain Lazy that mostly had novelty tees with different sayings about being lazy or staying in bed. They're all meant to be humorous, but some were kind of stupid and some could have been found insulting by some people. I found a green one which reads "Reduce your carbon footprint-stay in bed," ha, ha, ha, so I had to buy it. Kyle's mom got him one of the same, so we can match!

I'm still constantly on the hunt for capri's, and yet no store seems to have them. Even the employees at various clothing stores have no idea what I'm talking about, and it's not because they have a different name or anything. This is very odd because I see people (guys) with them everywhere, yet no stores have them. I'm about to just stop some random guy on the street and inquire as to where he found them. We're visiting (hopefully) a mall tomorrow where I saw a big billboard that had men's Nike capri's, and if I can't find them there, I'll bail. WAIT! I did find a pair in a store today. I asked the guy how much they were. 235 pounds. That's almost $400. So I told the salesmen they were a out of my price range, so he took me to the other side of the store and showed me a nice pair of linen shorts. At this point I exclaimed that I thought most of the stuff in the store was going to be out of my price range, to which he replied, "oh well these one's are only 99." Yeah, right. I've never paid more than $30 for a pair of shorts or pants, and don't plan to for a while. Totally unnecessary. Unfortunately, I'll likely have to pay more than that for capri's here (as everything is more expensive anyways, and if it's Nike... well, you know). However, according to this rule, I won't technically be violating it, because capri's are... not shorts, not pants! Lucky me.

Yesterday I began watching the Showtime series, "The Tudors," on DVD. It's about the life, times, reign, and marriages of Henry VIII (the guy who had 6 wives...remember?). I'm hooked, I think I'm already halfway through the season. You should really check it out. It's full of drama, and although it's all historically accurate (and a great way to get a history lesson), I'm not so sure the people from history acted the way they are portrayed in the show. But hey, they might have, and even if not, it makes good television. Give it a look, the entire season is only 10 episodes I think, and even if you don't like history it's an entertaining mini series.

Thorn - Getting lost/sitting in the car for awhile

Rose - Time on a sunny beach!

Bud - Finding capri's :P

AT out