Brighton, etc.

Where do we go from Chichester? Well not the YHA at Eastbourne, which appears to be fully booked, and perhaps not the YHA at Brighton which has a similar issue. Michael is paying for the rooms. I guess if he was here on his own and was looking around, as we did yesterday, he'd be paying for a single room, at least, or a double room if that is all which is available.

However I just know it's possible to save a little money in a private room at the YHAs around here. If we reach the goal of Beachy Head after a nice walk along the Cuckmere Haven perhaps our goal could move back through the Big Smoke to Cambridge (or something like that) a day earlier than expected? Really I can just about afford to stay in the South until Sunday as long as I've found a YHA to stop in on my own on Saturday night, after Michael has returned to Frankfurt via Frankfurt Hahn. If I was forced back to London from Cambridge then perhaps Euston Road could be my final base. But I really don't know what I would need to do in London...

***

But first things first, breakfast here at the Nag's Head. Not a bad B&B/Inn, but the duvet is the heaviest I've ever had to deal with so slept on top with the towel as a sheet on top of me.

There are things to see in Chichester and Fishbourne and I think we can get the train from Fishbourne all the way to Lewes with stopping before going to Seaford?

After I return to The North I will be stuck there with mum, the allotment, to-ing and fro-ing from Leeds and Wetherby, dog sitting, dog walking and being calmer(meditative) and none of this traveling/backpacking exhaustion: it could be worse?

***

Now I feel weary, bone weary. The last couple of days have drawn all the energy out of me. Backpacking does that often. Just one unbroken, alcohol and person free night and perhaps I wouldn't feel broken. There is Fishbourne, but can I be bothered to be a tourist?

Managed to finish the bread which I'd been carrying since The Shoe Inn. The lady on breakfast was happy to get it cut and toasted to go with the breakfast we've just consumed. We're full of a Full English once more...

***

Now we're on the 9:23am train to Brighton, hopping off at Hove, to walk along the promenade to the Strawberry Fields Guesthouse in Kempton. I was last in Brighton in 2009! Thirteen blooming years since. My current connect with Brighton appears to be Squid - Bright Green Field LP which is a grower. The last time I ventured to the Lanes someone tried to sell Elena and I a variable motor controlled vibrator for some bizarre reason. The sales person was so enthusiastic!

***

Brighton: it could be 2007, 2009 or 2022. It's exactly the same. Michael has briefly flitted with me, but there is plenty for him to digest here and I've just popped into every bar I used to know for another half. One person in the Evening Star looked familiar and the sex shop Lust is exactly as Elena and I left it when we were here back in 2009. I am in Pond. It wasn't like this last time and it's not really my kind of place. It's nothing personal, but it's too Hipster and they didn't exist in 2009... The area we're in is to the east of the Pier and I've never been there before. I am about to leave the past as is connects to 2022 and try to see Brighton in a new light.

Up the Edward Street and I really don't know where I am, but then I pass Saint James, Jacques, Santiago and I stop by for a Harvey's Best and a friendly dog and Lebanese food ...