Day 5, Brighton, England

Ahhhh. We are all breathing a little easier now, as we are out of London, and on the ocean. No, we did not get a flight yet, but that's OK. Genci woke me up bright & early (7am local time) to send me off to British Airways. There were at least 20 British Airways ticket/airline people and only 1 or 2 regular people like me who needed to talk to them, so I got the full, unrushed attention of one of them. Of course, he didn't know much more than I did about the future, but that's OK. Nobody controls volcanoes. I did get us rebooked onto a flight going to Albania on Saturday, the 24th. I could have gotten booked on one for America on the 26th (a week from now). It was a hard decision, and Genci's phone wasn't answering, so in a brief moment of optimism I chose to try to continue our journey. I may regret it later if we get stuck in Albania, but the airline guy seemed to think that Albania flight was more likely to actually fly, and I thought that perhaps everything will clear up, and then we'll be disappointed if we fled home in fear. I must be a gambler.

So, I headed back to the hotel room and we got the kids up & packed our bags (not an easy task in a tiny room). The hotel receptionist who had been so helpful when we first got there (she went way beyond her duty to get us out of a reservation at an overpriced hotel & into the Yotel, even to the point of impersonating me on the phone twice) was there again, and she was on the job of saving us money again. Some guy on the subway (yes, this is how we get our advice & make our decisions) had suggested going to Brighton, when we asked where to go in England. The airline guy had suggested another beach. Our trusty receptionist thought we would like & be better able to afford Brighton, so she helped us book tickets to get here & gave me directions to Victoria Station.

We took the subway to London, to Victoria Station. I thought we would have an hour to kill once we got there, but between hitting the bathroom, the bookstore (I needed backup DVDs), and Burger King (in the station), we were only 6 minutes early to our train. The ride was wonderful. We were so relieved to had made it on time & with all our bags (quite a scene), it was nice to have some wine (yes, we had wine!) and watch the towns go by. It was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours to get there, but in about 50 minutes, we found ourselves in Brighton. That was surprising & confusing, but we thought - "Wow! What luck! We got on a faster train by mistake." When they checked our tickets on the way out, it turns out we had made a bigger mistake than that. We were supposed to be on a bus. I knew we were supposed to go to Victoria Station Coach, and we were going coach, but I didn't know that "coach" meant "bus". The exit guards/ticket guys took a minute or two to figure out what to do with us, then decided to let us go. I tell you, we've been having excellent luck! So, we saved a bunch of money & time by accident.

We had to walk for about 15-20 minutes with our bags in to get to the tourist info office & then to start trying out bed & breakfast places nearby. We were sitting in front of one (no vacancies), when a woman came down & asked if we needed help. She was a world traveler herself (3 years of traveling, she said), so she brought down a few phone numbers of low priced hotels she knew of nearby. Within 15 minutes we were inside of our new room, a triple, with a double & single bed, right across the street from the ocean. The hotel room is a little bit old, but it feels spacious after being in such a small room. Only 65 pounds a night, which is a pretty good price for here for 4 people (they often charge by the person, including children).

We went for a walk on the pebbly beach. The kids each found tons of amazing stones that they couldn't part with. We enjoyed the evening sun and tosses stones into the water. There is a pier nearby with an amusement park on it & the town feels like a British version of a New England coastal art colony. Well, not quite, but kind of. We are planning on staying here until Friday or Saturday. Why fight the crowds in London. We already feel more relaxed. In London, it seemed like if we stood still to try to figure out our next move, we were in the way.

We will probably explore Brighton for the next couple of days. If we get bored here, we'll use this as our base, and take the bus to neighboring towns for daytrips.

Everyone's mood has improved.

While eating dinner tonight, Nathan was telling me why Worcester is better than here. I'm trying to remember his reasons. Family is nearby, we have friends there, he can ride his bicycle there, Luke said we have better toys there, there are fun festivals in the summer, we can go to Target (I had to stop Genci from laughing too hard at that one), and I forget what else. But it was fun to hear them extol the virtues of living in Worcester.

All is well with our family. We have no idea how this trip will turn out, but for now, we are fine. Enjoying the present.