Southend-on-Sea

Living abroad means missing out on taking days off work for President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving... but England's also got some pretty cool excuses to miss work, particularly during the month of May!
Bank holidays here include:
- Good Friday: Friday Before Easter
- Easter Monday: Better than Easter Sunday :)
- May Day: 1st Monday in May
- Spring Bank Holiday: Last Monday in May
- Summer Bank Holiday: Last Monday in August
- Boxing Day: Day after Christmas

Good Friday and Easter weekend brought us to Turkey. Spring Bank Holiday will take us to the Netherlands. So instead of flying off somewhere for this past weekend's May Day, Michael and I decided to stay in England and go to the beach!... not that we didn't attempt to and find flights somewhere, but there wasn't a close destination that either of us were crazy about or were already planning to go in the near future. Plus, ticket prices were ridiculous this weekend - "Hello, Recession? Cut us a break here!"

So on Saturday morning, we went to the train station and caught a train to Southend-on-Sea, a beach town East of London, which we didn't realize until we arrived is the English version of New York's Coney Island! And for those who are not familiar with Coney Island - 1. you're not missing out on anything and 2. while it once had its hay-day, it lost popularity after World War II and through years of neglect, is a lot less appealing these days. Southend-on-Sea is very much the tawdry beach Coney Island is, but we were happy to be out of the city. I heard there would be a miniature golf course, so I made it a point to be our first activity, but imagine our disappointment when we saw this poor-mans version of mini-golf! NEVERMIND. It was time for lunch instead. The owner of our Bed & Breakfast was kind enough to recommend a few restaurants - one of them being Fisherman's Wharf, apparently quite famous for its fish n' chips! We then walked around town and along the strip to watch people play carnival games. Everyone there loved wasting their money on those claw-machines, which we all know are infamous for scamming you, but these claw machines were something else! It's expected that the claw will loosen its grip on your prize after retrieving it, and thus dropping it, but these prizes could have been super-glued to the claw, and the claw would still somehow manage to release it before rewarding the player! Kids were running around in circles, stomping their feet like crazy because each time, their parents would be so close! I saw some interesting stuffed S&M bears though that almost tempted me into playing! I mean, look at the bear on the top right!! lolLuckily, we found a much better ADVENTURE mini-golf course!

So all in all, it was a nice break, though it is funny how we always talk about how we should visit smaller towns with more character when traveling... how we're so "sick" of traveling to big cities because (we're snobby and we should shut up) they're all starting to look the same. HA! We were lovin' this "small town" so much, when we woke up the next morning, we ate our breakfast with a quickness, and jumped on the next train (8 hours earlier than the originally purchased ticket) back to London! It was fun while it lasted, but next time, for a quick city break, a train ticket to Brussels would have cost the same and it would be in a whole other country.