A wedding in Brighton
Shouldacouldawoulda, a train from Holland to London now can cost as little as 50 euros. Super deal. My early morning flight to Stansted, still perhaps some two hours north of The City, is both more expensive and less convenient.
On the up, spending lots of time on finding an affordable place to stay, I did end up finding a twin room for Pascal and myself for a mere 12 pounds per person per night. A steal, In a town where dorm beds are sold for over 40 euros per night during the weekend. And laughably affordable compared to the 100 euro plus several of the other guests at Felicia and Todd's wedding were paying.
It was still quite fresh in Brighton, just before the start of spring, requiring me to carry along pretty much all my winter clothes, in addition to all my luggage for Uganda in a mere 20kg of luggage, allowed by Easyjet. But the newlyweds were lucky, in that their wedding day was the only one out of the five of my stay which saw clear blue skies and pleasant temperatures.
Perhaps in true American style, the groom got to decide what to do on his bachelor's party, which meant a horribly expensive deep sea fishing trip in international waters and a visit to a strip club where "you can order a bottle of vodka and we will give you two pitchers of mixers for free". There, I asked how much the vodka would be, which turned out to be somewhat pricey, at 150 pounds.
I stuck to affordable beers, sold for under four pounds, only a bit more expensive than in a regular pub.
Entry, at 15 pounds, was circumvented by using the VIP entry vouchers strewn around in large numbers around the rather upmarket apartment the groom's parents were renting.
Interestingly, though it's an obvious social faux pas to, when in a long term relationship, flirt, or, say, snog, let alone have sex, with someone who is not your partner. Yet, if a girl is simply paid to stick her boobs in your face, it apparently is ok.
Meanwhile, it was quite fantastic to remeet some of the Chiang Mai crowd. The wedding itself was probably one of the most photographed ones in human history and the number of photographers per attendee, just 42, must have been the highest ever.
3G and iPhones being ubiquitous, the first wedding pics were posted before the couple was even married and, literally, comments and congratulations started pouring in straight away.
Now, more so than after returning from Montenegro, I really need a holiday to recover from this holiday.