May Bank Holiday trip to Southend

   
May is my favourite month for many reasons: it's my birthday, the weather gets warmer and most importantly we get two bank holidays. The first bank holiday of May this year fell on the 7th and luckily temperatures were at its highest. I thought what better opportunity to go to the seaside and after some thinking, I decided to go somewhere I had not been which still remained close to London.

I decided to visit Southend, which is in the south-east of England in a ceremonial county called Essex. I've been to Essex a few times so I knew the sort of environment I would be entering. When you think of the people of Essex you probably think about TOWIE if you have seen it, but I must admit not everybody followed the stereotype. Many people I came across were retired settlers from London, there were the many accents that stuck out like a sore thumb but what did I expect?.

The trains were busy as expected and our 1-hour journey from London Liverpool Station wasn't too bad as we got a seat. The busyness became very clear when we got to the station and it took us almost 15 minutes to get out of the station. It was the stupidity of the staff that caused this delay but it all got fixed when they decided to open the barriers. The walk from the station to the seaside approximately took about 10 minutes (it was a very short walk through the high street).

I had two thoughts as soon as I saw the pier the first half was
'wow this sea could not look any worse'
but the other half thought
'damn that pier is long'.
The picture is there for your own judgement, also looks like there aren't many people well because it was taken at around 10-11 am.

Unfortunately, we didn't do the walk along the pier instead we found a resting place on the beach as my boyfriend desperately wanted a tan. We walked for about 10 minutes to find a suitable, less crowded and moderately somewhere quieter.

 

The sunbathing took us about 2 hours before the search for food began. My boyfriend insisted on getting fish and chips because it's the seaside. I agreed until we found a suitable place which took us a while because of the queues which were insanely long for every fish and chip shop along the pier. The fish and chip shop we went to was located in the high street and after the wait, we went back to the pier to eat. I went for a chicken burger and chips (don't judge me) whilst my boyfriend went for fish and chips. The chicken burger was no GBK but the chips were spectacular.

And yes, before you gag I'm one of those people when it comes to ketchup. I do love ketchup so might as well get it all over the chips. My boyfriend being the typical northerner gave a low rating for his fish and chips but I did not expect much anyway. After we were done with food we decided to go for a drink, we found a beer garden on the high street called Oyster Court. I went for the classic cocktail in this weather: sex on the beach.

The drinks were nice and refreshing during the heat and as soon as we felt cooler we headed back to the beach and I went for a little swim. 

They say time goes fast when you're having fun and that is exactly what happened. We decided to leave a little earlier as we thought the train station will be packed and we were right. Also, we couldn't leave without getting a 99p flake which unfortunately didn't cost 99p, but it's always worth it when it's too hot to cope.

If you're planning on coming to Southend for a day like us here are some tips I can offer:

- Do not cue for the toilets along the beach the shopping mall which is located in view with the pier has a massive toilet that usually doesn't have cues. 

- Some people were having barbecue's on the beach and it's a sensible decision if you don't want to waste your time cueing for food.

- Take cash with you as most places here don't do contactless.

- Check the weather forecast and go accordingly, I can't imagine there is much to do here in cold conditions.

- Always and always wash your hands or bring an anti-bacterial gel as my boyfriend ended up catching tonsillitis from this trip (yikes!).

- Of course don't forget to bring water and sun cream :-)

That's all from me, thanks if you've read it this far.

Thanks for reading,

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