A Day Trip to Blackpool, UK

Let's be frank here. North Americans don't know much about British geography. Many of us simply think of London when England is mentioned. Maybe on some occassion, Cambridge or Oxford will pop up in our minds, which conjures up images of compact towns and old architecture, and professors/academics carrying books in their arms as they walk from one cobbled street to another. When you move to the UK though, you learn the names of many more cities and how they are different to each other (and even how they can be quite similar).

I first heard of Blackpool from an eponymously titled British television mini-series starring David Tennant and David Morrissey. As much as I would love to watch it, I don't know how to find it. All I learned was that it was a city known for casinos, arcades, and amusement parks. A "games" place, as it were. I'm not into any of that stuff, but I thought "Hey, if they make a TV series about it starring cool, talented actors, I might as well check it out", and it was a tourist town anyway. So I ended up telling people about my desire to go to Blackpool, and all I got were negative reactions.

"Whoa, my British friends say it's a sketchy place," my brother tells me. He's told me more than once.

"Not much to see there, really run-down and shady," one British guy tells me.

"There's nothing to see, there was just nothing," my French friend says.

So it seems that all I hear is bad news about this place. But I did not let that deter me. And it was a good thing I didn't. I liked it, and I enjoyed my day there. I'm not sure why they said "run-down". Maybe they were referring to the streets near the city centre that looked like they were still in the 80s (old-looking shops, no modern touch), but I thought that gave the city a cool, retro edge. There was some neat architecture though, like the curved shape street lights or the sculpture in front of the church:

When my friend and I got to Blackpool Tower (which we didn't go up because it cost 12.50 GBP, more costly than our roundtrip ticket to Blackpool), we saw that it was along Pleasure Beach and a great busy (and probably most popular for tourists) street to walk down. There was a multitude of eateries and souvenir shops (most of which sold toys and candy aka Rock candy, a British staple, especially by the beach. If you're into the rock candy, don't buy it straight away. I swear to god, the price for it seems to get better as you walk down the street. A lot of the eateries have some cheap deals too, and the majority of them offer burgers, fish & chips, and kebabs, which you can eat by the docks. If you prefer a more calming atmosphere, you can head down to the beach and walk along there. It certainly is tranquil, and the views of the sea is beautiful. When dusk hits, that's when the famous Blackpool Illuminations come on. They're only on display from late August to early November every year, so a date within that would be a very good time to go. The lights are beautiful as they also move in the pitch darkness of the night, and they heavily remind me of that old Hasbro game lite-brite.

Everything was lit up: the shop and arcade signs, the amusement park (you can see the ferris wheel lights from a distance), the Blackpool tower, even some of the transport (trains, train that looked like boats, and horse carriages). There were also people selling glowsticks and other such light items on the street. I spent a good 5 and a half hours in Blackpool, and it was enough for me. But if you want to invest heavily in the games and park rides, you could spend a lot while longer there (a few more hours maybe, from dawn til dusk?) and Blackpool would be well worth a day trip.