Coasting Along (Day Two)

The second day of our mini holiday in Margate. We were up fairly early this morning and decided that we would head out to the Sun Deck in the Westbrook neighbourhood. It's a once vandalised and derelict area of the town that has now been turned into a street food and drinks destination with views out across Westbrook Bay.
We made a beeline for the Bus Cafe (our second bus based meal in two days!) and ordered a crumpet meaty slider -  a crumpet topped with mumbled egg, crisped bacon lardons, homemade pickled onions, mustard alioli, toasted seeds, a balsamic glaze and spinach - and a sausage sourdough sarnie to be washed down with a strong cup of coffee each. Our food and drink arrived quickly and was absolutely delicious!
After our hearty breakfast we needed to stretch our legs so we continued out along the Royal Crescent Esplanade to acquaint ourselves with Westbrook Bay, where we hadn't been before. My first extra was taken looking up at the magnificent terrace of houses overlooking the bay - some have been renovated extensively but others are looking somewhat dishevelled but for some reason I really like the juxtaposition between the faded grandeur of the houses and the concrete wall covered in colourful graffiti.
As I walked along I couldn't help noticing the bright red blissed out looking octopus on one of the sea walls (see second extra) and a little borrow box (see third extra) where all kinds of beach toys can be borrowed until 5 pm every day.
By the time we walked back into the town again it was a time for a visit to Dreamland amusement park. It has a fantastic mural on the outside wall with local peoples' memories of the park dating back to their childhoods (it had originally opened in 1880 but had been almost completely abandoned to dereliction by the time it closed in 2006 before being restored and re-opened in 2015) - part of which you can see in my fourth extra. My next two images were taken inside the park itself - one beneath the old wooden rollercoaster and the other at the entrance to the funfair part of the park. What a magical place!
We then had a caffeine based interlude at a cafe before making our way to Fez (its name is apparently inspired by the fez wearing shopkeeper in the cult 70's kid's TV show Mr Ben), a tiny bar in the High Street, for our first beer of the day. Inside its absolutely packed with a hugely eclectic mix of fantastic retro memorabilia. As we imbibed our beers we were fabulously entertained by an hilariously foul-mouthed diatribe by the owner about his avowed disapproval of carpets in pubs (?!) which had the clientele present, including us, in stitches!
We still managed to also fit in a visit to a market in the Old Town, a swing by a bookshop and lunch at Olby's Soul Cafe with a spot of people watching before we felt in need of another mid afternoon siesta and a relaxing read of the Saturday papers back at our apartment.
By the time the evening came along we felt we had to head back out on our last night in Margate and decided on a couple of glasses of wine at Margate Off-Licence - actually a bar next door to Daisy which we had frequented last night - listening to a wonderfully diverse selection of music being played by a local DJ on his decks next to the bar. Then one last walk along the seafront was called for in the glorious evening light - which is where my main image, an artwork inside a seaside shelter which wonderfully reflected the onset of a sunset, and the last image of the yellow table and chairs outside a nearby hotel were taken (I just liked the difference in scale between the table and chairs, road signs and the guys walking past on the esplanade). A very busy but hugely enjoyable day!