European Experience: Part 2

The first morning was a really mixed feeling. I was in Paris with a group of people I’d only just met and at the beginning of a whole new adventure and I was hungover. I had the feeling that a lot of the people in the breakfast room were thinking the same sort of thing especially being hungover and cursing the early start. Breakfast mainly consisted of bread and cereal, which was the staple in most places and if we were lucky at some places we got eggs.

Our first day in Paris was what was called a “free day”. The tour bus would drop us off in the morning at a certain location and the bus would fetch us there later in the day leaving us to explore the city. Renee and I had decided to stick together in the morning and then do our own thing later on. As I had spent 3 days in Paris last year there were a lot of things that I had already done and didn’t see the need to go again, except the Musee D’Orsay. Although I had already been there was a Manet exhibition on and so this is where we decided to start our morning. I can say without a doubt that I prefer the Musee D’Orsay to the Louvre. Besides the fact that it’s much easier to navigate it specialises in impressionist art, which really appeals to be. I enjoyed the Manet Exhibition but the real joy is just slowly walking around this beautiful building which used to be a train station. Being TV junkies we remembered that Blair had met Louie here (Gossip Girl) and we tried our best to find the spot, I think I did but I’m not sure. Walking around I put my headphones in and listened to the “Amelie” soundtrack only to round a corner and find myself facing the Renoir they paint in the film. A lot of the artworks I enjoyed were quite dark but really interesting and I really enjoyed the works of Degas.

By the time we had finished walking around it was nearing lunch time and so we started walking toward this little bakery that Renee had heard of called Laduree. Take everything you could possibly imagine about a French bakery and that won’t nearly cover how amazing it was. I got a lovely croissant for lunch and an adorable violet cupcake for later. Renee bought a selection of macaroons. It’s situated right near the Madeleine church and so we decided to eat on the steps in front.



It was at this point where we decided to go do our own thing. Renee went to the Louvre and I went to the Paris Opera House, the setting for The Phantom of the Opera. To get inside as a tourist you walk in the back entrance and it feels like you’re underground. I was so excited to be there I started to tear up a little bit. Again the earphones went in and I decided to walk around listening to the Phantom soundtrack. As well as walking around the halls and general areas the open the doors to two boxes so that you can see what they look at and take a peek at the stage. I tried to find the Phantom’s box but it didn’t seem to exist. It was a bit overwhelming being there so I found a bench inside and just sat and took it all in. The exit is through the gift shop and I found it very hard to not buy anything more than a postcard and a bookmark.

I still had a bit of time but unfortunately not enough to go to the cemetery which was what I was hoping to do. Instead I walked to the Tuileries gardens and lay down and read my book, yes I know only I would take a book with me to walk around Paris. On the bus back to the hotel everyone was a bit tired from there day exploring but excited for our night out. We had been giving the options of going for a traditional Parisian dinner and then to a Cabaret show, I had decided to both. When we went of to get dressed Sanjay had advised us that there would be a “short walk” from the bus to dinner and we should wear comfortable shoes, little did we know. These “short walks” would soon become infamous for being anything but. We stopped in the Montmartre district and then had to walk up to the Sacre Coeur. The view from there really is incredible, but the amount of whinging that went on climbing the stairs up was hilarious. Especially considering most of the girls didn’t listen and had worn serious heels. I think most people were very glad when we eventually arrived at our restaurant for dinner. There was another tour group there which was nice to have a big crowd. We had a lovely three course meal, I chose a starter of snails, mains of duck l’orange and I can’t remember what I had for dessert, was so full that I didn’t really eat that much of it.



It was then time for another “short walk” to the Cabaret show. It was silly, fun and the songs got stuck in your head but it cost a bit more than it was work. We were then informed that those of us who hadn’t gone to the show had gone to the Irish pub down the road and if we wanted to continue partying we could join them there. I’m not kidding you I think there is an Irish pub in every city and the Contiki people always know where they are. Was the first very wild night with almost the entire group and it ended sometime in the next morning with another cab ride back. There was a bit of an attempt to keep the party going in the Hotel but eventually I gave up and passed out in my bed.

The next morning was another early start and a fight for the elevator as we all tried to get our bags down to the bus while hungover. This would be the first experience of the zombie bus where although we were driving through some beautiful scenery everyone was fast asleep on the journey to out next location. We were going to be staying in the Contiki Chateau in the Beaujolais wine region. When we arrived we learnt about the system of cookies and dishies, were 8 people are chosen at each destination to help out with the serving and clearing of the meals. Thankfully I wasn’t one at this stage but hoped when I got picked that I’d get dishy.

Here I would be sharing a room with three Aussies Morgan, Loz and Olivia and within minutes of us getting a room it was already a mess. Our evening started out with a free wine tasting and I was pleasantly surprised. This region is known for its red wine and I’m not a big red wine drinker but I actually really enjoyed there wine. The Chateaux did also make a rosé and a white wine and the bar was selling the bottles for €8, which on our budgets was very cheap so we bought a bottle of each for our dinner table. We had been told that the party that night was a “Tight, white and bright” theme. I only had the bright but I did my best and we got dressed up and went to party in The Cave, the club in the basement. There were a few other groups there so it made for a really fun night with a lot of drinking. In what I will forever not remember as my worst show on Contiki I apparently fell on the dance floor and then passed out for a few seconds until I eventually managed to get myself back up and then Nicole and Michelle, two Cali girls out me to bed.

Waking up that next morning was not fun, I was still in my clothes from the night before, Morgan had somehow stolen my sleeping bag and I had to endure a lot of teasing. Lucky for us there wasn’t a city to be explored so we got to sleep in for a little bit. All that was planned for us that day was a little walk up a hill with a picnic lunch. Well the walk wasn’t that little and unfortunately for Alex he had the map and got blamed for getting us lost. In all fairness it was an easy turn off to miss and we probably found a better place to sit anyway but we weren’t exactly going to let him off easily. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, chilling on the hillside and trying to get to know a few more people in our group. It was really nice to have a chilled day to relax and recover although we probably could have used it more effectively later on in the tour.

That night was another theme party in The Cave, this time is was a “P Party”. Loz, Morgan and I decided to go in our pyjamas so that when we passed out later it wouldn’t be in our clothes. We decided to spice things up and wore our eye masks and socks from the plane. You think I would’ve learnt from the night before but we each started off the night with a bottle of wine and tried the special shots that The Cave had on offer. Luckily I wasn’t too bad and even slept in my own bed after kissing one of the Contiki crew members at the Chateaux. That night/morning the fire alarm went off. We were warned that some of the fire alarm buttons look like light switches and please try to tell the difference as it sucks to wake up in the middle of the night with a fire drill. While walking down to the grass to stand with our group and count heads a little part of me wondered if the crew members didn’t set it off every once in a while just to screw with the people staying there.



Once again we were on the bus and off to a new destination and our last night in France. We were going to the French Riviera, I would’ve been more excited if I wasn’t so tired. We were only going to be staying at this place for one night so Morgan, Olivia, Loz and I decided to room together again. In possibly one of the quickest changes we had to do, I think it was 30 minutes, we all had to try shower and get ready to go out to Monaco.

We were there two weeks before the royal wedding and so the city was busy getting ready for it. There were South African flags everywhere which made us saffas very excited. We went for another short walk in the city and then all split up to find dinner before heading to the Grand Casino. As beautiful as the building is there’s not much to do in a casino when you’re on a budget. I think I got more of a thrill seeing the red and white stripes on the side of the road to mark out the Grand Prix track and every now and then seeing a beautiful car taking the corners at speed.



As beautiful and extravagant as the city was we didn’t have that much time to explore it and as a last night in France it was a bit of a let down.

European Experience: Part 1

So I have decided to finally flesh out the details of my European escapades and enter it on my blog. The reason this has taken so long is because I wasn’t sure there would be any interest in it. As my mom always says, rightfully so, there is nothing worse than looking at another persons travel photos and I figured reading about them would be just as boring. However I have decided to do this for me, to have something more permanent to look back on and if I was going to the effort of typing up my experience then I may as well post it to my blog, seeing as nothing else gets put up there.

Although this was not my first time overseas, visiting dad in Saudi Arabia, or to Europe, visiting brother in England, it was my first time travelling alone, so I was a little bit nervous. I had chosen to travel with Contiki (http://za.contiki.com/) and was going on the European Experience tour. This means that I was going to travel across Europe for 20 days with a group of people I had never met. Now I don’t think I’m completely socially inept but I do find it a little bit more difficult to connect with people than others and so this was a little nerve wracking.

The other worrisome part was the flying, I’m not scared of flying, I actually really love it, more of trying to catch connecting flights, possibly loosing important travel documents or even luggage. Somehow I managed to be the only person I know who manages to start the first leg of her solo trip with her dad, who just so happened to be on the same flight to JHB. I must admit this did calm me down a little bit knowing that I wouldn’t get completely lost in the airport. As luck would have it my flight to London was on SAA’s brand new airbus, so movies galore, and the flight was practically empty so I had an entire row to myself, ensuring a few hours sleep.

Arriving in London has this great sense of homecoming for me, even if I’ve only been there once. Seriously though the only city I’ve ever loved more is Cape Town, go figure everyone loves Cape Town once they’ve been here. Thankfully I arrived unharmed with all my luggage in one piece, can you imagine the tragedy if I didn’t have my perfectly chosen European wardrobe with me, at least I would’ve got to go shopping though. Not letting that stop me I checked in at my hotel for the night and went straight to Chiltern Street. No I am not mistaken this was truly my first shopping stop in London as this is the street that I assume was originally the shopping spot for trannies. You see they have recognised that not all women are shorter than 5’8” and wear no bigger than a size 7 shoe. For someone like me 5’11” with size 9 feet this street is perfect with shops like “Long Tall Sally” and many other shoe shops that cater for the larger sizes. I’d promised myself that this trip was only for window shopping and that I was not to buy anything, how I stuck to that I don’t know, especially after visiting some other favourites on Oxford Street. Feeling happy after looking at beautiful clothes and showing some signs of self control I decided to have lunch in Hyde Park. Really felt at home after getting asked for directions, and actually being able to give them, and then I got harassed by a Big Issue seller.



As much as I loved my day in London I was really looking forward to the start of my trip. That night was the meeting with all the Tour groups and leaders of all the tours leaving the next morning. I had joked with my mom before leaving that with Cape Town being so small if there was anyone else on tour from here I would know them. This turned out to be true within a few minutes of me arriving in London and this continued to be a trend through out my trip. I met one of my former tutlings but he was on a different tour, we did cross paths in a couple of cities. Once divided into our tour groups I saw some familiar faces and realised that I would be on tour with two of my fellow future accountants, who I sit with in lectures everyday, really I kid you not Cape Town is tiny. It was lovely to get to meet some of the people that I would be travelling with as well as our tour leader, Sanjay, and bus driver, Muffin, both Aussies. As most of us had been travelling all day it was decided that we would attempt to get a good nights sleep before our early start the next morning, this would be the last time we would get to do so for the next three weeks.

The next morning started bright and early on the bus making our way to Dover. The Bus was full meaning we had a tour group of 51 people and it appeared to be mainly girls. I sat with some of the girls I’d met the night before and sat next to Renee, a Canadian, who was to become my tour bestie, never thought I’d be lucky enough to meet someone I got along with so well on the tour, never mind on the first day. Bonding was made over a shared love of music and TV shows, Glee was discussed for a large portion of time, and this eventually lead to the swapping of favourite local bands. This trend continues throughout the trip and I found some new favourite bands e.g. Metric, Angus & Julia Stone. From Dover we boarded the ferry to Calais and had our first use of Euros instead of Pounds, the things I find exciting. The ferry was huge and it was unfortunately only near the end of the ride over that we managed to find the outdoor viewing deck and so didn’t get any good parting shots of the cliffs of Dover.

The next part of our bus drive was from Calais to Paris and we were getting our first taste of the long bus rides that we were to become so accustomed to. We were also played of a national anthem as we entered a new country, I happily hummed along to this but I fear my grade 8 French teacher would not be impressed that I could no longer remember the words. Arriving in Paris was such a realisation that the tour was starting. The driver drove us right through the city to go around the Arc du Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, leading to our first experience of how difficult it is to take photos out of a moving bus’ window. We also learnt that our tour leader and bus driver had other certain songs for special moments as driving down the Champs Elysees we were listening to “Art vs. Science – Parlez Vous Francais?” This trip was nothing if not a learning curve and a lot of what we were to expect on our trip was learnt on our first day. The biggest adjusted to most of us girls was the quick change. Arriving at our Hotel, I was sharing a room with Renee, we were informed we were to have an hour to get ready, this was one of the longest changing times we had all trip.

That night was Renee’s birthday so we decided to dress up no matter what it is we were doing. Dinner was held in the hotel restaurant and then we were going on a city by night bus trip and to try snails and champagne. The last stop and the city tour was the Eiffel Tower and a group of us decided to get up and go up the Tower then. As it turned out the top was full and we could only get to the second level. Luckily I have been up the Eiffel Tower before having spent three days in Paris last year so this did not affect me too badly and frankly the second level is pretty damn high up too, you still get an amazing view.



Once we had realised that we were not going to make it to the top we wanted to go out and party in Paris. Sanjay had told us of a good metro station to get off at where we might find some places to go out. I remembered where the closest metro to the tower was and so a group of us went there. As we were walking away the lights on the tower began to flicker and it really is such a beautiful sight and we were all so obviously tourists grabbing at our cameras and hoping to get a good shot. Once at the metro station we had to figure out what tickets we wanted to get and how to get them. This took us a bit of time but it would’ve taken even longer if Renee hadn’t been able to speak a bit of French. Walking around a city you don’t know can be quite daunting and I’m so thankful I was with such an awesome group of people as we almost got lost so many times and this was just the first night. After walking around for a while, passing a few cop cars on the way, we eventually found a tiny, cheap, Spanish Bar. Going out was the major realisation of not converting back to Rands. Shots were €3 (R30) and a beer €5 (R50). Wherever we went beer was usually the cheapest drink so I drank a lot of it, what a good Saffa girl I am. There was a group of about 14 of us and the almost the only people in the bar but it was so tiny hat it felt full. One of the best parts of Contiki is that no matter where you go you’ve got a ready made party with your group. We were taking shots, the boys were trying their luck with the pretty girl behind the bar. She gave us sparklers when she found out we were celebrating a birthday. Eventually the bar closed at I think 3 in the morning and we all caught cabs back to the hotel. This was my first night out on Contiki and it was definitely a reflection of what was still to come.

I’m not going to put my entire trip into one post as I think that will be too long so that’s it for Europe: Part 1. The next post will start with my first full day in Paris.

Casting news get me excited!

So I feel like this past week, possibly even month, has just been filled with all the best casting news available and I really don't know if I can take anymore. What makes it more nerdy is that two of the movies I'm so excited about are superhero movies.

The first and possibly most exciting is about Batman, "The Dark Night Rises", the title is slowly growing on me. The initial rumours were that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was going to be cast as The Riddler, which were very exciting. Then Christopher Nolan announced that The Riddler was not going to appear and Tom Hardy had been cast. I must say that as much as I love Tom Hardy I was a little bit disappointed by the likely hood that JGL would not appear. Now Tom is said to take the role of Bane, which we have previously seen as a minor character in "Batman and Robin". I still remember when I was younger this was one of my favourite Batman purely because I really wanted to be Poison Ivy. Having watched this movie countless times I am very interested to see what Nolan does with this character. The other Batman character I always wanted to be was Catwomen, the Michelle Pfeiffer one, not Halle Berry. Given how horribly this character was portrayed then I am excited to have it revisited and very excited as to how Anne Hathaway can turn it around.
Now given how many exciteds were previously typed I didn't think this project could get any better but it has, JGL has been now supposedly been cast. As The Riddler is not an available character the next jump is to Dick Greyson - Robin. Nolan has also stated that he wil not make a move with Robin in it and Christian Bale has agreed that he will not stick around if he is cast. Given this I do get the feeling that JGL will play a good guy but I would be equally happy, if not more, to see him in an evil role. Either way "The Dark Knight Rises" is definitely my most anticipated movie of 2012 so far and I have full faith in Nolan.

Nolan's other project, although only in the producer's chair, is in Zack Snyder's reboot of Superman. Given the very poor showing of the last movie I initially had very poor expectations. It may be bias on my side but I felt one of the biggest downfalls of he last movie was the casting of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. As this post is all about castings I feel it only necessary to point out how one bad casting can bring a movie down. There have all sorts of names put into the mix, none which really impress me. Initially I thought of Anne Hathaway but I doubt she would take on both projects, even if the shooting schedules don't clash, it's not likely she'll take on two superhero movies back to back. There is now all sorts of rumours of going the same route as the new Spiderman movie and not even including the traditional love interest but maybe one earlier on so the story can be built up. Now I must admit that I am not to in the know on all things Superman so I can't make any calls on how this could play out.
The main role of course has been cast with Henry Cavil as the man in the red underpants. I think he will be amazing in this role and I am glad he is finally getting rid of his unluckiest man in Hollywood tag. Now for the shocker, although Cavil is my absolute favourite bar none, he was not my first choice for this role. I initially my vote went with Matt Bomer, from White Collar fame. Now this was not because I thought he would be better in the role, just that I didn't want Cavil to get it. I will admit this is partially due to pure selfishness that I don't want the entire world to start drooling over him and keep him to myself, but I do want him to be successful so that's not the primary reason. In his bad luck days he was turned down for a role for being to young and I really thought he would be perfect for it. This role could come around again when he is older and I fear, am pretty sure actually, that by taking Superman he wouldn't even be considered. You see, that role is of James Bond.

This brings us to other exciting news. Bond 23 has finally been given the go ahead and I can finally breathe some form of a sigh of relief. Another movie I have to wait till 2012 to watch but so far it is looking like a wait well worth it. Daniel Craig will be reprising is role as the Blonde Bond which truly makes me very happy as I think he has done great justice to the role. Before the money issues hit there were all sorts of rumours about villains, settings and most importantly bond girls. I fear the only thing that's stuck since being put back into production is Sam Mendes in the director's chair. The Casting news so far is that Javier Bardem will be playing a bad man and Ralph Fiennes may join him. I'm very excited about this but if I can put my contribution on the other two unknowns, I'd be very interested in seeing Bond in New York with Olivia Wilde as a bond girl.

My final piece of news involves one of my favourite pairs and an ex bond girl. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are teaming up again. This time on a remake of an old TV show "Dark Shadows". Now I have never seen this show so I have very little knowledge or expectations. All I know is that it follows the travels of a vampire, played by Depp, and all the mystical creatures he meets. I've always loved vampires and while I do hope the craze dies down so I can enjoy them privately I cannot wait to see Burton's idea of what a vampire could be. It may be just what some of the sparkling vampires need to give them a swift kick in the behind. Now for the really exciting part. Eva Green has been attached to the project as a witch who falls for the vampire, don't feel bad if your head explodes mine just did too.

Unfortunately there are two sides to every story and so with good casting news must come bad. One story I always hoped would remain untouched, even though I knew it was only a matter of time until it got done again was Snow White. It is now being done again, twice. One I'm not too mad about but the other is being done by Tarsem Singh, director of the upcoming Immortals. The other one is my big problem, with Charlize as the evil witch and Kristen Stewart as Snow White. Never again will I be happy to have the nickname Snow White.

None of these have yet started shooting and everything could change and in some cases hopefully it will but only time, 2012, will tell if the right characters have been chosen to bring across all of these truly epic tales.