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.
