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Published: August 28th 2008
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After two days of packing, moving out of my flat, saying goodbye to friends and organising accommodation around Europe, Jez and I were ready for Eurotrip 08. I said my goodbyes to Nicola who was going up north to spend time with her family and friends for a few weeks before our trip to Canada.
I suppose I should give you a little background on my travelling companion Jeremy 'Jez' King. I met him while playing football in Christchurch for Avon united (we lost every game for a whole year). We flatted together too before I headed off to the UK. I once threw a clothes rack through his window but that's another story. He is a neat freak, loves long walks on the beach and his own hair. He is a GIS officer which is something to do with digital mapping and is just starting his 2 year visa in the UK, whereas I am just leaving so it was a good time to do some travelling. His claim to fame is meeting David Beckham and his talent is that he can do a spot on impersonation of a down syndrome stripper. But more on that later.
Ok
from the start. I managed to get us cheap flights into Genoa, Italy for just £20 including taxes. So we made our way to Stansted airport and flew into Genoa, nothing of note happened, which I suppose is a good thing. It was pretty random though when we got to customs, we were one of the first people off the flight yet because we chose the wrong cues we were 2nd to last and last through. We had a bit of time to kill before our bus into town so we sat on the grass outside the airport. This is where I learned how anal Jez was when it comes to maps. I grabbed his map and was having a look when he realised I had food on my hands and almost bitch slapped me (bare in mind this was a free map we'd just picked up in the airport). Jez then almost cried when he realised he had a slight smear of mud on his lonely planet, weirdo.
On our bus trip into the city Jez and I started playing a game taking alternate turns in naming a band with an animal or insect in the title, i.e.
The Beatles, Whitesnake, Atomic kitten (Jez said that one) etc. This got us hooked on game playing, so basically every day when we were trying to kill some time we would bust out a new game. I'll let Jez tell you how well he went. No I won't, he was crap.
Once at the Genoa train station we tried to use the electronic fast ticket machines to book a ticket to Nice. They were not 'fast' and either didn't like our cards or Jeremy's face because they kept crapping out. So we decided to join the long customer queue, we thought we had plenty of time 'til the next train. Wrong, we got to the counter and the attendant nonchalantly said 'the next train's in 2 minutes'. He then told us the next one wasn't for 6 hours. We asked for tickets to the train in 2 minutes time, you'd have thought he'd have hurried but instead he turned and yarned to his friend in French, probably saying watch how fast these buggars are going to run. And we did. We snatched the tickets and bolted, trying to read from the ticket which platform we needed to be at,
not an easy task when you are trying to run down stairs while avoiding people. It was worth it though we made the train.
On board I introduced Jez to Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkingtons podcasts. I think they are brilliant, you can check them out yourself here:
pilkipedia. Because we were in such a hurry when we picked up our tickets we didn't find out that at the French border we had to change trains. Therefore we stayed on board while Italian and French announcements were probably telling us to disembark. We did find it a little strange that everyone was getting off. Eventually we decided we should get off, but found we couldn't. The power had been turned off and the buttons to open the doors weren't working. We started to panic thinking the train would start heading back towards Genoa. We ran through the train trying to find someone to no avail. Panic stations. We were sweating. Then we spotted an employee out the window. We yelled until we got his attention. He looked at us and just waved his hand down to the end of the train. We thought oh sh*t he's telling
us its going that way. I decided to do another run down the train leaving Jez with the packs. Right in the last carriage a cleaner had just boarded and unlocked the door for me. I was free, phew. I was so excited that I forgot about the fact Jez had all the packs. I walked down the platform and pointed for him to carry all the packs down to the end. I'm not sure if he has forgiven me yet. So we'd passed our first few tests, only just mind you.
Luckily we didn't miss our connection onto Nice. We passed Monaco and saw some of the beautiful French Rivera before arriving. We were staying a little bit out of the city centre so took up the hostels offer of a free minibus. The hostel was upon the hill and our room had an amazing view of the coast. For anyone heading to Nice I recommend Villa Saint Exupery hostel it really is great. Our room was a mixture of Canadians and a kiwi couple. One of the Canadians thought that we were called Ron and Jeremy. Or some weird comic duo called Ron Jeremy. For those of
you that don't know who Ron Jeremy is then google his name but make sure no one is watching.
The kiwi couple - Marama and Joe were over for the Cannes film festival. They are in the film industry back home so it was interesting talking to them about their projects and what they got up to in Cannes.
The champions league final was on that night, we thought we might have to go into town but they were showing it on the big screen at the hostel. We tucked into a 6 Euro feed of roast lamb with spuds and veggies and the 1 Euro beers. Jez is a Manchester United fan so was stoked when they won. I got caught up in the excitement too, so much so that I knocked over my can of beer onto the guy sitting opposite's laptop. Uh oh. I quickly grabbed a towel and mopped it up. I felt bad so went and bought a beer for the guy. He told me that it wasn't his laptop, the guy who owned it was on the dance floor. So I just told him to 'sssssh' and kept the beer for myself.
Tragedy averted.
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