Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
[youtube=aFOB6dAs0Qs]
Ok picture this: It's cold and raining, you're sitting uncomfortably on the side of a muddy cliff and if you slip you will most likely die, you've had to get up at 5am to get to this cliff, you are also starving. You try and sleep but it's uncomfortable and rain is dripping on your face, plus the noise is just deafening.
Now picture this: You are in a helicopter it lands on the back of a super yacht, you are greeted by Quentin Tarantino who passes you a glass of champagne, you wander over and nibble on caviar whilst talking to P Diddy about the economy.
When you think 'Monaco Grand Prix' you probably have visions of the second situation, unfortunately we were faced with the first. I have to admit it was pretty miserable in the morning. We had tickets to the general admission section which turned out to be a muddy bank where you had to find your own perch. Bluey, Jez, Andre and I located a good spot which had views of a straight, the pit lane, a big screen and a few bends. Once we had our perch, Bluey borrowed a pick from some
old guys down the hill and carved out some bucket seats. We watched the two races prior to the grand prix, which involved many crashes due to the wet weather. The second was cut short because it was deemed to dangerous. We were still cold, tired and thought that the grand prix might be called off due to the bad weather. We needed something to cheer us up. Jez and I decided to go on a mission for food and drink. On the way we were alarmed to hear a lady screaming, we turned to see she'd had her earring pulled out by a guys umbrella, ouch. Anyways we found a supermarket and grabbed supplies. Within no time the day started improving, I think the red bull and vodka had something to do with it, although the rain stopped too which was a bonus.
Before the grand prix the drivers rode around the track on the back of a truck waving to fans, the cameras cut to celebrities whilst this was happening. Quentin Tarantino, P Diddy, the lead singer of the pussycat dolls (don't know her name but I do know she is a bit of a looker) were
a few of those. The hype built up as the vodka went down. Just before the race some old guys stood in front of us. We were not amused. Jez started yelling 'masseur', 'masseur' ... nothing. Jez repeated his huge French vocabulary again 'masseur', 'masseur', getting louder and louder until he finally turned around. Not knowing any French Jez just held up a plastic bag (another great purchase from the supermarket). The guy looked at him with a 'what the .... look' until he realised that it was meant for sitting on. Thankfully he accepted and moments later the race got under way. We were cheering for Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber. Hamilton started well and moved up a position into second, but on the 6th lap he punctured his tyre and moved into 5th. Halfway during the race I needed to drain all the vodka and red bull I'd been drinking. I walked down to the portaloos that everyone else was using. Afterwards Andre and I saw a spot where we could see the track really well. In order to get a better view we stood on a skip bin and were taking some photos when all of a
sudden a guy started yelling at us, we turned to see it was a cop telling us off in French. We both jumped down from the bin. I realised there was a small gap in the fence where I could still film the race so was doing so when all of a sudden I was punched hard in the arm, I thought it was Andre being a silly buggar and was about to yell 'ow, piss off Andre' when I turned and was face to face with the angry cop. It was a surreal situation having a cop punch me at the Monaco Grand Prix, he proceeded to yell French in my face, I could smell the garlic on his breath he was so close. It was about then that I decided that heading back to my seats was a good idea. I still have no idea what I was doing wrong.
The race seesawed with different leaders and various people crashing out. In the end Webber finished a respectable 4th and Hamilton raced superbly to win. Cue celebrations. Hamilton cracked open the champagne, we finished off the vodka and red bull and Jez pulled out his first down
syndrome stripper impersonation dance of the trip. Good times.
Post race we decided to have a drink in a local bar, they were the most expensive beers we've ever had at 8 Euros each, well until we went to the Monte Carlo casino half an hour later. I was a little disappointed with the casino, mainly because beers were 9 Euros each and because I didn't win anything. I put 10 Euros in a slot machine and lost it within a minute. It was the worst slot machine ever. Except for the one Bluey was on, he lost 100 Euros in the same amount of time. Jez forgot his passport so spent the time outside watching flash cars pull up, there sure are some rich bastards in Monaco. For dinner we dined in style - KFC back in Nice.
Once back at the hostel we were all deliriously tired but stayed up for a few more drinks, for some reason we thought it was hilarious to yell 'What? I've been at the races all day'. We all went through our jokes repertoire and Jez befriended some Canadian girls, twins in fact. I went to bed and let Jez
work his magic or lack there of.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0517s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb