Euro trip 2012

During the break between the Olympics and Paralympics I went on a trip with two girlfriends that I met whilst living in Canada, Jori & Lauren. It had been 12 months since I saw them last so could not wait to catch up and explore.

BARCELONA, SPAIN
After a stressful month in London I am more than ready to have a holiday. My plane is an early one so after 2 and a half hrs sleep I make my way to the bus station (tubes do not run this early) and make my nearly 3 hour journey to the airport.
Once I land in Barcelona I realise I only have the name of the hotel and no address, my wifi is not working so I rely on some VERY broken english to point me in the right direction. Two trains later and a couple of circles I find the hotel and go upstairs to meet the girls. 
By now it is after lunchtime so we decide just to wander around and try and get our bearings. We are staying very close to Las Ramblas which is a quite central and happening street. We end up going to the Aquarium which we were recommended by at least 4 different people….. Recommendations are not always accurate…. Apart from the sharks it was an extreme waste of 20 Euros.
That night we take it easy as the girls had a long flight and me practically no sleep. The next morning we take the "hop on, hop off" tourist bus around the city to take in the sights. The weather is HOT, very HOT! Barcelona is very lovely architecturally, and we enjoyed the tour however it was extremely long and we got hot and bored so jumped off the bus and headed back to make our own fun. 

Of course Sangria and Paella are a must in Spain so we combined the two and then headed off to find a nice bar. We were handed a coupon for cheap cocktails and a free shot for a bar named Sinatra's, thats all the encouragement we needed, so were lead down a not so nice looking alley toward it. We were about to turn and run but when we saw the bar were glad we didn't as it was gorgeous. Every detail of the decor was stunning and they had a fantastic cocktail list, menu and service. We ended up staying there all night, making friends with the bar staff and heading out to a club with them afterwards. Unfortunately a great night turned a bit sour after Lauren had her purse stolen from her back by one of the street people, but it is a very common thing to happen and the little gypsies all cover for each other, there was no way we were getting it back. The early hrs of the morning were spent trying to get the police to help (fat chance!! they told us to go and have another drink and just laughed at us) and calling to cancel and re-issue Lauren's cards. The next day was fairly well wasted as we were exhausted and hungover for most of it. SETBACK #1
We went back to Sinatra's that night as we HAD to try their menu, and we were definitely not disappointed. I cannot rave about their Fois Gras enough! It was so amazing! Everything was, we had Tapas and the owner gave us a complimentary champagne cocktail and extra course and had us sit downstairs where he could make sure we were looked after. 

NICE, FRANCE
The next morning we boarded our 10 hour train to Cagnes Sur Mer, just outside of Nice. We arrived late and Lauren's friend Cara, who lives nearby, picked us up from the station and dropped us at the hotel. We had dinner and went to bed straight away.
The next day was spent entirely at the beach. The medditteranean sea is amazing!! It was so hot out, around 38 degrees and the water was about 20 degrees. The beach is pebbled and gets deep quite close to shore so you are not battling waves and a bikini full of sand getting in, like the beaches in Oz.

Off the coast you see all the yachts belonging to the rich and famous, some are just ridiculous.
On Wednesday Cara picked us up and took us up the mountain to a little village called Saint Paul de Vence. It was spectacular!! Exactly what you expect villages in the French Riviera to look like, old cobblestone streets and tiny wrought iron balcony's with plantar boxes and vines growing on the walls. 
We wandered around there for a couple of hrs and then headed back to Cara's house in Jean le Pin to have a glass of wine with her parents who were visiting from Australia. It was funny to hear her Dad's typical Aussie accent amidst the backdrop of France. After this we get dropped off in Jean Le Pin and browse all the little stalls along the boardwalk as the sun goes down (at 9pm!!). 

Thursday we made our way into Nice for shopping and then spent the rest of the day on the beach.

MONACO
The next day is my birthday, and what a birthday it is! We do a day trip to Monaco, which is my new favourite place! The architecture is amazing and all these old houses built into the hill surrounding the beach and harbour. Very rich looking without being gaudy. We walk around with our jaws dropping to the floor every 2 mins from either the expensive houses, cars, hotels or just the spectacular views.

We find a second hand store with the idea of picking up a cheap item of clothing however when we pick up a scarf with a €700 price tag we have a reality check. We start to chat with the lady working there and she is an Australian who has married a boat captain and become a resident of Monaco. She said due to the small size of the place the women will buy Dior, Chanel etc, wear it once then bring it to her shop to sell as of course they can't be seen wearing an outfit twice!! She also said Julia Roberts shops there, no big! She gave me some advice, as did Cara, on applying for work on the private owned yachts in nearby Antibes. They both said half the girls doing it had no experience so I would have no problem, plus having cruise ship experience it would be easy. Stewardesses earn a minimum of 2500/3000 Euros per month tax free with no expenses. Pretty sure I just found my next job plan :))))
After that we went up the hill to Monaco Ville to see the Palace and the Cathedral where Princess Grace was married. Earlier we had seen a coupon for 10 min scenic helicopter flights for €60 and it was now up on the hill that I decided that would be my birthday present to myself. I was so pumped for it but when I called they said it was for a minimum of 4 people, dammit!! SETBACK #2
We made our way to the Monte Carlo Casino instead and Lauren bought me one overpriced glass of wine to celebrate and we sneakily tried  to take photos of the inside without getting caught. We decided we should have a little bet but after losing €40 to electronic blackjack in about 2 mins, I decided luck wasn't on my side today.

We headed back to our hostel to get ready for a night out. We were excited that they happened to be having a festival on the beach that night with 4 DJ's.
That excitement turned to dismay as we listened to what I'm sure were hits from the seventies and eighties being blasted to an eclectic crowd. It seems to be a pattern in France, the only English music on the radio is 80's…..Seeing as the "beach party" was boring we decided a drinking game of Never have I ever was in order and now have enough blackmail information on each other that we must remain friends forever!! 
We ended up walking toward Nice and found a bar that seemed busy enough had a few drinks, made a few friends and went into Nice to another club before forking out €60 cab fare to get home.
Saturday was spent on a 2.5hr train ride to Marseille then a 3 hr train to Lyon which was halfway to Paris. We were supposed to go straight to Paris but when we tried to make the reservation a few days earlier they were all booked out.  SETBACK #3

PARIS
We took an early train on the Sunday morning from Lyon to Paris and when we arrived I tried to reserve my train to London on the Tuesday, what a surprise, all booked out so now I will be staying an extra night by myself. SETBACK#4
We dropped, bags at the hostel and went exploring. Paris is beautiful, similar architecture to the French Riviera and sooo big!! We had very limited time here so had to choose wisely what we wanted to see. We went straight to the Lourve, but after seeing the line decided it was a waste of 3 hrs standing in line and instead walked from there toward Champs Eleeys stopping for crepes and coffee along the way. We did some shopping down the famous strip then headed over to the Eiffel Tower and took in the view. It is an amazing structure and allows you to see just how huge Paris is. We also decided when we saw the additional line up to the summit that we would not go, it would only be a few more metres up anyway…….. Well looking at photos later and staring at the tower for a bit, I realised we had only made it halfway!!! Seriously!!! What else is going to go wrong on this trip LOL. SETBACK#5

After the tower we took a sunset river cruise down the Seine River which was lovely and on our return the tower lit up like a christmas tree, it was just gorgeous.

We all had 1 thing we chose as a definate thing we wanted to whilst in Paris. Jori's was to visit the grave of her favourite Author, Simone De Bouvoir. Well when we arrived after travelling halfway across Paris the cemetary was closed SETBACK #6 so we had to make an early trip the next morning before the girls left. We also saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and wandered down along the Seine river for a while.

The girls left the next morning on a boat to Ireland but I had to stay an extra night in Paris as when I tried to book my train back to London I couldn't get one till the next day SETBACK #7

My one thing to do while in Paris was go to the Moulin Rouge, but when I looked at the price it was 175 Euros for dinner and the show!! SETBACK #8 so I decided that one could wait till Mum comes to Paris with me!! Right Mum?!

My last night in Paris I was by myself so went up the hill at Montmarte to try and get a view of the whole city at night. I had dinner in a nice restaurant and just wandered around. I met a nice french guy who walked around with me and took me for a glass of wine and then went back to the room to pack. While packing I realised somewhere along the way I had lost my jewellery bag with pretty much every piece of jewellery I own in it, including stuff that I had bought on this trip! SETBACK #9
The next morning I got a cab to the train station and headed back to London to face reality again. A few days later the girls arrived in London after their Ireland trip and we had one last night together. It was Jori's birthday also so we headed out to a nice wine bar, then dinner and a club afterwards. It was so great to see the girls again and we are already talking about going to Italy next year :) Even though we had a few setbacks it didn't ruin the trip at all, it was nice to travel with people who just rolled with the punches. Love you both girls and cant wait till the next chapter!!

Bye for now,
Yvette xx

London Living.... lame...

Thanks to my neighbour and good friend Tracey, I discovered a deal through STA travel for a job package for the London 2012 Olympic Games. It cost $500 and they arrange work for you, arrange accommodation, help set up a bank account, National Insurance number, get you a sim card for your phone and provide you with support during your relocation...... Well, thats what they are supposed to do..... In my experience the support was lacklustre to say the very least!
I arrived at Heathrow airport with no contact from the company arranging my accommodation so I called them once on the ground and they told me to come to their office. I did and was then told my accommodation had been "given away". They found me a last minute alternative which was on the highest end of their average expected rent scale and was not cleaned and full of broken furniture and junk. I spent the first night sleeping on a couch with my jacket as a pillow. 
The next day I sat and waited hrs for the landlord to arrive, who had promised to get me new furniture, linen and remove the couch that was jammed up against the bed leaving less than a square metre standing space. When he never arrived I called him and he said he didn't have time today to fix anything. I called the accommodation company and told them this was not good enough and to fix it, eventually the landlord turned up with no new furniture, made me move the lounge out and told me he had no time so I would need to go buy pillows, a blanket and linen myself. I then discovered I was sharing the house with not four as I had been told, but 8 other housemates, with one bathroom to share which had a broken window and broken shower head.
 Most of the housemates were lovely but there was one couple who were extremely selfish and rude. They consistently had 2 hr long dinner parties in the kitchen next to my room between 1 and 3 in the morning! They flat out refused to keep it down or move elsewhere even though they knew they kept me awake. I even heard them having sex in the kitchen one night!!
I also found out that my bedroom was not actually a bedroom but the living room with a wall that was one sheet of gyprock put up a week before I arrived, hence I heard every possible sound made in the house and had to take sleeping pills to get any rest. My light switch wasn't even in my room it was out in the hallway.
My landlord also turns out to be part of the London mafia and a complete psycho who forced me to stay an extra month in the shit hole of a house and refuses to give my 500 pound deposit back....still working on that one.

On the job front, Sodexo, the company hiring me for the Olympics seemed to have just disappeared! All phone numbers went dead after 1 ring, no-one returned emails and when I went to their office, no-one would see me! I was in the UK for 2 weeks before the Olympics and I didn't find out about my job until the day of the Opening Ceremony!! Talk about cutting  it fine! Without going into too much detail, from here on in everything about the company was totally unorganised. I worked part of the time at the Olympics as a supervisor and have yet to be paid the correct rate. I was promised a supervisor role in the Aquatics area for Paralympics but then never received it and was moved to Seafood and Champagne. Luckily I managed to get a supervisor role there after some staff no showed. I have not been paid correctly for that either!
On the up side, I did manage to get into the stadium and the swimming for a short time and see parts of some events including an Aussie winning silver for running in the Paralympics. Saw part of the closing ceremony for the Paralympics and touched 2 bronze medals and one of the torches from the flame. I also went to the athletes parade after the Olympics in Trafalgar Square and danced in the street to The Pet Shop Boys playing live from the Palace.

So my start has been a little rocky to say the least and when I spoke to one of my best friends, Lisa, and broke down in tears she immediately jumped into action making calls and researching to do what she could to help me. She contacted her old boss from a conference centre here in Covent garden and I am now working there in their cafe. Lisa you are an angel!! I love you! I am really enjoying it so far and the people are lovely, plus I still get my weekend off so once I get back on track with finances I can actually explore London!
I have also managed to find another share house for a lot cheaper and have moved away from my crazy landlord! Things are looking up!!
I did contact the company I booked through with my complaints about how I was "looked after" and pretty much got "Welcome to London". So if anyone was thinking of coming here through an agency, have nothing to do with The London Pub Company, Sodexo or Jumpstart. They are bullshit!
So far my London experience has been pretty crap but I never give up and I'm feeling positive about things turning around. Bring it on!!