Travel Stories - On My Way to Europe

My best friends and I recently celebrated a milestone birthday. In order to commemorate the occasion, three of us decided that we would go to Paris and London. What better way to spend a potentially terrifying birthday than by being in Paris and London? Nothing seems as scary when you have to use your second language skills. As often happens when planning events that involve more than just one person, the trip was slightly delayed but it did happen. This past September Joanne, Laura and I packed our bags and off we went! The plan was to spend just over a week with the girls, starting in Paris and then moving north to London on the Eurostar. I knew that a week would not be enough time for me; I had never been to Europe before, so I left a week earlier than the girls, and spent a week traipsing through Italy before meeting up with everyone in Paris to start the birthday extravaganza.

My departure for this trip was a bit hurried as I work for the Toronto Film Festival and I was scheduled to depart one day after the festival closed.

Not the best planning choice on my part. I was delivered to the airport courtesy of the Peggy-mobile, much nicer than trekking on the subway to the airport. I flew on Air Transat. It’s a Canadian charter airline that flies to Europe and also to the Caribbean. The last time I flew a charter it was when La and I went to Mexico, and it wasn’t nice. The seats were tiny and the food was…well it was stereotypical airplane food. Air Transat was none of that. The seats were not all cramped together, they were leather and plush, and the food was President’s Choice Blue Menu Indian entrees, not only good but good for you too! The only complaint I had, (other than my total inability to sleep, which is so not like me, I usually can sleep anywhere), was that the first film was the new Indiana Jones movie. Until this flight I had never seen an Indiana Jones film from start to finish, (I know, I’m a bit of a nut case that way), and this was NOT the one to start with. FOR THE LOVE OF FILM, why was this movie ever made? What a waste of…well, a waste of everything. But other than that the flight was easy and I arrived in London with 5 hours to kill. So I went to Brighton, looking for the beach and the memoires. And I found it. I have a love for all things retro and hokey, and that is exactly what Brighton is. Coney Island...with British dialects. It’s fabulously dingy in all the ways you want. And you can eat fish and chips on the beach. Amazing.

After a few hours on the beach it was back to the airport for my flight to Venice. By the time I checked in for my flight I had been awake for over 24 hours and was exhausted. I 100% fell asleep on a bench waiting for my flight information to be posted on the departure board. Fell asleep so deeply I had dreams. This is the bench.