Casablanca is meant to be very romantic. Especially train stations in Casablanca. Or at least that’s what the movie led me to believe. My own ending to Casablanca was significantly less romantic than the clip below. We were standing on platform one. I felt weak and apparently looked pale. Our train was due in a […]
Read more "Life Lesson #34 – Train Stations in Casablanca Aren’t Always Romantic"Navigating the backstreets of a Spanish island in a manual hatchback with no map should be a recipe for disaster. I was perplexed to rock up at the terminal hours early without so much as a missed turnoff. There was that gnawing feeling that something was about to go wrong. EZ8634 – DELAYED. They put […]
Read more "Life Lesson #33 – Delayed Off"I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for ages. Like any self respecting theatre freak, I find myself drawn to the the Edinburgh Fringe Festival like a mozzie to one of those lights that zaps them. If only I had made it. I planned the weekend to a degree of precision I believe they call […]
Read more "Life Lesson #32- The Trip to Nowhere"When we first got stuck in Naples I could feel today would teach me a Life Lesson. Though I’d already been driving for five hours since leaving Rome, there was a grit to Naples that I appreciated having the chance to see. I planned to call the Life Lesson “Always Set Your GPS to Avoid […]
Read more "Life Lesson #31 – Tolls Aren’t So Bad"Today, in Rome, we went to see one of the greatest statues ever carved. Art Historians have heaped praise on Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St Teresa for centuries. We knew it was inside a church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, so we were surprised when the door was unlocked. Until we walked in and realised we’d […]
Read more "Life Lesson #30 – Undercover Catholics"Next time you’re in Monaco, I recommend you take togs. And failing that, take a change of underwear. Or at least wear dark ones. Because if you don’t, when you see the crystal clear waters and are possessed by the urge to leap in, you will have to strip down to your nice white ink’d […]
Read more "Life Lesson #29 – Don’t Wear White Undies in Monaco"I love our accommodation in Nice. But I wasn’t sure I would when we first arrived. The hostel is located across the road from the local Hippopotamus bar. When we walk in, we find ourselves in a dark, humid restaurant. A cockroach munches on crumbs on one of the tables. A niçoise woman in her […]
Read more "Life Lesson #28 – The French Way"