Another Pin » France

You drive like crazy

holly — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:55:55 +0000

It seems like the most convenient thing to do. Why bother having to sort through bus and train schedules on your trip when you could just rent a car and go where you want when you want? Hold up there a minute, Skippy, make sure you know what this entails or you could be dealing with more hassle than you’d ever anticipated. If you’re from Canada and heading down to California for Disneyland, for example, then I wholeheartedly encourage a car rental. You’re familliar with the makes and models of the cars on offer, you know the basic road rules, as they’re the same up here, and you can read the street signs. These three criteria are not going to be met everywhere, though, so I recommend doing a little online research before you even consider getting behind the wheel.

First off, the majority of rental cars internationally are standard transmission. You need to specify an automatic at time of booking, and be prepared, they’re usually a higher price due to their uniqueness. So if you can’t drive stick and don’t want to wind up like those Amazing Race contestants repeatedly stalling out in the middle of traffic and enduring the wrath of the locals, you have two options: either practice a bit before going (driving your cousin’s borrowed standard around parking lots for a few hours is so much cooler than learning all the bad hand gestures the hard way on your trip) or cough up the extra cash and get one you can drive.

Similar to this is the “check which side of the road your chosen country drives on” rule. I’ve had clients who were perfectly capable of driving standard, but kept missing gears in New Zealand as they were shifting with their left hands while remembering to drive on the right side of the road. This is also why renting a car in London to drop off in Paris is not possible, as your steering wheel is not going to magically switch sides mid-ferry crossing, and there are a lot of people out there that think the side the wheel is on dictates the side they should drive on. A client asked me that once, if they could follow the French or the English road rules while in France with an English car. I am not making this up. Luckily, I didn’t have a car rental company that would allow him to do this itinerary, so I was spared from having to explain to him that the French don’t like cleaning up after hundreds of tourists killed in head-on collisions near the port of Calais.

Similarly, if you can’t read the street signs, or understand the basic laws of the road, don’t drive. When in destination you’re subject to local laws, and ignorance is not a legal defense. Legal matters aside, by driving yourself you also have to navigate yourself to your destination, so learning the local words/signs for things like “stop”, “road closed” and “if you drive down this road you will be shot” are a good idea. I’ll get you started. “Ausfhart” is German for “Exit”. There, I’ve just saved you hours of driving down the Autobahn, giggling to yourself and wondering why all roads lead back to the town of Ausfhart while the city you’re looking for never appears.

Then there’s the little matter of practicality. Some places it’s actually more inconvenient to have a car than take public transport, particularly if you’re spending a prolonged time in a major city centre. London is a great example of this, where just driving into the city centre will cost you GBP$7 per day as a congestion charge. Then there’s the horrendous lack of parking, high traffic congestion combined with the crazy streets that can change names every block or just stop for no reason (not kidding about this, taxi drivers have to study maps and test-drive the city for years before they get their license – passing a test ominously called “the Knowledge”), and when you add it all up it’s enough to have you thrown up your hands in exasperation and abandon your Hertz in the middle of Trafalgar Square in favor of the Underground. At least on the train you know you’ll eventually wind up at your destination.

All this being said, a car rental can be a great way to get from one place to another, moving at whatever pace you choose to, as long as it’s under legal limits. It gives you the freedom to buy that ten-gallon jug of drinking water on sale at Target because you know you don’t have to carry it all the way back to your hotel carefully balanced on your head. You can reach so many off the beaten path places that major transportation links might not get to. So rent away – I have some great rates! – but make sure it’s the perfect decision to make your dream trip all you want it to be

Spooky Halloween around the world.

holly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:48:09 +0000

Here in North America Halloween rocks. We have a commercially-successful excuse to dress up, trick or treat, do crazy things (”but Officer, it was Halloween!”), set off illegal fireworks, sing Monster Mash far too loudly and eat the junk food we spend the rest of the year trying to remove from our waistline. Personally, I can’t survive the day unless I’ve heard Michael Jackson’s Thriller at least three times - something I don’t think will be a problem this year. In the US it’s now the second most popular holiday for decorating after only Christmas. But if you think we can party, you should check out how they do it in other countries.

Scotland gave us one of the great traditions we over here have stolen/corrupted/commercialized into our standard Canadian holiday. Little Scots used to carry traditional lanterns called Samhnag’s made out of turnips with the devil’s face carved into them in order to scare away evil spirits. Nowadays they’ve switched to pumpkins for their jack-o-lanterns, mainly because it’s waaay easier to carve a pumpkin than a turnip, but some cities, such as Perthshire, are trying to reinstate the old ways. Hopefully vandals don’t go around blowing up turnips like pumpkins are blown up here, as a turnip can do so much more damage since they don’t smush and splatter on impact!

In Wales Halloween is called Nos Calan Gaeaf (the beginning of a new winter) and legend has it that the fearsome spirit Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta took the form of a tailless black sow and roamed the countryside with a headless woman. Needless to say, kids would rush home early. This fascinates me, mainly because I have no idea how to pronounce Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta. It’s hard enough to type correctly. Your how-itch do-doo g-wah-ta? Beats the hell out of me, but it’s fun to try.

Halloween in Mexico is just the start of three days of festivities, Witches Night (Halloween), All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos (the day of the dead). I mean, really, why shouldn’t the dead get to party, too? Skulls play a huge part in these rituals, as wooden skulls are placed on alters dedicated to the deceased, sugar skulls made with late relatives’ names on the foreheads are eaten, and they dance to honor the dead while wearing wooden skull masks called calacas. Sugar and dancing? How have we not started celebrating this yet? Sweet.

Romanians have the perfect reason to celebrate Halloween, as Dracula himself, according to myth, lived right there in Transylvania (specifically the town of Sighisoara – another one I’m not going to try and pronounce). Dracula’s spirit is believed to live here, as the city once was the site of public Witch trials (it makes sense to keep all your spooky dead people together, right?) which are recreated by actors amidst all the costume parties. Can you just imagine getting pissed drunk and watching a live “Witch trial”? Neither can I.

In Lebanon, Syria and the Palestine don’t actually celebrate Halloween, but Arab Christians hold Eid Il-Burbara (Saint Barbara’s Day) on Dec 4th instead. The festivities are nearly identical to the Halloween we know and love here, and include wearing costumes, trick or treating and singing a Halloween song. No, not Monster Mash, though I would love to hear that in Arabic. Similarly, Kuwait and other Gulf states have Qarqe’an. It’s not scary, but children wear traditional costumes and sing outside homes for handouts of candy and nuts. There it’s actually cool to get nuts, and if you give them out you don’t have to worry about your house being egged later that night!

And then there’s Japan. There actually is no Halloween per se in Japanese culture, but think about it, do you really think they would pass up a chance to dress up in weird clothes (or weirder clothes) and celebrate? Their Halloween is based mainly on American pop culture, but it has really caught on and I personally would love to see it. Carved pumpkins are a common sight and Disneyland and Universal Studios over there have huge festivities leading up to the big day. A few years ago I was in Disneyland Paris just before Halloween, and the decorations were massive, with everything from a troupe of life-sized pumpkin men taking over Frontierland to the riverboat in the rivers of the far west being turned into a giant floating gray ghost, but apparently the decorations and theming in the Tokyo park are twice as impressive.

There are many reasons fall is one of my favorite times to travel, but if you really want a show, check out some of these countries and I’m sure you’ll have yourself a bewitching good time. There’s just something about Halloween that makes we want to end this blog with a big Mad-Scientist cackle. So i will.

Mmmmwwwwwaaaahaaahahahahahhahaha!

Julie & Julia, the most disturbing movie ever

holly — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:01:52 +0000

Last night the bf and I went to our local drive-in for a Julie & Julia and District 9 double feature and I practically had an out of body experience. District 9 was good, but Julie & Julia freaked me out. It also inspired me to bake and blog (chocolate chip cookie squares in the oven as I type this), but that’s beyond the point.

The movie is about me!

I’m not talking one little passing similarity here, I’m talking full-on, Joey Lawrence “Woah!” The bf kept looking at me, eyebrows raised, amused smirk on his face as I squirmed in my seat, engrossed in the very good, very funny movie, but also having a disturbing moment of self-reflection. Totally weirded me out. For the most part it was cool, but there are some aspects of my personality (the occasional meltdown over the smallest things, my neurosis, fears, not always appreciating all the fantastic things I have in my life) that you don t necessarily want projected on a giant screen. Thank God we were alone in the car!

Get a load of this:

- Julie Powell is an aspiring novelist as yet unpublished. Julia Child is an aspiring cookbook author in the process of being published.

- Julie and I both have jobs where people occasionally yell at us for something we have no control over or, conversely, burst into tears, and it’s our responsibility to make it all better. When the frustration of this follows us home we bury ourselves in our hobbies to escape.

- Julie and I both blog about our passions.

- Julie and I both have a fantastic man NAMED ERIC (!!!) who fully supports us through all our emotional meltdowns (not that I have many) and whom we need to appreciate more.

- Julie and I both love to cook. My particular passion is baking and desserts, but any port in a storm will do. Luckily, Eric is a foodie and loves good quality meals (or pretends to like the lesser-quality stuff that pops up every once in a while), so it doesn’t go to waste.

- Julie and I both have short red hair.

- Julie and Eric just moved to a new apartment to be closer to work and save money. Holly and Eric just moved (two weeks ago) to a new apartment to save money and be closer to work.

- Julie and I both had no idea about blogs until our Erics got online and set them up for us.

See? Told you it was overwhelming. On the upside, the movie (as all Norah Ephron movies do) had a happy ending, so I’m taking that to mean that I will have my novel published, become a super famous (or at least financially stable) writer and live happily ever after until the credits roll. And it made me want to cook so bad I almost gave up on sleep last night to whip something up at three in the morning.

On an only slightly related travel note, the movie also made me want to go to France, which never happens to me. I have been to France twice (which qualifies me to say this) and left both times saying I had no desire to ever be back. Don’t get me wrong, I love the attractions they have there. The Eiffel Tower is quite possibly my favorite structure on the face of the planet and I can stare at it for weeks happily. But the overall “vibe” of France – the stereotypical standoffishness (I don’t find them rude at all, they just ignore the non-French as if they’re not there) just doesn’t suit me. But seeing the tower, the adorable little winding cobblestone streets, the look on Eric’s face at the thought of eating actual French food in France… I would go back.

Okay, just got the chocolate chip squares out of the oven and they have some issues. I think they’re slightly undercooked and I might have accidentally just poisoned Eric and I. So I will do like Julie and channel my inner Julia Child. As the maestro says in the movie, there are no mistakes in the kitchen, just setbacks.

Disneyland smackdown – California v. Paris v. Hong Kong

holly — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:54:14 +0000

Yep, I’m a dork. Let’s just get that out of the way right off the bat. I unabashedly love Disneyland, have been more times than I care to admit - and counting. It’s pure fun. Hell, just hearing the Disney music playing as I wait to enter brings a huge grin to my face. Through my travels I have been lucky enough to visit parks on 3 continents (Disney World in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland are still on my hit list, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before I have them chalked off, too. I’ll keep you posted) and am qualified to compare them head to head in this, my first Disneyland Smackdown.

For the purposes of this smackdown, I’m going to stick with just the “Disneyland” and not include the California Adventure or MGM Studios Paris, as they are each so unique, and would put Hong Kong, a place with only one park, at a disadvantage right off the bat. Also, I’m going to focus more on the differences between them than the similarities. This is because, to have the “Disneyland” title, there has to be a huge amount of similarities to keep the Mousketeers happy. If the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Every park has a Main Street, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, etc. and honestly, if you need a bathroom on Main Street, they’re in the same place in all three countries. And so it begins…

The first major difference any guest would notice is the Castle. It’s smack in front of you and will undoubtedly require a photo stop at least once in every visit. In California, the castle was intentionally built smallish and done in pastels as to be friendly and unintimidating to visitors. In Paris, where the guests are going to be accustomed to insanely large and ornate realcastles in their home countries, the castle is much larger, more gothic in it’s architecture, and bright pink. Oh, and it has a giant animatronic dragon beneath it. Hong Kong tried to recreate the cuter California castle, and they did a good job, but it’s small-scale is highlighted by the mountains surrounding the park, making it seem, well, dinky.

The coolest things to compare are the coasters. Big Thunder Mountain in California is big and classic with the focus more on the animatronic goat chewing dynamite and bat-filled mines than the speed or the drops. You just enjoy this ride, it’s not particularly thrilling. Paris once again took this idea and cranked it up to the extreme. Their Big Thunder is hands-down my favorite Disneyland ride in any park, as it takes up the entirety of the island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, and the start and end involves a dark, fast tunnel right underneath the water before you pop up on the other side. The “danger” factor is upped, too, as if you speed off the rails, you end up in the water. They have the goat, too. Hong Kong, unfortunately, doesn’t have a Big Thunder yet, but I’m sure one’s in the plans somewhere.

All three parks do have Space Mountains, though. And all three are thrilling, fast and whip you around crazy turns in the dark. For years the California one made me dizzy, as so many of the twists were in the same direction, but about five years ago they overhauled it, introducing new ride cars, a better soundtrack and new track configuration. It made a huge difference in my books, as the dizziness is gone and it’s just a crapload of fun. This is a great ride people who like the coaster experience without giant drops to contend with. Hong Kong’s Space Mountain is a close counterpart here too, and the screamometer level is about equal to California, although this one, most likely due to the fact that it’s technology is only a few years old, feels faster and darker. And then there’s Paris. I went on this ride expecting it to be as simplistic (for lack of a better word) as the other two. In hindsight, the over-the-head locking seatbelt should have tipped me off, but it didn’t. This ride really goes up the screamometer right from the start, where they actually shoot you out of a cannon on the roof, going from zero to feaking fast in seconds. Inside there’s also a full 360 loop and a corkscrew. The intensity caught me so off guard that I bruised both knees bracing them on the back of the seat in front of me! Once I knew what this ride was like, it’s great (still no big drops. I don’t do big drops), but if you’re unprepared, look out :)

It’s a Small World (come on, you knew it was coming) is so synonamous with Disneyland that all three parks feature one. You either love it or hate it, but everyone rides it. Hong Kong was the first to deviate from the Small World mold, mixing animatronic characters from Disney movies (Aladdin riding his carpet in the middle east, Lilo and Stitch surfing in Hawaii, etc) with the ubiquitous singing dolls. As someone raised on IASM(my mobile played the music when I was an infant, no joke) I was worried this would detract from the simple joy of this ride, but it surprised me by being very seamlessly integrated into the classic format. Now it’s kind of a “spot the movie characters” game as you go. Especially great for the little ones. As recently as June 09, California took a page from Hong Kong’s book and debuted their own new IASM, complete with the ”hidden” characters. Paris, as of writing this, was still using the classic format.

Naturally, the language is going to be different from country to country, but the Disney people do a great job of putting signage in multiple languages, and what isn’t translated is accompanied by pictograms to remove any confusion. There is something that makes me giggle uncontrollably at hearing the PeeWee Herman voice of the robot in Star Tours entirely in French, though. The Jungle Cruise in Hong Kong found a simple solution to the language issue by just running boats in Mandarin, Cantonese and English simultaneously. All you have to do is make sure you get into the right line and you’re golden.

Food is an essential part of any theme park experience, and, coming at it with a very westernized palette, I found this aspect a ton of fun overseas. Sure, all three parks have the standards: hot dogs, burgers, fries, Mickey-shaped ice cream bars, etc. but the regional specialties make this interesting. Hong Kong, for example, sells fish balls and Korean squid on a stick at the street carts right along with the hot dogs. The Plaza Inn here sells wonderful Dim Sum meant to be shared in a lantern-lit restaurant. Paris has frog’s legs and sells alcohol pretty much everywhere, so you can wander around with your wine and frog’s legs to your heart’s content.

In conclusion, the castle is bigger and the rides are more intense in Paris; Hong Kong is smaller and newer with more of a focus on regional food and the smaller family-friendly rides; And California is the original, so nothing can compete with that. Plus, due to their age, they have the most rides per square foot. But despite all their differences, Disneyland is still Disneyland, regardless of what country you’re in. If you have kids or just like feeling like one, it will always be worth the price of admission.