| Thursday, August 24, 2006 |
| Eyelashes and London ... continued! |
Rightio, so where was I? I honestly can't remember. Oh, the eyelashes look simply fabo though, thanks for asking. Definately worth the $55! Oh. My. God. I just spent $55 on my eyelashes! $40 perm and $15 tint. Plus there was that extra $34 for the eyelash conditioner (which has no expiry date and will last me so long 'they'll bury it with you, darl', according to my beautician) which was totally necessary if I didn't want my now-brittle eyelashes to crumple up and snap off. That's 4.7 hours at work. Oh well, it's only money! And I do have truly magnifique eyelashes now!
Okay, so the trip planning. So, moving on from when we want to go, we then had to decide how to get around. Again, I found myself on the outer, speaking against buying a van and driving ourselves around Europe. It sounds great, in theory, and they were all so excited. They seemed to think it would be like driving around Hobart. This massive adventure, with the six of us in an old combi, driving ourselves where ever we fancied going. And it does sound marvellous, on the surface. If you haven't been to Rome, or Paris and seen for yourselves how crazy the streets are. I had never even heard of 'bump parking' until I saw it in action. And if you don't think about what happens if the van breaks down, gets stolen, who's name it's going to be in, who will be insured to drive it, how the hell do you get car insurance for Aussies who have no fixed address in London, and then can you even get insurance just for a couple of months, what about registering it and changing over all the papers . . . then there's the stress and hassle of working out every single day where you're going and how to get there, where can you park, what about cheap accommodation (will you need to book ahead), and oh yeah, what the hell was there to see here again anyway?
So again I came off as the massive bitch as I firmly said "I don't think it's a good idea to drive around all of Europe" and after I'd stuck my neck out Rose, the only other one to have been to Europe before, then supported me and said she refused to drive on mainland Europe too. So we compromised and now we're driving around the UK for about 20 days. But they still want to buy a van. For 20 days. Instead of hiring. Hiring a van is damn expensive, I'll admit it. It'll cost us each about $800 for 20 days, not counting petrol, because we have to pay an extra surcharge for being under 25, and then registering more than one driver. Oh hang on, I didn't count Carmen when I did my calculations, because I didn't know she'd be coming. $670 each then, plus petrol. But I still don't think that Carmen will be able to come, realistically, if she's only just started her full-time goverment deparment job. That equals 1,613 pounds. Can you buy a good quality late 1990s van that seats 6 adults plus a huge amount of luggage for 1,613 pounds in London, English readers? Because these other girls think that we'll be able to, but I'm somehow doubting it greatly. Please, direct me to London used-car pages (do you have a standard newspaper that has a second-hand car-buying guide in it that I can look up online?) so I can prove to them that it is still better to hire rather than buy, even if hiring is just throwing money away.
So now we have established that we're leaving somewhere between February-April, we're hiring/buying a van to tour the UK, and then it was onto travelling around Europe after only 1 and a half hours of meeting. Italy, France and Switzerland were on the top of all lists except mine and Rose's, because we've already been to the 'normal' first-time-to-Europe places. I don't mind going there again, though, because I only spent one or two days in each place and like you can do Paris or Rome in just that short space of time. Top of my things to see list is Prague, and I'd love to go back to Berlin. Rose and I want to go to Eastern Europe, though, because it's cheaper and has some really gorgeous places. I think it's a bit safer and more touristy now than it has been (or is that my imagination?), and I'm dying to see Dubrovnik, Croatia. The others all had to leave then, leaving Rose, Katie and I. Rose (who I think could see how very little we had accomplished in this meeting) typed up what we had discussed and what we needed to discuss ("otherwise we'll spend all our time gossiping like normal"). I had tentatively floated the idea of doing a Topdeck tour (just go to www.topdecktours.co.uk and it's the one called the Grand European- I tried to put in the link but for some reason it won't work) of Europe - 28 days, all accommodation, transport, breakfasts, and 16 lunches and dinners for $3500 (1,410 pounds). No hassles or stresses, it includes all the places the others want to go, plus some Eastern Europe for Rose and I, and Prague for me and been shouted down earlier in the evening. Too expensive (I seriously think we'd be pushed to do Europe for a month for cheaper than that, and see everything everyone wants to see in the time frame), I don't want to be on a bus for so long (Felicity, who obviously has no idea that if we're on our own charted coach taking us directly where we want to go, it would actually be quicker than when we're catching buses around Europe ourselves that stop to pick up and drop of people at cities along the way), and 'what if we don't like it?' (Frieda, who wasn't placated when I suggested that you would have to be a pretty damn miserable person to not enjoy a whirlwind tour of Europe). When I broached the topic again to Rose and Katie, they were much more receptive. Rose in particular, once she saw the price, what it incorporated, and did her sums. She's very money savvy. Must be that commerce degree with four majors. And as Katie said "if this tour goes everywhere we want to go, it would be a good idea to do it". Finally. Voices of reason in the madness. Now all I have to do is pray that they stick by their tour desires (Katie especially is indecisive and non-commital about such small things like meeting up for lunch), and convince Felicity (that's going to be damn hard), who thinks that doing a tour will be like when we were dragged about on school excusions and we will be stuck on a bus permanently, Frieda, who has extremely limited funds and is worried that we'll pay all the money and hate it, and Carmen (who is probably the most anti-tour but what is the f****** point when she obviously isn't going to be able to go!!!!).
So that is where my life is at right now. Planning this trip is exciting, yet it is so totally exasperating, time-consuming, worrying and stressful already, and we've only just begun. I'm sure I've annoyed everyone already in just the one two hour meeting, by arguing against everything everyone else wanted to do. It doesn't bode well for two months of travelling! |
posted by Cecilia @ 10:29 pm  |
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| 2 Rantings: |
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is it bad that i was more, 'ooh! eyelashes!' than, 'ooh, round the world trip!'...?
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Well I am not sure about whether you could get something for that price but I would say that I think you have to have something with proper seats that can seat all of you (seatbelt laws and all that) so I would think that some kind of people carrier or minibus would be what you need but I have a vague memory that there are laws about length of time driving before you are allowed to drive a minnibus.
Anyway I would look at http://www.autotrader.co.uk/ or just google the make of car / van you need and London to see what you come up with.
Sounds like a fabulous trip though, I am super jealous (and of the eyelashes too!)
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is it bad that i was more, 'ooh! eyelashes!' than, 'ooh, round the world trip!'...?