For the first time in all my travels I went overseas for the pure reason of attending only one event – so much so that I didn’t even really plan what we were going to do of the rest of the weekend we were in Paris. It actually made quite a nice change and unusually when I got back to London tonight I was feeling fairly relaxed … if a bit exhausted from not getting enough sleep on Saturday night.

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The Experience

Laney and I caught the Eurostar mid-morning in to Paris. I love catching the Eurostar – it just seems so much more a civilised way of getting into the centre of the city than flying into Charles de Gaulle and it doesn’t take all that much longer than flying (once you factor in the checking in, travelling to an from the airport etc.) We arrived in Paris early in the afternoon and after checking in to our hotel had the rest of a glorious day to enjoy Paris.

This weekend was the finals weekend of the French Open and our own Sam Stosur was in the Women’s Final. She was heavy favourite and though I couldn’t get tickets to see it live we saw some of it on the TV. I don’t know what happened but unfortunately she lost! We were a bit disappointed for her!

After watching Sam sadly lose the French Open final our port of call was the Eiffel Tower, well, the area around the Eiffel Tower anyway. It was a hive of activity but most surprisingly there were a number of dance groups that were scattered around. Some were asking for money but some seemed just to be dancing for fun. I loved how they all made it about performance pieces so it was like they were telling a story so it wasn’t just dancing to music. It really made for quite a fun atmosphere and some of the performers were very talented.

The funniest chat up line I’ve ever had happened whilst we were hanging around. You know in Paris there are heaps of African men trying to sell you random stuff from pieces of string you unknowingly let them put on your wrist to fake watches etc. well this dude came up to us and tried to sell us these Eiffel tower watches. We refused of course but then he started to chat me up saying I was beautiful, could he get my email blah blah blah and then he asked me where I was from. I just left it hanging and then he was like “You’re from Brazil aren’t you”. Um … I’m wondering if he was slightly blind cause even though I might have had a Brazilian I certainly wasn’t Brazilian. He was really genuine too cause he started to speak to me in Portugese! I nearly wet myself laughing after he left. Poor bloke.

There were sooo many tourists that just watching people and moving around them made me feel tired! so Laney and I decided to go over to the green near the Eiffel and lay down. It was lovely. Randomly I saw this in the sky. Make what you will of it but I know what I was thinking … hint: what I see is pointing left ….

Somehow it was suddenly time for dinner. I never know where to eat in Paris but a friend of Laney’s recommended Chez Papa. I think its actually a chain but the food was very delicious and filling. There were so many nice looking options on the menu but everyone around us had these gorgeous giant salads topped with a fried egg! They really did look but I was feeling greedier than just salad so, after enjoying some snails (tasty!) went for this veal and cheese option which ended up being served in a large ceramic pot.

I clearly wasn’t thinking when I went for such a heavy meal cause I’d forgotten that I then had to squeeze into my outfit for the evening! A PVC corset and skirt! Umm … yes, not my usual wardrobe …

So the evening brought along the reason for our trip – a visit to Torture Garden – supposedly the world’s leading fetish club! It probably sounds more dramatic than it actually is. Normally there is an event in London kind of every month however for some reason neither Laney or I could make any of the dates but we could make it to the Paris one! It seemed fitting that the event was held at La Machine Du Moulin Rouge. I’ve never been to a fetish club but was interested to see what went down in one.

Getting dressed for the night was very interesting. I could barely get into my corset – Laney had to literally get her knee and knee me into it. Once it was on I couldn’t even sit without feeling like my ribs were breaking. Not sure how ladies used to do it in the olden days! Still it actually kind of felt empowering … even if we did get some funny looks as we made our way to the club. (Turns out that most people changed AT the club!)

I’m not going to go into detail about what went on at Torture Garden but fair to say it was eye opening. Though we had worried about what we were wearing it turned out we were way more conservative than everyone else – the first two girls we saw were basically naked but for bits of rope hiding nothing but strung around their body! During the night (we got home at 6am) there was entertainment on the big stage and entertainment by individuals around us (there were a few frames and stirrups around …) We met some interesting people but what I found strange was that it was only when I was with this guy that I was suddenly getting approached – one guy in a full body suit wanted me to play with him and another time this guy in a rabbit suit came up to us. However, despite the nature of the club I actually felt it was “safer” than a normal nightclub – people are respectively of boundaries and no means no and they respect that without being all sleazy. The funniest incident was when I was standing at the top of the stairs leaning over a banister not realising I was stepping on someone’s hand. When I went to apologise he was like – that’s very okay. I think he deliberately put his hand under my foot!

Due to our activities of the night Sunday was a very relaxed affair. We basically slept until check out, then after a quick stop at the Arc de Triomphe, had a lazy brunch, strolled down the Champs Elysee and visited the car stores and Louis Vutton – which had a long queue outside it to get in. As we were waiting we were surprised to see this Buddhist Monk turn up, with followers, and pose in front of the store!

After this we took a long walk around and then along the Seine where we made a pit-stop at the Diana Memorial (strange flame) and the tunnel where she had the accident. I was very moved by the inscriptions on the bridge above it …

… before having a snooze at Jardin des Tuileries. It was a great way to end the weekend.

For a kind of birthday weekend Rache organised a group of us to head to Copenhagen for the last bank holiday of May. The crew ended up being a bunch of girls – I tell you that sharing one bathroom between six women was certainly an interesting challenge. Thankfully I’m an evening showerer so I had the bathroom pretty much to myself (after various toilet/brushing teeth/removing make-up absolutions) and didn’t have to get up two hours earlier in the morning to get my turn at the bathroom. heh heh.

Before arriving in Copenhagen I didn’t know much about Denmark. I knew that (1) Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark (2) Denmark has Australia’s first genuine royalty: Crown Princess Mary who is married to the Crown Prince Frederik and (3) Copenhagen is one of the new big cities reknown for its amazing food. Its also known as being a happy country with friendly citizens right down to their electricity plugs and coins with love hearts on them…

None of the group had really done any research on the place so the weekend was a lot of ad hoc making it up as we go kind of weekend which was kind of cool.

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The Experience

Out of the group of six of us we all kind of arrived and left at different times with a couple arriving early Friday and leaving early Monday, a few , Phelon, Nic and I, arriving late Friday and leaving late Monday and one girl arriving and leaving in between so trying to figure out sights we wanted to see etc. was a king of juggling act but I think it worked out pretty well.

With Rache arriving ahead of Phelon, Nic and I she’d given us some pretty good instructions on how to get to our flat. Unfortunately we kind of didn’t read the instructions very well and blindly following a friend that Nic had met on the plane, a girl who was a local, we ended up on the right number platform but for the wrong type of transport (train instead of metro!) As a result, though with much fun and laughter and an opportunity to “drive” the train in the same way you’d “drive” the DLR, it was very late by the time we got the apartment and we had to resort to having a kebab as our first meal in Copenhagen. So much for fine food! Ha!

Day 1

Day 1 was a mish-mash of castles, fortresses, theme parks and Eurovision! We started the day with a visit to what the girls thought was a castle (misled by the Danish title Kastellet) which was actually supposedly one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. Coolly shaped like a star it proved to be a popular place for joggers and walkers alike. The fortification, like any good fortification, is surrounded by a lovely little bit of water which even for a grim start weather wise to the morning made for a very pretty setting. No fishing or parking allowed. When we arrived at the Kastellet there was also some sort of service going on (this actually further confused as we weren’t sure whether it was some changing of the guard ceremony!) For those that are interested there is a cute little windmill onsite too.

The palace or Slot we were really trying to get to was Amalienborg because we wanted to watch the changing of the guards which takes place every date at noon. Oh boy I hope not all changing of the guards is this boring. There were a lot of (very young) guards but basically the changing of the guards seemed to just involve a lot of marching and standing in place then marching again. The most entertaining part was the “usher” responsible for making sure the crowd didn’t get in the way as the guards changed for the four buildings which make up the Royal Residence in Copenhagen.

Lunch was long the very pretty canal area of Nyhavn – a gorgeous waterfront lined by some very pretty and colourful townhouses – before we hopped on to a boat for very good value canal tour. Lucky for us the weather improved significantly and we had some delicious blue sky for this part of the day. The canal tour was one of the highlights of our visit to Copenhagen and I loved seeing all the architecturally beautiful buildings of Copenhagen from the water. We saw all sorts of random things and I swear I even saw someone bungee-ing off a crane in the far distance! The canal tour took us past where The Little Mermaid should have been, past The Royal Library (this cool amazing black diamond type building) and even past Noma, the world’s number 1 restaurant and where I hope to dine in the near future! Be warned that the canal boat passes under some very low bridges!

After we got off the canal tour Rache showed us something she’d discovered early on Friday and was one of the creepier sights of the weekend …

I think they were called The Merman with Seven Sons and something to do with the Danish ballad “Agnete and the Merman” about a heartbreaking story of a human girl falling in love with a merman and having seven sons to him only to leave him after she gets homesick. A bit of a creepy setting underwater but an interesting bit of art nevertheless.

After a pit stop for ice cream we moved on to the thrill-seeking bit of the day – a visit to Tivoli Gardens! I love the fact the theme park is right in the centre of town! Tivoli is actually a really pretty theme park with heaps of restaurants, spaces to sit and relax and, for us adrenalin-junkies, just a few rides or twenty-seven (though only eight of them I would classify as being “wild”, as described by Tivoli.) By this stage Amy and Nick had also joined us on the trip and it was good numbers for the rides. Unfortunately we riders got a bit carried away and the non-riders got the boring end of the stick I’m afraid as we got a bit involved for a few hours. The funniest ride was The Roller Coaster – the ride attendant sits in the middle of the roller coast and spins around, dons a random face mask/funny glasses and just was generally entertaining through the ride – unusual!

Tivoli Gardens is a really pretty venue. We even got to see the sister of The Little Mermaid (a small consolation for missing the real thing) and The Tivoli Boy Guards who were so cute!

We finished the night with … a night in front of the TV watching … the Eurovision final! It was actually a lot of fun and we had high hopes that the Danish entry was going to get through. It would have been party central if they had! Unfortunately the indie punk rock type German girl won instead. Its such a set up!

Day 2

Day 2 was started with an early-ish visit to Frederiksborg Castle which is a little way out from Copenhagen. I’ve only since discovered after googling Frederiksborg that its actually The Museum of National History! But at the time I was surprised by the collection of art etc. housed in the castle including the modern stuff on the top floor! My favourite part, however, had to be the gorgeous gardens. Just a shame we didn’t have more time to explore it cause we were rushing off to our next destination

… The Royal Palaces (Amalienborg)! No changing of the guard this time – just a visit into the newly renovated palace where Princess Mary will soon be moving in. It was absolutely chucking it down by the time we got there and with only two umbrellas between the six of us I’m surprised none of us were any wetter. Thankfully the line was fairly reasonable (compared with the line we’d seen the day before) and, though I wouldn’t say it moved quickly, it moved quick enough.

Inside we were just happy to get out of the weather. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any pictures inside – the renovations were a mixture of traditionally and really non-traditional staff. Some of the wall paintings were interesting and quite unique.

One of the advantages of having the Copenhagen Card this weekend was that we didn’t care how long we actually spent inside a museum/attraction as we were essentially getting in for free so when the Wonderful World of Hans Christian Andersen Museum turned out to be less wonderful than promised we weren’t overly disappointed. This translation of the Emperor’s Clothes did give us a bit of a giggle. Additionally, it did provide some cover from the constant drizzle and also a view point out to the main square where some kids were doing something odd with crates and crane.

Look! My name!

Day 2 ended with dinner at Nyhavn followed by a visit to the Copenhagen Casino where we had to pay entry! Unfortunately luck wasn’t with me at blackjack but I had a sympathetic dealer and it was certainly interesting to play in non-English. Guess the sign for hit me, no thanks and I’m out of money is universal …

Day 3

We lost a few of the girls early to planes back to London in the morning so it was left to Nic, Phelon and I to fill in our day and boy did we do a good job. We fit in Copenhagen Zoo, the Circus Museum and Christianhavn – all within about five hours before we got the train to the airport.

We literally flew around Copenhagen Zoo. Maybe because the temperatures were so cool or for whatever reason the animals were all really lively and active. The brown bears and polar bears in particular were quite feisty with the brown bears running all over their cage and fighting each other and one of the polar bears actually posing for photos. It was well cool!

Oh and I got to see a Tasmanian Devil – probably the first I’ve seen and we’re not even in Australia! I was also excited to see the Norman Foster designed Elephant House though I think the elephants looked a little sad and skinny.

The Circus Museum was an absolute laugh to get to. We had no idea where we were going as it seemed to be located in a small community with no indication at all that there was a Circus Museum in the area. We wouldn’t have gone at all if Nic hadn’t hated clowns so much (ha ha!) and we didn’t have the Copenhagen Card. But whilst we were there we made the most of the interactive parts:

Christianshavn was an absolute revelation. For a start don’t expect it to be a tourist-friendly place – this is an actual community and they don’t appreciate gawkers or cameras. Christianshavn has a definite hippy feel to it and for a long time was known as a place where dr*gs were readily available and no taxes were paid! Things have moved on now and though dr*gs seemed readily available as we walked about maybe the stalls were more innocent than the seemed. At the very least the community now does pay tax. And community is absolutely the word I’d use – it’s a very close-knit community and I felt a great sense of sister/brother-hood. It was quite refreshing even if I do feel a bit like I’d walked on to the set of Mad Max or Waterworld!

Other Thoughts

Copenhagen must be a relatively low-crime city because bikes were left all over the place unlocked and seemingly without care that they’d be stolen. It’s a great thing to see. Oh and make sure to leave room and time for their hot dogs or polser – delish.