my new job
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: March 26, 2010
okie dokie, so my new job with contiki has started. YAY!!
we left London on the 22nd of March and went to Paris for 3 nights to set up the campsite and drop off the Paris site reps. We had a marquee to set up and 60 cabins to clean. Was pretty fun and we got through most of the work quickly because there was so many of us!
now I’m at the Chateau which is my new home for the next months. It’s also where we had our training trip. If you wanna see about where it is, type in Theize, France in Google Maps and that’s the nearest town/village to us and you’ll be able to see where we are in relation to the rest of France.
we arrived yesterday arvo and i settled in to my room (pics to come). i’ve got a single bed, chest of drawers, small wardrobe and a sink. I’m in what we call ‘the stables’ and there’s only 2 rooms. I picked my room because of the sink, the other room doesn’t have a sink bu t it is a bigger room. Talking to the girl who lived in the bigger room last year she said she’d pick the room with the sink if she got to choose.
that’s about it for now. i have many photos to take and make you jealous 
i give up
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: March 18, 2010
well not really, but i started this blog to write about my travels and it just hasn’t happened. so now what i’m going to do is write whenever i feel like it or whenever i have something to vent about.
stay tuned…
old skool rollerskating
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: March 18, 2010
another thing in the things to do in london for under £10 was roller skating. for want of something to do on a thursday night, that was exactly what we did.
we headed down to vauxhall and met emily who came to join in the fun – as apprehensive as she was about rollerskating. we walked to renaissance rooms(http://www.renaissancerooms.co.uk) to begin our trip down memory lane.
so people really got in to “character” by dressing up in some really bad 80′s clothes complete with fluro tights. we were happy with just the old skool quad skates
wrist guards - just in case
miraculously none of us stacked it, well not technically anyway. emily had a close scrape when she went down on one knee but she didn’t actually fall over and one time she did end up on her bum but that was only because a girl took a dive right in front of her and it was unavoidable. we don’t count that one cos it wasn’t her fault
emily crankin on the skates
2 hours later we left with sore feet and bum muscles but it was a really fun night.
unemployed and bored… what to do in london
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: March 18, 2010
during a trip to WH Smith one day, kel found a book of things to do in London for under £10. 1000 things to keep you occupied on the cheap. the book itself was only £10 but of course we didn’t buy it 
we’re too cheap for that! instead we went through it and picked out a couple of things to do and wrote them down for future reference. one of these things we found was a canal cruise from camden markets to little venice, so this is what we did one sunny afternoon.
i had an appointment in camden to get my NI number so i waited for kel to get to the markets. we then grabbed some lunch in the markets before going to get tickets for our canal cruise.
the boat was open on the sides offering a great view of everything we passed. the guide was fantastic and knew his stuff, giving us detailed info on the buildings and history as we went through the canal.
on a beautiful sunny day, there was nothing better than sitting back, listening to the commentary, enjoying the cruise. we went past heaps of house boats because people actually live on the canals throughout london – i guess it’s cheaper than paying rent. we glided past the zoo and saw the aviary and wild boar enclosures which back on to the canal. after the zoo we went passed regents park where there are few residences worth millions of pounds in the park and worth every penny from the looks of them! then we turned around and came back again.
residence in regents park
a fabulous way to spend the afternoon. definitely worth the £8!
contiki tour day six – beaujolais to barcelona
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 29, 2009
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wednesday 2 april 2009
this morning all was packed early to get on the road to barcelona. we waved good bye to the contiki reps and headed off.
on our way we stopped off at pont du gard in southern france. it’s basically a bridge with 2000 year old arches over a river. pretty cool that’s it’s still standing after so many years, but it was raining so it wasn’t that great at the time.
we kept heading south through the pyrénées mountains and over the border into spain. now most times when you pay for a tour manager and a tour driver you would think that they know where they’re going, as it turns out, this is not always the case. we managed to miss the turn off and had to turn back, cross the border back in france, then turn around and cross the border into spain again. was a bit of a giggle at the time except for the spanish guards carrying big guns (and not the good kind).
we finally arrived at the hostel after a mammoth day of driving and settled in to our rooms briefly before dinner. this hostel was one of my favourite stops. it was probably what you would call a 5 star hostel, it was brand new the beds were comfy, the rooms spacious and the bathroom big enough for 4 girls to share (there was even enough hot water to go around!).
after dinner the girls in room 104 (me, jenny, scarlet and emily) decided to have a few quiet ones to end the day sitting out on the balcony we shared with room 105 (shannon, jess, josephine and someone else i can’t remember). as always happens when you only plan to have a ‘few quiet ones’, it manages to eventuate in to something much more than what you would have initially anticipated. we ended up with about half the tour on our balcony all having a few ‘quiet ones’
everyone put your hands up!
i think we’re missing quite a few people in the photo…needless to say much was drunk and we all got to know each other a little better after playing a game where all we did was ask each other random questions about our lives and feelings and histories etc. some got to know each other more than most (*cough joel and nathan cough*) and everyone was having so much fun that we were asked to head downstairs by our tour manager christian and tour driver mark who happened to be in the rooms adjacent to us :/ oops! so off we trundled downstairs, don’t ask me why but phil carried me over his shoulder down the stairs which was when i accidentally spilled the better half of my drink all over the floor. more drinks were had, more questions were asked and then it was about 2am. i went to bed about now, my stomach killing me from laughing so much and i think the hang over from the 6 euro bottle of vodka we had was starting to kick in too. not a good combination when such a big day in barcelona was on the cards for the following day…
contiki tour day five – beaujolais wine region
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 29, 2009
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wednesday 1 april 2009
everyone was a little subdued this morning. i skipped breakfast because i just wasn’t feeling it. luckily we had somewhat of a sleep in as we had not much planned and the purple bus had left early to head on to barcelona so we had no distractions 
today we were told we could go for a picnic to the ‘top of the world’. apparently it was ‘a short walk up an easy hill’ but they lied. it was a mission up a rocky path up the side of what felt like a mountain!!
in my group was me, nichole, tegan, sarah, jenny, emily and alex. kelly was supposed to come with us but she was feeling pretty crook with a cold. we were given a basket with ham, cheese, tomato and a couple of baguettes to share along with some water.
we were the last ones to leave and on the way up we all struggled, especially jenny. walking behind poor jen you could smell the booze seeping out of her pores. like i said before, some had more drink than others… we paused for rest stops quite frequently as we were all knackered and we kept wondering when the hell we would get there.
we tried to follow the map they had given us but it was only a mud map and made no sense to us whatsoever. we managed to find a place on top of a hill which had a nice look out over the valley so we decided ‘f*ck it we’re stopping here’. so we got out the food contiki had given us and had a feed and pondered life while looking out at a spectacular view. then we had a nap.
the view while we napped
little did we know napping was to become a favourite past time of ours (particularly after a big night before).
waking up from our nap we were surprised to see we had an audience. there was a man watching us which was a little weird until we packed up to head back down to the chateau and the man got out his robotic aeroplane and started flying it over where we had been just moments before. very strange man but was a little bit funny.
once we got back we found some of the others lazying in the sunshine, playing cards, reading books or playing with the footy so we went down to catch up with the goss from the night before.
we went up to the chateau to get ready for dinner which was an amazing roast chicken cooked by the fabulous site reps. tonight was quiet in the bar. a lot of people went to bed early or spent the remainder of the night repacking their suitcases after pulling everything out to put together an outfit for tight bright and sparkly. as you can imagine a lot of the girls rooms looked like war zones. i had a quiet drink in the bar and crawled in to bed.
contiki tour day four – paris to beaujolais wine region
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 29, 2009
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tuesday 31 march 2009
it was time to leave paris and start the journey to our next destination, a chateau in the beaujolais wine region.
we arrived late afternoon to our second stop and we were greeted by the contiki site reps again as well as a few extras.
the chateau
(i should mention at this point that the other tour who left the same day as us was always known as ‘the purple bus’. we were ‘the blue bus’ aka ‘contiki blue’. any reference to the purple bus means the coach with all the boys)
anyways, the purple bus had been there there night before and were gearing up early for our first party night – theme = tight bright and sparkly. as you probably already know, whenever there is a chance to dress up the men will always dress in women’s clothes so it really shouldn’t have been any surprise to us that there were a few guys dressed up, heels and all.
so we sorted out rooms, unpacked our bags and headed over to the winery for a tasting of some wine from the beaujolais region. the wine went down well and the cheese wasn’t bad either. as for the eau de vie (water of life), i think i’ll pass on the rocket fuel thanks.
i had a short nap before dinner while some showered and finished unpacking etc. after dinner everyone headed back up stairs to prepare for our first party night. everyone was in a great mood and looking forward to a great night. funnily enough i was the first one to descend into ‘the cave’ and had a good ol’ chat to the barman sean while i waited for everyone else to finish primping and priming and get their butts downstairs.
the night went on and much alcohol was consumed. for some, it was more than others….
tara got a little greedy..
it was certainly interesting watching the group dynamics between the two tours. all the boys from the purple bus wanted to be on our tour and majority of the 18 single girls on contiki blue wanted to be on the purple bus it was also funny to see the outfits that people can come up with out of theirs and their room mates luggage with very short notice.
nichole, me, tegan and jenny
there were many hook ups between the tours whether it was just a kiss or something more. i did manage to hook myself a catch in the young byron. shame he wasn’t on my tour…
me and byron
the night ended about 2am or 3am or something ridiculous like that and we all toddled off to bed.
contiki tour day three – paris
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 29, 2009
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monday 30 march 2009
so i’m now up to one of my favourite days.
on our third day in france we were given the whole day in paris to do as we wish. emily and i planned our route to see everything we could. it went something like this…
this will have to wait till i can get my pics in order. we did so much that i can’t remember what we saw!
contiki tour day two – paris and versailles
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 6, 2009
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sunday 29 march 2009
the following morning we were up and ready to go to the home of Louis XIV, otherwise known as the Palace of Versailles, and believe me when i say it’s a pretty flash place!
the palace itself is massive, there’s gold everywhere and out the back is the backyard of all backyards. the gardens behind the palace are unbelievable! massive ponds and statues and tourists as far as the eye can see.
inside the palace was pretty cool too. the hall of mirrors was very sparkly and the furniture was very old but stunning.
after we’d had our fill of the palace we went for a walk about town, checked out some shops and the markets and had a feed for lunch. i picked up a baguette to see what was in it and the lady told me off. i wasn’t gonna buy anything from there after that but i was so hungry and it looked so good i just had to…
that afternoon we were dropped in to paris for a few hours of free time to do whatever we pleased. i won’t go into detail cos i’ll put all the paris sights in the next day’s blog. i can’t remember what i saw that afternoon or whether i saw it the next day :/
arriving in to camp we had to get ready for dinner. tonight we were having a real french dinner at a real french restaurant. i passed on the escargot this time though.
after dinner we went up to the sacre couer to see a stunning view of paris by night. the walk up to the top with the trillion and one stairs was a killer (especially just after dinner) but it was worth it in the end. the little square with the restaurants and the artists was so cute. i just love how the french live!
back at camp after a very long day some were just knackered and went to bed and some still had the energy to booze and went to the bar. i was in the latter but i only had a couple before the tired crept in to me and i was ready to call it a night.
contiki tour day one – London to Paris
Posted by: misssallyjanesblog on: December 6, 2009
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Saturday 28 March 2009
right, so we left pretty damn early in the morning. and it was cold. and it started raining. not the best start, but we figured it was only gonna get better 
we got our bags weighed, our names ticked off and then waited for the bus – sorry, COACH – to come so it could be packed. i called mum and dad about this time to tell them not to expect to hear from me for the next 45 days, but that i would try and contact them whenever possible to let them know i was still alive. then we were on our way!! i couldn’t help but text my friends to let them know I was on my way to paris i can be mean sometimes but seriously, how could i not rub it in?
so we drove from london to dover to catch the ferry to calais and then had a 3 hour drive to paris. the ferry was about as exciting as you would think but it gave us a chance to meet some people off our tour and get to know our new room mates/drinking buddies/travel companions. the 2 token kiwi boys thought it would be a great idea to get on the booze already and it was only about 9am in the morning, little did we know that this would be a great indication of the drinking ability of these two boys for the rest of tour. our tour consisted of 49 people, 12 couples, 19 single girls and 6 single boys – yeah you know me and everyone else wasn’t impressed with those odds…
driving in to paris wasn’t what i expected but i was sure to be impressed in the not too distant future. we arrived at the campsite with 5 very excited contiki crew waiting for us. we settled in to our cabins, me sharing with kel and tegan and sarah on the other side with a bathroom in the middle. everyone was looking for the bar but it wasn’t open yet so there were a few disappointed faces. to dinner we went with snails and champagne as appetizers. i tried the snails and nearly brought them back up again :/
our cabins
we had a drive around paris that night to see the sights and lights and it truly is a beautiful city. heading back to camp some made a bee-line for the bar and some headed to bed after a very long day.
