Two Kiwis All Over Europe

So I’m sitting on the RER C heading to Étampes. The last time I did this I was three and a half months ago, and a lot has happened since then!

Ben and I spent a week working on our new street show The French Chefs before heading over to Burley-in Wharfedale, Yorkshire, England, where I had my first go at directing. 

I was working with Ben, Lee, and Steve (who was a second-year in my first year) on a new comedy loosely based on Macbeth. It was a big learning experience for me. It wasn’t easy - especially because they had no script (other than Shakespeare’s, which they wanted to avoid) which meant I guided a making process much more than directing scenes. And I learnt about reading (or misreading) a group of people and how you have to adjust how you work to fit them. For example, in one situation what I thought was me applying pressure or ‘pushing them’ was read as “bullying”. Whereas what they needed was for me to be super supportive and positive - to keep their spirits up. 

It was fun - getting a pub lunch everyday in Shipley and living with Ben and Mark for two weeks. The guys were working towards a public performance at a small festival and unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay with them right to the end, but whilst I was there we were able to generate a lot of material and some very funny scenes. I heard about their final performance later and they were happy with how it went so that’s great.

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Then Amanda and I set off on our three month trip around Europe! 

First stop: Fly to BERLIN

We had a great time staying with my good friend Rosie. We took a free walking tour where we learnt some incredible history and saw many sights: the Berlin wall, the Jewish Memorial (absolutely incredible - a really spooky immersive experience), the bunker where Hitler killed himself (it’s been buried, we stood above it), but most of the time just kind of cruised around the suburbs getting a sense of what the life is like here (one hope from our trip is that we might find somewhere we want to move next year). It was cool - a bit ‘too cool’ for us - very young and hip and alternative. The best bit was hanging with Rosie and her friends. 

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Train to: PRAGUE

We CouchSurfed with this amazingly nice guy called Todd who has his own apartment in Prague but only stays there for a few weeks every year. He’d just discovered CouchSurfing and decided to dive right in there...so the first night we stayed there were 9 people, the second there were 11, and on the third there were 13 people! All on the floor and the couch and on spare beds. And it worked out fine!

We strolled the streets, took another free walking tour (definitely recommend Sandemann’s New Europe Free Walking Tours...or rather, free tip-based tours), and just soaked in the beauty of the city. Amanda loved it. It was her favourite of everywhere we went. I liked it too. It’s quite small, really alive, the river and scenery is fantastic, and although there were lots of people (including on one night a pub crawl with literally 200 people! Alcohol is cheap in Prague so everybody from Europe comes here for big parties) but it doesn’t feel very crowded.

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Train to: VIENNA

Here we were hosted by our very own Austrian friend, Thomas T...who set us up living at his lovely friend Margit’s place. Vicky was also around for a few days! 



We rode our bikes all around the town (Amanda can ride now so we were free!), we ate crazy (but awesome) amounts of meaty food and drank big mugs of beer, and went to see Thomas play in a classical-music-of-Vienna concert. One night we even stumbled upon a bar where everybody was Swing Dancing, so Amanda and I had a good groove! Really good company, really good times!

"Ouck, ouck, art-ee-vots-phi" - We became Austrian TV stars by chance. I couldn't keep a straight face.

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Fly to: LONDON / Bus to: CARDIFF, WALES

We stayed in Cardiff with our old friend Imogen (we all went to intermediate school together - Amanda went to primary school with Imogen as well) and her boyfriend Mike for a few days which was really nice. I tried ordering the local specialty 'Faggot' without cracking but wasn't successful. And we got free tickets to a London Olympics event (there are games in Wales too)! Amanda and I were sitting outside having our lunch whilst watching the games on the big screen outside in the town centre, and a lovely lady just came up to us and offered them to us. She thought they were for a British event, but they were actually South Africa VS Japan: Women's Football...so she gave them to us! And we went! And it was fun! The game was totally disappointing, but the atmosphere was fantastic. The Olympics! For free!

Bus to: MANCHESTER

Brief overnight stop where we stayed with Mark Winstanley!

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Bus to: EDINBURGH

We came for the first week of the Fringe Festival and stayed with our new Scottish friends Emma and Frasier (they CouchSurfed at our place in Paris). The festival was amazing - so many people, an amazing atmosphere, and an endless choice of shows. And because we were there at the beginning of the week most of the shows were free or very cheap...so we saw a lot. Mostly good, a few really good, and a few really really bad. Amanda and I even tried busking! Which was a first! We dressed as two typical French characters  - a waiter and a maid - and we made a sign saying The French Kissers. We were both super nervous but we decided to do it anyway...and it was a complete flop! We made £3.50 in an hour and a half. The problem was it wasn't clear that we were busking, because the royal mile is full of people dressed in costume interacting with passers-by! So we didn't try that again. But it was an experience! We also ran into lots of Kiwis in Edinburgh which was great. I fell in love with the city. I love the ancient gothic architecture mixed with the mountains and ocean. And the feeling of the place is amazing! Although I'm aware it would be very different without the fringe festival on (unfortunately). But still. It's my pick to move there next! Even if it does rain all the time.

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Train to: BURLEY-IN-WHARFEDALE

We came back for the weekend so that I could do a days teaching with Ben with a bunch of young high shool kids for the University of the First Age. It was super fast (in just over three hours we put together a show of brand new skits) and a lot of fun.

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Fly to: DUBLIN

We stayed with Victoria, an old friend of Amanda's, and her husband Gared. We drank lots of Guiness (it is actually better in Ireland than anywhere else in the world) and I scored a free haircut from a trainee at a hairdressers. My stay was short but we had a nice time strolling. Not my favourite place - it felt like the only thing people do there is smoke and drink (which is not my thing) - but it was nice. People are very social. They can talk!

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Fly to: BURLEY-IN-WHARFEDALE

Another day of teaching theatre with Ben for UFA. This time went a lot smoother, and we worked together (the first time we only came together at the end of the day) which was more fun. The day after the first workshop I developed a bad cough, which at first I thought was due to the chain smoking of our guests, but it turns out is Whooping Cough (I learned this 8 weeks later) which I would have got from the kids in the first workshop. So at this workshop I was coughing a lot!

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Train to: LONDON

Ben and I spent the day in London as our trip back to Paris was in the evening. We mucked around at Green Park imagining what kind of chaos there would be right now if a bunch of dinosaurs suddenly turned up (this was our alternative to going to the National History Museum) and then went and saw One Man Two Guvnors which was brilliant! 

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Eurostar to: PARIS

Ben and I worked on our street show a bit more and then finally got it to a place we were happy with. We played about a week's worth of shows (we tended to do three or four 20-min shows a day). We learned a lot (every show is different!), made some money, and had a good time. The show was popular - we even made some fans who kept coming back every day - and we received some nice feedback. It was a tough journey getting the show ready but it was well worth it.

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Train to: TOULOUSE

We spent two nights and day in Toulouse. We had our first CouchSurfing scare in which Amanda suddenly had an odd feeling about our potential hose (who we were to meet at the train station in half an hour) and so we decided to escape if we weren't comfortable. And when we finally spotted him (he came with another man) we didn't feel comfortable, so we left. When we let him know we had changed our plans we received some particularly abusive messages back and we knew we had made the right decision. We ended up putting out an emergency CouchSurfing request which was answered by a lovely girl from Hong Kong. We got on really well and one night went out for dinner together sharing a Cassoulet de Toulouse which was amazing but verrrrry filling! I also discovered my love for picking fruit from trees (there are fig trees everywhere here!) which boded well for our next stop...

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Train to: CARBONNE / Car ride to: MONTESQUIEU VOLVESTRE

We did a 10 day HelpX exchange here with the lovely Héguy family. Fred is French, Sara is from Belgium, and they have three awesome kids: Anton (8), Marie (5) and Émile (3). I fell in love with Émile. He is so cute! He's just learnt the very French phrase "ah bah oui!" which was hilarious.

GUY: Émile, est-ce que tu aime le chocolat?

ÉMILE: Ah bah oui!

We stayed out in our own little caravan and did about four hours work a day around the place. They have a big chunk of land with an apple orchard plus other trees, various sheds, and they're slowly renovating their house...so there were plenty of things to do. We got on really well with the family so it was a real pleasure. Relaxing (although I found myself plenty of stress with Fringe applications) and simple.

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Train to: BAYONNE

We intended to stay in Biarritz and have a little Southern France Beach weekend but couldn't find anywhere to CouchSurf. But we did find a place in Bayonne (about 20 mins away from Biarritz). There we stayed with a guy called Pablo who is a chef from the Pays Basque. We think he was a bit bonkers as many of the things he said seemed completely fabricated, but he was very generous! We shared his place with him and another 8 or so people. So it was a very social time and we met some really interesting people! Bayonne was cool too. And one day we rode bikes to Biarritz (you can hire them for free in Bayonne!) and spent the day on the beach which was awesome.

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Train to: PARIS / Covoiturage to: REIMS 

We headed to the Champagne region (Berru to be exact) to faire la vendange (do the harvest)! We stayed with Victoria (who Amanda met working at Les Petit Bilangues) and her partner Damian who runs a family business growing Champagne grapes. There we spent a week handpicking grapes all day long with a team of about eight people - all French. 



At first we were a bit out of the group because of our lack of fluent French, but soon we were very much in the team and were all friends by the end of the week. We ate really well - big multi-course lunches - and came away with a nice pay cheque as well. We were warned beforehand that la vendange is very hard work - très physique - (they even give you a 10% bonus for finishing the whole week!) and it was tough (especially on the back), but we got through it! A really really great experience. I'd do it again!

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Covoiturage to: LAMBALLE

We spent 10 days doing another HelpX exchange near Lamballe in la Bretagne region...with a couple who have a bunch of Alpaca's as pets!

Ron and Judi are British and moved to France to retire. We helped with the Alpacas every morning and did some renovation work too. It rains a lot in Bretagne so we were inside a lot, but it was fine. We had our own room and were fed amazingly well - Judi is a great chef! Real hearty British food! Our hosts were really lovely to us - they took us on a few little trips, including to a 'Fest Noz', which is a traditional Bretagne frequent social event in which people do lots of group dances to live music. It's a bit like what a blue light disco would have been like 300 years ago...with celtic music. It was bizarre - totally not expected from the French - but as we learnt the people from Bretagne consider themselves very different from the rest of the French - and it was fantastic. We had a great time. The dances are pretty basic and repetitive, so it was easy enough to get in there - linking your pinky fingers with random people on either side of you - and dancing away. We also went to a dance class for the Fest Noz dances later on, which was also great fun.

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Covoiturage to: PARIS

And after all that we returned back to Paris for the weekend. It was short but really lovely. We had lunch with Axelle who I lived with last year (unfortunately we learned that Jean-Luc passed away whilst we were away) as well as dinner with some old friends as well as my new flatmate Laura. Amanda has decided to return to the Héguy family in Monstesquieu Volvestre for the next 6 weeks, and so I am moving to Étampes for Clown. Laura is from Australia, 21 (like my sister!), and is doing the first year. We're living where Ben and Mark lived last year, so I know the place well, and when we finally met I knew it was going to be cool living with her.

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So we've had an incredible adventure over the past three months! And thanks to the generosity of old friends and new, we didn't pay a cent for accommodation. It definitely makes us want to give back when he have a place with a spare bed in the future. Whilst away I also made a submission to Young & Hungry for a new play called About Face which I'm really proud of.

And I also signed up to take WANNABE to the 2013 Auckland Fringe Festival. A big scary step (help! funding!) but something I really want to do.

We also learned many lessons along the way (especially relating to our apartment). Follow your gut. Take risks. Embrace new experiences. Meet new people. Listen.

And we made a decision about what we're going to do when our visas expire in December! We are coming home to New Zealand for six months - where we will save as much money as we can, get new visas, and enjoy our beautiful country (as well as put on a Fringe show and finish off a Bachelors degree) - and then return back to Europe for more adventures. Our French has improved considerably over the past three months and so we'd like to keep at it. Plus if all goes to plan I'll be performing at Edinburgh next year.

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On returning to Paris, I stopped by at our local Kebab shop to say hello, and after telling the guy where we had been he said that we are very very lucky, and he's absolutely right. We are incredibly lucky. And we know that we will be doing our best in the future to give to people as much as they have given to us.