The Incredible Journey - 16 May, 1994

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1994, I did what most white South Africans my age saw as a right of passage. I went on a tour of Europe with a schoolfriend and her girlfriend. I was in my early 20's.

These are the letters and faxes (this was before everyone had email, Children) I sent home and entries from my diary. They are all real. I couldn't make this shit up. 

 
The trip started in January 1994. To read the posts in order, go the Itinerary Post.

16 May - Cannes

Went into Cannes to the Waterfront.  Saw the Palais des Festivals and went to the tourist office there.  Found out that the Cannes Film Festival starting next day!  BONUS!

Found a campsite and I slept most of the afternoon - still knocked out by flu drugs. Carried and Varla played pool with some guy who worked at the campsite.

We decided to go to dinner and ask the campsite people where we should go.  They told us about a suburb down the road called La Bocca and we decided to leave the camper in the total mess it was in and go there to eat.  This was unusual for us - we would usually straighten it up - but it turned out to be a Godsend.

When we got out of the restaurant - and we had parked not even 200m up the road - we found we had been robbed.  The small triangular window pane was on the floor next to the car - not even broken, just taken out.  They had not found much in the mess but had taken Carrie's blue bag with all the films of her photos taken during the course of the whole trip, souvenirs and Varla's air ticket.  All they had taken of mine was my backpack attachment wit my clean underwear in it.  I would have loved to have seen their faces when they opened that!

We went down to the Police and filled in a report just like the other three sets of people standing there.  We brought them the window pane - which had fingerprints on it.  They were not interested: "We don't do that - this is not America!"

Obviously Festival time is a major crime time and they just didn't care.

Carrie was furious and took us driving around the area where we had been robbed in the hope we would find our bags dumped somewhere by the roadside.  She kept driving up alleys and shining the brights while Varla got out to take a look around.  I was getting tense, thinking this was a waste of time but I guess if something more important than my underwear had been taken I would have felt the same.

When we got back to the campsite we saw Christophe and his sidekick and he said that La Bocca was a bad area and that he had told us not to take our car.  What a crock of shit.  IF it was so bad, why did he send us there in the first place?

17 May - Cannes

Went into town and tried to sort out all the crap caused by the robbery.

We went to the Police station to report what was stolen.  They said we had to go to La Bocca Police Station because it had happened there, and that that only reason we had been able to report it to shit station the night before was because the La Bocca one had been closed.

Went to the travel agent to ask about Varla's plane ticket.  They said they could not help and we would have to call KLM.

We went to the Post Office and, when I finally got to the front, I was told air letters were sold at a different counter!

Went to the Automobile Club and - finally! - met someone helpful.  She really went out of her way for us while we were trying to sort out our International Drivers Licenses.  She could not issue new licenses though, and said we would have to travel with our photocopies of our licenses with the Police Report to prove the originals were stolen.

(One of the best pieces of advice we were given as travellers was to photocopy everything multiple times and to even leave copies with a trusted friend who you could call if you had to have copies faxed to you.)

I decided we should have something to drink and that I would treat Carrie and Varla to a drink at one of the excruciatingly expensive sidewalk cafes amongst the festival crowds.  Varla was not interested in trying to have a nice moment in the face of all of this and only Carrie and I had something to drink.  Two drinks cost 7 Pounds.  Ripoff supreme.

We went back to the Police Station to find out about Lost Property only to find the station was closed!

Went to the train station to call KLM about the plane ticket.  They said they could issue a new ticket in Nice but that it would cost 300FF!

We went back to the Travel Agency to find out why they charge 300FF and met 3 Aussie girls in worse straits than us.  They had been on their way from Italy and had decided to come off the motorway to drive through Cannes just to see it.  They had got caught in Festival traffic on the waterfront and got a bag snatched from the back seat.  They were also trying to sort out their stuff.

At about 6, we went down to the Palais des Festivals and joined the crowd to see the guests arrive for the premiere.  We did not know it at the time but found out later it was Cite des Enfants Perdus so none of the starts meant anything to us.  The crowd was what made it worthwhile.

People were shoving each other, some had brought stepladders to stand on, 5 young boys just behind us were testing the strength of the branches of a tiny tree, people at the back where shouting "Qui est?" and getting answers passed back from the people in front. There were also hilarious comments being shouted out like, when the stars got out of the cars in front and did not turn around to acknowledge the crowd, some guy kept yelling that it was because they were ugly.

We did not know the French actors, but I did recognize Jean Reno from the Big Blue.

We went back to "le camping" and played pool with Christophe.  Same situation as always - I thought he was cute but he only had eyes for Carrie and Varla.  Well, please - who wouldn't?

The trip started in January 1994. To read the posts in order, go the Itinerary Post.