Every year, Titash and I are trying to have a nice cozy meetup. Last year several people mistook it for a convention, and they were angry they were not invited. Hence the tagline, and we both know this is not a convention, but it is just funky to see people going bananas because they are not invited to this private convention. With that aside, it was a blast!
December 21st: Day 1
While the rest of the world was running around, yelling that we were all going to die, I was focussing on something more important. After work I got to drive to Paris! It was a rather uneventful day, and everybody was already in the Christmas spirit. I could drive off a bit early, and I arrived in Disney Village around 21:30. During the way, I kept Titash informed through Foursquare and Google Latitude. Unfortunately the 3G coverage around Disneyland is a bit lacking, most often the location would either be outdated, or 100 meters off. Which can be quite a deal if you look for each other in a small location.
When we finally met up, we had a nice dinner at Anette’s, a cute 50/60′s themed restaurant. After some catching up, we went to our hotel. A hotel Ibis 10Km away from the park. Thanks to this hotel, we did not have to go into the Tower Of Terror, since their elevator was all sorts of bad!
December 22nd: Day 2
To make a long story short: Titash his navigation is truly horrible. I was driving in circles as he was telling me where to go. Now, I am not one known for my superb navigational skills, but us together, oy vey! At one point I was even staring at a Easter Island statue! It would not be unlikely that we would be on Easter Island. When we finally arrived, we went to the mall to get me an umbrella, since mine broke down in the worst possible way. Naturally, the umbrella we bought did not last very long. But at least we did not get wet, sorta.
After we got our things done in the mall, we got into the train to Paris to visit the Louvre. I myself love museums, culture in general and architecture. This trip was quite fun. Although Titash was a bit worried I was bored since I was not looking at the paintings. I was more interested in the architecture of the building itself! But the paintings were nice too.
After the Louvre we had a nice dinner and we went to see the English version of ‘Rise Of The Guardians’. Initially it was our idea to go see Wreck-It Ralph. Unfortunately the English version was only shown in 3D, and unfortunately Titash could not see that just yet. The Guardians was a nice animated movie, but nothing more than that. It had its moments though!
When we got back in the Ibis, we watched Cranked 2 and called it a night.
December 23rd: Day 3
Today was not the best day for Titash to wake up. But soon things got a lot better. We went to one of the local zoo’s around Paris. At the zoo, which was really small, we searched for the meerkats. Turned out there were two left. The third got stolen! They were snugged up together in the compounds. But after a while they got out to the open areas. Before we knew it, the day was over! We spent quite a few hours with the two meerkats, taking dozens of nice pictures.
After the zoo closed, we went to one of the Disneyland hotels to have a little artjam. Unfortunately the tables were way low. Eventually we ended up at Earl of Sandwiches where we could draw until closing time.
When we returned to the Ibis, we watched Iron Sky. A delightfully campy movie, and I enjoyed Titash his responses at the delightfully campy scenes, storylines and graphics.
December 24th: Day 4
The day that we could go to Disneyland! We took it slow, but it was a fun day. Throughout our walk in both Disney Studios and Disneyland Titash told me about all the little details that are normally overlooked. In the stores we saw Titash’ his latest work: The big 20th anniversary book from the park. He was quite proud to see his own work being browsed through and bought by various visitors, and with good right!
I saw both Cinemagique and Animagique for a second time. During Cinemagique a friend of mine called on exactly *that* moment. If you have seen the show, you know which moment I am talking about 😉
During our walk in Disney Studios I bumped into someone wearing an amusing Perry hat. Now I know a friend who is I think Perry’s biggest fan. After searching for it, we finally found it. All the way Titash was ranting on how he hated Disney Channel. I agreed but, I told him Finneas and Furb is one of the rare shows that are actually worth a watch. When we finally found the hat, he actually went back to the store to buy one for himself. He found the hat ‘wonderfully stupid’.
The park was rather quiet, most lines were not long at all. Personally I expected the park to be much more busy! That evening we had our Christmas dinner in ‘The Silver Spur’, and we were blown away by the new show: Disney Dreams. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it! It is well worth the wait!
That evening we watched Cats Don’t Dance. It is one of my all time favorite movies, and I was surprised Titash did not see it yet.
December 25th: Day 5
Today was mostly a relaxing day. Everything was closed in France. When we searched for a restaurant, or any other place we could eat, the whole place had a ‘Walking Dead’ vibe to it. Mostly because some areas were not just abandoned, but a bit lacking in maintenance. Giving a very ‘zombie apocalypse’ vibe to it. Eventually we ended up at the mall in Val d’Europe. Had some stake and went back to the Hotel.
At the hotel we had a little artjam and discussed the upcoming year. The things discussed here you might see during the next Eurofurence or Confuzzled!
To end the day, we watched the first episode of season 3 of The Walking Dead.
December 26nd: Day 6
All things end, and so did this wonderful get together. That morning we both woke up ‘as a grub’. Titash copied some files off my laptop, we packed all our belongings and had one last dinner in Val d’Europe. Titash bought me some wonderful local quisine; a raclette tosti and some salad. After a sad goodbye we parted. However, the memories remain, and we will make sure 2013 is going to be the year of the meerkat!