Tomorrow will be my second time on a plane but my first time flying over the ocean to Europe. 20 days on the old continent. That's pretty exciting!! What should I bring? I know for a fact that I'll be doing many photos shoots there and that the decor will most surely be inspiring. Luckily Kate (the owner of the funhouse) lent me some exquisite latex clothing made by Polymorph, a Montreal based company. Thank God since, unfortunately, Martin didn't have time to make new clothes except for a few pairs of underwear and a gorgeous black long-sleeved top which will look lovely with Kate's pants… I can't wait to get there!!

July 27, 2000

Here I am at the Mirabel International airport in Montreal. I feel like Paris isn't very far from me now. Never been there, I can only imagine how Europe must be. It's now 4pm and our flight only leaves at 7:00pm. We're a bit early but that's ok. Better be safe than sorry! Ah! Now that we've checked in, what do we do to kill time? Dream… Imagine… Get a bit anxious about the Marquis photo shoot with Peter… what else? That's the real big thing, isn't it? How will he be? Will I be good during the shoot? Will he like my red hair? So many questions...

Martin is diligently holding on to his little bag containing both his video and still cameras. As for me, I try not to forget my purse. I have to admit that I'm quite absent minded. I often lose my wallet, my money, my sunglasses… But not today! LOL! Ok, we went through customs and there's only 30 minutes left before boarding. YEs! What should we do? Let's have a drink! Cool... :-) After all, there are no stores or restaurants where we are right now, only a pub. But... HEY!? It's now 7:30pm! Why aren't we on the plane?! It still says 7:00pm on the screens...

We know that the operators don't want to take any chances. The Concorde crash is still close in their minds… That must be the reason why the plane is late tonight... Yes, that must be it... Damn! It's now 8:30pm and the monitor still has a boarding time of 7:00pm! BUt... Ahhhh! There we go. The screen is being updated. Boarding will be at 9:30pm. So we thought. But then 9:30pm comes and goes, then 10:30pm and 11:30pm... Finally! After a 6-hour delay, famished, dead tired, it's 1h30am and time to board the plane. I may be tired, but I'm coming strong!! Ah! ah! Paris here we come! Zouiiiiiii!

July 28, 2000

It's noon… Well, noon local Paris time. For us, it's more like 6:00AM!! Ouch... Yes, we can say I'm tired. At least I was able to sleep a little. One hour or so... Anyhow, we just got in Charles De Gaule and our rented car is waiting for us. Finally we're here!!! YES! Europe, here I come! Hehe... Jet lag is setting in and making me very lazy. The question in our minds right now is whether we should stay in Paris or keep Paris as our last stop. Being so tired, we opted to leave big, hectic Paris for a quieter alternative, Bruges, Belgium. We arrived in Bruges late afternoon. Now we had the difficult task of finding a nice hotel at a reasonable price. Without a reservation and being in peak season and prices shooting through the roof that wouldn't be easy. Did I mention I don't understand how to use the phones?? I mean, it really seems complicated to me with all the are codes, sometimes having to add a 0, sometimes not. I can't find the logic of it yet... So, no reservations by phone for today. Anyhow, once we got to Bruges, we opted for the Snuffle, a youth hostel.

We're alone in a room with 4 beds. It's 10:00PM and we're just crying for sleep! What a relief to finally be able to lie down horizontally. It isn't a 5 star hotel but it'll do. After a good night sleep, we'll be able to start enjoying Europe. That'll be fun! :-) Let's sleep... let's sleep.. let's... We seem to hear a lot of noise on our floor but still… Let's sleep... Sight! at 2:00AM, just on the verge of sleep, 2 late arrivals come into the room to fill up the empty beds, not to mention the partygoers just beneath our window celebrating till dawn. ARG.... Finally, we didn't sleep at all all night! Ok, we just laughed about it. Hey! We're in Europe! :-)

In the morning we decided to check out the city. The restaurants seemed expensive but Bruges was just gorgeous! It feels strange and fun to see such a beautiful and old town. But it won't be at this point and time that I'll be eating Belgium's famous mussels and fries! That'll come later on in Brussel...

That day we decide to leave for Germany, more specifically Dusseldorf. We get there the same evening and find a nice room. That evening, we went to a big PUB. It was quite an experience! :-) The energy in there was like nothing I had seen before. We ate and drank beer... oh yes... we were part of the gang! LOL! After some laughs, we decided to hit the sack. But due to jet lag I had insomnia and couldn't sleep all night. Oh well...

The following morning, we left straight away for Solingen, which is only 30 minutes away. The shoot with Peter is in 2 days… So SOON??? Arrrrr.... Don't be nerveous, don't be nerveous... :-)

July 30, 2000

We make it to Solingen in the afternoon; a beautiful little town hugged by mountains. The landscape is completely green and the air so refreshing. We even manage to find a lovely little B&B hidden in the woods. Our room is beautiful and the breakfast is delicious. The tenants great us very well and make us feel welcome. That's cool! :-)

At night things deteriorate a little bit. We find out that there are 4 men lodging in the other 2 rooms on our floor. They've been at the B&B for a few months now since they all work nearby. As a result, they assume the place is theirs and from when they get back from work (9:00PM) till around 2:00AM silence is non-existent. We hear them again at 8:00AM when they get up again for work. Again, we had a fitful night of sleep… Well, it seems we'll have to get use to it after all! Did I mention we understood quite clearly by that time that when you travel, you absolutely need to bring ear plugs with you... :-0

July 31, 2000

We've found this nice little internet cafe, and I finally managed to look at my emails! The shoot with Peter will only happen on August 2nd so we have a few days to kill. What can we do in this small village? It's not so easy finding the places to see when you don't know anyone local... So we decided to hang around and visit the zoo nearby. That was cool! Picture this: a little zoo in the middle of forest with huge trees... There was these little baby lions. They were sooo cute! That was fun... After visiting here and there we'll take take the remaining days before the shoot as a blessing and relax and take lots of naps. We decide to go scouting around for potential photo shoot sites so that Martin and I can start having fun! And indeed, we found this great church... Wow, that'll be perfect! Meanwhile, there's this little Horse-swing in front of me... I jump on it, and YAHOO! Haha... That's fun! And the fun part of the trip is about to continue very soon with the shoots!…

August 1, 2000

I didn't sleep well because of the 4 guys but I still feel ready to do my first European shoot! A nice long shower, bright red lipstick, my hair up a bit, I'm ready to choose my outfit. Since we're planning on doing our shoot near an old church, I decide to go with a gorgeous long black latex dress garnished with a zipper from top to bottom. I then slip on the back latex stockings and long latex gloves. I crown the outfit with a bright red corset accentuating my slim waist. The last thing I put on are my red shoes and I'm ready! I feel good, just like a princess would... This is exciting! We're going to do our fisrt photoshoot in Europe! Cool... But wait. I'm not too familiar with the customs here. What if I shock too much? I AM fully dressed in latex from head to toe! Maybe I shouldn't take too many chances for the first time... To make our way to the church I wore a long cotton dress over the latex so as to not scandalize the locals. Just to make sure you know... I'll be a good girl and cover up. ;-)

The old church is located at the top of a long series of stone steps. At the bottom of the stairs we can find small terraces where people can eat and drink. So these people ended up being spectators for our photo shoot after all! I found their long stares very exciting and motivating! I had the feeling of being the most beautiful thing in the world. It's a good feeling... :-)

At the top of the stairs, very close to the church, were 3 elderly women. Contrary to what we might first think, these 3 women were very much interested by our photoshoot, and they came up to us and asked us many questions about the shoot and the latex outfit. One of them even went home to get her husband so that he may also enjoy this cool fetish shoot and also take a few pictures with me. We were really dumbstruck by their open-mindedness. Never did we think that latex would seem so harmless; as if they had seen latex clothing many times before. It made us feel very comfortable, and set up the tone for our next public photoshoots to be done in Europe...

The shoot lasted about 2 hours and now it was time to relax. Tomorrow is the big day… my shoot for the cover of Marquis magazine!!

- Bianca
[ to be continued ... ]