Craiova

For our trip to Romania we flew into Bucharest airport and were collected by this little coach for the three and a bit hour trip to our hotel in Craiova. This picture is of our driver trying to fix our little coach at the side of the road over half an hour away from our hotel in Craiova. Below is a picture of the first of the fleet of taxis that were called to take us from our little broken down coach to our hotel in Craiova. It was quite a start to our trip!

In the morning we spotted the lido that our hotel was named after. Tempted by a swim?

This is prompt corner, in a little protective booth! Sadly the communication system wasn't reliable enough for me to call the show from here. Halfway through the first tech I had to abandon the booth and go and sit between Tom and Rob at the back of the auditorium.

The scene dock, complete with tiny caravan and cage of rabbits

This is the high tech laundry facilities, the dryer was a little on the wimpy side so Bridget and I cracked the washing line out!

National Theatre of Craiova where we were performing.

The audiences here were very supportive. We sold out for both shows, in fact for the second night (below) there were people sat on every step in the auditorium and on the floor inside the doorways! It was an amazing sight to see them all stand together as the curtain call started.

It was non-stop in Craiova but our bus to Caracal wasn't until after lunch so I got up early, had my breakfast and hit the mean streets of Craoiva for a whirlwind tour.

St Anthony Catholic Church

Casa Gogu

Museum of Art

'Madona Dudu' Episcopal Cathedral

St Demetrius Metropolitan Cathedral of Craiova

Along the main shopping street

St Elias Church

This church has roof tiles that shine with a copper tone. As I was stood on the opposite pavement taking a picture a gentleman came up and started taking to me in Romania. I though that he was going to tell me off for taking a picture (which had happened earlier in the morning) but it soon became clear that he was telling me that I should go inside. And so I did. It was a beautiful building inside. The building was key hole shaped, you entered through a short corridor which opened into a circular space. There were no pews so the space was open with a wall of golden icon pictures in the centre. Around the sides of the circle were a series of thin windows with stained glass images of saints. There were several large chandeliers which were suspended just above head height and threw a gentle light around the building. There was a strong smell in incense and candles in the air. So thank you to the gentleman who stopped, it was definitely worth going inside.

The English Park

The University

And that was all I had time for. I had just enough time to get back to the hotel to meet the others for some lunch before the bus.

A Long Walk

In the spirit of Propeller fundraising Laura and I are going on a long walk this summer. We've purchased our walking boots and over a weekend in July we will be taking part in the Target Ovarian Cancer Trek along 25 miles of Hadrian's Wall. For those of you who know me, or have been reading this blog for a while, you'll realise that this will be a fair old challenge for me as I'm known for my love of sitting down and eating cake rather than going for eight hour walks!

http://www.justgiving.com/ellie-randall

http://www.justgiving.com/Laura-Routledge2

By signing up to this trek Laura and I have guaranteed to raise at least £550 each. Our first instalment is of £440 is due at the end of May (wowzers has that come round fast!). So if you have a spare minute and a spare pound why not hit one of those links above and make a donation. As a thank you I shall be holding Karmic Balancing Draws over the next couple of weeks (once I'm back in the UK). To enter all you have to do is make a donation to either of our pages and send me an email to apostcardfrompromptcorner @ hotmail.co.uk (just remove those spaces in the email address) with Enter Me in the subject line and you could be on the receiving end of a small (and mostly silly - this is me after all) gift that money definitely can buy!

Marseilles

This is the lovely theatre on the old port that we were booked to perform in. However, this isn't the theatre that we actually performed in. Two weeks before we were due to arrive they found asbestos on stage and had to find alternative venues for all of the companies that were booked to perform. After looking at a few options we ended up performing in the conference centre. It wasn't such a glamorous looking building but the shows fitted in nicely there and we had lovely audiences for the week. 

This is the old port where La Criee is situated.

We also had our hotel changed so that we were within walking distance of the new venue. Along the street between the two there was a market. General clothes and food on one side of the road (which happened on several days) and on the other side of the road a more eclectic market which was only held once. There were lots of plant stalls, and a number of artisans, including this violin maker and an upholsterer.

Saturday was our main day to explore as we had no afternoon performance or rehearsals. Bridget and I started off our day with a take away pastry and a coffee. Then it was a walk up the very steep hill to Notre Dame de la Garde.

You can take the wardrobe mistress out of the theatre.....

Our first glimpse of the cathedral

This is the interior of the cathedral. It was beautifully decorated, with lots of bright painting and gilding.

The cathedral is known by locals as la bonne mere (the good mother) and these ships that are suspended around the church are models of ships that have been protected from shipwrecks or pirates.

In the centre of this picture you can see the football stadium. The conference centre is just to the left of this. And if you were to turn to your left through 180 degrees you would be facing the old port and our original theatre

The Frioul archipelago, home to Chateau d'If where Dumas set the Count of Monte Christo

From the cathedral we walked down the other side of the hill to the old port where we first had a cup of tea and then some lunch.

A statue of a lion biting a man on the bum, and why not?

After Lunch we had a little wander around some of the streets close to the port. There was a children's carnival taking place in the afternoon and the streets were slowly filling up with families and lots of children in fancy dress.

Avoiding the crowds we hopped onto the metro for the short journey back to our hotel to get ready for the evening show.

On Sunday morning I got up for breakfast and then went back to the old port area. This time I was headed to Fort Saint-Jean to have a quick look around before the afternoon show.

As I came out of the metro I could see fishermen landing their small catches which went straight onto stalls for sale. It was very busy, but by the time I walked back to the metro and hour or so later it had all but gone.

Notre Dame de la Garde

The town hall

Notre Dame, above La Criee

Fort St Nicholas, on the opposite side of the port.

Cathedrale de la Major

The old port from the fort

The fort had been restored and planted very cleverly with scented plants and succulents. It was a really nice space to wander around.

I bumped into a number of the boys as I went around the fort. I leant over a wall and spotted Will sunbathing!

This was as close as I got to the cathedral as I'd run out of time and needed to make my way to the theatre.

After the get out Bridget and I went for supper by the old port before joining the rest of the crew for a glass of wine before bed.