Buda Pest - Scary City with Inspiration for The Beyond

I wasn’t as impressed with this city as much as with previous city breaks. Maybe I saw the wrong part of the city, but for me it seemed a dull, post war, concrete jungle full of train tracks.

I fancied a pampering at one of their ‘famous’ spa baths, but when I got there it stank of sulphur and the baths looked like some hideous Russian Leisure park complete with frighteningly large and rather curt, female therapists, (The Life's and Loves of a She Devil kinda spring to mind!)

However, I did visit the old, stone built part of the city, with eerie little winding streets and an amazing view of the Danube River and ate at the fantastic Red Devil restaurant which was dark, Gothic and atmospheric - deep underground in what could only be described as stone arched cellars with witch and devil effigies dotted around the place. 

The food was hot delicious and wholesome.  I chose this for the setting of the last chapter of Didikai Witch where Amethyst and Michael decide to hide from dangerous 'supers' by travelling around Europe in search of their family prophecy.

 

I found a great bar and nightclub in a shopping centre, but unfortunately everything shut down really early, so on our way back to the hotel I made a detour into a club with a flashing pink neon sign outside. I went in and a security man began shaking his head and waving saying “Women only, women only.” So after having a couple of drinks already I turned to my friend and said “Oh, it’s a lesbian club. Are you okay with a lesbian club?” Friend was like, “Oh sure, we’re only staying for a drink right?” So I nodded, smiled and said, “yes, women only.” 





We walked straight into this 80’ style discothèque, dark and dingy with velour seats, mirrors, glitter ball and a great big shiny pole in the middle of the dance.

I thought it odd, but ignored and continued to look at the very expensive drinks menu. Looking around we suddenly realised the clientèle was made up entirely of men in business suits.
And if the penny hadn't dropped by then, two very fierce looking women dressed in bikini’s and frighteningly high pointed shoes stormed past us then flung their bodies around the poles as two more draped themselves over a couple of men’s laps whilst giving me the evil eye!!! Needless to say I decided to leave immediately and left at record speed!

The old part of the city and along the Danube river was very beautiful and atmospheric - almost perfect for a scene in one of The Beyond Books series, but there was also many areas that I thought was dull and unmoving. One could even see bullet holes in the concrete tower blocks! Or maybe I just went to the wrong areas of the city.

Even when I googled photos for Budapest, this bridge and area of the Danube are the only views I seem to get, so maybe there isn't much to the city after all. Put it this way though, I won't be going back any time soon, but at least I can say I went.

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New Orleans - Part Two - 2008 The Beyond Series Supernatural Inspiration

2008 Trip – I loved New Orleans so much, I decided to return the following year. This time at Halloween as I’d always wanted to celebrate Halloween in the US because I know they do it in style and make a huge festival out of it. And where better to celebrate than in the home town of the Queen of the Macabre, Anne Rice. I made sure that we all had tickets to her famous Vampire Lestat Ball, which was held in The Garden District and to town with my costume.

I have to say though the locals really know how to create realistic Vampire costumes. We even found a shop that fitted vampire veneers and contacts. I decided to go pre-vampire bite.

Other watering holes that deserve a mention was the Carousel Bar. Named so because if you didn’t sit in one place your stool would be on the other side of the bar as the whole bar rotated slowly around the room, whilst drinking Martini cocktails and listening to a live pianist.

Another was the Pirates Bar by the Jackson Square church, where the psychics all sit out during the day under parasols and give you tarot readings. I wasn’t impressed by reading, so I won’t dwell on it. All the tour guides met at the Pirates Bar and we were very much made to feel welcome. I think they liked the English accent!

We went to a Jazz evening, which was very cultural and enjoyable. I even bought the bands CD, which was signed by the members and I’m very proud to say I own. I now play the CD whenever I want to return to NO in my head.

The two best places though was Prague, a very Gothic and atmospheric bar with a gorgeous courtyard out back filled with beautiful scented flowers. Inside the décor was dark, mysterious, with red velvet drapes Chaise lounges and chandeliers. Love it! And finally The Dungeon. Wow what a club. Dark, dingy and grungy. Naturally this place like so many other great places in New Orleans had to appear in My Fourth Book in the Beyond Series - Lycan Lamia for the final reveal scene. 

We took our new travellers to a different Plantation this time and we entered the sanctity of a real voodoo temple and voodoo shop. Again I described all of these places in great detail in my last book, but in a nutshell the different alters to different deities had a plethora of offerings that made the temple and shop look like a cluttered brik-a-brac shop.

Fascinating places though.  Here's a typical alter to Papa Legba. Most people seem afraid of Voodoo, but it actually is like everything else that's mysterious and mystical, some people (especially the film industry) take pagan rituals to a dark place!

I also had the opportunity to look around two of the houses used in the film Interview with a Vampire and a museum based in merchants old Spanish style house around Jackson Square.

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New Orleans - Part One - 2007 The Beyond Series Supernatural Inspiration

I am writing two parts to New Orleans because I loved it so much I went for the second year running. So 2007 trip I stayed at The Sheraton. Very salubriously posh and on a short walk away from the French Quarter, which is where we wanted to be. There was a gym and hotel pool on the roof and I spent a couple days there just chilling and sunbathing, which was gorgeous.

I had been put on the 45^th floor or something ridiculously high like that, I couldn’t look out of the window without suffering vertigo or panicking about low flying aeroplanes! But the rooms were just amazing and sumptuous. Sinking into the double beds (two of them) with more pillows than any sane person required, soft white cotton sheets in billowing fluffy duvets and a fluffy fleece throw to boot. Ahh luxury.

The only problem was we had to change rooms because the door lock kept jamming and we had to travel back to the reception in a super-fast express lift that actually missed the first twenty floors out because I guess the designers of the hotel didn’t think twenty floors warranted extra speed down to the ground floor!

So I got a new room, even higher up! I complained about my vertigo, but the hotel was virtually full, so as compensation I was given a key to the VIP lounge. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Free breakfast, free dinner canopies and champagne in a sumptuous lounge overlooking the city and the Mississippi. Brilliant. Yes, I could cope with the height!

As I went to explore the French Quarter for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the humidity and we had to stop at a coffee shop on Decataur. This was before we found the Café du Monde. I wrote about this in Lycan Lamia because I loved it so much and I would sit outside and have beignet (square donuts dipped in icing sugar) and freshly squeezed orange juice while buskers would serenade the customers eating outside by the river.

I went on a tour around the French Quarter on a horse and carriage and stopped off at the oldest tavern in the US and had a Tornado Volcano cocktail as we continued the tour through Jackson Square. I also went on a Ghost Tour and Voodoo Tour around the Quarter.








Some of the stories I remember were quite gruesome, men believing in voodoo to the point where they die of unknown illnesses, a rich merchants wife who used her slaves to torture and drink their blood… (Nicholas Cage apparently now owns the building) and murderous intent at a tavern, then saved by a ghostly spirit.




The best one I went to was a restaurant and at the back was a ghost table laid out for two poltergeists. They believed that by laying food wine and candle at the table every night they prevented paranormal activity in the restaurant. The table was very creepy and a feeling of foreboding and being watched by some malevolent spirit.

I loved it so much we went for a meal there one night to get a closer look at the table and see if could see any ghosts. I was so inspired I wrote several chapters to the Daryavaush Paranormal Investigation team meeting there and performing a voodoo ritual in another landmark St Andrews Hotel, which is known as the most haunted hotel in Louisana. I never stayed there, but I would like to if I ever return.

I also went on a few tours. The first was a tour of the Garden District, which I travelled to on a traditional American tram car or trolley bus. It was so lovely to finally be pointed out all the major landmarks in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches trilogy. I saw the Lafayette cemetery, Anne Rice’s actual home, her second home she used just to house her doll collection and which is now Nicholas Cage’s other New Orleans home and the house used to film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.




The homes were huge and elegant. I loved it here and I decided if I ever became very rich I would buy a place in the Garden District. After the tour I found the most incredible cheese cake shop and café. The portions were so huge one didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day!

 The cruise on a traditional Mississippi steam boat, The Natchez was amazing. I ate a delicious traditional cajun meal, drank bourbon and danced to a live band for a very traditional New Orleans evening.

A trip to New Orleans cannot be complete without visiting some Plantation Houses.




This was where the very rich lived, huge sprawling mansions with cotton plantations at the back of the house, the land leading all the way down to the river. Every house had its own slaves, housed in slavery huts out the back yard. I visited the Oak plantation which was used in Gone with the Wind and Interview with a Vampire films, which is how I always imagine plantation houses to look, all white washed panelling, tall pillars and Grecian style porches.

But also saw on the tour the Laura Plantation, which was a large wooden bungalow on stilts in case of Mississippi flooded. There were two staircases, one for men and the other for women, because their dresses were so wide, it prevented men seeing the women’s ankles when they walked up the staircase and therefore keeping their decency and reputation intact. Oddly women owned the plantations and the Laura was passed down to the eldest daughter. The bedroom was the office and all meetings of business were held in an opulent bedroom with the female head of the household.

I booked on a Ghost, Vampire and Voodoo walking tour around the French Quarter at night which was very atmospheric - this is Pirate Alley and I think you'll agree looks quite spooky and I think was used as a scene in Interview With A Vampire, but more about that in my next New Orleans Blog.
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Why Italy Is The Perfect Scene For A Supernatural Romance The Beyond Series

The first time I visited Italy, I travelled alone on a whistle stop tour of the country’s most famous cities and landmarks. I flew out to Venice airport and immediately thrust together with the other travellers and introduced to my female travelling companion Sarah, who was also single and travelling alone. I shared rooms with her on the tour as it saved money.  When I look back now I was so brave, but also quite skint. However, it was a great way to make new friends.

I took a boat taxi into the heart of Venice and I immediately fell in love with the place. The tightly packed streets winding a curving their way through the water thoroughfare was simply charming to me and I decided that this was going to be a destination my Beyond Characters in the book series would definitely be travelling to at some point in the books series.

We visited the Doge’s Palace, St Marks Cathedral, and The Florian Café to listen to the little orchestra play. The hustle and bustle of St Mark’s Square was incredible with the hourly chime from the bell tower the place was just magical to me. I had my first taste of Venetian gnocchi a rich and creamy sauce rather than the usual tomato based one. Oh my lord it was heavenly and I’ve been to so many Italian restaurants since and no one seems to know the recipe.

I loved all the little antique style masquerade and gift shops too and I fell in love with the Gondolier who sang Amore as he punted through the little canal ways, he was gorgeous and I do think I over recorded him on my holiday video!. So quaint and cute. I didn’t go over the bridge of Sighs until my second visit. I only had one day in Venice on my first trip and as I caught the taxi back down the Grand Canal at night, I looked up at the apartments in the grand merchant’s houses and saw chandeliers and marble walls adorning the interiors and decided there and then that Venice deserved another trip some other time.

I headed to Rome, stopping off at Pisa along the way. I didn’t go up the leaning tower as I suffer from vertigo at the best of times, but I did go into the little Baptist bell tower and I was fortunate enough to hear a demonstration of the acoustics in the place as a monk arrived and began this haunting Grigori chant which echoed and reverberated off the walls of the building. Very spooky and atmospheric.

 Although I didn’t think as a city Rome was a pretty as Venice, but it certainly made up for it with museums, coliseums and amazing Piazza’s. So we had the trip around the coliseum and the old Roman city, and though I find this history interesting, I do love the comparisons of then and now.







So like in Bath the historians give you images of how the baths and the town looked on video screens during Roman times so it makes it easier to visualise and compare the bare stones lying around today. Thankfully I did finally find a book that did just that in Rome, but until then I was struggling to visualise the past.

I saw the Castle of Angels where the Popes used to reside and the Piazza Navona which was once the Chariot racing arena of ancient Rome.

I was particularly excited about the tour company arranging a trip to the Vatican, which was just amazing. Incredibly beautiful inside with untold wealth in antiquities and the Sistine chapel was awesome. To think Michelangelo had painted the ceiling and all the cardinals from around the world would gather there to choose their new Pope.

St Peters was a pilgrimage for Nuns! That’s all I can say. The Cathedral was impressive, but I’ve never seen such a huge gathering of nuns, all dressed in slightly different versions and colours of their uniform from around the world crossing themselves, kneeling and praying and kissing effigies.

I was fascinated because worlds that I think are quite secretive and no-one really enters that secretive world unless invited or become a member. I’m like that with all secret societies, gypsies, Freemasons, Royalty, witches and vampire covens! That sort of thing. Exploring and learning about worlds I probably will never get the opportunity to enter really does feed my imagination.

The tour then took us to Assisi, where we saw lots of Monks, who had taken a vow of silence, just going about their daily chores. One actually nodded and smiled at me which I felt quite honoured that he’d even acknowledge the ordinary folk who sin on a daily basis! I just remember with Assisi that St Francis was from there, the monastery was dark and lots of cellar type chambers and a very steep hill to walk up. It nearly killed me.

I then headed out to Florence.

The Ponte Vecchio with lots of boutique shops piled on top of the bridge.

The Medici Palace was amazing. It doesn't look much from outside....

But just look at the decadence of the interior. Imagine that this was once filled with rich materials and sumptuous furniture too. The finest in Italy. A very powerful family of it's time.

Florence is beautiful and the Uffizi museum more than makes it a great city to visit, I saw all the greats, Michelangelo’s David statue, Botticelli, Raphael’s. Beautiful and I could have stayed in that vast art gallery all day. We walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge with its little shops and I ate in the main Piazza  della Signoria





Naturally Florence did also end up in my book Vampire Sorceress as Amethyst and Galleano self-indulgently had a flying tour of Italy. The Medici Palace was amazing and I think I managed to cram a lot into that day, but I still think Venice has the edge. I feel like I come home when I return to Venice. Maybe I lived there in a previous life!

So on my next visit we had another look around the Doge’s Palace, which was great thinking of the Borgias TV series, which absolutely loved. I made friends with some of the locals this time and they kindly sowed us around the real Venice, little winding backstreets with bustling bars and parties the tourists never normally see.





I was given a guided tour at 3 am and it was truly beautiful. So peaceful, our guide sat us in a gondola and we just soaked up the silence except for lapping water and the odd voice echo around the canals in Italian. Lovely.

We also took trips to Venice’s’ surrounding islands, Murano, famous for its glass blowing and amazing glass ornaments and chandeliers, Burano, famous for its brightly coloured fishing houses, Casa Nova’s House on the edge of the water and finally Lido. An ultra-modern island where the rich and famous live. It has its own beaches and trendy bars and we stayed to sunbath for the day and party on the beach at night. Needless to say the Lido beach party crops up in the latest Beyond novel - Lycan Lamia too. God I love Italy!