Geordie Shore and Celebrity Big Brother star Charlotte Crosby, infamous for once asking if you need euros in London, tells What's on TV about leaving Newcastle behind to go on an educational world tour in The Charlotte Crosby Experience (TLC, Tuesday, April 29).
Your new series, The Charlotte Crosby Experience, sees you travelling the world...
"Yes, after I came out of Big Brother I discussed loads of different ideas and this was the one that stuck out. I was bursting with excitement about it. When they told me I was going to my first destination, Japan, I screamed 'OMG! I CANT BELIEVE I’M GOING TO CHINA!!' The crew just put their head in their hands!"
Where have you travelled before this?
"I’ve travelled a lot of places with Geordie Shore and obviously stupid girls' holidays to Magaluf and Ibiza. But it is true I thought you needed euros in London! Because you need euros in Dublin and you’d never think that. And you get charged data roaming! I got into a taxi in Dublin and I gave him £20 and he said 'What are you doing? It’s euros here.' After I’d been to Dublin I went to London and I thought I’d need euros as well!
Did you find the places you visited a culture shock?
"Yeah, a big difference. I missed home every day. I think what made me homesick as well was that I’d go to all these different places and it’s not like I’d get eased into them, I’d get flung into this different culture. It’s hard because it’s such a shock and so different to how I live at home. It was all a shock, but the biggest one was in Canada with the Hutterites, they’re like Amish so they don’t even have a television or anything, so it was mostly the telly that I missed! How sad is that?
"India was a totally different culture, but I wasn’t shocked by it because I loved it. I loved the clothes they wore and everything about it, especially the food. You’ve never tasted curry until you’ve been to India!"
It’s very funny, but there was an emotional moment where you cried when you saw an elephant…
"Everyone’s been saying how funny the programmes are. But yes, I get very emotional about animals these days. It was my dream to see an elephant in real life. I’ve seen them at the zoo but that’s not the same as seeing one just there in front of you. It’s just amazing. I never thought I’d ever see it. The best thing was we were walking up the hill and all the crew had seen the elephant before me and they were all being dead weird and then, all of a sudden, I looked and there it was. I cried a lot. I’ll never, ever forget it.
"I don’t care about normal animals, I’ve got a fish and one died because the other one ate it so now I’ve only got one in a lonely fish bowl, but I’m not really bothered about my fish and I don’t really care about cats and dogs, it’s just exotic ones.
How did you find being a geisha in Japan?
I"t was hard. Do you know what I hated about it the most? The outfit. I was so uncomfortable in that outfit and it made me hate it. As soon as I put it on I was in a bad mood. It was uncomfortable and I just looked like an idiot. I remember looking in the mirror and thinking 'What the hell do I look like?' I felt angry at myself for looking that way. And I didn’t get on with the food in Japan because it was raw fish all the time and I don’t like raw fish. It was really hard to find English food so I ended up going to McDonald’s most days! I got on well with the geisha girls though and if I went to Japan again I’d definitely go and visit them.
You spent some time with Inuits in the Arctic, how was that?
"It was extreme. It was -50 degrees. I’ve never experienced cold like it and it was painful. I had about a hundred layers on. They were so used to it that they’d walk round with just a jacket on. Some days I felt like giving up on that one. I tried to stick to the diet of raw fish, seal and walrus and whale. It was hard but it would have been rude not to. You’ve got to look like you’re making the effort."
Did you feel you learnt a lot?
"Yes, I’ve learnt so much. Now I know about all these different cultures and what they do."
What’s next for you?
"I don’t know. I don’t even know what’s happening next week. I’m just taking every step as it comes. It’s going great though. I couldn’t ask for anything better."
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