Before I get into our trip to Barcelona I just wanted to quickly touch on the fact that Michael Jackson has died. Crazy! I just found out about an hour ago and I still cannot believe that he is dead. Regardless of the type of person is was or was not in his personal life he was still a musical genius. May he rest in peace.
Barcelona! I really enjoyed Barcelona but I feel the best way to understand what all happened in Barcelona is to divide it into 2 parts. Each part was great in its own way but each had its downside.
For the first part of our trip we stayed in the town of Sabadell. It was not only super cheap but a lot quieter than Barcelona. However, the 45 minute commuter train, which should have been no longer than 30 minutes, made us all question was it worth the money saved. Every train ride left us all feeling sick to our stomachs and slightly dizzy. Although, on the Saturday after seeing the night life of Barcelona we returned to Sabadell to a local festival celebrating their heritage. I think seeing a bunch of young Spaniards dance to rock-and-roll covered folk songs was an amazing experience we never would have seen if we had stayed in Barcelona. It was also strange to see so many people, from a variety of ages, up until 2 o'clock in the morning dancing to rock folk music.
In fact, Patrick and I should have lived in Spain. They do everything late there and the friendly energy of the Spanish is contagious. You move quicker in Spain than in France, but you never feel rushed. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to in my life. They love architecture and do a wonderful job blending the old and new to make a wonderful mosaic of Barcelona's history through their buildings. It was also pretty easy to get away from the tourists, it just took a little walking, which is nice as they were all annoying after some time.
Make the effort to take the metro to the last beach stop and you will find a local beach full of more families and less people yelling: "Beer, cervaza, agua, fanta, hasish." Also little Asian ladies yelling: "Massagie, por 5 euros!" The down side of beaches in Barcelona is they are covered with trash. You would think that all of those Spanish PETA people who spend all their time posing nude for animal rights would spend more time cleaning their beaches might actually make a difference in the environment.
Most of the first part we spent hanging out and walking around the city seeing the Gaudi stuff. Barcelona museums are over-priced especially compared to cities like Paris. The food looked amazing but was a little out of our budget. We did have paella one night but it was not worth the money we spent on it. Next time, Patrick and I decided to go to Barcelona for the food. However, we did get 3 for 2 fresh fruit juice, which was perfect. Nothing beats the heat like a mango y coco juice.
Part two of our trip didn't start off the best, in fact, there wasn't suppose to be a part two. We showed up to the train station on Monday morning to find out that our train home had been canceled by France due to a f@*king strike! GOD DAMN FRANCE! Of course I had just spent the whole commute to the train station telling Patrick how much I love France and how I missed it. I think God likes to make me look like an idiot.
We were told by the train station person that the best thing to do was come back in the evening to see if the strike would continue through the next day. So off we went to enjoy another day in Barcelona. During this day my wallet was stolen and all of my money was taken out of my account. Yeah! I didn't realize until about dinner time where I preceded to flip-shit. Patrick stayed wonderfully calm during the whole thing while I called my bank to cancel my card; he booked an appointment to begin to get my passport re-issued. After taking care of business we went to the local police station to file a report. In the middle of giving my report the lady who worked there handed my wallet back to me with my passport and all of my identification cards. Patrick said that my face was the face a woman make when their newborn is handed to them for the first time. My card was gone as was the 30 euros that was in my wallet but I had my passport and that was all that mattered.
Later that night we found out that the strike would continue until Wednesday. Lucky Brook was there to help us buy bus tickets home as Patrick left all of this credit cards at home since why do we both need to bring cards since I was taking care of this trip. So we spent the next two days living super cheap. I mean we lived on less than 10 euros a day. I think we spent 6 euros the first day on food and maybe 7 euros the next day. Euro meat baby; it isn't completely meat but it works! We did have money left over from the deposit on our rental place in Sabadell that Patrick had in his wallet, which we used to stay in a hostel and eat.
We did enjoy our few extra days in Barcelona and managed to go to the beach again and see some really cool exhibits for free, so all in all it wasn't bad. I am still figuring out my bank situation but we are safe and I have my passport. The most annoying thing is we planned our budget perfectly as to have more than enough money to live on for the last month. We just didn't plan to be victims of theft or a strike, oh life. Now I will set money aside in the event of theft or strike from now on. So that that be a lesson for all of you, save money in the event of a shit storm during a trip.
I would write about the awful bus ride home but this is already long enough so I end this post here. Barcelona was great minus the whole bullshit at the end.
Ta ta for now,
Molly
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Part 3: Perpignan June 8th to June 10th, 2009
Oh, Perpignan! Perpignan is home to Dali's train station (I guess he was obsessed with this tiny, not very impressive train station. Perhaps it is because he is from there.)
It is also French Catalonia at its finest. It is a great little city in which you can spend the morning in the Pyrenees and the afternoon on the beach. The train ride to Perpignan is also incredibly beautiful with the mountains to the west of you as you ride through lakes, literally through two lakes, and along the sea.
Once we arrived we took a cafe as we all were exhausted. After some strong coffee we met up with our couchsurfing host Juliette and had lunch at her house. She was a very nice and helpful host, but a little shy. She had a cute house just outside the old part of Perpignan. That night we also got to have dinner with Juliette and her friend Sandie, who splits her time between Dijon and Nimes and was visiting her folks in Perpignan, which was a nice evening full of conversation about travel and life.
As for the town of Perpignan, I liked it. There is not too much to do there but it felt like a town where real people live their lives even with all the tourists passing through. Perpignan would make for a great place to stay while making day trips around the area, which is what we did our second day there. On the 9th, we decided to take a break from the beach and visit the Pyrenees. We took a 1 euro bus ride to the town of Villefranch-de-Conflent.
It is an UNESCO site, which means it is a protected historical site. Another UNESCO site is the whole town of Bruges in Belgium. Villefranch was a nice village but I can safely say we spent too much time there. We were going to take this little yellow train down the canyon to other towns, but the rail tracks were being repaired. We did have a nice short hike up to the fort of the town where we each drank a glass of rose and took in the beautiful scenery. That night we had a kebab for dinner, which is always delicious.
All in all, Perpignan was a nice place to catch up on some much needed sleep and rest.
Tomorrow we head to Barcelona!! I really liked Barcelona and all of the adventures we had there minus a few. :)!
Molly
It is also French Catalonia at its finest. It is a great little city in which you can spend the morning in the Pyrenees and the afternoon on the beach. The train ride to Perpignan is also incredibly beautiful with the mountains to the west of you as you ride through lakes, literally through two lakes, and along the sea.
Once we arrived we took a cafe as we all were exhausted. After some strong coffee we met up with our couchsurfing host Juliette and had lunch at her house. She was a very nice and helpful host, but a little shy. She had a cute house just outside the old part of Perpignan. That night we also got to have dinner with Juliette and her friend Sandie, who splits her time between Dijon and Nimes and was visiting her folks in Perpignan, which was a nice evening full of conversation about travel and life.
As for the town of Perpignan, I liked it. There is not too much to do there but it felt like a town where real people live their lives even with all the tourists passing through. Perpignan would make for a great place to stay while making day trips around the area, which is what we did our second day there. On the 9th, we decided to take a break from the beach and visit the Pyrenees. We took a 1 euro bus ride to the town of Villefranch-de-Conflent.
It is an UNESCO site, which means it is a protected historical site. Another UNESCO site is the whole town of Bruges in Belgium. Villefranch was a nice village but I can safely say we spent too much time there. We were going to take this little yellow train down the canyon to other towns, but the rail tracks were being repaired. We did have a nice short hike up to the fort of the town where we each drank a glass of rose and took in the beautiful scenery. That night we had a kebab for dinner, which is always delicious.
All in all, Perpignan was a nice place to catch up on some much needed sleep and rest.
Tomorrow we head to Barcelona!! I really liked Barcelona and all of the adventures we had there minus a few. :)!
Molly
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Part 2: Montpellier June 6 to June 8, 2009
We got into Montpellier around mid-morning and hung out in a plaza right near the tourism office. After our usual picnic lunch we went to a really great photography exhibit that just opened. It was free, but also had a wide variety of photographers as well as view points. It is one of the most comprehensive photography exhibits I have been to in my life.
We finally met up with the people we were staying with in early afternoon. After we dropped off our stuff and showered we all went to a little town of Sete. It was nice to walk around and see a smaller town. It seemed every older person in Sete was sitting outside on the front steps in lawn chairs. I have a feeling as the summer continues more and more people sit outside on their lawn chairs.
After our brief tour of Sete we went home and ate dinner. That evening Brook and I went to a French discotheque (dance club). We wanted to go dancing but the funny thing is not a lot of people dance at French dance clubs. They just stand around and drink, very strange. There were a few people dancing so that was fun, but overall I would skip the dance club. They are full of too many people not dancing but merely posing like pretty boys and girls from an Ambercombie and Fitch catalog. Oh, and, French men, what a trip. I am so glad that I have traveled most of France with Patrick by my side. Not just because he is my love, but French men, at least at this place, were...um...I guess I will go with not-my-type-of-person-to-meet and leave it at that. After an interesting adventure home we finally went to bed at 4:30am. A typical disco night in Europe, but I did not get my dance on enough to consider it a true success.
The next day we went to the beach all afternoon after going to market in the morning. Yeah, I said morning. I woke up at 9:30 to church bells, oh don't you love church bells after a night of dancing! That evening we had a nice dinner and went to bed early.
Alas, we did not get to spend a whole lot of time in Montpellier for one reason or another. It seems like a bigger Boulder with more art and closer to the beach. I realize that this is truly a brief summary of our time in Montpellier, but I have my reasons. I will say that the key information I left out will only highlight why it is so brief of an account. I am sorry for being so mysterious but you are all smart; figure it out.
Tomorrow we travel to Perpignan!
Later gators,
Molly
We finally met up with the people we were staying with in early afternoon. After we dropped off our stuff and showered we all went to a little town of Sete. It was nice to walk around and see a smaller town. It seemed every older person in Sete was sitting outside on the front steps in lawn chairs. I have a feeling as the summer continues more and more people sit outside on their lawn chairs.
After our brief tour of Sete we went home and ate dinner. That evening Brook and I went to a French discotheque (dance club). We wanted to go dancing but the funny thing is not a lot of people dance at French dance clubs. They just stand around and drink, very strange. There were a few people dancing so that was fun, but overall I would skip the dance club. They are full of too many people not dancing but merely posing like pretty boys and girls from an Ambercombie and Fitch catalog. Oh, and, French men, what a trip. I am so glad that I have traveled most of France with Patrick by my side. Not just because he is my love, but French men, at least at this place, were...um...I guess I will go with not-my-type-of-person-to-meet and leave it at that. After an interesting adventure home we finally went to bed at 4:30am. A typical disco night in Europe, but I did not get my dance on enough to consider it a true success.
The next day we went to the beach all afternoon after going to market in the morning. Yeah, I said morning. I woke up at 9:30 to church bells, oh don't you love church bells after a night of dancing! That evening we had a nice dinner and went to bed early.
Alas, we did not get to spend a whole lot of time in Montpellier for one reason or another. It seems like a bigger Boulder with more art and closer to the beach. I realize that this is truly a brief summary of our time in Montpellier, but I have my reasons. I will say that the key information I left out will only highlight why it is so brief of an account. I am sorry for being so mysterious but you are all smart; figure it out.
Tomorrow we travel to Perpignan!
Later gators,
Molly
Monday, June 22, 2009
No, we have not forgotten you!
I realize it has been a long time since our last blog but we were gallivanting around the Mediterranean. As it has been a while I fully plan to break down our trip over several posts during this week. There is too much to highlight and I don't want to bog anyone down with a long account of our travels. So here we go with a four part series about our trip to the sea. Friday's edition will be a comprehensive discussion of our last month left and what we hope to see. Can you tell I miss NPR a little too much?
First part: Marseille, June 3rd to June 6th, 2009
Oh, Marseille how I love this city. I would describe Marseille as edgy, laid-back, active, doesn't give a flying f*@k what you think of me city. It is Denver meets New York City. It is amazing! I like Paris, but Marseille makes Paris that boring, more popular kid who gets by on a name. Make it to Marseille in your life and I promise you it will change the way you view France.
Patrick, Brook, and myself arrived at 9:30 in the morning and made our way to our hostel. We stayed at this place called La Cigale et la Fourmi, the cicada and the ant, it was a hippie commune. We slept in a lofted space with beds on the ground with any where from 10 to 20 strangers. People were coming in and out of the place from all walks of life and we paid at the end of our stay, since you never know how long you are going to stay! We were all a little skeptical when we arrived especially since some kid yelled down the door access code from a window while a cigarette balanced between his fingers. We couldn't understand what he said but the cute old French lady, who lived next door and was outside, helped us since she knew the code too. What?
You enter a tiny hallway only to go up a set of an even tiny stair case that felt like an Escher drawing. We finally made it to the main room, where there was a red couch with some guy sleeping on it, and a series of foreigners being served coffee by a French Filipino. We "checked-in" with Jean, the owner, and were showed to our beds by a Belgian lady named JoJo. More to come on our little hippie commune in a bit but all in all, it was great!
We left our commune to see the city. We took a bus to the metro, took the metro into the city, and then another bus to the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde. It is a really cool church that sits on top of La Garde hill on the east side of the old port. We had lunch there and saw the church and crazy tourists. From there we walked down the hill to the old port to the west side of the port to the old part of Marseille. From there we went to Cathedrale Le Major and then walked along the sea back into the old port. On our map of Marseille there was an advertisement to taste artisan pastis which was located on our way home so we stopped by to check in out. It was really good pastis and we learned that pastis actually originated from Absinthe. For those of you who don't know pastis, it is an anise flavored liquor. It is a very refreshing summer drink. We then went home and ate dinner and hung out with the rest of the people at our commune. It was a special evening as we had great conversations with a variety of people and nationalities. It was one of those nights that only happen at hippie communes minus the hippie hypocritical rhetoric.
The next day we went to Cassis, the next town over, to hike the Calanques. We hiked a couple of hours to a remote beach with only about 30 people or so at any given time. The hike was kind of difficult as there was a bunch of loose rocks through out the whole trail and the rocks were incredibly slippery. Right before getting to the second beach where we swam, we had to hike down a steep hill to the bottom. However, don't worry folks I had the proper foot ware. I hiked this part in my flip-flops. :)! What...I needed to work on my flip-flop tan.
The beach was quiet enough that you could here the water and birds more than the other people on the beach.
Oh, and a really annoying helicopter doing some sort of exercise that no one could figure out but everyone on the beach watched with utter confusion; oh, and took a photo of it. On occasion you saw a tour boat that takes tourist to all of the Calanques come by but it was far enough out that it wasn't too annoying. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my short life. The sea water was clear with a slight bluish-green color, but refreshingly cold. I don't think you could drown even if you wanted to as you would just float back to the top. I think we spent 5 hours on the beach once we got there. This being said, it was difficult to want to leave let alone muster the courage and energy to hike back. Throughout the day we saw a variety of people leave a different route than we came up the side of cliff that created the south wall of the Calanques. One family left with their dog on this route so we thought we should give it a try.
I wore my tennis shoes for this part of the hike home as I thought I was pushing my luck with hiking in flip-flops there. I am very glad that I did as there was no trail only three separate sections of a wall of rock. Yep, the three of us rock-climbed out. I can safely say the three of us were all a little afraid and realized that we were idiots for following strangers out of a place we had never been before. Ironically, Brook and I moments before leaving this way were discussing rock-climbing and how much fun it can be and wish we could do it more often. God has a sense of humor, no?
We made it out alive and a little smarter.
The rest of the hike home was fine but we were all very tired. We finally made it home after walking to a shuttle bus, which then took us to the train station where an older French man preceded to tell us that all of France's problems are do to the Arabs. Have Patrick and I mentioned how racist some French people can be?
We got home around 9, 9:30, and ate dinner and went to bed. The next day was spent not doing a whole lot as we were all beat. Brook and I did go to the Fashion Museum and then we all had a beer at a cafe. That night we hung out at the commune and had a fun time until we all went to bed around 1 am.
This concludes our Marseille part of the trip. It was amazing and slightly terrifying. Tomorrow for part two of this series we are off to Montpellier.
Molly
First part: Marseille, June 3rd to June 6th, 2009
Oh, Marseille how I love this city. I would describe Marseille as edgy, laid-back, active, doesn't give a flying f*@k what you think of me city. It is Denver meets New York City. It is amazing! I like Paris, but Marseille makes Paris that boring, more popular kid who gets by on a name. Make it to Marseille in your life and I promise you it will change the way you view France.
Patrick, Brook, and myself arrived at 9:30 in the morning and made our way to our hostel. We stayed at this place called La Cigale et la Fourmi, the cicada and the ant, it was a hippie commune. We slept in a lofted space with beds on the ground with any where from 10 to 20 strangers. People were coming in and out of the place from all walks of life and we paid at the end of our stay, since you never know how long you are going to stay! We were all a little skeptical when we arrived especially since some kid yelled down the door access code from a window while a cigarette balanced between his fingers. We couldn't understand what he said but the cute old French lady, who lived next door and was outside, helped us since she knew the code too. What?
You enter a tiny hallway only to go up a set of an even tiny stair case that felt like an Escher drawing. We finally made it to the main room, where there was a red couch with some guy sleeping on it, and a series of foreigners being served coffee by a French Filipino. We "checked-in" with Jean, the owner, and were showed to our beds by a Belgian lady named JoJo. More to come on our little hippie commune in a bit but all in all, it was great!
We left our commune to see the city. We took a bus to the metro, took the metro into the city, and then another bus to the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde. It is a really cool church that sits on top of La Garde hill on the east side of the old port. We had lunch there and saw the church and crazy tourists. From there we walked down the hill to the old port to the west side of the port to the old part of Marseille. From there we went to Cathedrale Le Major and then walked along the sea back into the old port. On our map of Marseille there was an advertisement to taste artisan pastis which was located on our way home so we stopped by to check in out. It was really good pastis and we learned that pastis actually originated from Absinthe. For those of you who don't know pastis, it is an anise flavored liquor. It is a very refreshing summer drink. We then went home and ate dinner and hung out with the rest of the people at our commune. It was a special evening as we had great conversations with a variety of people and nationalities. It was one of those nights that only happen at hippie communes minus the hippie hypocritical rhetoric.
The next day we went to Cassis, the next town over, to hike the Calanques. We hiked a couple of hours to a remote beach with only about 30 people or so at any given time. The hike was kind of difficult as there was a bunch of loose rocks through out the whole trail and the rocks were incredibly slippery. Right before getting to the second beach where we swam, we had to hike down a steep hill to the bottom. However, don't worry folks I had the proper foot ware. I hiked this part in my flip-flops. :)! What...I needed to work on my flip-flop tan.
The beach was quiet enough that you could here the water and birds more than the other people on the beach.
Oh, and a really annoying helicopter doing some sort of exercise that no one could figure out but everyone on the beach watched with utter confusion; oh, and took a photo of it. On occasion you saw a tour boat that takes tourist to all of the Calanques come by but it was far enough out that it wasn't too annoying. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my short life. The sea water was clear with a slight bluish-green color, but refreshingly cold. I don't think you could drown even if you wanted to as you would just float back to the top. I think we spent 5 hours on the beach once we got there. This being said, it was difficult to want to leave let alone muster the courage and energy to hike back. Throughout the day we saw a variety of people leave a different route than we came up the side of cliff that created the south wall of the Calanques. One family left with their dog on this route so we thought we should give it a try.
I wore my tennis shoes for this part of the hike home as I thought I was pushing my luck with hiking in flip-flops there. I am very glad that I did as there was no trail only three separate sections of a wall of rock. Yep, the three of us rock-climbed out. I can safely say the three of us were all a little afraid and realized that we were idiots for following strangers out of a place we had never been before. Ironically, Brook and I moments before leaving this way were discussing rock-climbing and how much fun it can be and wish we could do it more often. God has a sense of humor, no?
We made it out alive and a little smarter.
The rest of the hike home was fine but we were all very tired. We finally made it home after walking to a shuttle bus, which then took us to the train station where an older French man preceded to tell us that all of France's problems are do to the Arabs. Have Patrick and I mentioned how racist some French people can be?
We got home around 9, 9:30, and ate dinner and went to bed. The next day was spent not doing a whole lot as we were all beat. Brook and I did go to the Fashion Museum and then we all had a beer at a cafe. That night we hung out at the commune and had a fun time until we all went to bed around 1 am.
This concludes our Marseille part of the trip. It was amazing and slightly terrifying. Tomorrow for part two of this series we are off to Montpellier.
Molly
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Adventures
Here's a list of the things we have done in the last 2 weeks:
Tain l'Hermitage - We hiked up into some vines and up to a small Chapel in one of the nicest wine regions in France, Hermitage. We tasted wine in 2 wineries and went to town at a chocolate shop under the cover of an enormous American tour group.
Lyon - It rained in Lyon again. It always rains in Lyon as far as I can tell. We visited the zoo and then went to a wine tourism fair that we got free tickets to and tasted a number of wines. I tried to get some free bottles by batting my eyes, but to no avail. We had a little party at the Corsica booth and enjoyed some cheese and a ton of wine. I think we were poured 3 full glasses at the one booth alone.
St. Peray- We ate dinner at a coworker's house. The family raises chickens and sheep and there were 2 lambs. One was 2 weeks old and the other was 4 weeks old and as cute as you can imagine... probably real tasty too.
Grenoble - Another wine expo! Free tickets to this one too! We tried wines from all over France. We were able to compare 3 different champagne producers, tried 8 different Sauternes, Burgundies, Bordeaux and others. Grenoble is dead on a Sunday, which is odd because it's a university town, so we just came home and went to bed early.
Cornas - We went to Cornas, a fantastic wine region, with the explicit purpose to taste and buy. The wine producers are all really small operations and we found ourselves in strangers' basements tasting wine. The last producer we visited was actually closed, but we caught them as they were coming home so they let us taste. They had a nice tasting room, different from all the others that day, and we were poured very generous pours and chatted for about an hour about all sorts of things. I hope to post a photo of it soon, maybe sneak one in after everyone has read this. But it was the most comfortable wine tasting I have ever been to.
Ireland- Heck yeah! We flew from Grenoble airport, which is in the middle of nowhere and the size of my parents living room, to Dublin. Ryanair is just as you would imagine, discount-y. With a budget airline you get budget pilots, but no barfbags. Odd.
Dublin was really expensive, but I think we did it very inexpensivly. First of all, they don't check tickets when entering the Book of Kells. We found this out once we had already walked in to the exhibit and then realized that we had just walked into the exhibit. The Guinness Storehouse does check tickets, but if you ask to go to the gift shop, then you are in without paying for the tour. You don't get the free pint at the end of the tour, but you do get to taste halfway through it. On the 6th floor we bought bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra, a brew that you cannot find in the States, and asked the bartender if he had any extra tokens. He did, and we got free pints on the 7th storey bar which has a great view.
We CouchSurfed with an American and his Finnish roommate on the south end of town. They were really cool but had really bad drinking problems. They were really generous and it was a great way to ease into the city.
We ate dinner at the O'Neills house. The O'Neills are great people whom we met nearly 2 years ago in Colorado. They came to visit my folks and a friend of my folks after said friend of my folks introduced the O'Neills to my folks and my folks stayed with them in Ireland when my folks went to an art thing for my pop. Did you follow that? The O'Neill kids are amazing kids who are some of the most creative people I have met. Tim and Christine, the parents, are very smart people who are experts at conversation (a big change from our CouchSurfing hosts). We had a great evening and I was excited, of all things, to eat brown rice with dinner.
Howth - We rode the Dublin commuter train north to a small penninsula with a small fishing town, Howth. We saw seals and boats in town and then went on a hike along cliffs that line the sea. We stopped just before making it to the light house and cut our loop short because the clouds on that end of the penninsula were so thick that we couldn't see the lighthouse that was a kilometer away. We walked up a hill and then had a pint, the cheapest one we found our entire stay, in the sun. It was here, in Howth, that Molly and I got sunburns. Who would have thought to bring sun block to Ireland?
We saved a lot of money on this trip, which was an added bonus! Not only did we save about 20 euros a person by walking into attractions, but we also got a ride to the airport in Grenoble, saving us 20 euros a person. Upon arriving in Grenoble we hitchhiked into Grenoble, saving us 12.50 euros, and then took a bus to Valence TGV station instead of a train, saving us a buck, and then were given a ride by the sister of a student of mine, my student happend to be on the same bus, from the TGV station to our home. That saved us a three mile walk in the rain!
We are gearing up to go to Marseilles, Montpellier, Perpignan and Barcelona in the coming weeks! So I'm sure we'll write something about that here.
Cheers!
- Patrick
Tain l'Hermitage - We hiked up into some vines and up to a small Chapel in one of the nicest wine regions in France, Hermitage. We tasted wine in 2 wineries and went to town at a chocolate shop under the cover of an enormous American tour group.
Lyon - It rained in Lyon again. It always rains in Lyon as far as I can tell. We visited the zoo and then went to a wine tourism fair that we got free tickets to and tasted a number of wines. I tried to get some free bottles by batting my eyes, but to no avail. We had a little party at the Corsica booth and enjoyed some cheese and a ton of wine. I think we were poured 3 full glasses at the one booth alone.
St. Peray- We ate dinner at a coworker's house. The family raises chickens and sheep and there were 2 lambs. One was 2 weeks old and the other was 4 weeks old and as cute as you can imagine... probably real tasty too.
Grenoble - Another wine expo! Free tickets to this one too! We tried wines from all over France. We were able to compare 3 different champagne producers, tried 8 different Sauternes, Burgundies, Bordeaux and others. Grenoble is dead on a Sunday, which is odd because it's a university town, so we just came home and went to bed early.
Cornas - We went to Cornas, a fantastic wine region, with the explicit purpose to taste and buy. The wine producers are all really small operations and we found ourselves in strangers' basements tasting wine. The last producer we visited was actually closed, but we caught them as they were coming home so they let us taste. They had a nice tasting room, different from all the others that day, and we were poured very generous pours and chatted for about an hour about all sorts of things. I hope to post a photo of it soon, maybe sneak one in after everyone has read this. But it was the most comfortable wine tasting I have ever been to.
Ireland- Heck yeah! We flew from Grenoble airport, which is in the middle of nowhere and the size of my parents living room, to Dublin. Ryanair is just as you would imagine, discount-y. With a budget airline you get budget pilots, but no barfbags. Odd.
Dublin was really expensive, but I think we did it very inexpensivly. First of all, they don't check tickets when entering the Book of Kells. We found this out once we had already walked in to the exhibit and then realized that we had just walked into the exhibit. The Guinness Storehouse does check tickets, but if you ask to go to the gift shop, then you are in without paying for the tour. You don't get the free pint at the end of the tour, but you do get to taste halfway through it. On the 6th floor we bought bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra, a brew that you cannot find in the States, and asked the bartender if he had any extra tokens. He did, and we got free pints on the 7th storey bar which has a great view.
We CouchSurfed with an American and his Finnish roommate on the south end of town. They were really cool but had really bad drinking problems. They were really generous and it was a great way to ease into the city.
We ate dinner at the O'Neills house. The O'Neills are great people whom we met nearly 2 years ago in Colorado. They came to visit my folks and a friend of my folks after said friend of my folks introduced the O'Neills to my folks and my folks stayed with them in Ireland when my folks went to an art thing for my pop. Did you follow that? The O'Neill kids are amazing kids who are some of the most creative people I have met. Tim and Christine, the parents, are very smart people who are experts at conversation (a big change from our CouchSurfing hosts). We had a great evening and I was excited, of all things, to eat brown rice with dinner.
Howth - We rode the Dublin commuter train north to a small penninsula with a small fishing town, Howth. We saw seals and boats in town and then went on a hike along cliffs that line the sea. We stopped just before making it to the light house and cut our loop short because the clouds on that end of the penninsula were so thick that we couldn't see the lighthouse that was a kilometer away. We walked up a hill and then had a pint, the cheapest one we found our entire stay, in the sun. It was here, in Howth, that Molly and I got sunburns. Who would have thought to bring sun block to Ireland?
We saved a lot of money on this trip, which was an added bonus! Not only did we save about 20 euros a person by walking into attractions, but we also got a ride to the airport in Grenoble, saving us 20 euros a person. Upon arriving in Grenoble we hitchhiked into Grenoble, saving us 12.50 euros, and then took a bus to Valence TGV station instead of a train, saving us a buck, and then were given a ride by the sister of a student of mine, my student happend to be on the same bus, from the TGV station to our home. That saved us a three mile walk in the rain!
We are gearing up to go to Marseilles, Montpellier, Perpignan and Barcelona in the coming weeks! So I'm sure we'll write something about that here.
Cheers!
- Patrick
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
New Chapter... I'm tired of this old one.
Today was my second to last day as an assistant here at the lycee. I can safely say that the connections that I made to my students this year are not as strong as the connections I felt to my students when I was doing my student teaching in Broomfield. Very nice kids, of course, and I don't think it was a communication issue... I am certain that it was the fact that I saw kids one hour a week if I saw them frequently and one hour every six weeks on the other end of the scale.
I received some very nice gifts from students in a few classes. A bouncy ball (balle rebondissante), some candy, a Star Wars magnet of C3PO and as a gag gift, a razor. Then I was given a t-shirt with signatures and "WE (heart) YOU" on it. I cannot wait to wear that to a baseball game in the States!
Then, in my volunteer conversation class, I was given a very nice gift by two brothers. I accused them of stealing from their parents, but they insisted that they did not. I was given three beautiful bottles of wine. This may not mean much to many of you, but I received a 2001 Paul Jaboulet Aine - St. Peray (white Cote du Rhone), a 1999 Meursault (red Burgundy), and a 1996 St. Emilion (red Bordeaux). When I opened the box I was rendered speechless. If purchased in the States today this could cost about... umm... 300 bucks, easy. I am sure that the parents of these boys purchased the wine from the wineries the years they came out at any number of wine expos that go on in France any weekend of the year. That would have only cost em about 45 euros at the time, shoot in francs at the time, so maybe less. But the gesture is still incredibly nice! I will try and give the rest of my classes guilt trips an hopes of other nice vintage years!
All in all I beleive that the last 7 months were good. Friday starts the second chapter in our stay here. We're looking forward to the change!
In other things...
Marseille is a great city! We went there over the weekend with Patrick and Marielle (Math and English teachers) and their 3 yo boy Enslin. He's kind of a butthead, but he is three. Lots of repetition, but it was fun to hang out with a kid. It makes me want to play with my nephew, Zain, more than ever! Then I will hand him over to his mom and dad and look at a new nephew sleeping!
Marie, the German assistant, left for home last Thursday. This was kind of a owner as she is the one person whom I feel I really got to know while over here. It just means that my German will have to improve so that we can go visit her in Jena... and drink lots of beer!
I am looking for a job picking fruit. So far I have not had any luck, but I know that there are a lot of jobs and I just need to continue in my hunt. Apparently cherries are cheaper to grow in harvest in Turkey because they can exploit workers even easier! Not as good for me, but the apricots and blueberries will arrive soon.
The weather in Valence has been beautiful and it hasn't been raining too much. This city is a lot nicer in the spring than it is in the winter. I would have invited bombers to level it if I had received the offer in February. Now I am liking it more and more. Markets are lively again, and flower beds are full. That's nice.
So there you have it! Let's turn the page!
- Patrick
I received some very nice gifts from students in a few classes. A bouncy ball (balle rebondissante), some candy, a Star Wars magnet of C3PO and as a gag gift, a razor. Then I was given a t-shirt with signatures and "WE (heart) YOU" on it. I cannot wait to wear that to a baseball game in the States!
Then, in my volunteer conversation class, I was given a very nice gift by two brothers. I accused them of stealing from their parents, but they insisted that they did not. I was given three beautiful bottles of wine. This may not mean much to many of you, but I received a 2001 Paul Jaboulet Aine - St. Peray (white Cote du Rhone), a 1999 Meursault (red Burgundy), and a 1996 St. Emilion (red Bordeaux). When I opened the box I was rendered speechless. If purchased in the States today this could cost about... umm... 300 bucks, easy. I am sure that the parents of these boys purchased the wine from the wineries the years they came out at any number of wine expos that go on in France any weekend of the year. That would have only cost em about 45 euros at the time, shoot in francs at the time, so maybe less. But the gesture is still incredibly nice! I will try and give the rest of my classes guilt trips an hopes of other nice vintage years!
All in all I beleive that the last 7 months were good. Friday starts the second chapter in our stay here. We're looking forward to the change!
In other things...
Marseille is a great city! We went there over the weekend with Patrick and Marielle (Math and English teachers) and their 3 yo boy Enslin. He's kind of a butthead, but he is three. Lots of repetition, but it was fun to hang out with a kid. It makes me want to play with my nephew, Zain, more than ever! Then I will hand him over to his mom and dad and look at a new nephew sleeping!
Marie, the German assistant, left for home last Thursday. This was kind of a owner as she is the one person whom I feel I really got to know while over here. It just means that my German will have to improve so that we can go visit her in Jena... and drink lots of beer!
I am looking for a job picking fruit. So far I have not had any luck, but I know that there are a lot of jobs and I just need to continue in my hunt. Apparently cherries are cheaper to grow in harvest in Turkey because they can exploit workers even easier! Not as good for me, but the apricots and blueberries will arrive soon.
The weather in Valence has been beautiful and it hasn't been raining too much. This city is a lot nicer in the spring than it is in the winter. I would have invited bombers to level it if I had received the offer in February. Now I am liking it more and more. Markets are lively again, and flower beds are full. That's nice.
So there you have it! Let's turn the page!
- Patrick
Thursday, April 23, 2009
French retirement
So Wednesdays in France are a little different "hump day" in France than in the States. All elementary schools are closed and high school students spend their Wednesday afternoons in art and film classes or club sports. Thus, Wednesdays for Patrick and I take on a feeling of a Saturday, since he doesn't work.
Yesterday we slept in, ate a late breakfast, went to feed the ducks, and buy food for dinner. On our way to feed the ducks, there are lots of little ducklings around our area that play in the canals that cut through Valence, we found a boules club. Boules is like bocce ball from Italy, as far as I know, and is usually played by old men. They seem to be very intense games of great skill. These men seem to know just how to throw the heavy metal ball to score a point or block an opponent's balls from getting a point.
One of the men playing boules noticed we were feeding the ducks and decided to tell us a very interesting story about his friend who fell off his bike into the canal. He swallowed some of the canal water and had to go to the hospital. It turns out that his friend died because the water was full of poison and rat pee. Well after such an interesting story and I developed a slight fear of dying from accidental canal water consumption, we decided to watch this group of people play boules. We sat for a while on a bench under a newly leafed tree watching a group of about 7 men and 1 woman, all over the age of 60, play. We were easily the youngest people there except for a few children playing near the boules game area. We were joined on the bench by an elderly couple who came to watch too. I guess this is what you do when you are retired in France, you play or watch boules during the nice April afternoon.
Perhaps Patrick and I will try to play this summer with the elderly people of Valence. Here's to spending a brief moment as a French retiree. All it needed was a glass of Ricard and we would have been set!
Only in France would feeding ducks lead to a random conversation about death and a game of boules.
Here's to France!
Molly
Yesterday we slept in, ate a late breakfast, went to feed the ducks, and buy food for dinner. On our way to feed the ducks, there are lots of little ducklings around our area that play in the canals that cut through Valence, we found a boules club. Boules is like bocce ball from Italy, as far as I know, and is usually played by old men. They seem to be very intense games of great skill. These men seem to know just how to throw the heavy metal ball to score a point or block an opponent's balls from getting a point.
One of the men playing boules noticed we were feeding the ducks and decided to tell us a very interesting story about his friend who fell off his bike into the canal. He swallowed some of the canal water and had to go to the hospital. It turns out that his friend died because the water was full of poison and rat pee. Well after such an interesting story and I developed a slight fear of dying from accidental canal water consumption, we decided to watch this group of people play boules. We sat for a while on a bench under a newly leafed tree watching a group of about 7 men and 1 woman, all over the age of 60, play. We were easily the youngest people there except for a few children playing near the boules game area. We were joined on the bench by an elderly couple who came to watch too. I guess this is what you do when you are retired in France, you play or watch boules during the nice April afternoon.
Perhaps Patrick and I will try to play this summer with the elderly people of Valence. Here's to spending a brief moment as a French retiree. All it needed was a glass of Ricard and we would have been set!
Only in France would feeding ducks lead to a random conversation about death and a game of boules.
Here's to France!
Molly
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