Nimes, France = Rainy and Roman

NIMES, France - March 11 and 12

We arrived in Nimes on a beautiful day! We walked up and down the street in front of the bus station to try to find where the bus that went to the hostel was. A nice girl who only spoke French communicated to us a few times which bus we were supposed to take (despite neither of us really understanding a word). Found bus. Took said bus. And then walked 500 meters uphill with all of our luggage to get to the hostel. The walk – not fun. The hostel however- quite fun and nice. It had internet, it had cheap food, and we even had our own room. All things considered, not bad! Since when we arrived it was about 7pm, and since the place was so comfortable, we knew as soon as we got there we wouldn't be leaving for the night. And we didn't

However, had we known that the next day was going to be an endless day of rain, perhaps we would have changed our plan and left the hostel that night after all. Wandering around European cities in the cold rain makes the wandering quite a bit less pleasant. Still, we made the most of it. The streets were cute and winding. We got a cafe at a warm cafe, we saw very old Roman monuments (such as a mini Colosseum, a couple of old temples, and a beautiful gardern) And we found the best French bakery either of us had been to. It was small, it was baked goods of Lyon (city of great food where we had just left) and it was really really well priced for what you got. I bought a cheese/ham pastry there for a cheap lunch,

and it was so good and filling we went back and bought a few more things for breakfast the next day.

Because of the weather, we headed back to the hostel pretty early, stopping at a grocery along the way to buy a bunch of great stuff for a huge, cheap dinner – goat cheese, soup, tasty olive bread, broccoli... It was a really good dinner that sort of turned into our lunch too.

The next day our only goal was to go to the train station, take the next train to Montpellier, and figure out where we were going to stay. We achieved this goal, but not without more rain, some uncertainty, and a whole lot of walking in the rain. Before deciding on Montpellier, Mei and I had debated going instead to Sete, Arles, Marselle... we were both sort of indecisive people separately, so together we were really indecisive about where to go and what to do. It was a good match in this way, but consequently, we sometimes were unsure about things. For example, we left our Nimes hostel not really sure where we were going to sleep once we got to Montpellier. We had sent out a last minute couch surfing alert to the Montpellier webpage late the night before, but I wasn't expecting any results from it. However a nice Swedish lady who had been traveling around France solo with all her possessions in her car for the last few months told us all about the HI hostel in Montpellier. I sort of knew where the HI hostel was, so we knew we'd find somewhere to sleep.

We headed down to the bus to take us the twenty minute ride to the train station with our bags. ( I would guess I have 30-35 pounds of luggage with me). Just before we headed down to the bus stop (a ten minute walk at least), Mei asked, “should we check the time of the bus?” Personally I hate checking for transportation times of buses in small towns where I don't speak or read the language, so I opted not to check.... we should have checked. After walking downhill from the hostel with all of our stuff for 15 minutes in the rain because it was again a rainy day, we finally made it to the bus stop – to find out that the bus only ran once every two hours, and we had just missed the most recent one by ten minutes. Oh dear ... what to do when travel goes not according to plan? Stay positive and find the next best option. Which I did, but not without some difficulty. I was grumpy that morning to begin with because we didn't know where we were going, the rain, i'd lost a headphone, my boot had broken, and just general morning grumps. Missing the bus, and it sort of being my fault did not help. But with no other options but to take an expensive taxi ride, we decided to keep walking, in the rain, to the next bus station in the direction of the train station. When we arrived at a good bus station, there were no busses again for about 40 minutes. At this point we'd hit a stride, and Mei suggested we just walk the whole way... another 20 minutes. And this is what we did, with all of our luggage. In the rain. We stopped in a Quick to check email and grab some coffee. And it was at this lovely Quick that Mei got a text message from two very nice couch surfing girls in Montpellier asking if we still needed a place to stay that night! They also lived only 5 minutes away from the Montpellier train station! We accepted. And I have to say, this bit of news really improved my mood (as did the coffee and the rain break). So, we finished walking to the station in the rain, with all of our stuff, feeling quite proud of ourselves. Then we bought some bread, bought out tickets, and jumped on a train to Montpellier.

Lyon, France - gastronomic and roman

Lyon - March 9th and 10th

After a 3 hour train ride, I arrived in Lyon. I had been looking forward to this day, since today was the day I'd finally meet Mei – my Australian travel buddy for the next few weeks or so. We had arranged a couch surfing host in Lyon about a month before (pre-travel jitters = arranging things early:: during travels = arrange things late). I arrived in Lyon around 5pm, and met my host, Olivier, at the train station since luckily he worked right by there. I love it when I get to meet the host at the train station. It saves me the trouble of having to navigate the public transportation and streets of a city I don't know very well with all my luggage all by myself. I'm happy to say I'm pretty good at navigating foreign cities at this point, so it's not too big of a deal when I have to, but it's so nice when I don't have to. Mei wasn't to arrive until 11pm, so it would just be my and Olivier for the next five hours.

Olivier is a very nice, accommodating person who works for the transportation system of Lyon, something in finance management. Apparently his company is the middle man for some transportation systems around the world (from Melborne to Washington). He was explaining to us what exactly his company does... I think they own the equipment, and/or help organize the system's workings, but the districts/cities actually run it. Anyway, Olivier was a very gracious host. His apartment had a lot of space too. Mei and I had our own room to share (I love when that happens). He's originally from Reunion Island, which is close to Madagascar. He showed me some pictures of his island online. I'm an island snob, naturally since I come from such a beautiful place, but Reunion Island is really beautiful too, even by my standards. It has a very huge mix of different cultures and cuisines, it's own creole language; I'd really like to go there now. While we waited for Mei, Olivier made me some apertives of toasted goat cheese toasts topped with lychee honey from his island. Really tasty stuff. We went to the grocery store to get the cheese and a few other things. French grocery stores have SO much cheese!! We also met his friend from England for a traditional Lyonesse three course menu du jour meal. I ate really well in Lyon. They have a lot of food specialties there. Most restaurants offer a menu du jour which lets you choose a first course, second course, and dessert from a list of options for a set price (between 12 and 35 euros). I tried Lyon pates, Lyonnese salad (which is lettuce, tomato, a poached egg, and bacon), and a cod souffle with lobster sauce. Not to mention, this is France where there is a pastry shop or bakery shop on almost literally every corner. (oof!)

We picked Mei up at the train station at 11 as planned, she came in from Paris. Then the four of us went to a bar that brews it's own beers for about an hour or so, which was a little awkward, but not too bad. I was pretty ready to go to bed by the time we left. By then it was about 1pm, and we were tired. Mei and I went to bed. Olivier dropped us off at his place, let us into his apartment, and then drove his friend home, despite having to get up early for work (I told you he was ridiculously nice).

Now, when you couch surf and stay with strangers, you learn some good rules of behavior along the way – one of these is to find out the night before if your host expects you to leave the apartment at the same time he/she does in the morning. Mei and I forgot to do this however. So, the next day, at about 8:40, Olivier knocked on our door and told Mei and I that we were leaving in 15 minutes. Woops. So we jumped out of bed, quickly grabbed what we needed for the day, and were off. At least we came downstairs to some coffee that Olivier had made. That helped. We left, Olivier showed us some stuff we should go visit on a map of the city, and then went to work.

Mei and I had a great day wandering around Lyon. Lyon has an old city, and a really old city. Lyon was originally part of the Roman empire, so it dates back pretty damn old – 1st centure AD I think? There are lots of cool cobblestone streets, and stores. It's a fun place to wander. It also has the Fourviere, which was the first thing that Olivier circled on the map, and the first place Mei and I headed to. It's on the top of a hill. As we headed up to it on the bus, I aksed Mei, “So, what is the Forviere?” she replied “No idea.” Hilarious. It ended up being yet another ornate church of Europe, stained glass windows, carvings, mosaics, etc. It was pretty. And free (even better). On the walk down from the Forviere to the really old city, there was an old Roman Amphitheatre to visit, which naturally I thought was pretty cool. We did some yoga on the stage for a little while, took some pictures. The weather was great! In addition to more food, I visited a world puppetry exhibit that just happened to be Lyon (and was also free cus I'm under 26), we lazed next to the river for a while (there are two rivers in Lyon). And we went on a bike ride. Like many of the towns in France, Lyon has city bike rental stations where you pay a Euro for a day, and then a euro an hour (or if you only use the bike for a half hour it is free, so you can trick the system that way). We were trying to get from one river, to the other on the bikes through Lyon old town, cross the other river, and then bike to the train station where we were meeting Olivier. In reality, we didn't get very far on the bikes though. We chose a lot of wrong directions, ended up going up a very steep hill, taking our bikes up stairs in a park, getting super close to the other river, but choosing the wrong direction again, and ending up back where we started. Luckily Mei and I are pretty positive people, so we managed to choose to see the whole thing as adventurously hilarious rather than annoying. WE found out later from Olivier that the hill we went up (which was VERY steep) was the only hill in Lyon... what luck, eh?)

The rest of our time in Lyon was pretty mellow. We were all tired, and went to bed early, went to the train station early, hung out at a Quick (a french McDonalds basically that has free wifi), and took the train out to Nimes.

oof! I'm behind

So i just realized that i haven't published any of the things that i've done in the last three weeks or so! Woops! Since Carcassonne I've been in.... Lyon, Nimes, Montpellier, Avignon French Farmhouse, Toulouse, Balaguer, Barcelona, and yesterday, April 6, I just arrived Lanjaron South Spain Villa.
I have some catching up to do....

Pictures!

Most of my photos are on Photobucket finally. Now I just have to put some captions on them, and figure out how to best share this information.... but in case this works, here's the website i think

http://s1142.photobucket.com/albums/n602/renarrowe/

European Musings: FOREIGN but SAME

I get really excited by all the foreign culture sameness. I'm not sure why. For an example of what I mean, I'm currently sitting on a train and across from me is a, well, I assume a mother and a daughter. The girl must be about 5? 6? And the mom is reading her a story from a picture book. All of this is in adorable French, of course. The book says something like va au cirque (goes to the circus or at the circus I'm sure). She exclaims and looks at the pictures and makes comments to her mom just like an English child would, except it's all in French. (I know I know... well, duh! You're in France! So of course it's in French.) But it still makes me smile. It's capturing of how despite language barriers, despite cultural barriers, there are things that are simply the same, human reactions that are universal. The same type of thing would happen in Spain – I'd watch basketball coaches drilling their student players on a playground, but in Spanish. It would be the same, but foreign. I'd witness a person calling out to a friend they see unexpectedly on the street, but in Spanish - like someone had switched the language setting for my real life. I'd watch a European looking old man walking in the park by himeslf and think, "he's thinking to himself in Spanish!" And my favorite – when my little five year old students would run up to me to blame one another for doing something. When I first started teaching, I couldn't understand enough to know what had happened exactly, but I didn't need to know. I'd make up my own dialogue: “Teacher teacher! Look! Alvaro did this to my paper!” “No I didn't!” “yes you did!” “Well, Yago called me this name.” “NO!” “Teacher!” One time during one of these exchanges my bilingual coordinator was in the room (my boss). He heard the exchange, said something in rapid Spanish, and then Yago looked guilty and said begudgingly - “Perdona” (sorry). Same body language, same sullenness of any five year old boy who got caught misbehaving. It's all the same, but foreign.

Carcassonne and French country side by Train

In the last two days, I've spent 11 hours on train or bus zooming through the French country side. Yesterday, I went from Bayonne to Toulouse by train, Toulouse to Carcassonne by Bus (very interesting drive through lots of old small villages that I was happy to see, but wouldn't want to visit).

I spent the night very much alone in Carcassonne. I found cheap lodgings in an Abbey (Notre D'am Abbey to be exact). It was a four person dorm, but I had it to myself. This was a good and a bad thing – Bad because I depend on the places I'm staying to be how I'm going to meet people, so I was a bit isolated. And good because with the whirlwind of people I just left, and am about to meet, I try to appreciate and value my alone time when I get it, so being alone wasn't a big deal. Carcassonne is very picturesque – basically the old part of the city is a full on little castle town with high walls you must walk up to and then through. It's easy to feel like you are in a different century in a place like that. I bought a bottle of wine, and spent the night walking around the old castle city, perching on walls occasionally, and making toasts in Spanish to myself and to the things that I saw. I'm determined not to forget the Spanish I've learned while i'm in France for the next few weeks. I'm listening to Spanish podcasts still. And I have a Spanish book. But occasionally I think I will just have to walk around talking to myself in Spanish too. Llamame loca (call me crazy). As I was walking around the French castle town last night, I heard some people speaking spanish too! And started a conversation, learned they were from Avila (close to Madrid) told them I had lived in Madrid... it was fun. I think I may make it a goal to start up short conversations in Spanish when I hear it being spoken too. My French is nonexistent, so it's nice to be able to communicate with someone not in English.

Now I'm on a train to Lyon. About an hour and half more to go. Lot's and lot's of countryside... a preview of what is to come next week since this is the area I'll be working on a farm starting on the 14^th.

BAYONNE

And it DID all end up working out ok and then some. Audrey picked me up from the cathedral just like she said she would (which I took a cab to get to since the language was different, I wasn't sure how many cathedrals there were etc. The cab driver totally ripped me off - 9 euros for a 6 minute cab ride? Wha? - but thus is traveling I guess). And Audrey walked me back to her apartment, where i met Muhammed. I am now in my own personal cozy room in the lovely apartment of Muhammed and Audrey – fascinating and beautiful people. Muhammed is from Northern Algeria, where they have their own indigenous culture and language (Kabilian). He speaks Arabic, Kabilian, and French. Audrey is from the Basque region of France. Basque, despite being considered part of Spain/France, also has it's own indiginous culture and language. The Language is called Euskala, and is completely different from any other language in Europe. It's origins of where exactly it came from is still unknown. Audrey is technically Polish (her parents moved to Bayonne from Poland), but she attended a Euskala school when she was young, speaks the language, fluently, and considers herself to have the soul of a Basque. Of course, she also speaks French, English, Spanish, a bit of German, and a bit of Portuguese, but to her Euskala is different. She explained to me that to have, to speak Euskala is to be Basque. Gaining respect, revitalizing basque culture, and even gaining independence from the French/Spanish governments is something Audrey is very passionate about. In addition to promoting the Basque culture and cause, she is a champion of all underdog cultures and causes. She has traveled a lot in the last ten years, primarily a lot throughout Latin America, America, and Canada, visiting, studying, and giving presentations on the indigenous cultures of the world. She's even been to Hawaii to study the Hawaiian indigenous culture. She does a lot of work in film making as well. Currently she has just finished a short documentary on the not so straightforward process of getting papers for wannabe French Citizens (like her Algerian Husband, who will hopefully be receiving French papers within the next few months).

The rest of my first day in Bayonne was spent bike riding to the beach closest to Bayonne and cooking delicious food all in a triage of languages. Audrey and I will switch off between Spanish and English (I can pretty much understand it all too!!) and Muhammed and she would speak French. I love French. I love the way it sounds. My new goal is to learn the basics in this language (and maybe Italian eventually too). Not to be fluent, but to be able to say basics like, where is this? I am cold. I want this. How do you say _____ in French? I've already learned a teensy bit from Muhammed when it was just him and me (because Audrey was at a Basque independence meeting while we went on a bike ride). Knowing Spanish certainly helps. French grammar is more difficult than Spanish, but the sentence structures are very similar. Language is so fascinating.

Later that night, I cooked them beer can chicken (where you stick a can of beer into the cavity of the chicken, and then put the entire thing into the oven. They hadn't seen anything like it before. Muhammed was a bit confused. I'm afraid it turned out not as delicious and moist as i'd been hoping, but it certainly wasn't bad. I blame the ovens of Europe, which are different than American ovens and hard to get the temperature right. I went to bed feeling quite pleased with life and these opportunities that keep popping up!

The next day, Sunday, we went for hike on one of the many mountains in the Basque countryside. We drove through fields after fields of Basque countryside with red and white houses to get to the hike. It reminded me a bit of the Maui upcountry side which I love so much. I could tell Audrey had the same feeling of pride and connection with the Basque countryside that I do for my Maui countryside. The hike was beautiful, with a lot of uphill, a lot of green, and a lot of fresh air. I think I needed it after all that Madrid city stale air I've been breathing for so long. Along the hike, we ran into some wild miniature basque horses called “pechukas,” and I would often hear the bells of a local flock of long haired sheep running along the mountainside. It was all quite cute and enjoyable.

I ended up staying with Audrey and Muhammed for one extra night, Monday night. I spent the day of Monday in Biarritz, a beach town close by. Biarritz is rather glam, and caters mostly to it's beach relaxing tourists. It's very different from the cobbled, old streets of Bayonne. I mainly spent the day walking along the coastline, and spent about an hour lying on the sand with my shoes off, enjoying the surprisingly good weather, still cold, but only needing a light jacket or so. It's the first time I've gotten to lie on a beach since I left Maui. I've missed that.

Both Audrey and Muhammed were such lovely people, sharing their time, their food, their cultures with me – often in a triage of languages. They went above and beyond as couch surfing hosts. I really appreciate the time I got to spend with them, and the peak I got into their lives. I did my best to be an excellent house guest and to share what I could of my cultures and experiences in return. I hope I succeeded.