Ok, better late than never, right? I know I promised tons of stories from my last vacation. I don't really have time to write them properly, but they're very interesting.
The first week of vacation, we spent in Marseille. We went to the Chateau D'If (literature reference anyone? Just FYI, the movie shows Dantes descending into a pit for his imprisonment. Utterly impossible. There is so much sunlight it's unbelievable.)
No pics, no time. Sorry.
After a few days, we met up with our friend Jonathan from Paris and went to Avignon. we saw the Palais des Papes, the Pont, and other stuff. We also took a day to see Aix-en-Provence and Pont du Gard (the Roman Aquaduct). I wish we'd had more time there. Sigh.
The bus depot in Avignon is super sketch. We almost didn't go in it because a) it was night, b) there appeared to be drug-dealer type people hanging around c) it was dark, no windows, and it was creepy. Somehow we mustered the courage to go inside and lo and behold it was fine. Still wouldn't go there at night.
Our last night in Avignon together, we went out to a ritzy restaurant. The waiter really knew his stuff. In the corner of the restaurant there was an American couple having dinner. Talk about rude people! They insisted on speaking English with the waiter and were mad at him when he brought them espresso instead of cafe au lait (well DUH, when you just ask for coffee with your dessert, what do you expect they're going to give you. It was a classic mistake recounted to me once by a French professor. That's why we had to laugh). And then, the waiter (obviously overhearing us speaking English) started addressing us in English. But then he stopped mid-sentence, apologized profusely, and continued in French. SOOOO flattering. He told Laura that if she couldn't figure out the flavors of her ice cream she would have to do the dishes.
The next morning, we bid Jonathan goodbye (and he went off to his super fast train to Paris...Grrr) and we went to Arles. Then it started to rain. Then there was a bus strike (they were totally singing Solidarity Forever in French). Before we knew it, it turned into a national strike of both trains and buses.
When you have a night train back to Nancy to catch, this is not a good thing.
We walked around all day and somehow made it back to Marseille, where we waited. and waited. and waited. Finally, we went to the guichet and they told us that our train was cancelled. Could we get a train to Paris? No. Belgium? No. There were no trains whatsoever.
After a moment or so of intense panicking, we asked for a hotel recommendation and proceeded across the street. The recommended hotel had closed for the night, but we ran into a guy going into the hotel next door. The clerk let us in. Luckily he had one room left.
His "one" room actually belonged to a lady who got stuck in Lyon overnight due to the strike. So, he cleaned up her personal artifacts (which included a can of tuna, towels, tooth brushes, and other strange items) and told us the bed was clean. We didn't really believe him as the whole place kind of smelled. But, as we had no other choice, we decided to make the best of it (we just had to avoid looking into the shower...gross).
As it happened, he was rather a young guy stuck in a hotel with nothing to do. When we went down to pay our bill and explain that we had to leave early in the morning, we started chatting. Turns out, we are the same age. He tried to get us to stay and talk to him but we told him that we were exhausted and then went upstairs.
Five minutes later, he tried to fix the TV in our room against all our protestations (really, you'd think he never saw a couple of girls before). But we finally got him out so we could sleep (which we didn't really).
All said, he was pretty nice. He got up at five in the morning to let us out (and he put on an American flag t-shirt...just for us?). Awwww.
We caught our train and everything was fine in the end. We got a little sleep before heading out to Crete the next day.
The first week of vacation, we spent in Marseille. We went to the Chateau D'If (literature reference anyone? Just FYI, the movie shows Dantes descending into a pit for his imprisonment. Utterly impossible. There is so much sunlight it's unbelievable.)
No pics, no time. Sorry.
After a few days, we met up with our friend Jonathan from Paris and went to Avignon. we saw the Palais des Papes, the Pont, and other stuff. We also took a day to see Aix-en-Provence and Pont du Gard (the Roman Aquaduct). I wish we'd had more time there. Sigh.
The bus depot in Avignon is super sketch. We almost didn't go in it because a) it was night, b) there appeared to be drug-dealer type people hanging around c) it was dark, no windows, and it was creepy. Somehow we mustered the courage to go inside and lo and behold it was fine. Still wouldn't go there at night.
Our last night in Avignon together, we went out to a ritzy restaurant. The waiter really knew his stuff. In the corner of the restaurant there was an American couple having dinner. Talk about rude people! They insisted on speaking English with the waiter and were mad at him when he brought them espresso instead of cafe au lait (well DUH, when you just ask for coffee with your dessert, what do you expect they're going to give you. It was a classic mistake recounted to me once by a French professor. That's why we had to laugh). And then, the waiter (obviously overhearing us speaking English) started addressing us in English. But then he stopped mid-sentence, apologized profusely, and continued in French. SOOOO flattering. He told Laura that if she couldn't figure out the flavors of her ice cream she would have to do the dishes.
The next morning, we bid Jonathan goodbye (and he went off to his super fast train to Paris...Grrr) and we went to Arles. Then it started to rain. Then there was a bus strike (they were totally singing Solidarity Forever in French). Before we knew it, it turned into a national strike of both trains and buses.
When you have a night train back to Nancy to catch, this is not a good thing.
We walked around all day and somehow made it back to Marseille, where we waited. and waited. and waited. Finally, we went to the guichet and they told us that our train was cancelled. Could we get a train to Paris? No. Belgium? No. There were no trains whatsoever.
After a moment or so of intense panicking, we asked for a hotel recommendation and proceeded across the street. The recommended hotel had closed for the night, but we ran into a guy going into the hotel next door. The clerk let us in. Luckily he had one room left.
His "one" room actually belonged to a lady who got stuck in Lyon overnight due to the strike. So, he cleaned up her personal artifacts (which included a can of tuna, towels, tooth brushes, and other strange items) and told us the bed was clean. We didn't really believe him as the whole place kind of smelled. But, as we had no other choice, we decided to make the best of it (we just had to avoid looking into the shower...gross).
As it happened, he was rather a young guy stuck in a hotel with nothing to do. When we went down to pay our bill and explain that we had to leave early in the morning, we started chatting. Turns out, we are the same age. He tried to get us to stay and talk to him but we told him that we were exhausted and then went upstairs.
Five minutes later, he tried to fix the TV in our room against all our protestations (really, you'd think he never saw a couple of girls before). But we finally got him out so we could sleep (which we didn't really).
All said, he was pretty nice. He got up at five in the morning to let us out (and he put on an American flag t-shirt...just for us?). Awwww.
We caught our train and everything was fine in the end. We got a little sleep before heading out to Crete the next day.
You ladies are beautiful! What did you expect? ;)
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