hitchhiking in a foreign country = FUN...
the past 3 days have been a whirlwind of excitement. i can't really believe some of the things that happened. this is going to be a very long entry. read it or don't, as you please.
thursday:
i took my cousin to the train station at 9am. i stopped at school on the way home, where i returned a little after noon. i watched a movie, and then i took a 4-hour nap (because i'd slept about 12 hours total in the past 3 nights). leigh and i started drinking around 8:30, and then at 10 we went out to a bar called pop-in, where we met up with soozy. this bar is huge and always insanely busy, with 3 levels of tables/couches and one level of dance-floor-goodness. we stood for a while before we finally ended up squeezing around a table with a group of four 24-year-old-ish french men. one of them was squished onto the couch next to me, and after a while soozy and i started talking to him. so it gets to be after 1am and we are talking to these 4 guys, and meanwhile about 5 of our friends have randomly shown up throughout the evening. the guy we first started talking to said he had to leave, but he asked for our phone numbers and gave us his before leaving. we then convinced the other 3 to come downstairs and dance with us. the bar closed at 2 (lame, so early!) so we had to leave. the metro closes around 12:45 or 1am, and since this bar is about a 40-minute metro ride from our apartment, we were not about to walk home. the only solution, clearly, was to stay out until the metro reopened at 5:30. the 3 remaining french men were within walking distance of their apartments and all had to work the next morning, so they walked with us for about 10 blocks before saying goodnight. one of these 3, olivier, gave me his phone number and we all made plans to meet up saturday night. (sidenote: french men are so much more polite than american men. i wasn't expecting that. or maybe it was just these french men, but i definitely got the polite double-cheek-kiss about 3 times from olivier before he left us. by the way, he was my favorite...) anyway, after the boys left us, soozy and leigh and i went to this other bar called the truscal which is open until at least 5, so we drank/danced there until about 4 or 4:30. at that point we were quite tired and inebriated, so we went across the street to a 24-hour diner-type place and had coffee and soup and awaited the opening of the metro. i got home a little after 6am and had exactly 2 hours to sober up and pack before i had to leave for the train station. this brings us to friday.
friday:
i went on an overnight school trip to a town in the french alps called annecy, very close to the swiss border -- about a 4-hour train ride from paris. once we got there and were all checked into our hotel, we were supposed to have 2 hours of free time, and then a 2-hour walking tour, and then 2 more hours of free time before dinner. my friend elica and i were sharing a room and had pretty much decided to spend the entire trip on our own as much as possible, away from the nyu group, because frankly, the majority of the nyu in paris program is obnoxious. so we said screw the walking tour and gave ourselves 6 hours of free time. elica had a guide book that said there was an area with beautiful gorges/waterfalls about 6 miles from the town of annecy, which could be reached by public bus (which was just one euro), so we decided to go check it out and go hiking. after a half hour on this bus, we got off at the stop that was supposed to be just under a mile from the gorge. we got directions from a woman in a boulangerie (bakery) and started walking. we walked for a half hour and still had no sign of gorges, so when we saw a couple cars parked in a residential area ("residential" for a teeny tiny town), we decided to ask for more directions. the guy we asked was about 22 or 23 years old, and he said that it was another 30-45 minutes down the road, if we were walking. we said thanks and started back on our way, but then he shouted for us to come back and offered to drive us there. we decided that between the 2 of us, we could take him if he tried anything, and there were a fair amount of cars on the road, so we said "oui, merci!" and off we went. we got to the gorge, we hiked for about an hour, it was beautiful, i'll post pictures on my yahoo site, let me know if you need the web address... we then had to figure out how to get back to annecy (hopefully without walking the hour or so back to the bus stop). we approached a mid-20's-ish couple with a baby and asked if they were going back to annecy, which they were, and they offered to drive us. hurray! that covers most of friday's fun. on to saturday!
saturday:
this morning, we went on a boat tour of the lake in annecy, which was absolutely gorgeous. we were in the middle of a bunch of mountains (the alps), and the sun had finally decided to come out, making it about 50 or 55 degrees... sigh. anyway, after the boat tour, we had 3 hours of free time before the next guided activity, so elica and i embarked on our next adventure. we climbed up a hill to this huge chateau, which ended up being closed (because everything in france is closed from 12-2pm), but it was still nice to look at. then we meandered our way through an outdoor market and back to the lake, where we had seen paddleboats, which we hoped to be able to rent. it ended up only being 13 euros for the 2 of us for an hour on the lake, and it was (once again) gorgeous. (hurray for sun; it's been sooo long since we've seen you!) after paddle-boating, we went back to meet the group at the hotel to get on a bus and drive up a mountain. they let us off the bus near the top of the mountain, and the driver told us we could climb to the peak if we didn't mind getting all full of snow. most of the (lame) people decided to stick to the road and walk around to the other side where there was a lodge with a bar, but of course elica and i (along with about 4 others) had to climb -- in our jeans and tennis shoes. it only took us about 15 minutes to reach the summit, but i fell thigh-deep into the snow too many times to count. my feet and legs were soaked, but the sun was still out so it was relatively warm, and the view was so worth it. (again, pictures will be posted on the yahoo site.) we did other things today, but none of them are anywhere near as exciting as the paddleboating or mountain-climbing... except for possibly this: after i got back to paris tonight, i met soozy and leigh at this bar around the corner from our apartment (which we walk past all the time and never go into, but they did tonight, and that's a whole different story)... while i was there, i got a text from olivier (sweet/polite french man from thursday night) saying that he was very sorry he couldn't meet up with us tonight because he got conned into working tomorrow morning, but he will definitely find us in the next few days. (by the way: soozy has a boyfriend, and leigh is a boy... although he also has a boyfriend anyway... so i'm the only one who really has a shot with olivier. huzzah!) at the end of his text he wrote "biz" which means "bises" or "bisoux" which means "kiss" or "kisses." oh hell yeah.
if you made it this far, congratulations! you just wasted about 10 minutes of your day!... but i hope you enjoyed it! :P
lovelove
thursday:
i took my cousin to the train station at 9am. i stopped at school on the way home, where i returned a little after noon. i watched a movie, and then i took a 4-hour nap (because i'd slept about 12 hours total in the past 3 nights). leigh and i started drinking around 8:30, and then at 10 we went out to a bar called pop-in, where we met up with soozy. this bar is huge and always insanely busy, with 3 levels of tables/couches and one level of dance-floor-goodness. we stood for a while before we finally ended up squeezing around a table with a group of four 24-year-old-ish french men. one of them was squished onto the couch next to me, and after a while soozy and i started talking to him. so it gets to be after 1am and we are talking to these 4 guys, and meanwhile about 5 of our friends have randomly shown up throughout the evening. the guy we first started talking to said he had to leave, but he asked for our phone numbers and gave us his before leaving. we then convinced the other 3 to come downstairs and dance with us. the bar closed at 2 (lame, so early!) so we had to leave. the metro closes around 12:45 or 1am, and since this bar is about a 40-minute metro ride from our apartment, we were not about to walk home. the only solution, clearly, was to stay out until the metro reopened at 5:30. the 3 remaining french men were within walking distance of their apartments and all had to work the next morning, so they walked with us for about 10 blocks before saying goodnight. one of these 3, olivier, gave me his phone number and we all made plans to meet up saturday night. (sidenote: french men are so much more polite than american men. i wasn't expecting that. or maybe it was just these french men, but i definitely got the polite double-cheek-kiss about 3 times from olivier before he left us. by the way, he was my favorite...) anyway, after the boys left us, soozy and leigh and i went to this other bar called the truscal which is open until at least 5, so we drank/danced there until about 4 or 4:30. at that point we were quite tired and inebriated, so we went across the street to a 24-hour diner-type place and had coffee and soup and awaited the opening of the metro. i got home a little after 6am and had exactly 2 hours to sober up and pack before i had to leave for the train station. this brings us to friday.
friday:
i went on an overnight school trip to a town in the french alps called annecy, very close to the swiss border -- about a 4-hour train ride from paris. once we got there and were all checked into our hotel, we were supposed to have 2 hours of free time, and then a 2-hour walking tour, and then 2 more hours of free time before dinner. my friend elica and i were sharing a room and had pretty much decided to spend the entire trip on our own as much as possible, away from the nyu group, because frankly, the majority of the nyu in paris program is obnoxious. so we said screw the walking tour and gave ourselves 6 hours of free time. elica had a guide book that said there was an area with beautiful gorges/waterfalls about 6 miles from the town of annecy, which could be reached by public bus (which was just one euro), so we decided to go check it out and go hiking. after a half hour on this bus, we got off at the stop that was supposed to be just under a mile from the gorge. we got directions from a woman in a boulangerie (bakery) and started walking. we walked for a half hour and still had no sign of gorges, so when we saw a couple cars parked in a residential area ("residential" for a teeny tiny town), we decided to ask for more directions. the guy we asked was about 22 or 23 years old, and he said that it was another 30-45 minutes down the road, if we were walking. we said thanks and started back on our way, but then he shouted for us to come back and offered to drive us there. we decided that between the 2 of us, we could take him if he tried anything, and there were a fair amount of cars on the road, so we said "oui, merci!" and off we went. we got to the gorge, we hiked for about an hour, it was beautiful, i'll post pictures on my yahoo site, let me know if you need the web address... we then had to figure out how to get back to annecy (hopefully without walking the hour or so back to the bus stop). we approached a mid-20's-ish couple with a baby and asked if they were going back to annecy, which they were, and they offered to drive us. hurray! that covers most of friday's fun. on to saturday!
saturday:
this morning, we went on a boat tour of the lake in annecy, which was absolutely gorgeous. we were in the middle of a bunch of mountains (the alps), and the sun had finally decided to come out, making it about 50 or 55 degrees... sigh. anyway, after the boat tour, we had 3 hours of free time before the next guided activity, so elica and i embarked on our next adventure. we climbed up a hill to this huge chateau, which ended up being closed (because everything in france is closed from 12-2pm), but it was still nice to look at. then we meandered our way through an outdoor market and back to the lake, where we had seen paddleboats, which we hoped to be able to rent. it ended up only being 13 euros for the 2 of us for an hour on the lake, and it was (once again) gorgeous. (hurray for sun; it's been sooo long since we've seen you!) after paddle-boating, we went back to meet the group at the hotel to get on a bus and drive up a mountain. they let us off the bus near the top of the mountain, and the driver told us we could climb to the peak if we didn't mind getting all full of snow. most of the (lame) people decided to stick to the road and walk around to the other side where there was a lodge with a bar, but of course elica and i (along with about 4 others) had to climb -- in our jeans and tennis shoes. it only took us about 15 minutes to reach the summit, but i fell thigh-deep into the snow too many times to count. my feet and legs were soaked, but the sun was still out so it was relatively warm, and the view was so worth it. (again, pictures will be posted on the yahoo site.) we did other things today, but none of them are anywhere near as exciting as the paddleboating or mountain-climbing... except for possibly this: after i got back to paris tonight, i met soozy and leigh at this bar around the corner from our apartment (which we walk past all the time and never go into, but they did tonight, and that's a whole different story)... while i was there, i got a text from olivier (sweet/polite french man from thursday night) saying that he was very sorry he couldn't meet up with us tonight because he got conned into working tomorrow morning, but he will definitely find us in the next few days. (by the way: soozy has a boyfriend, and leigh is a boy... although he also has a boyfriend anyway... so i'm the only one who really has a shot with olivier. huzzah!) at the end of his text he wrote "biz" which means "bises" or "bisoux" which means "kiss" or "kisses." oh hell yeah.
if you made it this far, congratulations! you just wasted about 10 minutes of your day!... but i hope you enjoyed it! :P
lovelove