The unabridged stories of my French travels: November 2010

I promised a shorter time span between blog posts, and to all you 7 people out there who read the last one, take note that I followed through. Though I am writing mostly because I had a great and grand adventure in London last weekend and feel the need to share with all who read the experiences I had. So without further ado, a quick recap of the most expensive place ever! (Minus all of Norway)

I flew out of Marseille on the glorified bus/plane that RyanAir call's a Boeing 737 last Thursday, the 18th of November. Unbelievably small and cramped, I definitely remember every time I ride on a RyanAir flight why their prices are so low. Unfortunately, every seat in the plane was booked and, as luck would have it, the seat next to me, the last open one in the plane, was filled by a large smelly Frenchman who couldn't speak English and cut me off from my fellow American sitting next to me. Sad day. But, as one might imagine, life went on and I landed in London Stansted airport at 9:45 PM that night. That night I took a wild ride on a bus driven by the shortest and most unsafe driver the world has ever seen. Somehow this man poked his little head above the steering wheel and navigated us into downtown London in one hour, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. This fact allowed me to blow my first pounds of the trip on a horribly overpriced Tube ticked to my hostel. Thank you London for making the money waste a theme. That night I slept well and prepared to meet my traveling buddies in the morning after they arrived.

My friends, all six girls of them (too much for the ginger to handle), showed up not quite bright eyed and busy tailed, but they were game to romp all over London so we went on our way! First stop for the day was...you guessed it...FOOD! We grabbed some breakfast and then hopped on the Tube to see the biggest of Ben's. Much more impressive than imagined, Big Ben was quite the sight. Lots of gold and...stones and stuff...adorned the clock's sides and faces, making it much more large and in charge than a clock should ever be. Following a quick photo op of the bridge that the dementors destroy in the 6th Harry Potter movie (important site I know), the crew and I headed two blocks down the road to Westminster Abbey. Also large and in charge, this abbey also commanded a large sway on our pockets as well, with its 12 pound entrance fee playing the role of mean parent not allowing you to do something you really wanted to. After some photos and whatnot, we moved on to bigger and better things, like the queen of England!

Yes, we dropped in on the queen real fast cause her place was just up the road. We called her up but she didn't answer and the silly guards in big tall hats weren't too keen on us going in unannounced, so we settled for pictures and leaving a nasty message for the queen telling her to get some better guards. Moving on, we closed out the day with some time in the parks that are all over London and the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge was pretty neat, also large and in charge. That night finished with a frantic hostel changing experience after the girls decided our hostel was not safe or nice (at 11 PM) and the meeting of a very nice Martinique inhabitant named Jean-Louis.

Next morning was the big day, the moment we had all waited for. HARRY POTTER ON IMAX!! Yes, we more or less came to London to see the HP movie. On Britain's largest movie screen no less. And in the end it was totally worth. I'd forgotten what an IMAX experience was like and came out of the movie with my mind blown and my head spinning and ears ringing. To put the cherry on top, a group of four or five British girls came up to me and told me I looked like Bill Weasley. Needless to say, I was more than honored and told them that they were my favorite British girls I'd met in London yet. I don't think they realized they were the only British girls I met but it don't matter. After that we wrapped up our site seeing with a visit to Abbey Road (with complimentary four-people-walking-across-a-crosswalk picture). Then a Notting Hill visit (six girls...need I say more?). Finally, we visited a Christmas carnival deal in Hyde Park, ate our dinner then decided to take the train out to the airport. So yet again, I had the honor of sleeping in or around an airport yet again. This time, though, the airport stayed open and I was actually WARM all night. You appreciate the little things after awhile I guess.

This about wraps up the time I enjoyed in the London town area. Lots of good times, money spent and memories created.

In other news, my French is progressing quickly still and I am enjoying my time here for sure. I changed my flight yesterday, so I'm coming home two weeks earlier than anticipated. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. Mostly good in my opinion. And I have peanut butter here now, sent from home. My life is good. Now for pictures!!

Ronnie the Bear! I am apparently his brother's doppelganger

You have to ride the Tube to get this one

the mean guard man

the biggest ben

and platform 9 3/4...yes we went there. and yes it exists. sort of.

With a quick glance it becomes obvious that it has been a long time since my last post, and for this, I apologize. I fully realize I let down all those that are relying on this blog as their lifeline to updates to my life in Europe. That being said, I also realize that means I let no one down. Thus, with a clear conscience, I begin the update.

Since October 21, 2010 (the date of my last post for those too lazy to scroll down to verify), my lifetime count of countries visited approximately doubled and the count of familiar faces seen in Europe has quadrupled. So I consider these last three weeks to have been grand successes. Between my last post and today, I dressed up as a model for a Halloween party, flew on RyanAir's last ever flight between Marseille and Oslo, Norway, slept in a teepee on Halloween night proper, ate 65% of my meals with food fished out of the trash for a four day period, entered the world's third largest cathedral, ate true Spanish tapas, drank true Spanish sangria, took a flaming shot that was called "Harry Potter", missed the Pope's visit to Barcelona by 2 hours and took the nicest train ride of my life (where I was GIVEN a pair of headphones AND two movies were shown on the five and half hour ride). Oh yeah...I was also homeless for a night and spent one chilly (and, thanks to daylight savings time, extra long) evening under a set of stairs in a parking garage outside the Oslo airport. All in all quite eventful I'd say.

The reasons for such a large variety of events is "les vacances de Toussaint", a French holiday which gave us the week off school and the chance to leave the country and explore the world. So I did leave. I flew to Oslo, Norway on October 30th to go see my best friend whom I have known since age five. He is going to school in a city called Bø, which is in the region of Telemark and is a three hour bus ride from the airport I flew into. My flight came in a BIT too late for the bus though, thus the conundrum I faced when seeing that the airport closed for about five hours during the night. The decision I made was, in retrospect, a bit stupid, but saved me some cash money. I hunkered down under a staircase and layered up for the night ahead. I was only too cold to sleep for about an hour, which in my opinion is a win. In the morning I caught the bus to Bø and met up with my friend Justin. What ensued for the next four days was a mixture of garbage food, "borrowed" fruit from neighbors trees, nature and lots of darkness. Bø is a small village in the middle of one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The little town wins the contest for my favorite place visited yet. It was so much like home and so beautiful with the fall colors I fell into the trap and now love it. On my first night in Bø (Halloween), Justin and I hiked up to a teepee by a lake and spent the night out there, cooking our food over the fire and playing cards. We headed back into town early, mostly cause we couldn't sleep cause we were cold (see a theme?) and spent the rest of the day watching movies, poking around town and just enjoying life. The next couple days were similar, where he showed me around town and his school and we both prepared for our journeys out of Bø on the last day. We both flew out of Norway on that Wednesday November 3rd. Thus ended my visit to the best place I've been in Europe.

Next up on the list was Europe's cheapest city! Sevilla. I don't know if it really is the cheapest, but I ate it up cause everything was SOOO cheap. I guess after living in a very wealthy and expensive city (Aix) for two months, it was a breath of fresh air. I met up with my roommate in college, James, there. We only had 24 hours together or so cause my flight came in late and the bus I caught came late too, but it was surely an epic 24 hours. We did our normal thing. Hanging out in parks, walking around checking out the sites and generally just doing shenanigans. We visited the third largest cathedral in the world, which was neat (and large). Then we went to a "botellòn", or a big street party. There were thousands of Spanish people just hanging out like real bros in a square. Everyone brings their own drinks and stands around, talks and drinks. It was quite the sight. I met a few very nice Spanish people who proceeded to tell me that the unemployment rate was 22% but no one cared cause they're Spanish and they don't work anyways! There were many complaints about the Spanish work ethic while there, but I felt they were ok. Anyways, the next day I scooped up some cheap baked goods for the train ride and headed on to Barcelona, leaving a teary eyed James at the station with the promise of seeing him in January.

Last stop...Barcelona! The city which everyone gives you the "Have fun being drunk all the time" look when you say that you're going there. Known for its partying scene and its Antoni Gaudi architecture, Barcelona was a good time. I met up with two friends from university, Jaclyn and Claire, and we had some adventures. No drunken times experienced, but I will say the opportunity for such escapades is quite high in that city. Bars and clubs and more bars abound, as per the Spanish tradition. We went out one night and then saw all the Gaudi architecture around the city. Gaudi's stuff is incredible. His style and imagination are unique throughout the world and I have to say I very much enjoyed seeing it all. The next day after the sites I hopped on a train and headed on "home" to Aix. The end of the trip held no free headphones or movies, but I did enjoy the rides back. Exhausted, I arrived in Aix, walked home, ate dinner and...did my homework. Yup, I did do homework. Don't worry, school does exist here still.

That about sums up the adventures, since this week has been all school and nothing fun yet. Tomorrow I'm going to Ligue 1 soccer match in Marseille. Cheap tickets and amazing soccer. I cannot complain. Next post, I swear, will be both shorter and not as far after this one as this was from the last. Now for the best part...pictures. Some images so you can imagine my adventures with me.