WINTER HOLIDAY PART 2: AIX-EN-PROVENCE & AVIGNON
Pont d'Avignon
So the second part of the winter holiday is here! I continue where I left of in the last post.
We got up early, it was hard since we got to bed late. We took tha train to Aix-en-Provence from the Marseilles St. Charles trainstation at 09h05.
After 45 minutes on the train we arrived in Aix-en-Provence. We were heading for Avignon the same day, and didn't have a hostel to put our stuff in. Additionally we couldn't find ANYWHERE to put our luggage, so we had to carry it around all day. We had breakfast in front of Cours Mirabeau, the biggest fountain in Aix-en-Provence.
We continued our great hyper tourism trend, seeing everything in one day and took yet another "City tour". (The one in Aix-en-Provence was better than the Marseille one as it only cost us 0,50€!)
Geir, Joao and Roberto are happy hyper tourists
We were all kind of tired and had a coffee not far from la Rotonde before we visited Musée Granet with a free and interactive Picasso exhibition, very good.
We didn't have time to see La cathédrale St-Sauveur properly (we passed it on the city tour), so the last thing we did in Aix-en-Provence was a proper kebab. 15 minutes on the TGV and we were in Avignon. We were met by an amazing sunset, so I had to take a picture!
The view that met us in Avignon (available on Flickr)
We met the American girls again (what's the odds?), but this time we only had a short talk as they were leaving Avignon. We ended the evening with wine, salt sticks, chips and baguettes in the hotel room.
Day 3: Avignon
We slept for a long time in my room and the others bought food and we ate breakfast in front of the City hall (Hôtel de ville).
A fantastic baguette breakfast in front of Hôtel de ville!
We headed for the main attraction in Avignon, Le palais des papes (The pope palace). The Pope had his head of seat in Avignon at the beginning of the 12th century, interesting, but the buildings was emptied, so there was only (endless amounts of) information signs to see, apart from the construction itself.
Palais des papes
After two hours in the palace we had incredibly expensive coffee outside (1,80€). Then we saw Notre dame des doms and the park Rocher des doms next door followed by the famous "Pont d'Avignon", who's real name is Pont Bénezet. Why is it famous you say? That's because it's only half a bridge. The city of Avignon gave up reconstructing it in the 17th century since it always got destroyed by the strong tide.
Planning in front of Palais des papes!
Again we were tired and skipped going to eat at a restaurant, instead we ordered pizza. Beer and gin & tonic made us happy and we tried to find a place to go out. Again: Epic fail! Who pays 10€ to get into a pub!? It was called Delirium, probably describes the people who go there pretty well!
In the next post, Nîmes!
WINTER HOLIDAY PART 1: MARSEILLES
Joao, Geir, Roberto, Kristofer, Cate and I in Marseilles
I've been waiting for time to post the images and stories from the winter holiday and finally I have found the time. I'm sitting outside in the Tolulouse waiting for my laundry to finish - perfect conditions for blogging!
So I'm moving back in time, to February 18th 2009, 6 o'clock in the morning at the metro station Faculté de Pharmacie where Geir, Cate, Joao, Roberto, Kristofer and I are dead tired, but ready for the winter holiday. We're going to visit the south west coast of France visiting Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Avignon and Nîmes.
Ready for departure (Geir, Kristofer, Cate, Roberto and Joao)
We got to Marseilles around 11h30 and found Hostel Vertigo right away, it was really close to the train station. It was an awesome place, really cool atmosphere and nice rooms!
We got a map of the city and started exploring!
Does anybody see a big monument around here so we know where we are?
Since we only had one day in Marseilles, we figured the most effective way to get around was to take "Trains Tour", showing us Marseilles and bringing us all the way up to Notre Dame de la garde - the church that overlooks Marseilles. We were a bit unlucky and only got 25 minutes at Notre Dame - we're hyper tourists doing Marseilles!
We also got to see the old quarter (ok), la Vieille charité (disappointment) and La cathédrale (nice outside, too dark inside).
We went back to Les Quais, where we ate lunch when we came to Marseilles and ate proper French food ...
No excuse for this in France, but it tasted very good!
We tried to find Musée du vieux ville (The "Old City Museum") twice, but it didn't seem to exist. None of the Marseillans we asked had heard about it. We ended the day with a visit to Palais de Longchamps before returning to the hostel.
There we ate good microwave heated spaghetti (the didn't have hot plates in the hostel). We met three American girls that joined us in the search for a place to party. Epic fail! The only place we found was the Irish pub O'Malley's. OK, but not exactly what we were looking for.
In bed 1h30, hopefully ready for the second day of the winter holiday!
EASTER HOLIDAY PART 1: RISOUL
The first week of this year's two week Easter holiday is over. I've had a great week in the French Alps, more specifically in Risoul.
The short story of the week is as follows:
The bus picked us up at 23h on Friday 3rd of April. I got food poisoned by something I ate the same day and puked three times during the bus ride (9 hours), the first time after 5 minutes of driving. Great start.
The slopes were good, but the snow a bit slushy in the afternoons. We had grouped ourselves in dinner teams and it worked perfectly, good an varied food each day!
Geir got sick after 2 days with high fever and only got four days of skiing, Nina caught his fever the two last days. I sprained my ankle during snow football (which we won by the way) and missed one day of snowboarding. A bit of tape and snowboard boots stabilized the foot enough after the first day.
All in all we were a bit unlucky, but it was still a great trip. I've learned to do goofy and 180s properly, but I'm still struggeling with 360s. We've done a lot of off piste, amazing fun!
Next up this Easter is the Road trip to Spain!
The apartment for four (Nina, Cate and my head)
The dinner teams made great food! (Roberto, Synnøve, Kristofer, Tom, Cate, Geir and Nina)
Beto won the jumping contest
Lluís with a big grab
Friday we had a common 4th floor dinner in the corridor!
Kristian attacking a steep off piste hill
CANET-EN-ROUSSILLON
Regatta in the Mediterranean with a great view of the Pyrenees
Wow, I've had a few busy days, walking from activity to activity (mostly school related stuff - boring to tell about). I'm still in a hurry, as I'm heading for The Alps tonight! Risoul in the southern Alps is the place to be and we're about 10 Erasmus students going. The trip is arranged by Ski INSA, one of the many clubs of the school.
This post is about last weekend's sailing trip outside Canet-en-Roussillon. Fadia and Michelle (her sister), Tom and I joined FX and Pierre in INSA Club Voil (INSA sailing club) in their 35" sailboat.
We got to the boat Friday night, slept in the boat and sailed Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we had rain in the afternoon, making it a bit cold. We had great wind though! Sunday we sailed a regatta, it was absolutely awesome! Plenty of wind to make it a memorable experience (15-20m/s wind)
A few pictures will tell the rest of the story from this fantastic weekend! Enjoy!
Something as unusual as a picture with me in it. We spent a nice Friday night in "Shoot first", the name of the sailing boat.
Happy sailor Tom
Hapy sailor Fadia
Pierre, the captain
Lunch break on Saturday (Fadia, Michelle, Tom, Pierre and FX)
It got really wet Saturday afternoon, Pierre and FX.
Sunday = Regatta day = Fantastic day!
I wish you all a happy Easter holiday and hope to see you in blog space when I return!
SAIL AWAY WITH ME
Photo: Stefano Liboni (flickr.com)
A short short update! Since my last post I've managed to get my glasses completely smashed. They fell on the floor in a crowded room and someone stepped on them. I'm now in the process of getting new ones, but it will be an expensive accident.
As the title suggests, I'm going sailing this weekend! It's my binôme FX that invited me, and I asked in turn Tom to join. Fadia and her visiting sister is also joining us.
We hope for good weather, but the current forecast doesn't look too promising, not for Saturday at least.
I'm bringing the camera and hope for some nice shots!
Have a great weekend, enjoy life!