WEEKEND TRIP: BARCELONA
Sagrada Famillia and I
Travelers: Cate, Susana, Synnøve, Geir, Kristian, Juha, Kristofer and me.
Travel budget: 101€ for transport and housing (incl. breakfast)
Time in Barcelona: 44 hours
Weather in Barcelona: 20 degrees centigrade and blue skies(!)
When we planned this trip we had trouble finding transportation back and forth to Barcelona. Luckily, Juha knew about a convenient way to get from Toulouse to Barcelona: Mike.
Who is Mike?
Mike is a English/Spanish guy who owns a minibus. We payed him 65€ each to bring us to and from Barcelona. Driving with Mike is the ONLY way to get to Barcelona - and have time to see the city in one weekend (when you don't have a car of course).
Bus Mike, Cate and Synnøve
We got to the hostel around 23h Friday night, paid 36€ each and got out on La Rambla, the big tourist street in Barcelona. Since I was still on antibiotics, I had a good orange juice in one of the outdoor cafés.
We were back home around 00h30, we were all pretty exhausted.
Saturday:
Saturday we ate crackers and jam for "breakfast" - could have been better.
Hostel breakfast: Synnøve, Kristian, Juha, Kristofer, Susana, Geir and Cate
We left the hostel around 9h and strolled along La Rambla towards Casa Milà. Casa Milà, also known as La Pedrera is a building drawn by Antonio Gaudi (Catalonia's big architect). We visited the museum and learned a lot about the architect Gaudi.
Casa Milà (aka. La Pedrera)
The roof of La Pedrera
We then walked to Sagrada Familla, Gaudi's church project (he wanted to build the biggest church in Europe). The building started at the end of the 19th century and is still ongoing (some voices whisper 2015).
We hadn't had enough of Gaudi, so we visited Parc Güell, a Gaudi designed park, where we ate great home made sandwhiches. We had walked quite a few kilometers already, so we had a long siesta on the park lawn.
No walking on the gras, so we sat down.
We finally figured out that the Metro was a good idea and went to the beach where Juha, Susana, Cate and I tried the water. Freezing!
Trying to get out of the water: Juha, Cate and Susana
In the evening, we found the only restaurant in the Barcelona with fresh tapas. If not the case, the tapas was really good! We then went on our own little pub crawl. 6 good pubs in total, good fun!
Sunday:
Sunday we got up late, around 11 and were out of the hostel by noon. We tried to find Starbucks, didn't and got so hungry that we ended up eating MacDonald's take-away in a park. We then went to the Olympic stadium, a spectacular set of buildings. On the way we accidentally passed the Catalonian National museum, an incredible building (and an incredible view of the city)!
Everyone in ONE photo!
We found Starbucks and had a well deserved break there before we saw Casa Battlo (Gaudi again), got our luggage from the hostel and were picked up by Mike.
We were back home in Toulouse at 23 o'clock. A great weekend was over!
SUPERBAGNÈRES
It all started early Saturday morning. The bus set of from INSA at 07h00. After about 2 hours of driving the bus started the climb towards the station. It was snowing heavliy and the roads were slippery. The bus driver just barely managed to get the bus up the first (non-steep) hill.
It was obvious that we would need chains to get further.
But the bus driver continued, he drove slowly (stupid) towards the next, much steeper hill, where we of course started slipping. Instead of backing back down (about 100 meters) to put on the chains, the bus driver continued to push the gas and the bus started sliding out. The situation got really tense and climaxed as the rear part of the bus hit the crash barrier, the only thing stopping us from sliding off the road and down the valley.
Crash barriers, a good invention
Seriously! A professional driver SHOULD MUST know that it is irresponsible to drive a bus on non-spiked tires with 50+ passengers up a steep hill in heavy snow around zero degrees centigrade! I am strongly provoked by the driver and his lack of sense.
A chaotic situation
First, when we had already hit the crash barrier (freaking us out), the driver realized that it was time to put on the chains *@$£%#*.
So he spent about 30 minutes getting the chains on and the bus continued in a slow trotting speed towards the top. We finally got to Superbagnère and was ready to ski around noon, about 2,5 hours late.
Enough complaining about the French driver's driving skills. From now on this is a happy story! As I said, it was snowing quite heavily, so the visibility and contrast made it hard to see much. BUT: The slopes were amazing! I had, without a doubt, the most amazing day I have EVER had on skis! It was 20-40cm of powder everywhere, making it an incredible experience!
Heavy snow and low visibility (I'm buying goggles as soon as possible)
I spent most of the day with Kristian, Sindre and the other "INSA Norwegians". We had great fun cruising down the red and black slopes. The perfect stretch we found in the end of the day (see map above). Only a few skiers had been there before us and all we had to do was to lean back and do the perfect turns! An amazing feeling I won't forget for a long time!
Kristian cruising down Powder Lane!
This post is getting really long, so I'll cut the last part short. The trip home also took a long time and it took us 3,5 hours to return to INSA. After a fast taco dinner at Synnøve's, Kristian, Cate, Fadia, Synnøve and I went to Sindre and Erik's house warming party (crémaillère). They have a great apartment, and we had a good time!
Shortly summed up. Thank you for reading!
AX-LES-THERMES
The action of the day happened as I had some turns (fantastic by the way) in some semi-rotten powder snow. I managed to drive the front-end of the snowboard into the snow and tipped over. Three "summer vaults" later I stopped, luckily I was all right ... But my backpack wasn't. My companion through many years was torn apart during the fall.
My dead backpack. RIP
I didn't notice this until I had continued a few meters, therefore Kristian and the others had to return on a rescue mission to pick up a shoe and a sock that had fallen out during my tumbling. Really sad about the backpack, but luckily I got a suitable replacement for Christmas!
I'm not going to write much, I will just show a few pictures taken today:
Synnøve, Fie, Malena and I on our way in the skilift!
The view from the highest mountain top was amazing!
PS. I have been quoted online for the first time in my life today. Mia Holte, a Norwegian webdesigner used my point of view on webdesign as a part of her article on the subject (in Norwegian). Not much, but I find it a bit fun :)
Oh well ...
I hope you all have had a great weekend so far! Until next time!
GLISS INSA
Edit: Just adding a couple of pictures from the Piau-Engaly trip!
It was really cold, hence the nice face colour
Juha in the Pyrenees
TOUSSAINT: DAY 6-7
Day 6 - 30th:
Since many new travelers joined on day 5 we were now 12 people. We therefor had said 0900 sharp as a rendez-vous and left 5 past. Of the 12, 7 joined the first group going to Versailles.
At 10h30 we ate breakfast in front of the main building (I don't think that was legal - but we're Erasmus and didn't understand). Tom and I bought the cheap ticket (13,50€ without Marie Antionette's building) and spent most of the day by our selves.
Illegal breakfast on the coldest Toussaint day. The view was ok though
The audio guide was nice to have when we visited the numerous impressive rooms in the main building. After visiting the main building we met Annika and Victor who were going to see the Marie Antoinette building a kilometer from the main building. Tom and I joined and found out that the Versailles garden would be a great golf course (or four)! The 18th hole straight toward the main building (the club house). The name of the course? VRGCCC - Versailles Royal Golf Course & Country Club. Something for France to consider.
The rooms of Versailles. Each one beautifully made and with different colors on the wall
A room in Versailles. The statue is a self-portrait of the artist Jeff Koons
who had an exhibition at Versailles
The weather this day wasn't the best so we (Tom and I) didn't eat lunch with Cate, Juha, Nina, Fie and Geir. Instead we got our part of the food and went back to Paris.
We tried to got to Hôtel des invalides and Musée des armées, but we came 15 minutes before it was closing so we figured we could do the visit the next day. It was still freezing and wet, so we went home and bought some beer and crisps at Monoprix When we passed our metro station on our way back someone tried to pickpocket me again! (Last time was the first day in Paris - at the exact same location). Both compartments of my backpack were opened, but I had made my valuables hard to get so nothing got stolen! Pheww.
The others came to the hostel shortly after and we had a nice evening with vegetable soup, bread and some wine.
Day 7 - 31st:
It was hard to get up. I didn't sleep very well this night because of my coughing (I finally managed to spell it correctly, thanks Tom). I fear that I kept some of my other room mates awake as well, in that case: sorry!
No famous monument to eat breakfast in front of today - we ate baguettes (without jam) on the metro. We got to Louvre and left our bags and jackets in a storage room below the famous pyramid. Once again Tom and I spent the day together. We visited the Antique Egypt, Roman and Mesopotamia exhibitions and of Course Mona Lisa. We then saw the Renaissance exhibition before we met the others under the pyramid and ate lunch at 13h30. Le Louvre is extremely big, we had covered less than 1/10 of the museum!
Tom is excited to see the Mona Lisa
At 15h Tom and I went back to Musée des armées and this time we had time to look around. 6€ for the ticket wasn't too bad and we got to see the World war 1 & 2 exhibition and Napoleon's tomb before the museum closed. It closes annoyingly early - 16h45! Bad business!
We tried to get into Jardins de Luxembourg (Gardens of Luxembourg), but it was closed. We ate a 'Royale with cheese' and two milkshakes on McDonalds at Place St. Michel. Yes I know it's bad to eat at McDo, specially in France. No excuses. Sorry.
We went back to le Louvre around 18h where we by coincidence met the others (who had been there all day). They recommended Napoleon III's chambers. The chambers were absolutely magnificent, way better than ANY room in Versailles!
Napoleon III's chambers: The best room ever!
Annika turned 23, so we bought her dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I wasn't really hungry and didn't go for the three course menu as the others did. Amazingly enough I still managed to pay more - and they got the same food as me and a beer plus a starter AND dessert. Obviously a bad choise.