Into the Country

To wrap up in Montpellier, Amy and I went to see the botanical garden there, founded in the 16th century, and the Musée Languedocien - a museum that houses archaeological finds from Languedoc Rousillon, the region of France that we're in. The museum itself is in a Chateau that in its own right was a work of art; I think it was the best part.














After a day of touring around in Montpellier, we stopped in around 4:00 to an Irish pub tucked away down a winding sidestreet. To our surprise and delight, it was an oasis of english-speaking guinness-drinkers. We got to talking to one in particuler, Andrew, who is an Antiques dealer in Montpellier on Business. He from England, and seems like he should be flying a bi-plane in Egypt looking for Treasure. We talk with him for a while and he buys us a few rounds (even as we object, our affinity for alcohol and limited budget don't allow us to refuse). I mainly stuck to guinness but Andrew had us try a licorice-flavor liquor called pastisse that you mix with water and drink in a narrow glass. It's apparently very bad to drink a lot of so Andrew only allowed us one.








A couple of Andrew's friends come by, more drinks, and then around 8:00 we're hungry. Since we've been talking for 4 hours or so, we're apparently invited to dinner at a japanese restaurant. Fabulous food. Sake, beer, and the fabulous food. There was chicken curry, steak teriyaki, sushi, the works. I don't even want to know what the bill was - good thing Andrew was still paying. And his spending continued with no sign of stopping; he had a 1/2 inch stack of 50 euro notes. !?!??!!?

After food it was obviously time for a drink, so we went to a Cuban bar and had mojitos and shots of bailey's with crème de menthe. Andrew and his buddy Mark continued to pay, dealing with bar tab of 480 euros at the cuban bar alone for Amy and I, themselves, and a couple friends. That was how Montpellier went out with a bang.

So for a real change, today we journeyed into the countryside. We took the TGV (very nice) to Carcassonne, a medieval walled city. We had a stopped delay of one hour due to a train a bit ahead of us coming off its overhead electric lines. To save energy while we were stopped they turned the train off, which means they turned the AC off. It was miserable for that hour. Dad, I'm glad you weren't there. But we got to Carcassonne, albeit a little late.

This hostel that we're staying at is fantastic. We are in a little village called Preixan outside of Carcassonne, which is a small town itself. This is the real countryside. The hostel is called Sidsmums and is run by a nice British woman (with a son named Sid). She picked us up from the train station and everything! It's like being at home. She's very mom-like, hence the name of the hostel. It's very quiet here, and beautiful. We're in an area that's quite hilly. Tomorrow we're going to walk around the village and see one the the caves (pronounced "kahv," french for a wine store/cellar) which apparently has great one for a couple euros a bottle. We'll also see the church here which, like the village, is 1000 years old.

At some point we also plan to bike and hike around the area. It's a great change from being in cities all the time; a perfect opportunity to recharge our batteries for Paris. I'm excited.

A city of students

They weren't joking when they said that Montpellier was full of students. Wow. When we arrived last night and went out, it was like a big outdoor citywide party. We sat and had a drink among crowds of young people, music echoing off centuries old chateaux, and street performers dancing in metallic gold suits. How cool.

All day today we walked around the city, enjoying everything it had to offer. There was a nice park, lots of really cool old buildings, and razor thin roads jam packed with tiny shops and boutiques. I could spend a long time here for sure. We also snacked on a freshly baked baguette and a hockey puck sized disk of goat cheese. It was delicious.

The streets here are really funny! Cars and pedestrians share really narrow roads and the tram runs through the street with everyone else! Chaos. Organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless.







Alas, our hotel is only booked for tonight and tomorrow night. But we've already made reservations at a small, family-run hotel just outside of Carcassonne. Look up some pictures of this place - it's simply gorgeous. We have a train there as well. So no more last-minute panic attacks for us! The head of the hotel even offered to pick us up from the train station in Carcassonne and take us to the country hotel. This is going to be really cool. We plan on doing some biking and hiking, and enjoying the peaceful, rustic side of southern France.

Seeing as I'm using the free wireless in McDonalds (the shame!), and they close in 10 minutes, I'll have to be going. But don't fret! There is more blogging to come tomorrow! I'll definitely add more pictures of Montpellier to this entry too - I love this city!

Montpellier

Hey guys,

What a day. I now know what it’s like to wake up, not know where you’ll be sleeping that night, get an idea, have it shattered, get a train to a city you don’t have any sleeping arrangements in, meet a friendly guy on the train who helps you find some, and finally crash in a bed a few hundred miles from where you were in the morning.

It all started with Carcassonne. We thought we’d go there. But, after finding out that there were no tickets there from Valencia, we just sort of had to take a train to…well…anywhere but Valencia. We really wanted to be in France though, so the only place we could get to on the train was Montpellier. A bustling student-dominated town of 200,000.

So we got on the train after trying unsuccessfully to use the phone to call ahead for a hotel or hostel. To make things more complicated, we had to transfer once at Tortosa, Spain, some middle-of-nowhere oasis of buildings, and again at Barcelona. We figured it out though. Throughout the trip we saw some spectacular views of seaside villages tucked away in mountain crevices, and we saw a massive forest fire near Beziers, France. Pictures of these things below...
















Speeding through the Pyrenees without knowing for sure we’d be sleeping in a bed, we started up a conversation with the elderly French man, Roger, sitting across from me. We chatted for a while and then got around to the fact that we had to look for housing when we got in to Montpellier at 9:00 PM. He had sympathy for us and called his hotel after remembering that they had one other room open. No luck, it had since been occupied. But, After arriving at Montpellier, he had us follow him to his hotel, and had his concierge call a hotel around the corner that he knew of to see if they had room. Success!

Not only did he find this hotel for us, he had someone from the hotel with room walk over to where we were to help us with our bags and show us the way! What a nice guy. Merci mille fois, Roger. The guy from our hotel, called Hotel Kalliste, was really nice too. We chatted on our way over, and they got us a room for 3 nights. Not a bad deal either: 59 Euros a night for the room. Actually less expensive than our place in Valencia. And it’s very quaint. I’m just glad I can settle in somewhere for the night.

Well, after such a day, Amy and I are going out for a drink. It’s only 10, the night is young!!!


EDIT: I wrote this last night when we arrived, but only in microsoft word since we didn't have internet access. Hence there will probably be another entry with the same date.

La Tomatina de Buñol

What a crazy thing. It doesn't get much more authentic than the tomatina. We got up around 6 am to get to the estaciòn valencia nord, where we already saw many fellow tomatidors. white clothing and goggles is how you could pick them out. And that most of them were speaking english - lots of australians...

Anyway, we got our ticket (only 4.15 €!) To buñol and back. The trip consisted of a metro with a connection to a medium distance train that took about 30 minutes or so. It took us to Buñol, a village tucked away in some hills. When we got there, the first thing we passed as we got off the train was a tent selling alcohol. Okay, we see how you guys do this thing. We got monster cups of sangria, probably around a half liter, maybe more. Declicious.

We met some New Zealanders who we stuck with for the first half of the festivities: the ham up the greasy pole. This is insane. The have a telephone pole, 20 ft. tall or so, with an inch thick of lard smeared up and down the thing, and everyone tries to climb the pole to get a ham down which is tied to the top. Ridiculous. We pushed our way right to the action. I was one of the privelaged couple dozen to be close enough to touch the pole. People climbing on you, inadvertant elbows to the face, slippery shoes decking you in the forehead, who wouldn't want to be there?

At first, people were trying to get the ham for themselves, and everyone was trying to pull down the guy in front of them so they could climb it themselves. We soon realized, however, that it wasn't going to happen without some serious cooperation. The strategy was to press in tight around the outside of the pole, like a rugby scrum, and let a few people step on you to get a little higher, let a few people climb on those people, etc. Even after we brushed the layer of lard of the pole, it was still so so so slippery. Don't think we got the ham down until after tomatoes began to fly. And oh did they fly.

When the first truck rolled lazily down the street at the speed of a walking man pushing his way through the crowd, the cheers were deafening. I donned my goggles and prepared for chaos. For one hour, trucks rolled through the streets, which were packed with people when a truck wasn't around and way more packed when one was passing by, and the people in the back of the trucks threw handfuls of squishy tomatoes over the edges. Then people picked them up off the ground and began slinging them everywhere.

I have never been so dirty. I have never done anything so crazy. It was completely insane. But I'm glad I did it! Near the end, the street was literally ankle deep with chunky bright red tomato sauce made in a unique way. And apparently this was still suitable to throw around, or dump on someone's head. The nice residents of Buñol had also been showering us with ice cold water from their hoses and buckets the whole time. To keep us clean. (Yeah right).

At long last, there was an air raid siren type deal, and the announcement boomed across the town. First in spanish, then in english: "Please. Stop throwing tomatoes." That didn't stop some of us, but the over-eager Protectiòn Civil officers were happy to stop anyone who was still celebrating in that way.

I'm glad I read about the rules of this thing beforehand, because a lot of people didn't know that you had to be relatively clean and with a shirt to board the train back to Valencia. Although mine had been ripped from my body relatively early on, I had kept a hand on it and managed to tie it in a toga-like fashion around my body, which apparently was good enough. Some very disappointed English men were trying to reason with the police, who would not let them through to the train because of their lack of shirts.

After the fight, the festival continued as it had all week. There was lots of drinking and dancing. For us though, it was back to Valencia. As soon as we made it back, we got clean and took a nap. What a crazy thing. Nothing like it. Like I said though, I'm really glad I did it.

I'm Here!!

Hey guys,

In Europe and settled in, finally. First off, I have arrived in Valencia, and our Hostel is great. Seeing as this is an internet café and not my own computer, I cannot get my pictures up on the blog yet. But I will tell you about everything.

The flight on Swiss Air was great, we got dinner and breakfast and a personal tv screen on the seatback with a wide selection of movies and other programs. I got a little sleep, but not much. The drinks were complementary just like the meals! I had a couple glasses of red wine; how could I pass up free wine?













The swiss airport was very cool, with a lot of leather and wood, and some top of the line shopping. I greeted the security women in French and had a few words with them, and then said something in english to their surprise. They said, "il est bilangue!" (he's bilingual!).

The flight from Zurich to Barcelona was simply amazing. First there were great views of the Alps and quaint Swiss valley villages, and then we passed by Marseille.




















We landed in Barcelona and took a nice metro thing to Barcelona-Sants train station, where we waited for 2.5 hours to board the big train for Valencia. Amy already got us tickets on that one through STA travel in Madison.

The ride to Valencia was fantastic. We sat at a table with a lamp, and were next to 3 law students who had just graduated and taken the Bar. We convinced them to come the La Tomatina with us! The ride from Barcelona to Valencia was 3 hours down the Spanish coast and through some mountains. Beautiful scenery. There was a food car too, and I got a beer and a bocadillo de tortilla (a baguette with a spanish style omelette on it, very good actually).

It was nighttime when we arrived, and Valencia was very alive. We checked into our Hostel which, to our surprise, is much more like a hotel than a hostel. It's really nice. The best news is that our room is a private double (two beds and our own bathroom) just like a hotel room! This means we can just leave our bags and everything important in there when we go to Buñol. My passport will be safe locked in my bag, locked to the desk, locked in my room. Sound good?

This morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel-hostel. There was some ham and salami, cheeses, pastries, coffee, and bread. I ate my fill considering it was 18€ for the two of us. Not that outrageous I guess, but I'll have to get used to the price of things over here.





















We walked around Valencia today, and so far we've been in a Cathedral, a church, and some shops. The cathedral had the holy grail in it. I'm not even joking, it's the cup recognized by the Vatican as being the one Christ drank from at the Last Supper. Pretty cool, right?

We also climbed the 8 million steps to the top of the bell tower where there were sweeiping views of Valencia and the mountains that surround it. Some spanish lady almost passed out when she got to the top, she was laying on the ground and her friends were helping her. Yikes! I'll be getting pictures up when I get a chance. All in all, the cathedral was very impressive, and definitely worth the visit.





That's been it so far, and I'll give you guys another update when I can. Hope all is well.

Michael

Departure

I fly out of Chicago O'Hare Airport today, destination Barcelona via Zurich on Swiss Air. It's beginning to hit me. I'm going to Europe! I don't think that feeling will be quite complete until I'm airborn though.

My main concerns at this point are communicating in Spain, seeing as I speak little to no Spanish, and getting a train to Valencia from Barcelona. If we can't, we'll have to find somewhere to stay in Barcelona, which could be tough on short notice in a strange city. But it will be an adventure in any case.

After considering many options, I've settled on the classy Vodka and Tonic for my drink order after we cross into international waters. It will be my first legally ordered alcoholic beverage - ahem... I mean...my first alcoholic beverage... ;-)

Really though, I'm very excited to see what happens in Spain. Hopefully Amy will be meeting me at the O'Hare terminal and we can arrange to get our seats next to each other. Otherwise it could be a long and lonely flight.

The next time I update the blog, hopefully by tomorrow or the next day, I will be doing it from abroad! And I will have a much better idea of what is in store for me.

Intro

Hello all!

This blog is for my family and friends who would like to know what I'm up to in Europe during fall semester 2008. I haven't gone yet, but my parents wanted the blog to start now so they know they can access it.

I'll be heading first to Barcelona and then straight to Valencia, only to continue to Bunol, Spain to participate in the world famous Tomatina tomato fight. The parents are worried...

That all starts on August 24, however, when I fly out. I'll be arriving in Europe the 25th. Between now and then I have a week-long Leadership development workshop. We'll see how that goes.

Aside from the plans listed above, and getting to Paris by September 4th to begin orientation there. A few days later, I'll have more orientation, and then I'll begin classes. I'll be studying business. My classes will be in French. Hopefully I can keep up!

Hopefully I'll be able to post more than once weekly, although I won't post again until I'm in Europe since not much will be happening until then...

For now, it's back to packing!