Oct. 28
In the midst of our loooong, 11-hour train from Tours to Avignon, we had to switch trains somewhere close to Avignon at 6:30 a.m., which was rough! It was so miserable because we were a) tired from an awful sleep pattern and b) it was absolutelyfreezing! It was colder in France than it has been in Ireland!
We made it to Avignon around 10 a.m. and checked into our hostel (which was sooo dodgy) and met up with our friend Amy, who is studying in Perugia, Italy for the semester. Amy, affectionately known as "Baby Amy" for her small stature, was atOktoberfest too, so it was great to see her again! Once we were settled, we began yet another trek to the city centre and started exploring. Our first stop was the Palais des Popes, or the Palace of the Popes. For a bit of background, historical info, during the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was the Great Schism with the Roman Catholic Church and they moved the Pope from the Vatican to Avignon for a good number of years. The Palace of the Popes was HUGE! We added another notch on the "touristy fanny pack belt", if you will, by doing an audio tour. It was neat to see the palace where about seven popes resided. I'm sure that in the prime-time of the Palais des Popes, the artwork was even more grand and breath-taking, though it was still amazing to see the remnants of the mosaics, paintings, tapestries, etc.
After touring the Palais des Popes, we went "cathedral hunting" over to the Cathedral de Notre Dame (NOT the one in Paris, haha). This was yet another display of Catholic and Gothic grandeur, with gilded statues of patron saints, immaculate stained glass windows and so forth and so on. This cathedral is located high up on the side of the hills, so it was a nice vantage point to see the whole city of Avignon. Though the best place to see the city was on the St. Benezet Bridge, or the Pont d'Avignon. Part of this old bridge had been burned/destroyed long ago, so it stops about halfway across the river. We joked that it was such a shame that the bridge didn't span the river anymore, since our hostel was located across the river from the bridge; it would have cut our commuting time in half!
We came back to our very dodgy, 14 Euro/night (though we did get breakfast included!) hostel for a much-needed rest hour and prepared to go out to dinner. The shower situation was questionable, at best. You know those faucets on sinks that you have to press and hold? Well that's essentially what the shower was like, but with no drain (just a hole in the floor) and a stinging mist that fluctuated between icy cold and scalding hot. Oh well, I guess that's what we get for only paying 14 Euro!
We had a very hard time deciding on where to go for dinner, and unfortunately, we picked probably the worst restaurant! We had an unusually long wait for our food...like over an hour! And we ordered probably the simplest meals: spaghetti. It doesn't take THAT long for it to cook! I know that people in France and other European countries eat dinner really late compared to home, but it was nearing 9:15 p.m. before we finally got our semi-decent spaghetti. After our lame dinner, we had to salvage the evening with a few drinks at where...a karaoke bar. Yes, there was a French karaoke bar in Avignon...we couldn't possibly pass up this opportunity. While we mostly just enjoyed hearing awful renditions of American songs with heavy French accents, we did belt out a few ditties (Celine Dion, anyone? I think yes.). Singing karaoke in France was definitely a highlight of the trip, and definitely a memory from abroad that I won't forget, especially since "It's All Coming Back to Me Now".
Oct. 29
We woke up to a loud, construction-esque noise (luckily it was past 9 a.m.), and decided that it was time to make moves. We got that free breakfast (complete with juice boxes, though the juice was less than delicious) and checked out of the hostel by the river and went to the Roman, Greek and Egyptian collection museum in Avignon...it also happened to be near the karaoke bar! It was an interesting museum to visit since they had an extensive collection. After our visit, we went shopping and got some take-away lunch and had a picnic by the river. We headed back to the hostel to pick up our luggage to catch the train to Marseilles, our last stop in France.
We checked into the hotel (yep, that's not a typo...a real hotel!), which was conveniently located near the train station. It was definitely a good idea to book a hotel room for our last night since we knew that everything would be clean and safe after having spent many nights in hostels. We then did a bit of exploring around Marseilles. Marseilles and Paris are very different from each other, aside from the fact that both are very populated. I didn't like Marseilles as much as the other places that I visited in France, but perhaps that is because I didn't go to the right places in Marseilles. I thought Marseilles was kind of dirty, crowded and busy...not exactly my scene after living in Galway for so long now.
We said bye to Baby Amy since she had been staying outside of Marseilles with one of her family friends and then grabbed some dinner to bring back to our sanctuary, aka the hotel room. It was a nice way to end the trip, just relaxing in the room, especially since we had to be at the airport early for our 6:50 a.m. flight.
Oct. 30
We woke up very early, much to everyone's dismay, to get to the airport. We had no problems flying out of Marseilles, but when we landed in Nantes, things began to go awry. Since there weren't any direct-Dublin flights on good ol' RyanAir, I had to change flights in Nantes, whereas Martha and Rachel just needed to take a bus back to Rennes.
Well, the Nantes airport only had one flight to Dublin that day, which was convenient since the connecting times weren't that far apart. Unfortunately, I had to get my checked bag off of the carrousel and check-in at the ticket counter. The woman working at the ticket counter proceeded to tell me that I had missed the time to check my bag and that it would be on the next flight to Dublin: commence travel freak-out. Fortunately, St. Christopher--Patron Saint of Travelers--was helping me out because right then Rachel (graciously) ran over with my bag so that I could check it. Then I had to pull a "Home Alone" (you know the scene where the McAllister family is sprinting through the Chicago-O'Hare airport?) and ran to my gate. Luckily I made it with time to spare since my flight to Dublin was delayed by about 30 minutes.
I made it to Dublin (and so did my bag!), but since I bought my bus ticket online prior to traveling (in order to save some much-needed Euros), it was invalid since I had missed that departure time due to the delayed flight. Of course, right when I get back to Ireland, I get a Frustrating Irish Moment of the Day! I got back to Galway around 3:30 p.m. and stopped at Subway for a delicious sub of the day: tuna! Exhausted from the fun week of traveling, I decided to lounge about and began watching the new show, "Glee", online. I'm LOVING "Glee", it's so good!
And so ends the adventures in France. Up next...Halloween!
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