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Published: September 13th 2015
130921SEP2015
Bonjour!
Greetings from Saint Avold, France. I meant to finish this blog entry last night, but I fell asleep super duper early. I think I had too much wine (3 drink limit back in the Middle East did not prepare me for this trip).
Sorry if you get inundated with pictures. I am a picture fanatic. Maybe I should strap a Go Pro to my body and just walk!
So the flight over to Paris was uneventful. My first leg brought me from Abu Dhabi to Bahrain. Slept for that whole wopping hour. In Bahrain we had to go through a second security check, which I thought was interesting. It was sooo crowded. And I was almost late for my transfer flight...got there at last call (thank goodness). Too bad, I wanted to get a Bahrain magnet, so if anyone out there goes to Bahrain anytime.....let me know lol.
The flight from Bahrain to Paris was 6 hours. I slept for a good 4 of them. Woke up and checked out the in flight movies on the little screen. They had new Hollywood releases, older
movies, and video games. I watched the Adams Family. Yea I know, super exciting. The breakfast was typical airline breakfast. Enough to satiate me until I got to France.
Once I landed, I had a hell of a time finding the car rental place. I am bad with asking people for help, I would rather suffer through the struggle and figure it out on my own. But I did! Exchanged dollars for Euros, and wandered to Hertz (shoutout to Ronald for booking my car for me). I was about 4 hours early, so my car wasn't ready (SACRE BLEU). The Hertz rep said they could see if they had another car, the problem being I was dropping it off in Italy...so they only have a few cars they allow to do that. What ended up happening was they offered me an Audi S5 Coupe convertible for a couple extra hundred. I figured what the hell, this is the trip of a lifetime. I'd rather say I drove across Europe in a sexy audio with the top down, then a smushed little generic European compact. I look darn good in it. Took forever to get the navigation to
stop talking French, and I have never used a push start car before. I looked like an idiot in the parking garage.
Once I got out on the motorway, it was easy breezy. A4 west the whole way to Lorraine. I definitely went fast in the little zoom zoom (that's what I call my car), as opposed to my beat up little Toyota Hilux truck back on deployment. I tried to snap pictures of the countryside along the way. Gorgeous countryside. Tons of vinyards, and small, OLD little towns. All the cows and grass reminded me of Lancaster. I sure did miss trees and grass, there is NONE of that in the desert. It was a little rainy the whole way, but I also haven't seen rain for almost a year, so it was a welcome site.
I stopped for gas once, and tried to order a sandwich. The one issue I saw with being in the French countryside is not many people speak English. I found myself in varying situations. 1) I would speak English and hope they understood 2) I would smile awkwardly and point to things and nod when they spoke
to me 3) I would attempt (best word I can use) to speak French, and hope they did not think I was an American moron I found that I am using option number 2 the most. I speak Japanese and Cantonese. This is not my forte out here! I ended up just buying a chicken salad sandwich, flan, and some nouget from the gas station. Pretty good though, so no complaints from me. This car uses diesel, which is interesting. Expensive O_O Maybe I should have not gotten a little coupe to drive across the continent with!
Took about 4 hours to get to St. Avold. Quaint little town!!! Drove right past the American military cemetary on my left. I am getting ready to go there this morning. Looks beautiful! I checked into my hotel, which was a standard overnight hotel looking palce (alas Motel 6). Very very cute though. Super European looking on the inside. Everything was sleek and convenient. Took me 20 minutes to figure out how to open the panel to the thermostat and outlet! The hotel staff was very friendly, although again not good at english. I got good at saying the word
Map of Town
Didn't need it. The town is so small!25 though, and hungry!
After calling some family, I decided to drive around the town. It is very small, so took me a minute to get to downtown. I parked, and braved the drizzle to walk around and see what St. Avold had to offer. Typical little downtown. Restaurants, small businesses, and a few hotels. I ended up crashing a family's wedding as I was taking a picture of the hotel. They were very very nice, and kept offering me champagne. Who am I to refuse?!!!! No one spoke English of course!
The town looks very old, as do the homes. Very cozy looking. Tons of kids riding bicycles, and people on dates drinking wine at the little outdoor cafe. It was about 60 degrees with a drizzle, but I was absolutely FREEZING! I am far too acclimated to the desert, and 120 degree weather. I wandered into a little French clothing store, where I stumbled through speaking to the staff (Je nais pas parle francais!). One woman actually spoke great English, and said she was glad she could practice. She said most people out here, besides French, speak German. She said this is
Downtown St. Avold
Very quaint little town due to WWII, which makes sense this is where a WWII memorial cemetary is. I am not much of a shopper, but I walked past a little brown jacket and fell in love. Does not happen often with clothes. Of course I picked the most expensive jacket there. Hand made from camel or something. Not the warmest of jackets, and no hood...so not practical and not what I was looking for. So what do I do? Buy it. 200 euro, which is about 225 dollars American. O....M....G. I bought a scarf too, since I'm so flipping cold. Like the Audi, I figured, once in a lifetime trip. So now I have a 200 dollar camel leather jacket, driving in my coupe, across Europe. Single Captain no dependents on deployment leave...baller life lol.
After shopping, buying bread (pain? I am learning), I went back to the hotel to relax and update the blog. Did not update the blog at all, oops. I wanted to run but it was raining harder, so I chickened out. I went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner, which was AMAZING! Was not expecting much for a Motel 6 type place...but it was
Exploring
I am freezing! so good. They had an amazing salad bar with arugala, indian spices, and all kinds of cheeses and meat. The desert bar was even better (it was obscene how much dessert I ate). I ordered an Indian burger, made from curry. I was nervous, but it was absolutely delicious. The beef is grassfed, organic, local to the area. The waitress suggested a wine for me (at least I think she did, I pointed to wine and shrugged my Soldiers and she said French stuff). She did say in English though, local, from the vinyard down the road. I am a bourbon girl, not much of a wino. But it was smooth and tasty. I had a few more glasses in my room later on (hence my sleeeepiness).
After feeding my monster of a belly, I went back to my room. Star Wars in French was playing on TV, so I watched that, cruised YouTube, and looked through my pictures for the day. I made sure all my ducks were in a row for tomorrow morning (now today), and fell asleep with my laptop on my chest and my shoes on. Woke up with drool on my face,
I guess I was wiped out from the day's adventures. And what a day it was! It was a little stressful navigating the language barriers, but for the most part people are friendly and patient with me. I LOVE seeing dogs everywhere, and I think it is amazing that I am finding myself outside of the normal touristy spots in the cities. Of course I am still doing that, but this is amazing!!!!!! I am having so much fun if you cannot tell, so please stay on top of me to update the blog!
I hope you enjoy all the pictures, I know it's a lot. I will learn to be more discerning. I am finishing up breakfast, and I am off to the cemetary to visit Great Uncle Michael Kopack!!!!! I cannot believe there has been a Kopack in this little town for over 70 years, and I am the first person to find him. Wish me luck, I will update you tonight after the day is done (if I don't fall into a wino coma again).
Until then, au revoir!!!!! On se parle plus tard? I dunno, I will stick to Japanese!
Local Wine
One cup, two cup, three cup...zzzzzzzzzz Matte ashite!
XOXO,
Kayko
130952SEP2015
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