Vive la France!

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so before going to bed last night found a good deal on a hotel in Nimes, France, so decision on where to go next made!

wake up call at 7 this morning to get to the train station nice and early. was hoping to get on the TGV (train a grande vitesse) the french high speed train. but those #*&$#@ french railway people limit the # of tickets they'll sell on a train to railpass holders. so my 4 hour journey turned into 6 with two changes so i could go for 'free'. oherwise gotta pay the full fare. no thanks. but super annoying. i have a feeling when i go to head back towards frankfurt and my flight home i'll run into the same problem.

anyways, managed the trains no problems, easy changes in lyon and avignon, arrived in nimes around 4. checked in to the hotel which is in a great location near the train station and in the old town. this town is amazing! been around since roman times. they have the best colleseum outside rome here. never got a chance to see it today but definitely going in tomorrow. also went to a 2000 year old roman temple building. was a little surprised and disheartened to find out its been redone to be a movie theatre showing a really cheesy movie about the heros of nimes. with 3D glasses and all. but anwyays, looks cool from he outside lol

then headed out to the hill that borders the old town. on top is a ruined roman tower, kinda restored so you can climb to the top and have great views of hte whole city and surrounding countryside. on the way there, beautiful gardens, a huge fountain, frenchmen playing bocci in the square... very nice atmosphere. altho climbing up the hill in jeans, 20 degrees and sun wasn't too much fun, but took my time and didn't sweat too much!

oh right, so its hot here. so i go looking for some shorts to buy. i wasn't hopeful b/c europeans seem to love being fully dressed on teh hottest of days. so anyays i find a mall, go in, and go to a couple of stores. the cheapest pair of shorts i saw was 75 euros!! a hundred bucks! so no thanks. on the way out fo the mall i see one more store and figure i'll give it a try. what do you know, 25 euros! when i find a size 36 i think to myself wow they look small. sure enough to get european sizes i need to add 10 lol and i figured this out from the salesgirl just using my (limited) french. we had a little chat about how my french is so so, her english is so so, but i did manage to understand the return policy on the shorts heh

oh right grub today. had hotel breakfast in geneva and stuffed some extra croissants in my bag to much on the train. in avignon train station got a ham and emmental sandwich which was delicious, with a coke zero. so by teh time i found the shorts and climbed the tower here in nimes i was starved. just went to look for some street grub but saw a chinese restaurant and decided to splurge (and by splurge i mean actually sit down to eat heh). had some asparagus with crab soup, rice and sweet and sour pork. delicious! i so hate eating in restaurants alone though. brought my book, and got lots of stares when i took a picture of all my grub heh oh well.

after supper itw as already 830ish so just relaxing at the hotel, enjoying the free wireless in my room, uploaded some new pictures and updating the blog, looking up train times for tomorrow to get to carcassonne, etc etc.

only 9 days left till i'm home!

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Comments

[nan]

Miser!
Boy, could I take a few lessons from you on economy while travelling -- thought I was doing well taking bus instead of taxi, guess I was too late off the starting gate. You have to have your wits about you and not mind the little inconveniences --too much for the old folks. I wouldn't be surprised if you came home and said it PAID you to travel Europe (haha) You're rolling along, Jason, testing out your bit of French (fun, isn't it?) Shopping skills take time, you have a ways to go to equal your mom in that dept.(lol) Looks like you'll be spending Easter in Germany --thought you'd be home by then. We miss you. The snow will have disappeared by the tme you get here anyway. Take care, Nan