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Published: January 13th 2007
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Hello Reader.
We woke up on Sunday around one pm. Mike, Camille - our couchsurfing host - and I grabbed showers then headed to an enormous park in Bordeaux. We met Perrine, Jamie, Reme, Carla (another couchsurfer/Camille's sister), and Tahira. Mike and I broke away for a half an hour to find a kebab shop (sidenote: ordering kebab in French isn't as easy as one might think.) The sun was pouring down, the conversation was light and fun, and all I could do was laugh about everything that went wrong the day before. Nothing could break my good mood.
...then a bird pooped on me.
Mike broke out in hilarious laughter at the irony. Wanting to take out my would-be rage on someone, he took off one of his shoes for defence as I chased him, his giggles spread like wildfire through the group.
We gathered ourselves and headed to James' house. There, everyone from the day before, congregated in the back yard and Guillaume, John, and Kyle played music and sang. For the next four or five hours, the couchsurfers got to know each other over cheap red wine and the sound of an acoustic guitar.
I know I've commented on it before, but it is truly amazing how twenty people from all over the world, from all walks of life, can come together as friends - even if the the only thing that we have in common is a love of traveling.
That night, we headed back to Houses (the bar we began at the night before) for quiz night. I let down my team and country as an United Statesman when I answered “Philadelphia” when quizzed about the capitol of Pennsylvania. I lost a game of pool to Laurance, who managed to crush me while simultaneously rejecting a tennis player trying to get in her pants. I was impressed by her ability to poly-task (the 'multi-task' for the new century).
Later back at James' house we watched the video that Reagan took of the party the night before. We had a group spooning and we all fell asleep in the' living room.
Perrine and others left early the following day for Toulouse. They missed out on the GIANT breakfast that took two hours to prepare and two more to eat and clean up. Being Monday, I actually had something to do
besides play with all my new friends. Camille went to the bank with me and helped me get my credit card back that the ATM had so rudely eaten the previous Saturday. I called my bank in the states and made sure that they released my funds. I was finally able to pay back the two hundred bucks (plus self-insisted interest) that my Mike lent me.
We moved out of Camille's attic and moved into Guillaume's (one of Mike's good friends from Valencia) apartment. We had pasta and watched a movie called Starcrash. The movie was made a couple of years before the original Star Wars came out. It was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. That would be a compliment to the filmmakers was it not for the fact that I couldn't stop laughing at how mind-numbingly terrible it was. We dressed up and mockingly took pictures of how we would all look had we been cast in the movie. I highly recommend seeing it.
The following day, Tuesday, I had an AWESOME experience. Mike and I met with Yann and Camille. Yann was driving us about forty five minutes to the coast where
there is an immense sand dune in the town of Arcachon. And when I say immense, I mean, pack a lunch to eat half way to the top. It's called Dune du Pilat. We stopped off at HiperU, a huge food store, where we slid our way through the isles while swinging baguettes and aged cheese at each other. We had wanted to take a boat ride around the coast when we got there, but because it was too expensive, (oh, and sold out), we didn't. But what could cure my no-boat blues better than passion fruit ice cream... only I ordered chocolate double-nut-taste-like-crap ice cream.
But no worries, the next stop was the dune. It seemed like it took forever to mount... two steps up, three steps back kinda thing. But we made it, and the view was worth every mouth-full of sand I swallowed each time I fell during the ascension. We took some great pictures at the top of us diving and flipping. I hurt my balls a lot, but the photos were worth all the pain and my temporary switch to soprano.
We grabbed some icy drinks afterwards and talked about US politics. I
fell asleep in the car on the way home, as I do, and said a groggy goodbye to Yann. Mike and I threw water at each other on the tram ride back to Guillaume's house, it's a good think we can't understand French, I'm pretty sure the lot of them were cursing at/about us for wetting their clothes... I mean, come on, that's why we wear clothes, so we don't get our body wet, right? They should be thanking us for reaffirming that their skin protection was worth the eight hundred euro (not to mention the tummy tuck and ass lift needed to fit into them). We were also able to randomly catch Kyle and John on the tram. I handed over to Kyle a shirt that he had left with Andre, who had also hosted Kyle in Lisboa. It was a big deal. That black t-shirt completed a circle that made me feel closer to them both.
That night we rejoined the couchsurfers for our last hoo-haa... (hoo-haa?). Stephan, James' flatmate, (not to be confused with Stephanie, James' girlfriend) was doing a poetry reading at a cafe in the center of town. We went to show our support,
even though Mike and I couldn't understand much more that “Merci,” “baguette,” and “Bordeaux.” At the culmination of the night, we said our final goodbyes to the Bordeaux birthday crew. Ang, with tears in her eyes, handed us both notes of appreciation for, not only coming all they way to Bordeaux for her party, but also for becoming a part of her life. The three of us (Guillaume, Mike, and I) attempted to watch the movie Dune (for obvious reasons) to which I promptly fell asleep.
On Wednesday, Mike woke me up in the morning, early. He was packed and ready to go. I had been dreading this day. Mike and I were separating, for good. He was flying to an island off the coast of Spain to meet up with a friend for a couple of days before finally returning to Valencia. I was headed to Paris to continue on my travels. I knew it would happen eventually. I had said goodbye to Sue, Chrysa, Ali, and Harri. This signified an end of an era for me.
Mike was my jester. He was my confidant. He was my travel partner. He was my best friend. How do
you say goodbye to your best friend, nay your brother, knowing that you may never see him again? I stood up from my bed and we hugged for a long time. We made our promises to keep in touch and hoped that we would see each other again. I tried to take my mind off it by thinking about other things like if penguins have knees and why there is a whale called the sperm whale... but it didn't help. We looked at the floor in silence and then hugged again.
Of all the goodbyes thus far, this was by far the hardest.
I left Bordeaux a few hours later. I took the TGV (high-speed train) to Paris. Only took three hours. Gotta keep moving, right? Lots more places to see and friends to meet. Thanks, Bordeaux.
P.S. It's Harrisburg, by the way.
PICTURES COMING SOON!
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jealous in LA
non-member comment
yep
i sure am jealous... but you must be cold