Corn, Crêpes, and Castles

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Thursday

Attempt #2 at finding a pool to go swimming at! This time I was going with a friend and I knew where the pool was, so you would think there wouldn’t be a problem right? Guess again! The pool was so full there were probably 15-20 people in each 25m lane! I did about 3 laps and then decided to leave because swimming in such a crowded pool was pointless; I had to stop every 2 minutes. So exactly one week after getting lost trying to find the other pool, I found myself once again lost for a place to practice! Maybe next Thursday I will try somewhere else, third time’s a charm right? I did ending up having a great sandwich that day from a place called “Made in France.” There were a bunch of toppings you could pick from and one of them was corn! Apparently it’s not a French tradition, but I’ve never seen that as a topping for a sandwich so I decided to try it, seeing as I am from Chilliwack, corn capital of Canada. It was actually very good!

On my way home on Thursday there was a protest happening, so the bus going to my residence wasn’t running. Tons of the streets were closed because the farmers who were protesting by driving their trackers through town threw hay all over the streets. Only in France! I ran into Olivier so we just ended up walking back to residence together. It takes about 35 minutes to walk from downtown to my residence.

Saturday

Saturday Katherine, Taryn, Maelle, and I took an hour train to Dambach-la-ville to go for a hike in the Vosges. The weather was perfect. We walked through a small wine village, and then headed through the vineyards to the base of the hill we were going to hike. It took about an hour to hike to the first castle, where we climbed up to the town of the tower. It was amazing to explore a castle that is hundreds of years old! Maelle is a history major so she told us tons of interesting facts about the area and the castles. We hiked a little bit longer, and then had lunch in a clearing. After that we tried to hike to the next castle, but we somehow missed it, and just did an hour loop back to where we started. It was fun anyways, and we’re going to go another weekend and find the second castle. After we finished the hike we stopped at a tea shop/café type place and had a glass of the local wine. Then we headed back on the train (where we all fell asleep).

Sunday

Sunday morning Taryn and I made pancakes and syrup for a group of people on our floor. Maelle made crêpes with delicious fried apples. Then Taryn and I went to a bike sale to try and find bikes so we can get around town easier. We had to wait half an hour to get inside the sale, and when we finally did, we didn’t see any we really liked. After that, Taryn and I met up with a few girls from our school and Maelle, and they gave us tour of downtown Strasbourg. While we were walking we came across a market where there happened to be a guy selling bikes! Taryn and I both found bikes for 40 euros each.

We learned some more interesting facts about Strasbourg and it's architecture from Maelle as well. The fancy old part of town in Strasbourg is called "la Petite France". We found out that it is called that because back when the Alsace region was inhabited by the Germans/Alsacians there was a hospital where all the diseased French soldiers went during the war, so they referred to it as "la Petite France". It's funny how what used to be the area for sick French soldiers is now the nicest part of town!

Every time I see a new part of Strasbourg, I love it more and more!

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