Back in the "Pink City"!

---

We arrived safely in Toulouse late at night on Wednesday, May 9th and were surprised NOT to find Donny there waiting for us! Luckily I knew the way to her house (espescially by metro) so we started off... only to run into her in the lobby! When she got our frantic message from Marseille letting her know we were coming early, she somehow thought we'd be in at 11am on Thursday instead of 11pm on Wednesday. Ah well, it all was sorted in the end when she checked her email and realized the right time.... man was it good to see her! We stayed up that night until about 3am, just talking about life and travelling and Rome and it was so great. Her kitchen was the same, her living room smelled the same, and it seemed like the two months where I'd been elsewhere in Europe hadn't even taken place. What a good feeling.

The next day Donny had classes and Zoe was in the mood to shop, so I somehow remembered the way to the vintage store where I'd found so much good stuff last time. We had to leave to collect Donny at the river, but we brought her back and began the quest to find Zoe a babe dress! She tried on this amazing red ballgown with a plunging v-neck which was definitely a babe dress, but it was huge and bulky and she would have no chance whatsoever of fitting it in her backpack, so she left it (tear!). I ended up buying a yellow linen circle skirt, a black lace vintage dress, a blue and white sundress, and a bunch of scarves. We found a lovely blue and white scarf with music notes all over it and mailed it to Mrs. Maguire with a note and a postcard signed by all three of us! I really hope she enjoys it. The evening was really romantic: we made a huge dinner with garlic roasted potatoes, sausages, salad, and grilled eggplant and ate it all with candles and sparkling rose wine on Donny's terrace. We talked about our families and it was so good to connect with 75% of the girls again. Afterwards, it being a Thursday night (yea!) we went dancing at Bodega! First we checked out a couple of other places, one of which is always packed... but it wasn't this time. Soooo weird, even for me, and I had only seen it a couple of times! Bodega was awesome and really fun, they always have great music and there are little dance floors all over the place. I had great fun wearing Donny's green velvet fedora; I tucked all my hair up under and did ridiculous dance moves involving the hat. I love hats. Maybe for my next backpacking adventure I should bring just one hat, to make myself feel a little better.

The next day was "Dress Day": we all wore lovely sundresses! It was fun; then we walked around doing some shoeshopping and even popped into Notre Dame de Taur to see the frescoes. In the evening we had another delightful meal and headed to Bar Basque for some dancing. I wore the fedora because it was so much fun the night before, but at Basque they had a "no hats" rule so I had to take it off! That fact, coupled with the bad music (not usually the case) prompted us to leave after about 10 minutes. We headed to the river near Donny's house, where there was a randomly gigantic partay going on! We stayed there for quite a while, listening to Donny's man's band play gypsy jazz and chatting and sharing our pastis (a French liquer made from anise) with complete strangers. It was a beautiful night.

On Saturday we went to the Veggie Market just before it closed at 1pm. At the last stand we went to, the grocer started offering us pineapples and mangos and artichokes for a song, each under €1! Donny said he remarked that, "beautiful girls need vitamins to stay pretty!" but since the fruit was almost rotten, I think it is just a charming French way to get rid of fruit you would have to throw away tomorrow anyways. Either way, we were quite pleased, and just made a big fruit salad out of it all! The heat of the day was really getting to us, so we spent a few hours indoors (which made Donny twitchy) then headed to the river, where there was a big concert for students! There were loads of art vendors as well, so we walked along admiring their works and trying to stay out of the sun (it was scorching). In the evening, we rested, then had Dunja over for Hamburgers and artichokes! What a mix! It was super fun and we talked about relationships, the topic which a group of girls will always at some point discuss (haha). This group of girls chose this moment for the subject because we were all starting with new men- except Zoe of course. When it was a little later and we were a little happier (as my mother would say), we headed over to the Frog & Rosbif for some.... you guessed it... dancing! I love dancing. Unfortunately they were playing mostly techno that night, when usually they play mostly cheezy pop, so we were a bit out of luck. Eventually we were making our way home when we passed a bar which looked like fun, so we headed in. It was quite above our age range, but we didn't care, because they turned on this random arabic song which we all bellydanced to! So much fun! The dance floor wasn't too crowded, either, so we had lots of room to be big goons. A successful night, to be sure.

The next morning we went to what Donny dubs the "Everything you ever needed in your life" market. Seriously. We didn't get anything but just enjoyed the atmosphere and bright colours. On the way back, we wandered through Capitole where there was a big garden (plant sale?) and a jazz band! The singer was fantastic and we stayed for quite a while dancing in the square even though everyone else was politely clapping. In the afternoon, Zoe and I were meant to see an art gallery while Donny studied for exams, but neither of us were in the mood for art so instead we grabbed our books and headed down to the river to relax in the shade. We gave Donny two good study hours then headed back and started making dinner: duck legs! Dunja couldn't get over how well we were eating, but Zoe and I both like to cook and eat well, so there's your answer. The duck legs were a bit tough because we upped the oven temperature to finish them faster, so we had to rip at them with our faces and we were joking about our mead hall and busty wenches; haha! For entertainment that night we had bought tickets for a big concert at Zenith, but it was too late on a Sunday to take a bus so we decided to take a cab (cheap split 3 ways). We waited over an hour for our cab and in that time it started raining and we met some random 50-something British men who were there for a rudgby tournament. As we were driving away, they went down on one knee (in the rain!) for us. It was very funny! The concert was okay, I thought. The first band we saw was really interesting, talking about french politics and getting everyone to sit on the floor and have a big american sit-in. The second band we saw had good music, but only when one vocalist was on. The other was painful to listen to. Eventually, we went home. Zoe went to bed right away, she is not a late-night kinda girl, but Donny and I stayed up chatting about life and love and goals... and we walked along the river with tea mugs in our hands. Life was good.

On Monday, our last day in Toulouse, Donny had her first exam. We went for DELICIOUS crepes in the early afternoon (Cafe Crepe has NOTHING on the Sherpa!), I had mushrooms with Emmenthal and creme fraiche (kind of like really intensely thick yoghurt but more sour). In the afternoon Zoe and I split up: she went jean shopping and I went back to Donny's and took a loooooooong bath. I really badly miss having a bathtub. Zoe returned sans jeans and Donny returned ecstatic to be finished her first exam! We took habibi, Donny's hooka, and walked over to Dunja's (what a spectacle) to smoke smoke apple-flavoured tobacco and eat some nuts and cheese. We did this thing where we talked about our wants & needs in love, and it really reminded me of some of the leadership courses I've taken, only the topic was teamwork or life goals instead of love. So it felt really natural for me to think about another aspect of my life in this way. Some really interesting things came out of it and I really feel like I learned a lot about Dunja and Donny and Zoe from this. When we got home, we said goodbye to Donny because she had to get up early to write another exam (yuck). I felt glad to be going home as I really missed my little yellow apartment, but I didn't want to leave Donny and was wishing that I could take her with me.

Finishing this blog feels like the end of an era. My month-long adventure was completed, with minimal threats to my safety or wallet! Now I get to look forward to Prague with Donny and planning Greece......
*insert evil superhero music* TO BE CONTINUED!

---

Photos

Dancing at Capitole
Because of the garden (with the garden?) there was a lovely jazz band with a stand-up bass, which we danced to.

Evening Light
On the banks of the river at sunset. Imagine Gypsy Jazz musicians playing in the background.