hostel on the hill

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Lyon is really pretty. I was dissapointed when we got off the train because it arrived in the new part of the city and it wasn't at all what I expected. Then we took the bus to the hostel in the old Lyon i was relieved to find that it was more what I had expected Lyon to be. Old Lyon is built up the side of a hill along the river and at the very top of the hill is this really cool big church (there's one at the bottom too). Our hostel is towards the top of the hill. The directions I got off the internet said it was at the foot of the hill so it took us a while to find it. Sombody screwed up. French people are really nice. it seems like anytime I'm looking at a map someone comes up to me and in broken english offers to help. Anyways this guy asked us where we were going and we told him the youth hostel. When he pointed to a building towards the top of the hill both of our jaws just dropped. It was around 9pm cause our train had had mechanical problems and had been delayed, we were hungary because the delay had also delayd getting food, It was very hot, and we both had our huge backpacks on. It was quite a hike. The hostel is really beautiful but it has serious security issues. our first room had 2 doors. One had a lock on it and the other was open out onto the patio where everyone hangs out. not only did that door not have a lock but it was th only window in the room and if we even closed it we would all suffocate. The next morning we asked to be moved to the third floor which was much better except when I went to the desk to get the key (you have to leave it whenever you go out) I asked for the key to room 26 and the girl who had never seen me before just gave it to me without even checking that i was staying there. We hiked the rest of the way up the hill yesterday and saw the basilica and a little ways down from there we got to climb around the ruins of two Roman ampatheatres.
We spent the afternoon walking around the city. I desperately need a new day bag cause the stap on my mothers is horrible. It has broken the plastic adjuster on 2 of my 3 bras. there are insane amounts of cute old buildings. Internet is really expensive here. I hope it's better in other cities. At the hostel it costs 2.25 euros for 15min. After searching around Caren and I found the place I'm at now which is 4 euros for an hour for students which is better but my posts are going to be less frequent as the trip goes on. If you notice any stray q's it's because on french keyboards the a and the q are switched. There are several other really annoying differences such as having to press the shift key to use the period. I never noticed how little I looked at the keys when I typed before. Tomorrow we are off to Turin/Torino.

Anyone who wants a post card please email me your address

Tania

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