Lyon

With my bit of a break from classes it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks of traveling!

This week I had Wednesday and Thursday off from class so I decided to hop a train and head down to Lyon for a little trip. I arrived Wednesday around noon and checked into my hostel, and received a room with this view from my window:

I was pleasantly surprised! After stashing my backpack I went to the reception desk and asked for advice on a walk to take to show me the city on my limited time frame, and she drew me a route to take. It was a lovely walk, and took me through the city and through the major town squares and such.

However from what I had read online I felt like the walk was rather lacking some of the major points of interest in Lyon, so I stopped in to the tourist office. There they gave me a few additional ideas that lead me through exactly what I wanted to see.

First I went to the old town center and experienced a few of the various traboules. A traboule is a type of passageway that is primarily associated with Lyon. To steal a bit from Wikipedia (because I haven't done that in a while), "The layout of Vieux Lyon is such that there are very few connecting streets running perpendicular to the river. The traboules allowed workmen and craftsmen to transport clothes and other textiles through the city while remaining sheltered from inclement weather." The passageways are really interesting and I loved exploring them.

After that I decided to search out a few of the famous Lyon street murals. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for or what to expect, but when I found them I was blown away. They were so so impressive.

After that I wandered through the streets (okay and played in a few more traboules) before climbing up to the Fourvière basilica to watch the sun set over the city. 

After that I headed to the Gallo-Roman ruins (more specifically two well-preserved theatres from the Roman city of Lugdunum). I made it 15 minutes before they closed, and though I seriously contemplated jumping the gate to explore after-hours I decided it was probably best not to get arrested in Lyon, so I went back to my hostel to eat a bit of dinner and go to bed. I woke up early the next morning and went back to the ruins to explore for a bit before catching my train.

It was a very interesting experience. I find something very intriguing about walking through structures that have so much history behind them. I loved walking through the ruins in Rome three years ago, and that's one of the reasons I was so excited to see these.

After that I headed to the train station because there was a strike (shocker!) and I wanted to make sure I was able to get home. I got home no problem, and here I am! I will post all of my pictures on my website soon, in the meantime I leave you with this little fellow:

Return from Marseille and the Weekend

I last updated on Tuesday after arriving in Marseille....

I awoke Wednesday and decided to explore the city with a few key spots in mind. I first walked along the coastline from my hostel to Vieux Port, a walk that was a couple of hours long, but well worth the legwork.

I arrived at the port just in time to hop on a boat to the Fioul Islands just off of the coast.

While there I spent the better part of the day hiking the Ile de Pomegues, one of the islands.

On the island there were numerous historical buildings, I believe all of which formerly were military related. At the end of the island (the furthest point from the mainland) there was an entire complex of abandoned buildings that I walked through. It was really interesting and very neat, though a bit scary wandering through abandoned buildings alone when I hadn't seen another human being on the island at all during my hour and a half of hiking.

This island was also, I might mention, the WINDIEST PLACE ON EARTH. It was like a tornado. Inside of a hurricane. Being beat up by another tornado. All taking place inside of a giant wind tunnel.

It was so windy that it blew my sunglasses right off of my face and down a cliff. And I of course had to climb down the cliff in order to take a picture of this.

Climbing back up was another story. Imagine wind so strong that it's nearly impossible to stand up straight on level ground. Now imagine climbing up a rocky cliff in this wind. Now imagine realizing halfway up that the reason you are going through this struggle is because upon your sunglasses being blown right off of your very own face you ran down to take a picture without thinking about how you would get back up said cliff.... Yep.

Anyways, after hiking the islands I returned to the mainland where I wandered around the old area of the city before heading over to the Notre Dame de la Garde, a church that sits on top of a hill overlooking the city. It was really very interesting and quite beautiful

After that I started my return walk to my hostel, getting home just as it was turning dark. I woke up Thursday and decided to leave things to chance because of the train strikes. I was going to go to the train station and hop on the first train going to either Lyon, Nice, or home to Paris.

I got to the train station and there was a train leaving for Paris in 3 minutes, and from the looks of the departure board nothing going to either of the three places for quite a long time after that, so I hopped the train and headed home.

Saturday was my birthday, and a group of us went out for dinner at a very tasty Mexican food restaurant.

And then went out for a couple of beers. All in all it was a very lovely week, and I think I might try to take another little trip around France soon!

(If you want to see more pictures from my trip go to http://sarah.turkstra.net .... there are some very beautiful pictures from all three cities!)

Marseille

Well, I am now in Marseille! A marathon of three different cities in three days! Barcelona is unfortunately not going to happen right now, so I decided to make my way back towards Paris. I'll probably spend tomorrow (Wednesday) in Marseille and head back to Paris Thursday night... I'm debating trying to squeeze in one more city between Marseille and Paris just for the day on my way back, but I'm not sure yet.

I'll keep you updated!

Typing on a French keyboard is really throwing me off! haha

Stranded in Carcassonne

I am stranded in Carcassonne, France because of the train strikes. It's a bit disappointing because I was really looking forward to going to Barcelona, but I suppose things could be worse.....

 I'm going to stay here tonight and try to go to Barcelona tomorrow again, and if I'm not able to then I'm just going to head back home to Paris. No sense getting stranded, I will just save my money and perhaps be able to go to Barcelona in January!

Lots of love to back home!

In Montpellier!

Hello!

I am writing this from an internet cafe near the train station in Montpellier. I arrived here yesterday afternoon and spent the afternoon and evening wandering around and getting lost in the older portion of the city. It was very beautiful and interesting.

I'm supposed to be heading to Carcassonne from here, but the train strikes are making it difficult. There were supposed to be trains at 10:43, 10:55, and 11:00am, but those were all cancelled and the next one is at 2:29pm. So I am going to wander around the city a little bit longer with the extra time I now have. I also think I am going to head home on Saturday instead of Sunday just so I can make sure I am able to get to my class on Monday morning and don't end up stranded anywhere. We will see :)

I will update soon. Miss you all!