Sunday, June 28, 2009
Beginning of the trip!
Short update on the last two weeks!
Robbie and I have been having a great time in France! The cycling from Tours to Paris went smoothly after that first day incidents. We rode through beautiful sceneries and always found someone to help us find our way =) We most of all had only very very great Couch Surfing Hosts, which made the experience 300x better! Thanks to all of you, Catherine, Jonathan, Sylvain, Alexandre and Nicola!
Our 4 days in Paris were delighful and laid-back! The city is extremely beautiful, super super busy and it's so magical to see and associate meaning with places that reminds me of literature courses and whatever little we learnt about the French revolution. Abdel was an incredible host, and it was really cool to see Vero again after all those summers together at PVC! We were there during Fete de la Musique, and had a fun night of listening to bands playing in the street (with a few interruptions like someone setting a car on fire at the Bastille and two dudes fighting in the subway!).
The day we head out of France was a little stressful; we just got bike boxes the day before (it seemed like a superhuman effort to be hunting for bike shops at 6pm at night!), and given our famous slow pace, got into the train super last minute (like, 1 min before the doors closed!) All that stress was put aside with amazing beer, cheese and chocolate in our stop in Brussels! Then we went on to Den Bosch, a really neat 100,000 people city where 2 super nice Couch Surfers Robbie had hosted lived. We had a good time before heading of to the Hague, where we went to visit the ISS, a school I thought of doing my MA/PhD. It was quite strange to be talking academic and I found myself a bit at loss, but it'll be allright! Nicola and Audrey welcomed us in their home for two nights, and we talked about the city and everything over amazing crepes in a pretty park (and there's also a beach -- nice city!)
And then off to Amsterdam! =) We saw a few of the people on the trip already, already some good, confronting discussions, which is telling me the summer will be anything but boring!
Robbie and I have been having a great time in France! The cycling from Tours to Paris went smoothly after that first day incidents. We rode through beautiful sceneries and always found someone to help us find our way =) We most of all had only very very great Couch Surfing Hosts, which made the experience 300x better! Thanks to all of you, Catherine, Jonathan, Sylvain, Alexandre and Nicola!
Our 4 days in Paris were delighful and laid-back! The city is extremely beautiful, super super busy and it's so magical to see and associate meaning with places that reminds me of literature courses and whatever little we learnt about the French revolution. Abdel was an incredible host, and it was really cool to see Vero again after all those summers together at PVC! We were there during Fete de la Musique, and had a fun night of listening to bands playing in the street (with a few interruptions like someone setting a car on fire at the Bastille and two dudes fighting in the subway!).
The day we head out of France was a little stressful; we just got bike boxes the day before (it seemed like a superhuman effort to be hunting for bike shops at 6pm at night!), and given our famous slow pace, got into the train super last minute (like, 1 min before the doors closed!) All that stress was put aside with amazing beer, cheese and chocolate in our stop in Brussels! Then we went on to Den Bosch, a really neat 100,000 people city where 2 super nice Couch Surfers Robbie had hosted lived. We had a good time before heading of to the Hague, where we went to visit the ISS, a school I thought of doing my MA/PhD. It was quite strange to be talking academic and I found myself a bit at loss, but it'll be allright! Nicola and Audrey welcomed us in their home for two nights, and we talked about the city and everything over amazing crepes in a pretty park (and there's also a beach -- nice city!)
And then off to Amsterdam! =) We saw a few of the people on the trip already, already some good, confronting discussions, which is telling me the summer will be anything but boring!
