A few highlights from the past 2 months:
· Sacre Bleu! Our first weekend in Paris, trying to find the Sacre Coeur with Roz– Ending up at a different church called “the Sacred Heart” in the projects to the South of Paris: priceless.
· Biking to Palavas with Jill. Upon biking halfway and realizing biking should not be this hard, we lubed up my bike with veggie oil from Carrefour since there was not WD-40…including the breaks. Followed by nearly crashing into an old couple on the bench, who didn’t even react when my bike slammed into the side. So French- too cool to be bothered by crazy a American girl crashing into them on a velo. (Oh yeah, did I mention my bike just happened to be in the highest gear the entire time? Well, that was embarrassing.)
· Superbowl. 6 hour time difference. With an American Football Team in Montpellier France. In a museum. 40 dudes: me and Jill. It was quite an experience.
· Getting kicked out of McDonalds. I am an American and McDonald’s is like the US Embassy- you cannot kick me out, I have immunity. (Although I hate the food but the only place you can get a big(ish) coffee with a lid.) Anyway, just don’t go there after a few drinks on a Friday night and try to use the bathroom. That’s how you get escorted out, and have to sit on the curb as you watch your best friend get escorted down the stairs of the 2 story McDonalds by the security guard. Yes, they’re McDonald’s have security guards.
· Boat Trip in Marseille. 5 girls, one boat, monstrous waves crashing onto the ship, an unusually high amount of sea sickness surrounding us= endless laughs for us and entertainment for the old men on the ship.
Boat Trip Before.
Boat Trip After.
· Things always go wrong when traveling, right? That’s was I thought, but Jill is so optimistic she almost fooled me: “Look Donna, after 30 hours of traveling, we almost made it from the Highlands to Montpellier” – Only one more train stood between me and my bed. 3 hours later, we find out our train from Paris is not leaving from Gare du Nord- its actually Gare du Lyon. So after travelling for 12 days and not sleeping for almost 40 hours, we learned how to navigate the Paris Metro and made our connection in 25 minutes *Takes a bow* It only took 2 days, a yellow Haggis Bus, a little walking, a Eurorail Bus, a taxi, a train to Paris, a metro, another train, a tram, and a walk straight into my bed.
· Endless Pub Crawls in Edinburgh. Starting at 7:30pm ending at 3:30am. That’s right 8 hours of drink specials and mingling with other travelers. Any nights that involves 2 Canadians, 2 French men, an Australian guy, a Puerto Rican social butterfly, a Finnish girl, combined with singing Journey on Karaoke, drinking out of fishbowls, and eating kebabs is bound to be a good night
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· Carnaval in Nice! So much fun. I am still finding confetti from the festivities. Give me a bottle of wine, pretty lights and floats, and some silly string any day.
