Avignon

Let's play a game. First thing you think of when you see this picture (write it down as a comment for this blog post)


This picture is of me and my new friend I made on the train to Avignon (it didn't last long).

Story

Last week I got to talking with my good friend Anais who goes to the University of Avignon. You may be wondering how I met this french chica...Well, my senior year I met an exchange student at my high school from Germany (Elli) think there is a more indepth story about that in the German blog. Well Elli met these other exchange students in the area, one of them being Anais who happened to be an exchange student in SooFoo. Eventually got introduced to Anais through Elli and voila! Friends. So we were talking about how I was about to leave France (still don't know where I'm going) and it'd be sad if we never saw each other being we were in the same country. I looked up some train tickets to Avignon and luckily found some decently priced tickets, and Anais was super nice and paid for one way.

Train

Get to the train station nice and early, get on the train, find my seat (assigned seats are silly as you will see why I think this). There are barely 10ish people in the train compartment, tons of open seats. Sitting there getting hyped for a 3 1/2 hr train ride and enjoying to French countryside accompanied by some excellent tunes. All of a sudden, door opens, a rather scruffy (in the sense of dirty, not in the sense of like my beard) man "stumbles" in, and asks with a rather loudish voice, where is seat 46 (in french) Some people near him nicely point him in down the aisle. He stops next to me and asks where his seat is, 46, I look around at the other seat numbers, 41, 42, 43....50,51,52 no 46....weird. Look up at the seat number next to mine, 46. WHAT ARE THE ODDS!? He plops his drunken mass next to me, and within a second my nostrils get bombarded with a mixture of 1. pee 2. alcohol 3. year of not showering? 4. Nasty. Dont get me wrong, he was a nice guy. We had a nice little talk. Then he started talking to everyone around until everyone told him they wanted to sleep...likewise for me, so I put my ipod in. Sure enough he had no one to listen to his ranting so he went to sleep. He felt the need to take the middle armrest, fine with me. He felt the need to cross this middle armrest by leaning into my space, slightly fine with me, but I had to pull my coat up to block the smell. He felt the need to keep inching closer to me (keep in mind he was sleeping, so I guess he wasn't doing it on purpose), not toooooo fine with me since I didn't really have any space left. I poked him...poked him for quite some time before he finally woke up, and asked if he could sit up, he mumbled and went back to sleep, in the same position. I decided to document this enjoyable time with a picture. I eventually got up and moved to another seat. Soooolong good friend

Anais met me at the train station and we headed to her apartment which was really close to the University. It was a nice single room apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, and living room (at least I thought it was nice) Anais had class for 3 hrs the afternoon I arrived, so I had the choice of sleeping, or exploring Avignon. I thought I would just sleep an hour then go walk around, ended up sleeping all 3. Sleeping on a train doesn't work to well...especially when half the time is spent next to the mr in the picture above. I was introduced to a friend of Anais that day, Meghan who is from Canada, graduated with degree in french and is doing her masters in Avignon. So the three of us spent the weekend together.

We spent the weekend touring Avignon of course, watching movies, and eating delicious food Anais made for me. Here comes a bunch of pictures!

This is what the streets in Avignon generally look like. They are tiny, and curve in every direction. As you can see there is barely a sidewalk. Slightly scary when vehicles zoom by.


Next is a picture of Le Palais des Papes "The Palace of the Popes". Way back when, Avignon used to be the central house for some popes I guess.





We tried to go through the garden that was next to here, but it was closed this night (with the clear skies) so we came back the follow day and it was cloudy and icky, but I took some pictures from the gardens. It's situated above the city so there was a nice view.



Deep down inside, Meghan wants to ditch french and become a photographer...hope that's how you spell it :S

We then took a boat across the river, which is free, and walked along the path. Thank goodness the sun came out. Was perfect timing to. Gave a nice lighting for the bridge and the city. The bridge was destroyed in a war and just left like that. It cost 10 euro to walk to the end, which is think is silliness.

Before the sun


After the sun!


Didn't mention this yet, but as you can see, there is a wall infront of the rest of all the buildings and houses in the background. A wall from way way way long ago surrounds a pretty good area of the city of Avignon. Some of the city is on the outside of the wall also. This is extremely rare to find these days in France. I want to say there are only two cities?


Anais deep in thought


These next two pictures are just randomys. I like taking pictures of people while I just walk past them, with my camera held at my side in a secret, non-creepy kind of way. I got these two pictures that way, and I really like them. Whatcha think?




This is all. I had a grand time in Avignon and it was super nice to see Anais again, since it will probably be some time before we get to see each other again. She made some amazing food for me, bought unnecessary things for me and let me stay at her place. Thanks again Anais!