Perhaps you have all been wondering why my blog has been so inactive given that I am currently not doing anything. You may or may not be aware, but the main purpose of this exchange was not to travel, but to study. Not that this has really been reflected by my blog.
That being said, I do have to write exams for all my classes, for 4 of my content classes (Neuropharmacology, Psychology of Aging, Cognitive Psychology and Perception and Categorization) these exams are worth 100%. So for the past several days I have been doing quite a good job of studying and thus have not been blogging. Today, my motivation has been nearly zero to study and I have probably accomplished about 1 hour of productive studying over the 4ish hours I have been pseudo-studying. I finally just decided to give up the front and accept that today was not a day for studying. You can't win every day, right? It didn't really help that the weather has been beautiful which makes it super tempting to go outside.
I already made it down to the market today, and enjoyed tea at Grenoble's oldest cafe (established in 1739) in the sun. I also went to a bakery that specializes in north-American style cookies and had a delicious dark chocolate and candied ginger cookie. Definitely something worth trying if you want to spice up your normal cookie recipes. So I haven't done nothing, just nothing that will really help me succeed during exams.
P.S. Don't forget to scroll down and check out my entry about Barcelona (also written today)
Friday, April 27, 2012
36 hours in Barcelona
Just the other day I was counting off how many countries I have visited since the beginning of my Exchange. I was including Spain, however although I have been to Spain I can't actually say that I have visited it. Many people have even told me that I wasn't in Spain, I was in Catalonia. As it turns out, in Barcelona people speak Spanish (I'm fairly sure it's the official language) but most people seem to speak Catalan as well. It was very confusing at first, because I originally though I was remembering my grade 9 spanish all wrong. Really, it was just that many of the signs are in Catalan. As far as I am able to tell Catalan is a mix of French and Spanish but with stronger Spanish influences, so at first glance it appears to be spanish. Then you realize you understand nothing (I chose to believe this was because people were speaking Catalan, it could simply be I'm not good at understanding spanish).
I digress, this is meant to be a travel blog so I had better start on what Barcelona was like. We arrived in Barcelona around 7pm and set off immediately for our hostel. It was in a very central location and was different from all other hostels I've been in as it was in an apartment building. We had to buzz up every time and usually we just had to say hello in english and they'd let us through. I once tried to practice my spanish, and replied "hola" in what must have been a good spanish accent because I received a stream of Spanish in return. I panicked and replied in English, and after that just said hello. The hostel itself was not particularly remarkable aside from that, it was quite small though and so it had a rather homey feeling. There were only 5 rooms and I'd estimate they had about 35beds in the whole hostel. I would have probably liked it better except for while I was making my bed the sheets I recieved felt oily. This sent my thoughts into a downwards spiral and when I was very itchy after my first night's sleep I was convinced that they had bedbugs. This was not the case at all, just me overreacting. Luckily I was so tired that I didn't really care and slept very well despite my imagined night time companions.
Since we had been told that in Spain, people don't eat until 10pm or later we set off sightseeing as soon as we were settled in and planned to get some food later. We were however quite hungry and at some quiche in a quite little cafe beside a huge medeival looking cathedral. The whole eating dinner at 10 wasn't the best idea as it turns out, on Easter Monday things start to close around 10pm. We ended up decided to eat healthy and had dessert for dinner. We selected a nice looking restaurant and mustered the courage to ask for a menu in spanish. This was apparently not necessary as our server replied in English. Once we decided we wanted to eat at this restaurant our server started to lead us to the back of the restaurant. As we wanted to eat outside to people-watch we asked our server if we could have a table outside. He jokingly replied (or so I though) "Of course, but it'll more expensive". We got outside, sat down and opened the menu and to our surprise realized he wasn't joking. The entire menu was actually about 1-2 euros more expensive per item. Our jaws dropped and we considered getting up and leaving, then we decided we would stay and chalk up the experience as a good story for our grandchildren. Though the idea still makes me angry we noticed this was a common theme. In Paris every drink on the menu was about 1euro50 more expensive if you drank it at a table versus at the bar. Which is pretty ridiculous considering it was a cafe and the bar had room for about 4 people.
The next we accomplished a whirlwind tour of Barcelona. Highlights included the Sagrada Familia which is very famous church by Gaudi, the Parc Guell (which showcased many of Gaudi's sculptures), la Ramblas, a huge all you can eat buffet (not particularly spanish but still cool), the port of Barcelona, shopping, delicious spanish tortilla (potatoes and eggs) and the Gothic quarter.
There were also a few notable moments of general tourist confusion. S had heard that the Sagrada Familia is supposed to look like it's melting and has been created by termites, we looked at it and couldn't see this all, which was rather disappointing. Then later in the day we discovered that the Sagrada Familia has two sides and we were looking at the less famous/lesser known side. Luckily we had enough time the next day before our flight to Morocco to go and check it out again. We also thought we were on la Ramblas (a huge street with street entertainers etc. and a green park/strip in the middle instead of road) twice but in reality we were on another large major road. Luckily we found it eventually and it was pretty cool.
I digress, this is meant to be a travel blog so I had better start on what Barcelona was like. We arrived in Barcelona around 7pm and set off immediately for our hostel. It was in a very central location and was different from all other hostels I've been in as it was in an apartment building. We had to buzz up every time and usually we just had to say hello in english and they'd let us through. I once tried to practice my spanish, and replied "hola" in what must have been a good spanish accent because I received a stream of Spanish in return. I panicked and replied in English, and after that just said hello. The hostel itself was not particularly remarkable aside from that, it was quite small though and so it had a rather homey feeling. There were only 5 rooms and I'd estimate they had about 35beds in the whole hostel. I would have probably liked it better except for while I was making my bed the sheets I recieved felt oily. This sent my thoughts into a downwards spiral and when I was very itchy after my first night's sleep I was convinced that they had bedbugs. This was not the case at all, just me overreacting. Luckily I was so tired that I didn't really care and slept very well despite my imagined night time companions.
Since we had been told that in Spain, people don't eat until 10pm or later we set off sightseeing as soon as we were settled in and planned to get some food later. We were however quite hungry and at some quiche in a quite little cafe beside a huge medeival looking cathedral. The whole eating dinner at 10 wasn't the best idea as it turns out, on Easter Monday things start to close around 10pm. We ended up decided to eat healthy and had dessert for dinner. We selected a nice looking restaurant and mustered the courage to ask for a menu in spanish. This was apparently not necessary as our server replied in English. Once we decided we wanted to eat at this restaurant our server started to lead us to the back of the restaurant. As we wanted to eat outside to people-watch we asked our server if we could have a table outside. He jokingly replied (or so I though) "Of course, but it'll more expensive". We got outside, sat down and opened the menu and to our surprise realized he wasn't joking. The entire menu was actually about 1-2 euros more expensive per item. Our jaws dropped and we considered getting up and leaving, then we decided we would stay and chalk up the experience as a good story for our grandchildren. Though the idea still makes me angry we noticed this was a common theme. In Paris every drink on the menu was about 1euro50 more expensive if you drank it at a table versus at the bar. Which is pretty ridiculous considering it was a cafe and the bar had room for about 4 people.
The next we accomplished a whirlwind tour of Barcelona. Highlights included the Sagrada Familia which is very famous church by Gaudi, the Parc Guell (which showcased many of Gaudi's sculptures), la Ramblas, a huge all you can eat buffet (not particularly spanish but still cool), the port of Barcelona, shopping, delicious spanish tortilla (potatoes and eggs) and the Gothic quarter.
There were also a few notable moments of general tourist confusion. S had heard that the Sagrada Familia is supposed to look like it's melting and has been created by termites, we looked at it and couldn't see this all, which was rather disappointing. Then later in the day we discovered that the Sagrada Familia has two sides and we were looking at the less famous/lesser known side. Luckily we had enough time the next day before our flight to Morocco to go and check it out again. We also thought we were on la Ramblas (a huge street with street entertainers etc. and a green park/strip in the middle instead of road) twice but in reality we were on another large major road. Luckily we found it eventually and it was pretty cool.
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| Sagrada Familia side 1 |
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| Originally created by Gaudi, he did not start building it, nor did he finish. In actuality it is still being built, that's why you see so many cranes in the subsequent pictures |
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| Barcelona as seen from Parc Guell |
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| Barcelona again from Parc Guell, sadly it wasn't clear at all (maybe due to Smog??) but were the city ends its ocean |
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| Cool street lit up in the Gothic quarter |
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| I liked the shadow, there isn't really any deeper meaning to this one |
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| Bridge in the port |
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| Tiled benches in Parc Guell, there are also famous tiled lizard sculptures, however we didn't manage to find any of them |
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| Sagrada Familia, still side #1 |
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| The termite eaten side |
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| Gates at Parc Guell |
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The irony
As my dad candidly remarked, I`m travelling faster than I can write. This does indeed seem to be the case. I was planning to finish writing about my easter trip this weekend, but then the opportunity presented itself to go to Turin. So I went to Turin yesterday instead of writing a blog entry and spent today attempting to do school work( I have an exam tomorrow so this was the main motivating factor).
All this to say that I have not forgotten about my blog, but have simply become to busy traveling to write about my travels. The irony, when I travel a lot I have no time, and when I do nothing interesting I can blog frequently.
With any luck I will be caught up by the end of this week. We shall see, but now it is bed time so I can be well rested and fresh for my exam tomorrow. Hang in there, I promise Barcelona and Morocco will be coming soon.
All this to say that I have not forgotten about my blog, but have simply become to busy traveling to write about my travels. The irony, when I travel a lot I have no time, and when I do nothing interesting I can blog frequently.
With any luck I will be caught up by the end of this week. We shall see, but now it is bed time so I can be well rested and fresh for my exam tomorrow. Hang in there, I promise Barcelona and Morocco will be coming soon.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Home Cooking.
So, given that I have been absent for the past two weeks from my blog I have had to come up with a plan to relay my adventures to everyone. I have decided to recount my journey by geographic location, so without further ado, I present the South-East of France. I have also decided for purposes of clarity that it will be easiest if I use names, however to protect the anynomity of all involved I have decided to only use the first letter of everyone's name. Not that I think people will be upset to appear on my blog, however I haven't recieved consent to write about them, so this seems like the best option.
So on Friday morning my friend S and I set off to visit her relatives, P&M. They live in a small town just outside of Perpignan called Thuir and were kind enough to come and meet us at the train station. The train ride was incredibly busy given that massive amounts of people were traveling home to visit their relatives and we ended up sitting in fold out seats across from the toilet. Its the area generally reserved from bikes and ski's, but since there weren't too many this didn't pose much of an issue. Our trip was however made interesting my the 4 men sitting in the same area of the train. France is quite different from Canada in that people are allowed to drink in public areas (trains, streets, buses etc) and pets appear to be allowed everywhere. So these men were rather inebriated and were drinking wine, their dog was also with them. They were quite a sight, but they definitely made that particular section of the train ride far more interesting (we changed trains 3 times).
Train trip aside, once arrive in Perpignan I got to see some really interesting photos taken by P&M of the Sanch procession. Its a tradition carried over from medieval times and happens in southern areas at Easter time every year. I believe that the tradition is that the clergy accompanies the condemned to the gallows. However, because at the time public stoning was common, everyone wore robes and hats to cover their faces a la KKK. This was to prevent the condemned from being killed before arriving at the gallows. The procession also involves what appears to be all of the churches statues and other important artifacts (for lack of a better word) being removed from the church and taken through the city. They are carried by loyal members of the congregation. The photos were remarkable, and I can only imagine what it would have been like in person. If you want to learn more about the Sanch procession this website has quite a good summary.
P&M were incredibly gracious and warm hosts and it was lovely to have all the comforts of a home. S and I each got our own room, both with very comfortable beds. We also ate and drank like kings (or rather queens). I was able to try boles de picolat (a regional dish), had some paté (not quite for me) as well as delicious bbq`d tuna steak and so much more. We were also lucky enough to have dessert every day and we sampled some delicious cakes purchased from a local bakery, had delicious baked apples with honey, almonds and cinnamon, chocolate lava cake as well a delicious panna cotta (with coconut and honey). Furthermore we were lucky enough to same regional wines and champagnes that we also often paired with local cheeses. I also finally sampled the local specialty alcohol which is called pastis. In the southern area of France it is the aperitif par excellence. For those who aren`t aware, and aperitif is almost exactly like and appetizer but consists of alcohol instead food. Anyhow, pastis is an anise based, very strong alcohol that tastes exactly like incredibly strong black licorice. Luckily for me I really like black licorice, otherwise this experience would have been very unpleasant. Anyhow, it is always served over ice and diluted with water. Definitely not for the weak of heart, or those who don`t appreciate the taste of anise.
From the above description it might appear that all we did was eat. This was however not the case at all, P&M were excellent guides and showed S and I many of the sights in the region. We visited the Market in Ceret as well as the modern art museum and enjoyed a lovely lunch in a picturesque outdoor square. The modern art museum was a little lost on me, but there were quite a few very famous painting by artists such as Chagall, Picasso, Miro and Matisse. It appears that Ceret inspired many of these artists and many of the painting were actually of Ceret itself. Quite cool. On the way back from Ceret we drove through the Pyrenees which were beautiful. Sadly I didn`t think to take any pictures from the car window.
We also went to P & M`s seaside apartment in Port Vendres another afternoon and were able to appreciate the lovely view`s. On our way back we passed through the very touristy, but equally lovely town of Collioure.
On our last day with P&M they were kind enough to take us to the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres (in Spain). For those who have never heard of Dali before, he was a very prominent Spanish surrealist painter. Though I am no expert, surrealism was explained to me as incorporating elements of reality in unusual ways, you`ll get a better idea when you look at the photos later on.
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| Port Vendres |
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| The fishing industry in Port Verdres was once very good, but because of overfishing, there are many abandonned nets |
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| Collioure |
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| A cat napping in an excavator, it was pretty funny. |
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| Ceiling painting in the Dali Museum |
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| One of Dali`s most famous paintings |
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Top of the world.
So here we have some long overdue photos of my last ski trip. As I had previously mentioned the weather was amazing and I managed to get some excellent photos (keeping in mind that these were taken with my iPod). You even have a few shots of me! Not that you can really tell with all of the ski gear, however those of you who know me will be able to recognize my bright yellow rain coat which doubles very nicely as a distinctive outer ski jacket.
Grand southern adventure.
It seems that I am doing too many things to be able to update you about all of them. I haven't had the time to post updates about lyon and I am already off somewhere else for easter break.
After promising my parents that I would provide them with a rough idea of where in the world I will be for the next 10 days, you will all be treated to a rough itinerary of what I plan to do.
April 6th-9th.
I will be enjoying myself in the south of France. I am traveling with a friend and she has relatives who live near Perpignan who have invited us for Easter week-end. I am really looking forward to this part of the trip and I am told we have lots of stuff planned for us. I understand we will have a chance to visit the coast and that a bbq will be involved. We will also be going to the Salvador Dali Museum which is in Figueres, it is supposed to be very cool, and since my friend knows a lot about art I imagine that she will be able to tell me details about Dali that will make the museum that much more interesting.
As you can see, it's about 400km's from Grenoble to Perpignan, however the train is quite quick and it is only going to take us about 5 hours (including the 2 transfers we have to make). Girona, the city I have underlined in blue is where we are catching our flight from to head to Morocco.
April 9th to 11th
Barcelona! I will get to experience my first taste of Spain and I am quite excited about this. I was just reading over the guide that I have on Barcelona and its sounds like there are a ton of things to do. Our hostel also seems to be in quite a central location so we won't waste too much time coming back and forth. I have no idea what exactly we will do but it will undoubtedly be interesting. With a population of just over 1.6 million in the city center, and night life that doesn't begin until I am asleep (12am) I imagine there will be no shortage of things to do.
April 11th to April 15th
Its time for Morocco. This is possibly the portion of the trip I am most excited for, probably because it seems the most exotic and interesting. We are flying into Marrakesh and leave from Agadir. Though we have no definite idea of how we will be getting from point A to B (I mean by which route, not the actual mode of transportation) we have two travel guides that will help guide us in this process. I imagine the 5 hour train ride will be a good time to work on this.
I was initially a little worried about communication, as I speak no Arabic but since Morocco was once colonized by the French it appears that many people speak French. As far as people who are worried about my safetly you shouldn't. The guide books all seem to repeat the same things which I think, if respected, will make for an enjoyable trip. Key points include learning at least a few Arabic greeting, and brushing up on French. Since I have point number two, I just have to learn a few greetings, helpfully located in the front of the guide book. The guide (by lonely planet) also says to not wear shorts or tee-shirts, at all. Morocco seems to be very centered around respect, and wearing shorts and tee-shirts is disrespectful and only done by ignorant tourists (the words of the guidebook). This applies to men as well as women. Though this will probably result in me cooking alive, I'm glad that I know this before I leave so I can properly plan my wardrobe.
This is photo that I found of Marrakesh, I am really excited to have my own version soon!
I will not be bringing my laptop with me, so will be at the mercy of my iPod keyboard and internet cafes if I happen to find any. As you can all imagine, this does not mean good things for my blog. I am however thinking of keeping a journal. If that goes well I am hoping I will simply be able to transcribe my adventures, which will hopefully expedite the process of me updating you all upon my return.
After promising my parents that I would provide them with a rough idea of where in the world I will be for the next 10 days, you will all be treated to a rough itinerary of what I plan to do.
April 6th-9th.
I will be enjoying myself in the south of France. I am traveling with a friend and she has relatives who live near Perpignan who have invited us for Easter week-end. I am really looking forward to this part of the trip and I am told we have lots of stuff planned for us. I understand we will have a chance to visit the coast and that a bbq will be involved. We will also be going to the Salvador Dali Museum which is in Figueres, it is supposed to be very cool, and since my friend knows a lot about art I imagine that she will be able to tell me details about Dali that will make the museum that much more interesting.
As you can see, it's about 400km's from Grenoble to Perpignan, however the train is quite quick and it is only going to take us about 5 hours (including the 2 transfers we have to make). Girona, the city I have underlined in blue is where we are catching our flight from to head to Morocco.
April 9th to 11th
Barcelona! I will get to experience my first taste of Spain and I am quite excited about this. I was just reading over the guide that I have on Barcelona and its sounds like there are a ton of things to do. Our hostel also seems to be in quite a central location so we won't waste too much time coming back and forth. I have no idea what exactly we will do but it will undoubtedly be interesting. With a population of just over 1.6 million in the city center, and night life that doesn't begin until I am asleep (12am) I imagine there will be no shortage of things to do.
April 11th to April 15th
Its time for Morocco. This is possibly the portion of the trip I am most excited for, probably because it seems the most exotic and interesting. We are flying into Marrakesh and leave from Agadir. Though we have no definite idea of how we will be getting from point A to B (I mean by which route, not the actual mode of transportation) we have two travel guides that will help guide us in this process. I imagine the 5 hour train ride will be a good time to work on this.
I was initially a little worried about communication, as I speak no Arabic but since Morocco was once colonized by the French it appears that many people speak French. As far as people who are worried about my safetly you shouldn't. The guide books all seem to repeat the same things which I think, if respected, will make for an enjoyable trip. Key points include learning at least a few Arabic greeting, and brushing up on French. Since I have point number two, I just have to learn a few greetings, helpfully located in the front of the guide book. The guide (by lonely planet) also says to not wear shorts or tee-shirts, at all. Morocco seems to be very centered around respect, and wearing shorts and tee-shirts is disrespectful and only done by ignorant tourists (the words of the guidebook). This applies to men as well as women. Though this will probably result in me cooking alive, I'm glad that I know this before I leave so I can properly plan my wardrobe.
I will not be bringing my laptop with me, so will be at the mercy of my iPod keyboard and internet cafes if I happen to find any. As you can all imagine, this does not mean good things for my blog. I am however thinking of keeping a journal. If that goes well I am hoping I will simply be able to transcribe my adventures, which will hopefully expedite the process of me updating you all upon my return.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
April Fool's
For all of you who don't have Facebook and missed out on my April fools joke I posted a photo of some Brown hair dye and lead people to believe that I was going to dye my hair. I think quite a few people fell for it judging from the reactions I received. So if you hear any rumors circulating that I am now a brunette you can disregard them. It was a poisson d'avril (april fish) as they say here in France.
A hodge-podge of info tidbits.
I have recently been asking myself where all my time goes. I don`t have a lot of commitments but I never seem to have time to write blogs. At least not this past week. This is also going to be a shorter post. On Friday it was one of my friends birthday`s today and we held a party for him in my residence. So I had about 50 balloons in my room at one point. Because I don`t have near the lung capacity to blow up 50 balloons I enlisted the help of my friends who distracting me from the blog post I meant to write..
On Friday I was also looking around Grenoble for streamers (called serpentins ie small snakes) I could not find any anywhere. I went to the 2 euro store, a grocery store and even checked out a specialty party store. They just don`t seem to have them. At least not in the 3 stores I went into, which granted is quite a small sample to generalize to an entire country. My guardian angel must have been watching over me though, because this afternoon while picking a parcel from the post office I forgot my wallet and helmet in the library. They are next door to one another so it wasn`t a huge distance to backtrack. However, the fact remains that I left my wallet unattended for about 10minutes. I returned and it was in exactly the same place, relief. I think it helped that it was inside my helmet and not immediately visible. People in France don`t seem to value helmets all that much. I would say less than 15% of people wear helmets. Of that 15% most of the people are older than 40. Apparently it takes a while for people to realize the value of helmets, it's a pretty frequent sight to see entire families with young children not wearing helmets. Quite shocking frankly.
Yesterday I went to Lyon for the day (100km's away) with the international student association. It was fun but not what I had expected. It was interesting and I saw lots of nice things but it somehow didn't live up to my expectation. I think it was the size of the city and all the people. Depending on who you ask, Lyon is the 2nd largest city in France and there were lots of people everywhere. It kind of detracted from some of the attractions if you ask me. It could have also been that I only had time for a surface visit. Since I was only there for the day I didn't have the chance to visit any of the museums which are apparently very nice. Lyon's claim to fame is apparently the textile industry. In the city there are a ton of passageways the run within the buildings so that the merchants could carry their cloth without getting it muddy (when streets were just dirt) and protect it from the rain. The textile museum also sounded amazing, they had a permanent display of cloths throughout history, even including samples of Egyptian dresses. I doubt that I will be returning though, there wasn't enough stuff to make me want to return when I still want to visit Geneva and Turin which are about the same price and distance away.
This morning I rode around Grenoble on my bike with a friend. We went to the market under the train tracks and generally explored Grenoble's streets. It was really calm on the streets (usually you have to weave between many slow moving pedestrian) and very enjoyable. Grenoble also has tonnes of flowering trees which are just starting to come out, so some of the once brown streets are starting to look like areas of oak bay (huge flowering trees that border the street for those of you not from Victoria).
That is however all the time I have for today. I am trying to get work done in anticipation of my 10 day easter trip. I will try to get in a couple of updates in, and hopefully even some photos in before Friday but that might be a little too optimistic.
Its quite a tradeoff, the more awesome things I do, the less time I have to tell you all about them.
On Friday I was also looking around Grenoble for streamers (called serpentins ie small snakes) I could not find any anywhere. I went to the 2 euro store, a grocery store and even checked out a specialty party store. They just don`t seem to have them. At least not in the 3 stores I went into, which granted is quite a small sample to generalize to an entire country. My guardian angel must have been watching over me though, because this afternoon while picking a parcel from the post office I forgot my wallet and helmet in the library. They are next door to one another so it wasn`t a huge distance to backtrack. However, the fact remains that I left my wallet unattended for about 10minutes. I returned and it was in exactly the same place, relief. I think it helped that it was inside my helmet and not immediately visible. People in France don`t seem to value helmets all that much. I would say less than 15% of people wear helmets. Of that 15% most of the people are older than 40. Apparently it takes a while for people to realize the value of helmets, it's a pretty frequent sight to see entire families with young children not wearing helmets. Quite shocking frankly.
Yesterday I went to Lyon for the day (100km's away) with the international student association. It was fun but not what I had expected. It was interesting and I saw lots of nice things but it somehow didn't live up to my expectation. I think it was the size of the city and all the people. Depending on who you ask, Lyon is the 2nd largest city in France and there were lots of people everywhere. It kind of detracted from some of the attractions if you ask me. It could have also been that I only had time for a surface visit. Since I was only there for the day I didn't have the chance to visit any of the museums which are apparently very nice. Lyon's claim to fame is apparently the textile industry. In the city there are a ton of passageways the run within the buildings so that the merchants could carry their cloth without getting it muddy (when streets were just dirt) and protect it from the rain. The textile museum also sounded amazing, they had a permanent display of cloths throughout history, even including samples of Egyptian dresses. I doubt that I will be returning though, there wasn't enough stuff to make me want to return when I still want to visit Geneva and Turin which are about the same price and distance away.
This morning I rode around Grenoble on my bike with a friend. We went to the market under the train tracks and generally explored Grenoble's streets. It was really calm on the streets (usually you have to weave between many slow moving pedestrian) and very enjoyable. Grenoble also has tonnes of flowering trees which are just starting to come out, so some of the once brown streets are starting to look like areas of oak bay (huge flowering trees that border the street for those of you not from Victoria).
That is however all the time I have for today. I am trying to get work done in anticipation of my 10 day easter trip. I will try to get in a couple of updates in, and hopefully even some photos in before Friday but that might be a little too optimistic.
Its quite a tradeoff, the more awesome things I do, the less time I have to tell you all about them.
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