Decadence and distance

Five countries and twelve cities, chocolate covered waffles, good 4 Euro/bottle wine, lots of cheese, and amazing ice cream. Decadence and distance. I'm currently in Avignon, southern France. We've spent the last couple days here, mostly just relaxing. I met up with a research contact yesterday for a few hours, but other than that, just walking, shopping (well looking at least), and enjoying a really neat little town. Little by comparison to Paris at least. Well I should probably backtrack since I haven't posted in a while.

We did leave London on the 15th, overnight bus by ferry across the channel. We arrived in Amsterdam on the 16th, found a hostel, and wandered alot that day. Spent the entire next day wandering the city, its beautiful, and admiring the million bikes. None of them are too nice in and of themselves, but there are so many of them, it was nice for a change. I also bought a coat, paid about $70 for it, but its nice, warm, lots of pockets, long. The zipper isn't so good, but it has buttons too, so yes mom, I'm warm enough. Hostels were expensive the next night, because it was friday, and we were leaving on a 7 AM bus to Paris anyway, so we wandered the city all night. Unlike Galway, it was a bit more late night friendly, we drank tea in a little diner, had ice cream in a main square around midnight, sat in a Burger King for a few hours, and found a place selling waffles covered in chocolate, and various other wonderful sugary treats.

Bus the next day took us to Paris (the 18th) and we made our way to the hostel we'd reserved, Friends Hostel. When we arrived we were told they'd had a shower broken and the room had flooded and they hadn't gotten around to notifying us. So we were sent back across town to a place he had called ahead to, asked if it would cost more, he said "its a hostel." It was almost double the cost, 16E vs 28E, but the 28 was worth it. It didn't have a kitchen we could use, or internet, and not the most comfortable beds, but it was about 3 blocks from the Louvre. When we went back to Friends Hostel the next night for the second night we'd reserved there, we had to argue with the receptionist just to get the beds at the price we'd reserved, and couldn't get our deposit back for the lost night. Service was horrible at that place, though arguing with that jackass was kinda fun. I just kept telling him I'd pay 28E and no more. Eventually he wrote up the reciept and that was that. Eiffle Tower was amazing; we went up at night, beautiful view. They had it lit up blue, and on the hour it flashes with white lights. Notre Dame was beautiful as well, lots of stained glass, and unlike many places we've gone they didn't charge for entry to the cathedral.

We found out, the hard way, that getting out of Paris is a pain. There is no useful bus system in France, trains are expensive. We ended up taking the train from Paris to Avignon for about $105 each. Granted, it made the 450 mile trip take only 3 hours, but still a good chunk of change. We bought tickets for 6AM, and spent the night prior to leaving without a hostel again in Paris. Laid out my tarp on the grass of the Louvre and relaxed there a bit, dozed. Wandered the city some more, but not much was open, and what was open late (like 3 AM) was expensive restaurants. We went back to the Louvre and slept on the steps out of the wind for a couple hours then caught our train to Avignon.

Avignon, back to present day, is wonderful. The majority of the city is surrounded by a 700 year old city wall that dates back to the Paupacy being housed here in the Popes Palace, which is still standing and is apparently a bit of a tourist attraction. I think the city is about the size of Bozeman, makes me feel a bit at home. I really like this town. Small streets, lots of shops, with decent prices for a change, though there's nothing I really need to buy here. However, the french don't apparently know the concept of deli meat or peanut butter, which makes non-cooking meals from the store hard. We actually ate lunch at McDonalds today, but European fast food chains are actually fairly healthy, and taste like real food.

I'm still waiting on the package my sister sent to London, it hasn't arrived there yet, but when it does they have agreed to mail it on for me. Thankfully there was nothing there I absolutely needed for this part of the trip, the main thing is the water sterilizer pen, which I couldn't get here, and want for the later part of my travels when I'm not in modern cities as much. Getting water here is easy, tap water has been drinkable. I have been stuck wearing the same pair of pants and leggings for almost three weeks now, but I'll live. They got washed once... o.0 The rest I've just been washing in the sink as I go.

We are planning on heading to Italy tomorrow, though I'm still trying to figure out how exactly. It appears that traveling by train is the only reasonable option around here but expensive, that or ferry, but the ferry is like three towns away and we can't figure out how to get there, with no bus system and the trains don't run short trips like that. We are planning to be in Istanbul, Turkey, by the 29th, thats the plan. Staying at "Istanbul Hostel" there for a couple days, then Joey head back home to Boston on the 31st from there, and the real part of my trip starts. Well, I should get back to trying to do some work, still have papers to get published from my old job, and I need to take advantage of the internet while I have it. Wasn't expecting it to be so rare. The hostel in Turkey has internet, so worst case, thats the next time I'll be online much. I'll post pictures soon, haven't looked through them much yet, but I have tons. And we haven't even downloaded Joey's yet. Or the ones from the little point and shoot I found on the floor after the concert in Boston, but we don't have an adapter for that one. Takes good pictures though considering it got pretty stomped. Ok, back to work. :) Paz.