YouRope: Noël

It's been a while - i've missed all your comments.

But here i am.

Well i am back in Bordeaux after an entertaining weekend with jen in Frankdaddy - aka Frankfurt, Germany. It was a damn long trip, but definately worth it.

Although i had to spend almost 7 hours on the train, it was a pretty smooth and quick trip. I left on Thursday afternoon at 1pm (I was soooo close to missing the train - only directions from a few strangers kept the dream alive) and arrived bored and excited at 9pm. The train was comfortable and i was lucky enough to sit next to some really interesting people. We exchanged emails and names and talked for the next 3 hours about just about every topic. Meeting these people really is one of the best parts about travelling solo, it not only easier but is essential to stop going crazy.

So anyway, after some confusion about whether we had to change trains or not, i finally made it to Frankdaddy (carrying about 20 bags for this girl who it looked like had taken half of her house to Germany with her) and had a nice running, slow-mo hug with Jen - not really, she actually gave me a fright as she stepped from behind some sign. I'd messaged ahead telling Jen the train was running late because the driver "was retarded" and she thought that the driver actually was retarded because the arrivals sign said "10 minutes de retard" (10 minutes late in French). hah.

It was funny at the time.

The reunion... aww.

So anyway, we were both buggered and so we just chilled back at her house after jumping and throwing around snow like we were young again (sigh).

The next day (after a well deserved sleep in) we ate some chocolate cereal (i'm not joking when i say chocolate cereal - there was litereally chucks of real chocolate! Chunks! - no wonder my teeth hurt!) and we left to go for a little ice skating. At this point i could actually see some of Frankdaddy and it seemed to be this strange mixture of old and new. One street would be very modern, the next a bit cold and industrial like, and then the next awesome traditional old-school German. It was a little confusing. But it still was beautiful and the scattered snow (which was already melting) gave everything a christmas-y feel.

We eventually made it to the ice skating rink and got in for free because Jens host dad Mathias (sp?) ran in a marathon. It was as you would expect. Ice. Skates. Jen really really shit. haha. Jen did eventually improve. I think by the end she could do 3 glides before almost falling. I did get in trouble from some crazy German man after i tried to take one of these learn-to-skate penguins that help keep you stable but apparently his daughter hadn't finished with it and so he started yelling at me. At which point i tried to apologize but ended up saying "danke" - thankyou - oops. I just skated away quickly.

Snow! I love Europe!

After skating and throwing snow, we headed back to the centre of Frankdaddy and had dinner at this awesome Italien restaurant. My mouth is literally watering now just thinking about it. Jen and I, both deciding to be completely unoriginal, went for the Penne Bolognaise. What was so good about this place, however, was that you actually order from the chefs and then they make it fresh, on the spot!! It was awesome! We both ordered and began a conversation with the chef, Grace. She was hilarious and like everyone in Frankfurt could speak excellent English. Ten minutes later after our food was cooked (right in front of us!) and we walked back to our table which had a tree in the middle and was sorrounded by olive oil, bread and fresh basil that you actually picked from the plant to put on your food. It was a nice place - and even better, it was really cheap.

Our entertaining chef Grace.

Looking at that food is seriously making me hungry.

Gotta love the fresh herbs and the tree in the middle of the table

The next day we went into Frankfurt again to the Marches de Noël (i don't know what they are called in German) - Frankfurts famous Christmas markets - and met up with one of Jens friends, Alison. People from all over Europe come to see the Frankdaddy markets apparently - and it definately felt like that. The markets were packed with people. Literally tens of thousands of people browsed the shops selling just about everything. After a while we joined the ques for traditional German sausages, potato cakes (which were delicious after one bite, but waaaay too greasy after two) and German sweeets. We also just haaaad to go on this two storey merry-go-round which was actually surprisingly fun. Jen, Alison and I were sitting on this spinning seat that i kept turning so it would go faster - much to Jen and Alisons chagrin! We were laughing so much that we didn't realise that the turn had stopped and were supposed to get off - we just kept spinning our little seat thing laughing and wondering why our turn was so long.

The markets were at least 20billion times bigger than the ones in Bordeaux - but it was interesting because they were similar but different. They had a more exciting, busy feel and had live music and heeeaaaps of hot wine.

It's market time - frankdaddy style.

I'm surprised we didn't see Tim and Nath here because the rest of Europe was.

The awesome fun merry-go-round.

The ride had probably stopped at this point - but we just kept spinning.

Jen and her one true love.

The next day we got up super early (7.30) to go to a village near Frankfurt called Rothenburg. We had a three hour train ride, but our companions Alison and Ruth were so entertaining that the trip went by in no time. Ruth was seriously hilarious - Jen and I were on the floor laughing after every second sentence. She was British and so swore all the time in the funniest ways - definately a "you had to be there" moment.

The Rothenburg crew - Ruth is on the far right and Alison is next to her.

Anyway, the village. It's famous because it is one of the few towns in Germany to be almost completely untouched by WWII. Apparently, it was almost destroyed at one point decades before, but legend has it that a deal was made between the city council and the attackers. The village would not be destroyed if one of the council men could drink a 3 litre tankard of beer in one go. They agreed and it is said that the man needed 3 days to recover. Now that's my type of legend!!

A moat or something.

Rothenburg in all its German glory.

The streets of gingerbread houses.

The village itself was beautiful! It still has its defensive walls intact and has been almost perfectly preserved. All our travel books warned us about massive crowds, but because of the time of year, it was only busy, not overly crowded. The village offered amazing views of the sorrounding countryside and had another Christmas market - although it was really small. We did all the touristy stuff - took our photos, climbed the wall, ate more food... the usual stuff.

A nice view.

We were, however, amazed by these little sugary buscuit balls which were sold everywhere... but they ended up being just a little disappointing. They needed a lot more sugar. They kept us entertained for a while though.

The magical sugar, dough, biscuit balls.

It was a long day (we got back to Frankdaddy juuuust in time for the last train to Jens at 930pm).

I love the crazy narrow lanes of Yourope.

Ahh, the end of a long day.

It was such a good weekend. So good to mix things up a bit and see where jen has been for the last 10 months. So now, it's back to reality (i love the 'reality' for me is Bordeaux at the moment!). I had a pretty uneventful trip home except that i sat next to some crazy guy wearing a skirt who smelt like old meat. Mmmm.

The always difficult goodbye.

The foggyness reflected our dampened mood. aw.

Anyway, i know that i have forgotten heaps, but thats what happens.

Miss you guys.

Wow, i'm here again already!

I have had a fantastic, eventful few days... Bordeaux and the sorrounding area has brought out the goods again - they just put so much effort into everything.

On Saturday, Jeanne (the mother in my host family) and I went to the les Marchés de Noël (Christmas Markets) of Bordeaux. Despite the persistant rain and the damn cold it seemed like half of Bordeaux was there... and unsurprisingly, it was beautiful!

I love how much effort the Bordeaux council puts into its city's image. I was already dazzled by the city's natural beauty, its cleanliness, its big, open plazes, its modern transportation... (you get the idea) but for the Marchés de Noël, they went all out. Lights now dangle from every concievable location, Christmas trees adorn the sidewalks and clever lighting highlights the beautiful old buildings.

The bustling Marchés de Noël

Preeetty.

And there is a great atmosphere as you wander through the stalls, smell the sizzling crèpes and sip the vin chaud (hot wine). Although i was tempted (especially by those addictive crèpes!) I refrained from buying anything. I have become the ultimate stinge! haha!
After the markets we just wandered the streets of central Bordeaux - with me stopping every 10 seconds to take a photo - and entering whichever shops looked interesting...

The streets of lights ...

the open plazas ...

And Noël trees everywhere!

As beautiful as it was, we still returned home drenched and freaking freezing!
Later the night, however, i ventured back out into the rain to meet the NZer Ross from the alliance course and his friend, Rebecca (another Kiwi). We booked a table for 10pm at a lively Spanish bar the Bodega Bodega. It was another really fun night - we ordered a whole lot of different desserts and a forgotten amount of cheap pitchers of wine. The atmosphere was infectious and we were soon out of our chairs shouting with the loud, dense crowd especially after seemingly random trumpet calls. We were particularly amused by a table of girls next to us who had even more empty pitchers of wine!

As it approached 2am however, we left and followed the trail of people to a few more bars. By this point, however, we were more interested in the people around us and after getting into a lively discussion about Flight of the Conchords, we began to ask people if they knew the show. We had a little format going. We'd approach some random people, and one of us would ask in accented french Connaissez-vous l'émission Flight of the Conchords? (Do you know the show flight of the conchords) and they would look at us blankly and so we'd launch into a rendition of one of their songs - prodiminantly, it's business, it's business tiiiiime!! We thought that we'd found a kindred spirit when a girl replied 'oooooh, flight of the conchords?' and we were like YES, but then she replied 'oh no.'
Our eventual failure was so much more bitter after thinking we'd hit success.
This time i got home without a hitch and the door was much more responsive. I did find out however, on my arrival at home that i had lost the french SIM card that i had bought earlier that day so that i could recieve calls without paying and send cheaper SMS (I was very proud of myself - talked to a random french salesperson in french and understood. Yes, a nice moment). Mmmm, clever hey. Better a 10euro sim though then my wallet or something valuable!

I didn't actually drink much on Saturday night and so this morning i woke feeling tired but happy. After a delicious stew for lunch (which is like dinner here) we departed for a village near Bordeaux called Saint Emilion - I realised when we got there that this was the village that the random man was gushing about about last thursday night when he was buying us wine. And the random man wasn't lying, it was beautiful. An old traditional village set against endless fields of grapes!

The Girard Famille (minus stanislas who was playing hockey)