He was, however, dead when he arrived (even though he got to fly business class!) so we jumped on the bus and headed back to Montpellier, where he promptly fell asleep without trying any more French food than the dried strawberries I had in my bag as bus food. This is the travel post though, so more food talk will be reserved for the next post.
I had to wake up early Wednesday morning for an appointment to get my French residence permit (yup, I'm finally official). He slept till I was done and then we wandered around Montpellier. We did my favorite parks and squares, and then I showed him the center of town/shopping/eating area. I realized that morning that while Montpellier is a nice place to live, it's not a very good tourist town. The few things (that I am aware of I guess!) that you should see, you kinda just see and are then done with. But he enjoyed it anyway. We were both still tired so we had a nap that afternoon, then a relaxed dinner and a few drinks with some classmates and a set of parents who were in town.
Thursday we decided on a small adventure! Nîmes is a town about a 25 minute train ride from me (yeah, no long voyages yet). It was one I hadn't heard much about, but when going through the guidebook bf decided it looked interesting and off we went! First impression was that it was just a really pretty town, with lots of shady tree-lined avenues. We arrived and immediately decided to grab lunch (yeah, we slept late. Hey, it was both of our vacations!), but were being indecisive, so we wandered around town for a while before settling down, and it was very enjoyable! The tree-lined avenues are everywhere, not just near the train station. We wandered by a cathedral or two and then finally sat down. Afterwards, we wandered a bit more until we suddenly came upon the Roman arena! It was the first one I'd seen, and they're really cool! This one looked kinda small, but can hold 24,000 people. While were were there they were setting it up for some mock Roman Games they were having over the weekend.
The arena was pretty open, so we were able to wander all around the top level and check out the views, which were great. While up there, we saw a watchtower on top of a hill and decided to head that way. I then heard in the arena audioguide that it was a Roman tower built on top of an old Celtic tower, which made it sound even cooler.
We meandered our way towards the watchtower (nice to have a companion with a great sense of direction). The city continued to be lovely, but we were both surprised by how nice the Jardin de la Fontaine (Garden of the Fountain) was. You walk through the garden to climb the hill to the tower, but we spent quite a while wandering around the garden, enjoying the big open areas and old Temple of Diana. Once we realized that the whole thing was actually spring-fed, it was even cooler.
Eventually we decided to climb the hill, and it was great! The whole park was really well done. There were hidden grassy areas, little gardens, nice paved paths and little rocky trails up through gardens, all kinds of things. It was quite steep and had us both puffing a bit, but it was totally worth it. The tower was cool, and while trees obstructed a lot of the view, the bits we got were nice!
After seeing those major sites, we just wandered around town a bit more and finally headed back to Montpellier. It was great. Nice, laid back traveling.
Friday we decided to be around Montpellier again and had a lovely picnic in my complex. What? The dorm complex? Why? Well, being in a Mediterranean climate seems to mean that grass is not all that common in "parks" which are often paved or gravel. My favorite park in town (the one by the arch) is mainly gravel with just a few grassy places. And for our picnic, we wanted grass, so we ended up in my complex, which is actually nice and grassy and didn't bother me at all.
That day we were planning our trip that we wanted to do to Lyon the next day, where we would spend Saturday and then head to Barcelona where bf had to leave from Tuesday morning. For some reason the train sites were being cranky, so we had to go to the station to try to book. Turns out almost everything was full! GAH. People must do a lot more Easter traveling than I thought. All we could get would leave us with only about 22 hours in Lyon with a 70% chance of rain all day. We decided to skip Lyon and book the bus to Barcelona for Sunday. We decided to just wait and check the rain when we woke up Saturday morning and go on another day trip if it looked nice.
Good thing we waited! It poured almost all day Saturday. We took it as a sign and were lazy and watched DVDs. Except for the adventure we had just trying to get something to eat.
Sunday morning it was time to finish packing all my winter stuff into bf's suitcase and head to the bus station. Got on the bus to Barcelona for the second time. This one was interesting though, with lots of Spanish temper flaring before we even left Montpellier. My Spanish was nowhere near good enough to follow those lightning-speed exchanges, but several people were angry at various points. After that it was an uneventful bus ride (although even just taking the highway it's very pretty) and we arrived in Barcelona. We had grabbed a hotel near the train station (where the bus arrives and the train to the airport leaves) and got all checked in. Then it was off to find something to eat. This was, of course, Easter Sunday. Oops. Whereas most things had been open in France, almost NOTHING was open in Spain. Luckily we were in just enough of a touristy area there were a few small places open. Then it was back to the hotel, as we'd planned a full Monday of being tourists.
Oh that alarm Monday morning. We were both excited, but it was still not nice to wake up. We quickly decided to snooze for a while and take the metro up to Parc Guell instead of walking the 5 kilometers. SUCH a good call. Barcelona has an amazing natural setting--it's on the beach, but the city goes up into the few serious-ish hills behind it. Parc Guell is on one of those hills. It's up there. It's a park that was going to be a neighborhood, designed by Gaudi, the same crazy architect behind the Sagrada Familia. The project failed commercially, so it's mainly a park, but there are a few completed buildings, some amazing architecture built into the environment, and the main hall type thing with awesome lizard fountain. Can you find me in the last picture?
The bf and I both loved the park, and I'm pretty sure we walked almost the whole thing. And it's large. But finally we were satisfied and headed downhill towards the Sagrada Familia, stop two on our tour.
The Sagrada Familia is amazing. Whether you like it or not, there is no other way to describe the monster that rises out of Barcelona. It was started in 1882, but Gaudi took over in 1883 and it became another of his crazy creations. It hasn't been worked on continuously since then, but now they're really going. It's supposed to be completed sometime in the 2030s. I told you, it's crazy. This thing is utterly enormous already, and the largest spire (not started) is supposed to dwarf what's already been built. It is so impressive. If you're ever in Barcelona, you absolutely must check it out. And you have to go inside. The inside is so unexpected from the outside--it's intricate and ornate, but in a totally different way.
So we spent another large part of our day in Barcelona being entranced by Gaudi. Even after we left, we detoured to check out some more of his creations (Casa Batllo and the Pedrera) in another part of town on our way towards the sea.
Finally, we ended the Gaudi part of our day and headed to Las Ramblas, which we both found disappointing. It may have had something to do with it being Easter Monday, but after talking to others who have been, it seems like it's usually just a crowded tourist street with pickpockets and people selling postcards and trinkets. The real cool thing to do in that area is get off Las Ramblas immediately! Wander in the Barri Gothic, the quarter around it, and enjoy the cool old feel. We did that for a while, coming across the few old cathedrals (which just didn't seem so impressive after the Sagrada Familia), and then finally came to the seashore. It was nice! Big harbor with yachts and a nice big beach. We grabbed a beer at one of the beach restaurants and just watched the sea and the people for a while, and it was great. Finally the sun began setting and since the bf had an early flight, we headed home. It was a wonderful day in Barcelona, and if you ever have one day there, I think it's a great itinerary!
And then suddenly bf was on a plane home and I was on a bus back to Montpellier alone. It seemed entirely too short, but it was an amazing trip and writing this has brought back all the fun memories!
Cool pictures! Sounds like a great trip. Glad you got to snooze a lot too, never good to be over scheduled!
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