After arriving in Avignon only to discover there were no hostels, we frantically searched around until we found an available one. It was in a tiny town called Tarascon, right on the Rhone. We had worked hard that day, and agreed that we deserved a good french meal. We found a great restaurant and stuffed ourselves good. Real good.
What? Tarascon has a giant castle? Yes.
Next it was a day trip to Avignon where we visited the Palais de Papes, which was the headquarters for the Roman Catholic church during the entire 14th century.
Resemblance?
Stephen killing all of the Philistines in the museum of Archaeology.
We are the lamest tourists ever.
We continued our journey east to visit our friend Camille in her city of Montpellier. We were greeted with true french hospitality. Kissing on the cheeks, baguettes, cheese and rose (the wine).
The lady herself.
Steve and I saw some Montpellier sights while Camille worked.
At the 500 year old university. Steve was very serious about it.
Lost in the botanical gardens.
Camille drove us to a Mediterranean beach for a picnic and a swim…
And we stumbled across the oldest church in Southern France! Neat!
Stephen here. The few who follow us on our little blog here have most likely noticed we haven’t been posting very frequently. Maybe it’s due to the lack of computers with both a USB and Internet service that doesn’t take several minutes to load a single picture. It could also be due to the high price of Internet time at web cafes and our thin wallets. But, regardless of these small excuses, we’re sorry. We hope to do better in the future. Of course our trips future is very brief so I’ll just say we’ll try. For those of you still reading this, tomorrow we set sail on an overnight ferry across the Adriatic sea to Split, Croatia in search of cheap hostels and even cheaper food; and of course, a computer with which to post. Until the next free wifi signal,
Stephen
France was calling us back so we caught another train and headed to the 2000-year-old medieval city of Carcassonne! Also a popular board game. But we went to the place.
It was like Disneyland! Except real.
*I’m sorry that so many of these are pictures of me. As self-absorbed as I am, this is not intentional. Steve is much more of a shutterbug than me and I am the only available human muse on this trip.
Steve eating ice cream dating back to the 11th century!
We don’t even give a shit.
From our hostel. Nice, right?
The beds in Carcassonne are very unique. Here I am sleeping on one. Psyche! Just crashing in the hostel common room. You should have seen your face.
We caught a fast train to the SW corner of Spain! A little place called San Sebastian.
Here I am suspiciously eyeing the camera during some train shuteye. For good reason. It took a picture without us even knowing! Crafty.
Despite being a popular European rich vacationer destination, it was quite pretty.
Our hostel. Across the street from a 14th century monastery, yo.
We climbed to the top of the mountain where we stumbled across a Napoleonic fort! Never before discovered.
We caught the red-eye from Montréal, and watched some fantastic movies including ‘Cedar Rapids’, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’. Just kidding they weren’t fantastic. Except Diary of a Wimpy Kid was fantastic..
We arrived in Paris only to randomly run in to Beth and Beth at the very same hostel we were staying at! What a crazy surprise! They gave us a bit of a tour, as they’d already been there for a month.
“Hi Beth and Beth! So great to see you in Paris.”
“Oh hey Jordan and Steve! We are so happy you are here! Our trip was incomplete without you. Let’s go see some stuff here in Paris.”
So we saw some stuff. (WARNING: Some very touristy photos proceeding)
Here Steve is trying to grab the Eiffel Tower and I am punching him for doing so.
We paid 9€ to go to the top of the Eiffel tower. It was worth it, as shown here.
Steve paid 5€ to have a guy tie a string around his wrist. It was not worth it, as shown here.
Fin
Stephen flew to Montreal and we hung out with my totally cool family!
And also, we rode the metro and saw some sights!
And also, we ate poutine and Steve talked on the telephone with his girlfriend…
And then came the red-eye…
Our tentative route planned around Europe! We leave tomorrow, dogs!
-JK
