Experience The Adventure

The weather was nice… the sun was bright, the beaches were empty (never made it there!) and the weather was warm. Hey hows Edmonton? I can see why people like it more tropical.

There back packing. A good idea. Its better if you do light packing. A cary on bag, thats it. You could do that for a month I think, especially in more moderate climates. I prefer the ultralight packing. No bags. The must: a pocket sized camera. bring some money, some info and not much else. A jacket is nice for when it gets cold. I think you could use high tech clothing so that you can wash them each night, if you want to bother. I can hear you think, “you stink”, nope, take a shower, that easy.

The Sat morning, watched a medal of honor ceremony. A police officer was being honored for a act of bravery. Something with a robery (French a little rusty)(then again, so is english). Great place to eat a pastry and wait for the tourist info to open.

saw the sights, minus the museums. Checked out the malls (norma), the town, the replica arc de triumph(neat), the gardens(very diverse and old, lots of bamboo), the skyline (a few high spots), the church (with a GIANT entrance), the stadium(small), olympic sized pool(outdoors!), opera hall?, rode the high tech tram, and wandered around. It really is a walking city. The center is almost devoid of vehicles. Lots of scooters, and the police seem to be relaxed. People parking on sidewalks, scooters driving through plazas and sidewalks, there was no law here.

Was hungry a lot, must be the walking, and ate a lot of pastries. They are readily available. And there seemed to be a lot of small open markets on the weekend. Lots of seafood. It seemed strange that there were people everywhere wandering around with baguettes around meal times.

For dinner, I went to a high end restaurant recommended by the book, they were closed and said come back at 8. It was 5. Went back after a much needed nap, and it was full. Ended up at some other, less expensive restaurant in a plaza where I had Oysters, duck for le plat principal, and a pastry/ice cream with chocolate dessert. Mix it in with some cheap rose wine, which tasted good to me, and quite a meal. The oysters were quite different, but great with lemon juice and even better with the red sauce. The duck was very tender, and the dessert seemed like a faint memory comming back. We must have it at home somewhere.

The only hostel there had horrible reviews, and I was quiet worried. Mostly about the bed bugs. I stayed at a different place, a cross between a hostel and a hotel. Common bathrooms, but your own room. It did the trick, just need a place to rest.

The people didn’t seem rude at all. They are not a customer service based society like North America, but they seemed quite friendly. Good thing too, because my French is KRap! and if they didn’t speak english, that would have been quite tough. Just like the guy on the bus. What bus, i never took a bus.

There were a lot of students wandering around. I know there is a university there somewhere… oh ya, the tram went through it.

It was lots of relaxation, and it should be if theres nothing to do. Until next time, cheers, aurevoir….

Note, back up story… 🙂 I mean, thats my story and i’m sticking to it.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:46 am and is filed under London, London Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.