kate

Hello from... Richmond, Virginia!

We are home again, settling into our little apartment in Carytown. Robert is playing piano in the front room and I just finished putting things away in our bedroom- how quickly life returns to it's usual form. We've been home since the 30th and have just found the time to take a break in our own apartment!

I wanted to post some pictures from our last trip while in Europe- France! We traveled from San Sebastian, Spain to Paris and all the way down through the South of France to Castellon De La Plana. We had a short 11 days but we were able to pull it off in plenty of time to catch our plane home!

So, 11 days in France:

Valencia and Benicasim, Spain

We took the train from Castellon De La Plana to Valencia, where we spent the day wandering around the city before we had to catch an overnight bus to San Sebastian. Valencia has a really exciting and wonderful park! It is located in a large canal where a river once flowed through the city.

The park is full of fun things to do- there are museums, art galleries, two skate parks, gardens, playgrounds (like the giant man in the picture above).. A few weeks before this trip, Robert and I went to Valencia for a night. We tried to camp in the large park- it seemed safe enough!

That night was a demon-hell-bus-ride! We put up our tent in a quiet little corner where it was hidden by bushes.. after about 10 minutes I noticed a large man leaning over a wall staring at us. He was so intimidating that we decided to move our tent. We moved it to another corner of the park where we were quickly surrounded by police officers! We thought "ah man, they've found us already!".. NO! They were chasing an escaped criminal and we just happened to be right in the middle of it..

so, we moved again. This time we chose a pretty little tree with branches that hung low to the ground.. a perfect hiding space! Once under the tree, Robert immediately stepped in something. I shown the flashlight on his foot and we realized that it was human feces. What!! In a state of horror and shock I began to shine the flashlight all over the ground, only to discover pile after pile.. We found someone's makeshift bathroom and had almost put our tent down right on top of it. The horror!!

On we moved.. we walked about two miles to the center of the park and chose a little spot on a hill. A closer inspection revealed that the whole area was infested with used condoms. It was clearly an area used by prostitutes.. and I did not want to encounter them (or their condoms).

To make a long story short(er)- we moved again, set-up the tent and realized we were witnessing a drug deal. Finally, we had had enough! We packed up the tent and walked to the bus station to sleep.

Anyways, I think it's interesting how different things feel depending on whether there is daylight. Moving on..

We arrived in San Sebastian at 5:00 in the morning! Our bus was scheduled to get in at 7:00, but we were very very early. It was rainy and cold outside, but so beautiful. We were exhausted, so we found a nice secluded place on the beach and set-up our PONCHO TENT! Thats right.. our poncho tent. It was a ridiculous little thing that lasted only two nights, but it served us well on that cold and wet beach. The most amazing feature of the tent was that you could stick your head out of the top of it, where they included a convenient little hood, (like on a submarine) and look around.

We spent a good part of the day in that little city then took a 3 euro train to Irun, a city that sits on the border of France. Once there, we found a grocery store and bought some food to cook over a fire and a new tent! Equipped with our new things, we traveled on foot the several miles across the border and into Bayonne, France.

It was extremely anti-climatic. We expected (at least) a sign that read "Welcome to France", or "You've finally made it out of Spain.." but, no.. there was nothing! Our only indication was that people were suddenly speaking French.

On our first night in France we camped behind a large World War 2 memorial. It kept us perfectly hidden!

The next day we.. I'm just going to say it guys, at the risk of upsetting a certain group of people.. we hitchhiked. We got our first ride in Bayonne, and after a few stops in little towns, we made it to Langon.

In Langon, we set-up camp in a nice little forest with hiking trails. We had a bonfire and had smoked sausages with baguette and chips. In the late evening we heard music playing down one of the paths. We followed it and came out at a block party. They were making paella and had dancers. We returned later that night and danced to the horrible music being played by the worlds worst DJ! It was amazing, he would stop the music every 10-20 seconds to announce something like "yeah, dance.." and he had these absurd smoke machines and strobe lights that were blinding and choking the five people that were brave enough to stay in the tent! Very entertaining.

Our next stop was Bordeaux, France. We loved Bordeaux for it's winding streets, gray stone architecture and busy little markets. It was one of our favorite cities in France! We stayed one night in a little hotel that overlooked a market.

The next day we got a ride to Tours, France. The city is very clean, white and austere- a little too much so. It was beautiful, but it did not feel as alive as the other places we had been. We had dinner in a little Chinese restaurant and set-up camp in a park next to a large river.

The next day began with amazing luck! We got picked up immediately by an amazing woman named Chantel. We had a picnic with her (with five different types of cheese) and talked for hours. She drove us all the way to Paris; it was awful to say goodbye to her. We exchanged information, so Robert and I are going to write her a nice letter.

Once in Paris she dropped us off at a camp site a little out of the city. We set-up our tent, showered, then headed in! The day we arrived is a day of music celebration all over France and we were excited to see all of the concerts.

What can I say about Paris? It's huge, with so much culture and activity.. two days is not enough to have a real understanding of life there! We had crepes, watched live music, walked from the old town to the Eiffel Tower, visited the Louvre, saw the Notre Dame.. Paris is alive!

From Paris we began our trip towards my favorite region of France- the South! We got a ride into a small town nestled beside a castle called Fountainebleu. We camped one night in Fountainebleu and were off the next morning!

This was a very exciting day for us because we got our first ride in a tractor trailer, from a man named Serge. He didn't speak English but we were able to communicate fairly well and I was very sad to say goodbye to him after our 5 hour journey together. The trucking routes took us through some beautiful little cities, surrounding castles, with houses and villages pushed right up against the roads. He also took us to two little truck stops to have heart-clogging food and drinks!

Our last ride of the day was from a man named Patrice. He took us to his home city, Vienne, and invited us to stay with his family for the night! They served us dinner and we stayed up late drinking wine and eating..!! The next morning we awoke to fresh baguettes and croissants from the local bakery and giant cups of tea.

From Vienne we went to Avignon, one of the most beautiful cities we had seen in France. The old city is a little place tucked into a hillside with a castle and a monastery.