Blvd des PyrennesWeekend in Pau Nov 21st-23rd
This weekend I stayed in Pau. We were unlucky with the weather since it rained the whole time, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. There are Christmas lights all over Pau now, but they still haven’t turned them on. Rumor has it that they are going to turn them on next week. J’èspere! My friend Addie went to Paris with her family last weekend and said that the Christmas decorations are already lit. I can’t wait to see them all during the few days that I’ll be there before returning to the U.S. On Friday night in Pau, Natalie, Paula, and I went to this awesome Moroccan restaurant. Some other USAC kids discovered it after one of our excursions and gave it raving reviews, so, we decided to check it out. From the street it seemed like a little, hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but I was amazed by how large it was, and by how far it extended. Instead of chairs there were couches with all sorts of colorful, ornately decorate pillows. The whole restaurant was an explosion of color- even the lights were disguised as stain glass lanterns. I know it sounds gaudy, but it worked. We got to sit in the back room where they were playing this crazy Moroccan music. There was a large “business” dinner in that room too; there were some middle-aged people sitting there that had definitely had too much to drink. There was this old guy who was practically dancing on the table to the Moroccan music. It was hilarious! They kept trying to talk to us, and seemed like they were having a blast. After their dinner you could see them signing contracts haha. I guess that’s how they do business in France.
Afterwards we met up with some friends at a club by the Chateau. It was in an area we hadn’t been to before so we were kind of disoriented on our walk home. After about a half hour of walking, and crossing a river that I never knew existed, we realized that we were walking in the completely wrong direction! We ended up at the end of Jurançon, a popular wine region that neighbors Pau, and if we had walked another half hour we would have been in Spain! We started seeing signs for Bayonne, Hendaye, and SPAIN. Then we had to back track to downtown Pau and walk back to the dorms from there. It took us an hour & a half to get home and it should have taken twenty minutes. We were laughing the whole way home though, realizing that we had made such a silly mistake. To give us our due, there is a long street that leads to Jurançon and another street with the same name in Pau that, so I can see why we thought we were going the right way, sort of. Not to mention that it was pouring rain the entire time. I was the only one who had happened to bring an umbrella, but I was still soaked.
There we were in the pouring rain walking to Spain….One thing that drives me crazy about France is that there are never any street signs! You have to walk blocks sometimes before finding a street sign, not to mention that there are all of these weird little side streets, and very few many boulevards. This makes it exceptionally challenging to navigate, especially in the dark. Our map was so wet from the rain that we started sticking it against the backs of the bus stops, signs, and buildings, whatever. When Natalie showed me the map the next day I laughed so hard- it was completely ripped and smudged. Our little detour in the rain definitely took a toll on it. No worries we will get another one at the Tourism Office this week.
On Saturday I went to “La Fête de Livres”. This festival is a huge book fair that Pau hosts every year. Normally you have to pay for it, but this year it was free. When we first arrived there, it was not what we expected. There were booths everywhere with pamphlets and representatives behind them. It looked like either a college fair or a job fair. I guessed right because it ended up being for “L’Ecole Supérieure”. I picked up a pamphlet for my french university UPPA (Université de Pau et des Pays de L’Adour). Our french teachers had told us about La Fête de Livres and I couldn’t believe that this was it, so asked someone and figured out that we were in the wrong building. When we finally got there it was more what I expected. There were stations of books, lots of authors, and readings etc... You know me, put me in a room of books and you can’t get me to leave. I could tell that my friends were getting bored after awhile so I reluctantly left to go shopping downtown.
We walked around and shopping for awhile and then met our friends Josh for dinner. We went to a fondue restaurant by the Chateau. It was my first time having fondue at a restaurant so it was pretty exciting. They brought out 3 large pots of fondue of all different kinds and we dipped small pieces of bread in them with our skewer-things. The rule was that if you dropped your bread in the fondue then you would have to kiss the person to your left. No one actually abided by that rule though, probably because someone dropped their bread in the fondue pot every other second.
Random side note, this was an exciting weekend for les Palois (what they call people from Pau) because a new wine just came out from this region. The entire town in raving about it and even our teachers and program directors are insisting that everyone try it. It’s cheaper to buy in Pau than anywhere else, and I believe that it is only available in certain regions at the moment. It’s called Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2008. I tried it this week and even the cheapest bottle (I’m on a budget so of course we bought the cheapest one) was still incredible. Maybe we will splurge at the end of the quarter and buy a 4 or 5 Euro bottle of wine, god forbid. Wine is so cheap here that I am definitely going to have a hard time watching people spend so much money on it when I go back to the U.S.
Travel Faux-Pas
Besides my little story about getting stuck in Belgium there have been many other “tragic” events with other groups of USAC travelers. I thought that you might enjoy hearing them.
Story number one- the Italy girls
So the weekend that I went to Ireland some of my other friends went to Rome, Italy. On the way back to Pau they planned on taking a Ryan Air flight from Rome to Brussels. Unfortunately the Italians decided that they didn’t want to work that day and decided to go on strike for a week. On top of that, their flight was one of the last flights that would have been allowed to take-off, but apparently a bunch of birds flew into the engine so they decided to cancel their flight too. All flights were canceled for a week so they had to no other choice but to take the train home. It cost 300 Euro for them to endure a 20 hour train voyage, not to mention the layover time in between trains. They took the train from Rome to Paris, from Paris to Switzerland, and from Switzerland back to Pau. You did not want to talk to any of them the next day because they were so pissed off about how their trip ended. To an outside observer who didn’t have to endure that it sounded pretty funny. I couldn’t help, but laugh when my friend Laura told me the story.
Everyone seemed to have travel problems that week. Another group of USAC students went to Barcelona for the long weekend. They didn’t miss any flights, but definitely ran into problems in the Brussels airport, yet again. We decided that Brussels is the Bermuda Triangle of Europe, everyone gets stuck there. This girl Abbey had pepper spray in her purse, just for safety like most girls who have it. When she went through security though, she was hassled and had to fill out a police report. They almost missed their flight because of it.
This same group of travelers also had traveling mishaps when they went to Ireland last week. This girl Julie realized the morning that they were supposed to leave that she didn’t know where her passport was. They spent hours searching for it all over Dublin, but had no luck finding it. She proceeded to the airport without it and somehow they let her out of Ireland, probably because she had checked in online and had another form of ID. In Brussels though, they ran into problems. There was a strike for some reason at the Brussels airport now, quel surprise, and there were no flights out of Brussels for over a week. They could have taken the train, but like we discovered during our Belgium experience, the train was way expensive. So, they decided to rent a car in Brussels and to drive back to Pau. It took them two days to get to Toulouse, spending one night in Paris. Then from Toulouse they had to take a 2 hour train ride back to Pau. What a crazy weekend!
Speaking of cars, did I tell you the story about my English friends who rented a car to drive from Pau to Madrid? Well, this British kid Tom (he’s my french class, but hardly ever goes) him and his friends rented a small van to drive to Spain for the weekend. Remember that in England they drive on the opposite side of the road. France is the same as the U.S. though. Since they weren’t used to sitting on the left side of the car to drive, they were at a disadvantage from the start. His friend C.J. took the first driving shift. I guess that is was really foggy driving through the mountains, because they got a ticket for driving too slowly! Then Tom got pissed off at C.J. so he decided to drive. The same instant that we was pulling back onto the road C.J. yelled, “ on your left!”, as a reminder to turn left, but Tom thought that someone was coming from the left and freaked out, driving into the center divider of the highway. There were just a couple scratches on the car, because they were driving pretty slowly. Then, when he decided to finally pull back onto the road he wasn’t paying attention and hit another car. Their car was still functioning after that, but pretty beat up looking. They had to pay a 1000 Euro fine between them since they damaged the car. Tant pis!
I’m going to Barcelona this weekend and I really hope that our trip goes smoothly, especially with all of the adventures that everyone has had with the European transportation systems.
So what have we learned from all of these people???
1. Europeans like to go on strike randomly, so try to not plan trips when you have important engagements soon after your return.
2. Don’t take a connecting flight with Ryan Air. Just don’t do it! They only fly point to point and will make you pay for another flight, even if it’s their fault that you missed it. Only fly direct with Ryan Air.
3. Don’t bring pepper spray, wine openers or bottles of wine in your carry-on (even if it’s a gift for the people you’re staying with). They will be taken from you, and you might get in trouble with the law.
4. Guard your passport with your life!
5. Don’t rent a car! It’s crazy driving in Europe, especially France. If you have to, be ready to pay some heavy fines if anything happens to it. Also, remember gas is expensive.
6. Don’t trust British people to drive you around in France when they’re not used to driving on the right sides of the road. I was invited to go with them the first time, and I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t!
7. But finally and most importantly……don’t get too worked up over traveling mishaps. If you learn to embrace every moment that you are in Europe, even if you’re stuck on a train for 20 hours, you will be much happier with your experience. Just enjoy the people you’re with and know that you will have a great story to tell afterwards. This is all part of the abroad experience!!
Bon Voyage!
Story number one- the Italy girls
So the weekend that I went to Ireland some of my other friends went to Rome, Italy. On the way back to Pau they planned on taking a Ryan Air flight from Rome to Brussels. Unfortunately the Italians decided that they didn’t want to work that day and decided to go on strike for a week. On top of that, their flight was one of the last flights that would have been allowed to take-off, but apparently a bunch of birds flew into the engine so they decided to cancel their flight too. All flights were canceled for a week so they had to no other choice but to take the train home. It cost 300 Euro for them to endure a 20 hour train voyage, not to mention the layover time in between trains. They took the train from Rome to Paris, from Paris to Switzerland, and from Switzerland back to Pau. You did not want to talk to any of them the next day because they were so pissed off about how their trip ended. To an outside observer who didn’t have to endure that it sounded pretty funny. I couldn’t help, but laugh when my friend Laura told me the story.
Everyone seemed to have travel problems that week. Another group of USAC students went to Barcelona for the long weekend. They didn’t miss any flights, but definitely ran into problems in the Brussels airport, yet again. We decided that Brussels is the Bermuda Triangle of Europe, everyone gets stuck there. This girl Abbey had pepper spray in her purse, just for safety like most girls who have it. When she went through security though, she was hassled and had to fill out a police report. They almost missed their flight because of it.
This same group of travelers also had traveling mishaps when they went to Ireland last week. This girl Julie realized the morning that they were supposed to leave that she didn’t know where her passport was. They spent hours searching for it all over Dublin, but had no luck finding it. She proceeded to the airport without it and somehow they let her out of Ireland, probably because she had checked in online and had another form of ID. In Brussels though, they ran into problems. There was a strike for some reason at the Brussels airport now, quel surprise, and there were no flights out of Brussels for over a week. They could have taken the train, but like we discovered during our Belgium experience, the train was way expensive. So, they decided to rent a car in Brussels and to drive back to Pau. It took them two days to get to Toulouse, spending one night in Paris. Then from Toulouse they had to take a 2 hour train ride back to Pau. What a crazy weekend!
Speaking of cars, did I tell you the story about my English friends who rented a car to drive from Pau to Madrid? Well, this British kid Tom (he’s my french class, but hardly ever goes) him and his friends rented a small van to drive to Spain for the weekend. Remember that in England they drive on the opposite side of the road. France is the same as the U.S. though. Since they weren’t used to sitting on the left side of the car to drive, they were at a disadvantage from the start. His friend C.J. took the first driving shift. I guess that is was really foggy driving through the mountains, because they got a ticket for driving too slowly! Then Tom got pissed off at C.J. so he decided to drive. The same instant that we was pulling back onto the road C.J. yelled, “ on your left!”, as a reminder to turn left, but Tom thought that someone was coming from the left and freaked out, driving into the center divider of the highway. There were just a couple scratches on the car, because they were driving pretty slowly. Then, when he decided to finally pull back onto the road he wasn’t paying attention and hit another car. Their car was still functioning after that, but pretty beat up looking. They had to pay a 1000 Euro fine between them since they damaged the car. Tant pis!
I’m going to Barcelona this weekend and I really hope that our trip goes smoothly, especially with all of the adventures that everyone has had with the European transportation systems.
So what have we learned from all of these people???
1. Europeans like to go on strike randomly, so try to not plan trips when you have important engagements soon after your return.
2. Don’t take a connecting flight with Ryan Air. Just don’t do it! They only fly point to point and will make you pay for another flight, even if it’s their fault that you missed it. Only fly direct with Ryan Air.
3. Don’t bring pepper spray, wine openers or bottles of wine in your carry-on (even if it’s a gift for the people you’re staying with). They will be taken from you, and you might get in trouble with the law.
4. Guard your passport with your life!
5. Don’t rent a car! It’s crazy driving in Europe, especially France. If you have to, be ready to pay some heavy fines if anything happens to it. Also, remember gas is expensive.
6. Don’t trust British people to drive you around in France when they’re not used to driving on the right sides of the road. I was invited to go with them the first time, and I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t!
7. But finally and most importantly……don’t get too worked up over traveling mishaps. If you learn to embrace every moment that you are in Europe, even if you’re stuck on a train for 20 hours, you will be much happier with your experience. Just enjoy the people you’re with and know that you will have a great story to tell afterwards. This is all part of the abroad experience!!
Bon Voyage!
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