Hello!
I still can't believe France is over. It was so incredible, if tiring, getting to see the places that I saw, and meet the people that I met. It was an amazing experience and something that I'll never forget, I hope it doesn't take too long for me to return.
This post is the first proper post in my Gail's Interrail Experience series and it's all about Toulouse!
I'll write a better post about my actual interrail experience another time, because the trains were a long and tiring experience. My first journey from Grenoble (where I landed) to Toulouse didn't get off to the best start... In short, I got shouted at by an angry French man, then my second train was delayed by 30 minutes because of a pick pocket. But once I arrived, at around 9pm, I met Simo who was amazing. He was my host for the few nights that I was in the city, because I was couchsurfing. He's become one of my friends. Read my post about my couchsurfing experience here.
The day that I arrived, there was a party going on but I was too tired to go along to it. So, I stayed in, showered, blogged then slept.
On day 2, he made breakfast; tea, bread with olive oil and some clementines and then we got ourselves organised before we met up with Gabbie at the Metro station. Gabbie is an Australian girl who's come to Europe by herself for the first time! She was so lovely, and I really hope she enjoyed herself!
Together, we visited the markets (which remind me a little of car boot sales), churches (little door) and parks before we met up with Cris, a Spanish girl who was also spending a few days couchsurfing with Simo. We dropped off her things at Simo's flat, explored a little bit more, took pictures through the cardboard cut outs at the fȇte de la violette, then met up with Simo's friends at a cafe. I had a hot chocolate, in case you wanted to know! (I had a lot of hot chocolate during my time in France.)
After that, as a group we went to a museum which was really interesting, though there were times where Gabbie and I didn't take it totally seriously (the sword looked like a lightsabre). Cris took a group selfie of us all, and after that we all took a walk to the river to see one of the most famous spots in Toulouse, and where Remi (sorry if the spelling is wrong!) explained things to us all in English, French and Spanish.
We were all pretty hungry, so we went to get some crȇpes, WHICH WERE SO GOOD! I'D NEVER HAD A SAVOURY CRȆPE BEFORE! I can't remember the name of the one I chose but I remember that it had cheese and mushroom inside. We had cider with it and stayed for a while, having about 3 different conversations. I was called Wally again because of my red and white stripey shirt. Soon, we all parted ways and said bon voyage to Gabbie, who was planning to go to Paris the next day. Then Simo and Cris and I went back home and chatted. It turns out that Cris also has a blog! So if you're a Spanish speaker, make sure to check her out ;) and we exchanged socials - here is her Twitter. As a group, we had a long conversation and then went to sleep.
Simo had university the next morning, so he left early. Meanwhile, Cris and I spent the day chatting a little then went back on our laptops until he returned at lunch time.
He cooked us all a big lunch while we talked about politics. Then we all went back to chilling.
I had a train to catch at 4.50pm, but I left a bit too late and so Simo came with me to the train station so that I didn't have to navigate the metro by myself. When we arrived at the train station, however.... My train had departed, so instead of paying 60€, and because I was going to use the next day as a travel day, we decided that I'd stay an extra night. (So I travelled 6 hours to Marseille the next day to save money, but then had a further 5 hours before I actually reached my next stop, I was exhausted!) He had to meet his friend after we decided this, so I navigated myself back, and Cris let me in.
Together, we decided to go to the shop to get ingrediants in order to make something for Simo. Pizza was the obvious choice, given that I have pizza making experience (not to brag or anything) so we bought flour, yeast, cheese and various toppings. We didn't get any tomato puree because we thought that Simo already had some (he didn't). We also went from one shop to another and at the second shop we were asked to open our bags - I think they thought we were shop lifting! (obviously, we weren't.)
When Simo let us in, we chilled for a while again, and laughed at my mix up with the train. Once we realised that Simo didn't have any tomato puree, Cris went to the shop to get some while I made the pizza dough and attempted to speak French. When she returned, it turned out that she'd accidentally bought soup instead, but we made the best of a bad situation.
We left the dough to prove for a little while then ended up having a cultural exchange with me trying to teach ceilidh dancing, Simo teaching Moraccan dancing and Cris showing us some Spanish dancing. It was a lot of fun. We also talked a little more about politics, ate our pizza (which wasn't the worst, to be fair. We are the pizza QUEENS) and then we went to sleep.
The next morning, I was already pretty packed from the day before with just a few last minute things, and, learning from my mistake the day before, I left at 9.10 for my first of 5 trains at 1010.
It honestly was so much fun, and I'm really glad that my first couchsurfing experience was so positive. I really hope I've made friends who will remain in my life!
Stay tuned for the next interrail adventure - Menton and Monaco!
I'm also planning on uploading an album on my Facebook page of all my pictures from this trip, so keep an eye out on there and on my Instagram to see them all!
Until next time, be excellent to each other.
No comments :
Post a Comment