Mia and her (past) travels and other various interests of hers.

On October 10th Pauline and Pascal LeGoer had a gorgeous baby girl called Josie. Otherwise known as Crepouille or Choupinette. She was born 3.595 kg and 51 cm.

She’s just adorable!

Don’t worry, Dan. The cluckiness will wear off.

As Dad insists on calling it.

Paris was also short lived. Although I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to get out because of Train strikes. Turns out I just couldn’t get around.

Métro drivers were on strike. Astonishingly enough the trains were still more frequent than Connex services.

I came, I voted, I left. I suppose I did a bit of walking around in between. I didn’t do any serious sightseeing because I saw the big things last time. Although it’s quite difficult to avoid seeing the Eiffel Tower. Every taxi I took seemed to need to go past it. I think they do it on purpose if you ask me.

I’m in love…

I’m in love with the town of Lyon. He is handsome, he treats me well, he’s not sleazy, he is a bit bourgeois. Unfortunately our affair was a short one.

I went to Lyon with the purpose of seeing Cat Empire in concert. Who would have thought I’d find the love of my life at the same time. I only had 2 days there as I wanted to get to Paris to vote at the Embassy, but it was great and I will be going back.

I spent some of my time trying to decipher the strange accent of a French-Canadian guy, called Vincent, who I met randomly in the street. It turned out our Hotels were right next to each other so we went sight-seeing together.

The food was fabulous, the sights were gorgeous and the wine wasn’t bad either!

The Cat Empire concert was really great. I decided not to take my camera so no photos of them but you all know what they look like anyway!  They only played 2 songs off the new album and weren’t even promoting it, which was a shame. I think it’s a wonderful album and cannot stop listening to it!

Conclusion: Lyon= Favourite city so far.

The French train people have decided to strike from tomorrow 6pm til whenever they decide. This may cause some problems for me because:

a) I use the trains to get…uh…everywhere

b) I am using the trains a fair bit in the next week

So I don’t know exactly what’s going on yet but all I know is that services are going to be cancelled and those that aren’t cancelled are going to be very very full and I need to be in Lyon by 8:30pm Sunday for the Cat Empire concert. Fingers crossed.

In other news:

I took a little trip west last week to visit Carcasson (try pronouncing it with a French accent…Seriously, it’s fun) and Toulouse. The trip was fairly uneventful but pleasant nonetheless.

There is some seriously good food in Toulouse. When I arrived it was lunch time so I went in search of a restaurant that does local cuisine (tourist brochures can be good for this). I had myself a gastronomic feast of marinated mussels, fresh pasta with smoked salmon and dark chocolate mousse. It was as good as it sounds.

Toulouse was also my first Hotel stay for my entire trip. I had one night in a two star, basic but comfortable and clean room. Privacy! My god, I’d almost forgotten what the word meant.

Well I forgot that word pretty quickly when the next night I was back in a backpackers in Carcasson.

Carcasson is a walled medieval village reconstructed in the 1800s. There are two parts to Carcasson in fact, there is the main town which was created as the business centre and just up the hill is the walled village which was restored and in it’s time was one of a strongest fortresses in France.

Now the village consists of souvenir stores and overpriced restaurants. However the castle is still there and you can do a tour through it. It has an immense amount of history, most of which I’ve forgotten.

Cobble stones in Carcasson mean I trip over 112% more than usual!

The Youth Hostel is actually inside the medieval village which is pretty cool but it is institutionalized (Hostelling International), the staff are rude (maybe that’s just the French though) and the beds creeeaaaakk at the slightest movement.

I have kind of a sour view of this particular hostel. The fact that I got 2 hours sleep in total in it doesn’t help either. This hostel was my first experience of being in a room with a snorer.

It all started when I was talking to a lovely old (slightly overexcited) lady from Sydney when we realised we were in the same room. “Oh it’s nice to know the people that I’m in a room with” I thought. I’d met the other person earlier that evening, an over-inquisitive German Biochemical engineer (female).

Bed time came and no sooner had I almost fallen asleep did it start. It started as a “I fell asleep on my back and my throat isn’t quite what it used to be” kind of snore but after a while turned into “My god is she trying to start up a lawn mower? Really really loudly? Over and over? ALL NIGHT?”

I woke her up about three times during the night but every time she got that lawn mower out again. When she finally got up at 7am I managed to get 2 hours sleep before lock out at 10am.

Next time, I take earplugs.

Photos! (all Carcasson)

Yes, last Wednesday to Saturday saw me traipsing, rambling and gambolling around good ‘ol Barcelona.

It all began when I was looking at a map of France and realised “Oh my goodness, I’m that close to Spain. Cool, I’m totally going to Spain!”

So off I went indeed. I took a 5 hour train trip from Nimes to Barcelona at 5am last Wednesday morning.

Two days before hand however I thought I was going to have to cancel going altogether because I could not for the life of me find a Hostel with spare room. After slaving over and trawling through Hostel booking websites I finally found a free bed for 4 nights at the Catalonia Hostel. I had no idea where it was or what it was like but I was relieved to have found it!

It turned out the Hostel was in an ideal and very nice location just a 15 min walk from La Rambla which is the main tourist street. It happened to be situated in the most glamorous part of Barcelona as well. So I was surrounded by Valentino, Chanel and Gucci. It was a great hostel as well with very nice staff and a communal kitchen and sitting area. And free breakfast! Always a good thing.

In the Hostel I met some interesting people:

-A very left wing, but at the same time really timid Italian boy. I think he felt it was his duty to inform anybody who would listen about the mafia control of the Italian government.

-Two French female primary school teachers who were on schools holidays and partying a little too hard for my liking. I spent one day sightseeing with them. One was a total control freak so I opted out of a second day.

-A Senegalese, Parisian born guy who had spent 3 years in England and now studies in Barcelona. His accent when speaking English was to die for.

The first three days were passed very nicely. The only mistake I made, I think, was insisting to myself that the places I was going weren’t really that far away and it wasn’t worth taking the Metro to get there. However spending 20-30 minutes walking each way takes up a decent amount of time and I didn’t end up seeing everything that I wanted. This included the Picasso Museum and the Sagrada Familia which is a massively huge Cathedral on a hill that everyone insisted I had to see…well I saw it from a distance at least, it’s pretty hard to miss actually.

I did, however, do some very enjoyable things. Often they were things that I would just stumble upon whilst I was walking as well. Like the Aquarium!! I didn’t know Barcelona had an Aquarium! Señor Gaudi was everywhere you just couldn’t escape him! All his sights tended to be a little overrun with tourists. His architectural work is really amazing but the buildings in the city weren’t much to my liking. Maybe I need to refine my taste.

Unfortunately mon séjour was cut short prematurely because I had one night less in the Hostel than I thought. I found out at 10:30 Saturday morning that I was due to check out that day and I thought I was checking out Sunday. The next best train was at 11:30 so I quickly threw my stuff in my pack, (I mean…folded everything carefully and meticulously, Mum) checked out and got the Metro to the station.

I managed to escape Barcelona without having ANYTHING stolen *applause*. Seriously, pickpockets are terrible there. The day I arrived I spoke t two Australian girls in my hostel. One had her wallet stolen within 3 hours of being in the city. Their friend was staying in another Hostel but when he was outside the train station he had his entire bag stolen. Passport, laptop, iPod and all. Eek. I consider myself very lucky.

OK enough of that. Photo time!

Aww…Australia is everywhere.

I loved this statue. I always tried to figure out what she was waiting for so solemnly.

The guys with the huge sacks on their backs were incredible and so funny. Basically, they sell counterfeit designer handbags in the street. It’s illegal what they’re doing and every now and then the Police come past to try and catch them. They all work as a group so if one sees the police near by they whistle, bundle up their lot and run, run for the hills! Very funny to watch.

That instrument that he’s playing is exactly the same as a didgeridoo.

On the way up to Park Guèll. It’s a steep climb so they’ve got escalators for the overweight American tourists.

Park Guèll

The Sagrada Familia is that huge thing you can see on the very top of the hill. Oh yeah, I tried to put myself in some of the photos, but it’s difficult when visiting places by yourself and I was too paranoid about my camera being stolen to ask anyone to take them for me.

And the last but definitely not least. The best Graffiti I’ve seen to date.

“Why call it ‘Tourist Season’ if we can’t shoot them”

Brilliant.