October 7, 2003
Today Laurie and I took the train to Cannes. That is where they have the Cannes Film Festival. We had heard that it wasn't that nice, but we heard you could get a ferry to an island that was nice. So that is what we did.
The island is called Saint Marguerite. This is where the man with the Iron Mask was held captive during the late 17th century. It was made famous by Alexander Dumas who wrote the book and more recently the movie was done with Leonarda Di Caprio. I had enjoyed the movie, but I would like to see it again to refresh my memory.
The ride over was a little choppy. I was in the back of the boat and I could feel the spray from the sea on my face. It felt good.
Once we got there, we walked on the trail all around the out skirts of the island. It was a great island. I don't think anyone lives there and I think it is just a park. You could see another island from there. It is called Saint Honorat and it is home to the Cistercian Monks. I hear that island is suppose to be beautiful also.
We caught the 3:00 ferry back to Cannes. The boat wasn't as nice as the one over. It was filled and there were about 30 six year olds there. It was bench style seats facing one another. The bench facing me was filled with the kids. Again the water was choppy and with this boat you could really feel it. Then water was coming in from the sides. I felt like I was on a ride at an amusement park. The kids were all laughing as was I. We were getting wet and the boat was rocking back and forth. It was fun, but I was glad to get off.
We didn't stick around Cannes. Just hopped on the train back to Nice. Laurie and I walked to get something to eat. Afterwards, Laurie went out and I stayed in for the night.
October 8, 2003
I will be glad to be leaving Nice. It is not because I don't like it, but because it is so noisy. I have not really been able to sleep. People are out all night, music is blaring from radios and the other night about 3:00 I could hear people across the street cleaning or moving or working in this room. Then the trash men comes to pick up every night late; I could hear all of the bottles tumbling into the garbage truck. I don't know how people live in the city.
So we booked out of Nice. At first, we weren't sure when we were going. It is either Aix-en-Provence or Arles. Drew told us that Arles was nice. So we went to Arles.
When we got off the train, it seemed we were out in the middle of nowhere. The tourist information office there had just closed. Laurie tried calling the hostel, but there wasn't any answer. I went to the train station and asked them for a map to see if I could find the hostel.
We weren't too far away from the center and there was another information office there. I found out the hostel wasn't open till 5:00. I then got the local guide for hotels. I found a couple that weren't too expensive and they were close to the train station.
We went to the one closest to us. It was called Gaugh Hotel. It was small, out dated, but clean. We took a room that had a balcony. After checking in, we went to another hotel just to check that one out. It was nicer so we told the man we would take it the next two days.
We then found a grocery store. It was the largest that we have seen in awhile. I picked up a few things.
Didn't do much else. Read and walked around. Maybe tomorrow there will be something exciting.
October 9, 2003
Well today wasn't very exciting either. We decided to leave Arles. I wasn't up for sightseeing anywhere. I just felt like getting to Barcelona and settling there for the next three nights before I start my Spanish classes. Did I mention that Laurie and I signed up for two week of Spanish language classes. I am really excited about it. I have always wanted to learn another language and be able to speak another language fluently. I know two weeks won't be enough, but it will be fun. I just wish I could live in a foreign country for a while to really learn to speak and understand the language. Well, how knows, maybe I will.
So today we spent 10 hours traveling to get to Barcelona. We called one hostel, but they were full. They gave us another number, and they had room. We found it and checked in. We have a large room all to ourselves which is nice, but is very bare. It just has a bunk bed and a set of lockers. We have a window, but it just looks at concrete in every direction, but up or down. There will be no way to get much air in. The place seems clean and the bathrooms and showers seem good.
We put our things in the room. It was probably about 6:15 then. We then went looking for tourist information. The streets are crowded with people walking and milling about. We got to the main road, La Rambles. This place was packed. In the center of the road is a wide pedestrian walkway. It is filled with all kinds of vendors and many street entertainers. I saw several of one type of vendor that I thought was unusual. They were selling birds. They just weren't parakets. They had doves, chickens, grouse, and many other unusual birds. I can't imagine what they do with them. One bird that they didn't have were pigeons, which were walking freely all around the other birds.
There were lots of food places around. I also saw several American chains; Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, KFC, and of course, Mc Donald's.
One thing we see a lot in all the cities are homeless. I know they are everywhere, but at home I am not in the area to see them. Many just sit there with their cups out hoping people will put money in. Many are dirty, and have open sores on their legs and arms. Some are missing limbs. It is very sad to see.
We found the information center and got a map and some brochures. We then went to look to see where the school is located. It is not too far away from the main area. The only thing it sounds like it might be really noisy.
We started walking back to the hostel, We found the grocery store and we went in to check it out. As we were walking out we ran into Erica and Todd. They are a cute young couple
