Pain, pain, pain

Arrived Lyon 10:20am, the weather was not as cold as people had me believe. In fact, it was not cold at all, people lied to me! It was 39 degrees on the day I left Melbourne, so I had on a sleeveless top, and I didn't really need much more than that when I arrived in Lyon. What was the temperature you ask... a very balmy 10 degrees and blue skies. The same temperature in Melbourne would've been freezing but strangely enough, isn't so bad in France.

I did a lot on my first day, Lulu thought it was a great idea to take advantage of the great weather and took me all over town - nevermind that I was severely jetlagged and exhausted, the sun is out and we gotta make the most of it!

It was wonderful to see my sister again after 5 months, I really missed her a lot, we had so much to catch up on, I don't think we stopped talking at all - ignore the fact that I spoke to on the phone every week... it's very different to talk in person.

I have lots of photos that I had wanted to post up for you to see but doofus me, I left the cable to the camera back at the hotel so perhaps next time...

This keyboard is driving me mental (this is q noq,qkl thing thqt I doulzd fhdq zmkjakjsd)

Righty, now that I got that out of my system - here's briefly what I did over the last 3 days:

First meal - a baguette, how French! Little did I know that when it comes to cheap and fast food, the choice is almost endless. You can have bread or you can have sweet bread. There are many many take-away outlets that sell baguettes or pastries and that's pretty much it. There are no greasy Chinese, no healthy sushi, no delicious curries, no fish & chip shops, just boulangeries (bakeries) The french word for bread is 'pain' so, it is quite amusing to me that not only am I actually in a little bit of pain, but I have to eat it too.

oh, I discovered, the other thing you can get are kebabs... but you can't get that in a shopping centre, even though there is only ONE shopping centre here. (and our hotel is conveniently, just across the road from this one and only shopping centre) :p

Anyway, back to what we did... we visited a church or two, the Notre Dame de Fourviére was stunning, so over-the-top, so extravagant, and such beautiful views of the city. I'm sorry I can't show you in photos how gorgeous this church is on the inside. My photos really really can't do it any justice. You have to see it to experience its splendour.

We had a meal at a 'bouchon' which is not quite a restaurant and a little bit like a cafe but not quite. You can only experience a bouchon in Lyon, it's a very Lyonaise thing apparently. The only I can say about it is - WOW! The food was incredible, and way too much, it's a rare occasion when I can't actually finish all the food put down in front of me, especially good food. I hate wasting food. If you ever get to try a herring salad, go for it - don't knock it til you've tried it, it was surprisingly good and I hate herrings! There are some weird stuff on the menus though, I wasn't brave enough to try the calf's head. I was a little curious to see how it would have been presented, would the baby cow's head just be slapped onto a plate and put down in front of you? EEWWW, I've put myself off lunch for today :(

We packed up Lulu's stuff, posted them back home, moved her ginormous suitcase to the hotel and checked out of her residence for the last time. I think she is really glad to be rid of that miserable place. We had a lot of fun manouvering this monster suitcase through the metro, up and down countless stairs. I don't really look forward to doing it again.

Had a gorgeous chocolate crepe. Yum

Had an 'ancient' hot chocolate - not exactly sure what they mean by that but they do love to using it to describe things, especially food. "ancient" hot choccie, "ancient" crepes, "ancient" bread etc...

watched an 'ancient' clock in a St Jean's Churh chime. It's something that's supposed to be quite special but I must admit was kind of a let down. The clock itself is hundreds of years old, perhaps because it still works is the reason why it is so special... but the old lady next to us took the words right out of my mouth when she said ' C'est tout?' (is that all?)

French women are so stylish and thin and beautiful in general, I feel so much like Miss Frumpy Dumpy from Planet Bumpy here... I don't think I've ever felt so invisible in my life. But then again, they all smoke so I know I smell a lot nicer than any of them and will get to live a lot longer too.

Lulu has gone to do an exam (yup, she has an exam on a SATURDAY!) so I've been exploring the place little bit on my own this morning. I must look like a local now or at least look like I know where I am going because I had 2 people come upto me asking for directions and all I could say was 'ne comprend pas' hehe, I've forgotten all the French I've learned in high school, I'm not even sure I spelt that correctly. Nobody would ever believe that I used to be at the top of my French class for a number of years. I was really quite good at French, but it's all escaped me now.

Funny thing was, I even managed to help a French man buy a metro ticket! I barely know what I'm doing myself and here I am, the blind leading the blind, showing this gentleman what he needs to do to buy a ticket!! That's the highlight of my day today :)

ok, well I have to go now to find my sister, I think she's taking me to some famous museum, hope I don't get lost because 'Je ne comprends pas' anything here :)

I was gonna write about what happened on my plane ride here, but it's a little bit complicated and long to explain and I can't type quick enough but probably most of you wouldn't care anyway so it doesn't matter. I got here via London instead of Amsterdam as originally planned, and I got here safely is all that matters. If you want to know more, just ask me, I like telling stories.

Two hours sitting in this internet cafe, on a very uncomfortable wooden chair and you can see why my butt is sore....

Until next time, be good dear friends