The good news is you did indeed read that correctly, Monseiur Dooley and I arrived in France Friday morning. Only two days late, but our Eurotrip has finally gotten enjoyable. The good times and experiences lay ahead with both of us eager to see the sights, drink and party with some Europeans, hit up a few museums, and who knows maybe even start some family lineage overseas.
Anyway, our flight right after the last post went off with no problems and only minor delays. We were served an english muffin with egg and tomato on it and a spot of tea. The British seem very fond of tomatoes, eggs, onions, and tuna, but we were no longer fond of much that had to do with the British.
We arrived in France at about 11:00 am local time, picked up our bags and proceeded to look for a phone to call Yannick. After the phone situation in Heathrow we decided against using another pay phone, so we inquired the lady at the phone desk about making a local call. We know very little of the French language and it seems that the majority of the French do not know ours either, which is unacceptable as America is the greatest country in the world. Despite the language barrier the stunningly beautiful French chick dialed Yannick up for us, and we confirmed with him about where we were heading. Following our directions, we took a bus into the center of Lyon. Dooley could not stay awake on this bus trip either, but he can't be blamed for this. I would have fallen asleep too but after everything thats happened I was too paranoid we'd miss our stop.
We arrived at Part Dieu in Lyon about 45 minutes later to Yannick waiting for us with open arms. Hugs were exchanged but no kisses. Dooley remains faithful Megan, which if you knew the pair of Dools and Yannick as inseparable instant BFFs4EVA! in high school you would have been concerned. After Elwood was no longer able to host us due to getting in trouble for allowing other friends of his to crash in the empty dorm room next to him, Yannick stepped up and offered to let us stay with him at his grandparents in Lyon. They speak zero English so it was a fun/unique experience. I wasn't instantly convinced they couldn't speak English so in as nice of a tone as possible I tested their honesty and patience by insulting everything from the French military to croissants. Yannick was right, they had no clue about English. They were both very nice, and his grandmother is exceptionally sweet. She made us café upon our arrival which we drank to be good guests despite the desire for a nap over caffeine.
After arriving to their apartment, Yannick took Dooley to get a new toothbrush and then we both passed out on the floor so that we could later enjoy our first evening in Lyon. After Yannick woke us up, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to meet up with Elwood at a small pub. After a couple beers we decided to head to a little more happening bar. Lyon is amazingly beautiful with amazing architecture, churches, and sculptures around each turn. Lyon was stunning in the day, and amazing at night during a light snowfall, which is rare in southern France. (Many pictures were taken, but unfortunately I can not upload them now as I forgot to bring the cord to connect the camera to the internet cafe.) As promised we indeed brought pieces of paper and pens with us to the pubs, bars, and clubs we visited last night and I will post exactly what those have written on them by the four of us, and only omit some of the English foul language that gentlemen of our stature should not be using.
BAR NOTES
- Yannick = engaged
- Elwood just said "She's not ready for the Wood"
- Plan Cul Regulier
- Cochonne
- Shots done to Yannick being engaged
- Need to introduce Yannick to Passion Pit songs
- We switched bars to a place called New York City Bar?
- Yannick vs Elwood beer drink off
- Yannick tries to correct the paper that it should be vses not vs
- In Britain he's right, in USA, screw him
- the song Black Betty is played (Yannick's 2nd fav song)
- At 22:49 (1049pm) Yannick says "f*** you" to all of us because our American English as opposed to British English got him bad grades when he was an exchange student at LT. 3 minutes ago he told us how much he loved us all.
- Yannick, Elwood, Tim, and Dools finish 35% of jklmfdjqklfjdmlsqjfdklmsqjfdklqsjf (It doesnt actually say that but the rest is nonsense scribbling Dooley wrote and when asked what it said immediately upon finishing it he responded "I don't know, I can't read that")
- I know you can't look upwards right now but Dooley can't write anymore because he's hammered!
- Clementine is awesome because she's the nicest girl on earth because she took a picture of us
- hello, it was a pleasure to take picture of your good friends!! They are funny and I hope you are enjoying your life!! - Clementine
- Man was wearing a very regular white vest, Dools says "WTF is with this guys vest." All are confused.
- Maier has kissed 2 French girls (One was an 8 and the other was a 5)
That concludes our notes from the evening. Fortunately I escaped it as intended, but obviously Dooley has added his first blackout on the trip and we will now begin to keep a counter on our posts to show his progress. I'll now let Dooley fill you in on the events that have transpired today.
After getting back to Yannicks grandparents' house at 630 this morning, we all four fell asleep in what probably added up to about 11 seconds. Yannick took the bed; we three passed out on the floor, the pads Tim and I commandeered from Heathrow coming in handy. Yannick then woke us up (just Tim and I as Elwood had bounced) at the crack of noon to eat a delicious French lunch that his grandmother had made us. Yannicks uncle would be joining us.
Still a bit hungover, Mrs Yannick rolled out the red carpet for us with a four course meal that included some kind of pumpkin keish that Mr and Mrs Yannick had actually grown themselves at their farm house where they stay during the summer. For the entree we had sausage, hot dogs and cabbage, and then of course, some fine wine and cheese to finish off the meal. I don't remember the name of the cheese, but it was quite amazing (quite a few notches above American) and went really well with the red wine we were enjoying. This brought the table to a rather interesting discussion about the difference between wine use in France as opposed to the US. Tim informed the table that the previous summer he had a glass of wine with dinner some nights, for which his mom jokingly accused him of having a problem. I told Yannick and his uncle that in order for an American high school student on a school trip to France or Spain to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, his or her parents would have to sign a waiver. This bewildered them both.
Sleeping situation
After lunch we said goodbye to Yannick. Our exact words were: See you in two to three years. Next, we had to find a hostel for the night, since Yannick was returning to Paris at 3 today. Yannick's uncle hooked us up with a hostel on a hill featuring a magnificent view overlooking the city, and even drove us there. We checked in, took a short nap, and headed to the town centre to meet with Elwood. Since phone contact is difficult for us we simply arranged to meet up with him at 5:00 outside of a subway stop. We arrived a bit late (530) and Elwood was nowhere to be found as we later discovered there was a problem with the subway near him. We waited until 615 before abandoning hopes to reconnect with Elwood to no avail. We will meet him again in Prague. We chose to spend the rest of the evening walking around the busy town streets and venturing into some stores including one selling rather nice pieces of art from local artists. We then made a trip over to the American Embassy (McDonalds) for some hamburgers. Tim's was on flatbread. Also notable, they give you the option of having a packet of what I'm pretty sure is mayo to go with your fries instead of ketchup and the royal with cheese was also on the menu.
We are currently in an internet cafe to check e-mail and update our blog before we walk back through the busy city to our hostel to get to bed early and catch up on some much needed sleep.
Our time in France has been short but great. We board a train tomorrow for Munich shortly after noon tomorrow.
Dooley Blackouts: 1
Sounds like you guys are having a blast! (After a pretty shitty delay at the London airport.) And congrats to Yannick on the engagement. She's a lucky gal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read through your bar notes,
ReplyDeleteI thought it said you kissed an 8-year-old and 5-year-old girl, which didn't surprise me in the least but made me wonder what happened to your cougar phase...