Trip to Lyon

I made my first trip to Lyon last week. I did not have work on Monday and |Tuesday was rememberance day so I took full advantage and went to Lyon to meet up with my friend Brian.

Brian is a software developer and he is doing a solo backpacking trip across Europe right now. I haven't seen him since University when we did FLC together. Now he is taking a much needed break and traveling across Europe for 2 month on his banked vacation times from the past three years.

I met up with Brian and his new friend Breana who is a nurse on a backpacking trip herself. It was really interesting to hear her story. Beanna is a nurse from Saskatoon who saw her whole life changed because of an accident. The details of which resemble something out of a movie like 127 hours. She was driving to work when her car hit an icy patch and slammed into the frozen river. She kicked her broken windshield out and swum in freezing waters and shore and safety. In the process breaking her collar bone and changing her life view. That was just last year in September and now she is traveling the world because she realizes how fast things can change. Anyways I really liked her attitude and invited her to crash at my place if she ever comes to Alsace. Here is the story from CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/breanna-pegg-feared-she-d-die-after-car-plunged-into-river-1.2488905

While in Lyon I also went to a couchsurfing meetup where I met some really cool people including a French chef working for the most famous chef in France, a Japanese German dude who bicycled all the way from France to Japan in one year. And of course my couchsurfer Fred who took us all over the city and opened his home to me and cooked me wonderful breakfast everyday.

Roman amphitheater still intact and they hold concerts here!

Brian and I 

Found a stop sign, carried it around for 2 days. I was going to bring it back to my house but in the end it was confiscated in the museum and we almost got arrested lols! This thing weights a ton, really sad I didn't get to keep it!

I really like Lyon as a city, it is very organized with lots of bicycle path and many things to do and see. But unlike Paris it is not so big that it gets confusing or congested. It kind of feels like the Busan of Seoul. And of course if you know me you know how much I loved Busan!

I have plans to come back to Lyon for the fetes de Lumier in December with my friends and check out the biggest festival in France.


Peace from Lyon.

House Party!

So I organized my first house party in France this weekend. We sent out the invitation to our closest friends in Mulhouse and Strasbourg and were fully not expecting anyone to come on account of the distance and difficulty in getting here. But in the end it was a big success and Scott and Liz came out!

So Scott is an English assistant from Mulhouse who broke his leg before school started. So he has been in a cast this whole time. But luckily over the break the cast came off and so he wanted to use his new found legs. He was lucky and was dropped off by one of his teachers who lived in Soultz the town next over. Liz is an American assistant from Strasbourg who is super fancy. In fact the first day of training I pointed out how fancy she was and we started to sing Iggy's fancy and dance spontaneously. What I am trying to say is she is pretty cool :D

We cooked dinner together and the conversation kept flowing. I was thinking of doing some drinking games prior to the party to get people to talk but there was really no need as everyone geled. Also we spoke most of the time in French because my roommate Loic is French and can't speak English!

Because Liz and Scott couldnt catch a train to get back home since we live in Guebwiller they stayed for the night sleeping in my room. And on Saturday we all went for a hike in the surrounding vinyards and had some more of Anna's cookies.

All in all a very successful and fun house party! Going to try to organize more of this.

Candid shot

I believe I said: "Quick - look like you guys are having fun"

Soultz

Scott the coat monster since he didn't bring any sleeping bag I used my coats to cover him haha. 

Peace from Guebwiller.

Quick trip to Germany Fribourg

My friend Aimee visited me from Bordeaux after I came back from Geneva. I met Aimee at the Canadian embassy when we were both doing our visa paperwork and we also took the same plane over.

We had originally planned to go to a couple of places. However, the lack of transportation in Guebwiller and the expensive trains prevented that. So in the end we decided to only visit Fribourg in Germany. Fribourg is about a 1 hour train ride away from where I live.

We were lucky and found a couchsurfer Steffen who took us in for the night. Steffen is a social worker (I seem to always stay with social workers haha) and his roommate is in a band called the Maladroits and is pretty famous. Steffen gave us some tips of food to try out and we did just that in the morning when we parted ways.

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Kazlespatle - cheese pasta

Peace from Fribourg.