PREFACE:
So as most of you know, I had planned, along with Julia (Vermont), Rachel (Virginia), Robyn (Scotland) and Andrew (Redneckland....oops I mean Tennessee) to travel to Strasbourg, Marseille, Toulon, Cannes and Nice for our Toussaint vacation. Our trip was to be about 10 days, we would all take the train to Strasbourg, tour for a day, then take an evening train down to Marseille, and work our way over to Nice, staying in hostels along the way. We had booked our train to Marseille, our hostels, and our individual trains home. We knew that the current situation in France (ie. strikes) would likely affect our voyaging in some way or another, which is why we didn't book trains between cities in order to remain flexible. Little did we know just how messed up our plans would get...
INTRODUCTION:
Last Saturday morning, Robyn and I were to catch a morning train to Strasbourg, picking up the other 3 in Sarrebourg along the way (It turned out to be the ONLY train to Strasbourg that day, so we were lucky), arrive in Strasbourg around noon and have the day to wander around before catching the evening train to Marseille. About halfway to Sarrebourg, I get a call on my cell from Julia, with about as much desperation in her voice as if we were starring in "Speed: 3", telling me to GET OFF THE TRAIN! Because of the strikes, ALL trains to Marseille were cancelled. Shit. So Robyn and I disembarked in Sarrebourg, meeting up with the other 3 at the station. So...what the hell do we do next? Our plans shot to hell, we spoke to the lady at the ticket window to try to sort out our possible options. We refunded our tickets to Marseille and went across the street to a café for a coffee and to use the internet. We eventually came to the conclusion that Marseille was basically out of the equation, and settled on taking a train the following evening (the only one out of Sarrebourg), staying overnight, and seeing how things went from there. We went back we went to the train station as we each had various tickets to change and refund, and there we realized that there was a train that evening to Strasbourg. Since we hadn't actually ever planned on staying overnight in Strasbourg, we had nowhere to stay. Back we went to the cafe (poor Julia doesn't have internet in her apartment) to look for accommodation. We searched on Couchsurfing for possible hosts that could lodge 5 people. (for those of you who have never heard of Couchsurfing, it's a website community for backpackers/travellers, essentially it's like crashing at a friends place while you travel, except it's a friend you've never met! The idea sounds sketchy, but everyone has a profile, you have "friends" much like facebook, people who have stayed with you review the experience for others to see...it's all very legit, and so far no one seems to know anyone who has had a bad couchsurfing experience.) It was very last minute and finding space for 5 people is no easy task, but luck was on our side (and Julia was super at sending out very friendly messages!) and we were accepted in no time by 4 guys living in an apartment near the train station and downtown. Perfect! So back again to the train station to talk to the same lady (she laughed when she saw us again) to buy our tickets. Finally, some plans were set in stone! We all hung out at Julia's cute apartment for the afternoon, bought some snacks, saw the adorable little town of Sarrebourg, and at 8pm we were on a train to Strasbourg!
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| Sarrebourg! |
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| On the train! |
PART 1: STRASBOURG
We arrived in Strasbourg and tried locating our lodging for the night...Rachel eventually had to call the guys because we couldn't find the street for the life of us! It turned out to be only a few minutes walk from the train station. We came upon an old, rather dingy apartment building, but then again everything in Europe is old so we didn't think much of it, until we got inside...if you know me, then you know that I'm A) a bit of a germophobe and B) most definitely a clean freak. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the state of the apartment. Imagine empty bottles, cigarette buts, dirt, dust, dishes and cutlery everywhere, junk shoved in corners, and 4 Christmas trees (yes, real pine trees), brown and dried up, with ornaments still on them, that no one had bothered to take out to the trash for the past 4 years. Smoke clung to the air like white on rice, music was blaring...and there were 2 large piles of very interesting looking mushrooms on the dining room table. We all looked at each other and knew immediately we were all thinking the same thing...We were shown around the rest of the apartment (can't even describe the state of the kitchen and bathroom) and were warmly welcomed and told we were welcome to use the entire apartment and make ourselves at home.
After some brief introductions, us 4 girls left the apartment in search of food. We found a kebab restaurant nearby and sat down to eat and discuss our plan of action. We were all a little uneasy, especially since this our first couchsurfing experience. We more or less decided we would only stay for one night, and look for trains elsewhere in the morning.
Back at the apartment, we all sat around the large dining room table, about 11-12 of us, and chatted the evening away and enjoyed some wine (we had brought some as a thank you gift to our hosts.) and coughed through the plumes of cigarette smoke (well, I did anyways...). Oh, and those mushrooms? One of the roommates turned out to be quite the gourmet cook, and had gone picking wild mushrooms that day to make a wild mushroom risotto! (Which was delicious...I normally hate mushrooms, but I quite liked this variety!) Suffice to say we all felt pretty stupid for having jumped to conclusions a little too willingly...although if you had seen the place, you would have too!
We actually had a really good night speaking French and drinking wine, and the party continued long after us girls had gone to bed (with music still blaring in the background...earplugs didn't help...). Thank god I bought that silk sleeping bag liner from Novack's back home, it was my saving grace the entire trip and kept me a nice distance (and bed-bug-bite proof) away from some very sketchy looking blankets and pillows. The 5 of us piled on 2 futons and a mattress on the floor in the corner of the living room. None of us got very good sleep that night, but it was a free place to stay and our hosts were extremely friendly and welcoming. We also could never quite figure out the random "artwork" posted on the walls...
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| Red is dead apparently...random stuff like this on the walls |
The next morning, a little groggy, we followed 3 of our hosts as they had told us the evening before that there was a concert going on. So we tagged along, took a tram, and found ourselves at Strasbourg's concert hall for a classical music event - Rossini's Sonata No. 3 for 2 violins, cello and bass, and Beethoven's Septet for woodwinds and strings in E flat major op. 20. It was a beautiful concert, the music fantastic...what a way to start a vacation! It turned out as well that Vincent and Paul, 2 of our hosts, played the cello, therefore the interest in classical music. It just seemed like such a bizarre oxymoron...4 males in their mid to late twenties who partied and were either drunk or stoned most of the time and lived in the filthiest living space I've ever laid eyes on, yet cooked gourmet food, played classical instruments and dragged their asses out of bed on a Sunday morning after a night of heavy drinking to go to a classical concert...and 2 worked with children in a school. Blows my mind! Certainly not something you'd find back home in Canada...after that experience, I've never so firmly believed in the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover." Get to know someone and you discover all sorts of things you would've never expected! Shame on me for being judgmental...
After the concert the guys took us to the small town of Schiltigheim just outside Strasbourg (it was quite a walk) to a traditional Alsacian restaurant/beerhall, "Fisherstub". It was DELICIOUS! I had traditional German potato pancakes and salad, and the table was filled with large portions of potatoes, spaetzle, fries, wine, wine, and some wine. We had a fantastic afternoon eating, drinking and talking for like, 3 hours. And I ate apfelstrudel for dessert, it was amazing.
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| We told Rachel not to play with her food... |
In the evening we rode the carousel in Place Guthenberg, which was super fun, and went to the Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg where a mass was taking place, but enjoyed some nice choral music nonetheless.
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| children at heart... |
We got back to the apartment not long before the others (who quite enjoyed themselves at the Beer exhibition, evidently...) and had time to wash each others hair over the bathtub so we wouldn't actually have to step foot in it. If you had seen it, you'd understand. Good girl-bonding time. Again the evening turned into drinking wine and talking around the dining room table, and they had made a traditional Moroccan couscous for dinner. We were all still so full from lunch we didn't really eat any (I just had some plain couscous since the stew part consisted of lamb). We went to bed early-ish and got up in good time the next morning to get to the train station to find tickets to Lyon, (Marseille was a mess from weeks of striking and riots and garbage collectors on strike, you can just imagine, so we scrapped any ideas of heading there.) We found tickets for that afternoon and headed to McDonald's to take advantage of the Free WiFi to find couchsurfers in Lyon. We lucked out again (Julia was getting good at this!) and got responses almost immediately. Transportation and lodging secured, we set out to explore the city a bit on our own. We wandered around the old city and "Petit France", with typical Alsacian/Germanic architecture, visited the Cathedral and enjoyed some vin chaud (hot German wine) at a nice restaurant.
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| Robyn was adjusting her sandwich |
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| Petit France |
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| Vin chaud, mmm |
We bought some cookies for our hosts as a thank you for being so welcoming and showing us around, especially taking us in last minute, and before we knew it we were on the next leg of our journey to Lyon!
Part 2: coming to a blog near you....
What a fun group to be traveling with! Wow... I am so sorry about the lack of cleanliness on your Couchsurfing adventure... did any of their references say anything about it? (Oh, speaking of CS, we should totally be friends on it, heyyy). Everywhere that I've gone has been more than acceptable. I'm glad you brought your liner, though (I brought a sheet with me everywhere I went, just in case). But besides that, sounds like it was a good time... I'm glad that the mushrooms were for eating... I can just imagine the look on your faces when you saw them. I'm sure you guys were not down for that kind of Mario party!
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