Friday, March 7, 2014

Day Trip to Albi!

Hello blog followers!

This entry will have pictures so don't you worry :)

This week was our "spring break." The school just calls it a break so I can't really use that term. (My mind is blown) I spent most of the time just catching up with my friends and family at home and beginning to get my affairs in order for my return home. I can't believe that I am leaving in a few short weeks... It feels like yesterday I was crying like a little baby and wanting to leave France. I didn't do much traveling while being here which I somewhat regret. However, I've forged friendships with some amazing people and learned Toulouse like the back of my hand.

Anyways, back to the main point of this entry:

I went on a little day trip with some of the friends that I've made while being here. Tamás from Hungary, Olivia from Canada, Christina and her boyfriend Marko from Austria and I. It was the best day that I've had while abroad. The day was absolutely PERFECT. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was about 50°F. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do in Albi but it wasn't all about the place. It was about the company of my new friends. We took the train at 7:29am, I was dying.

It was the perfect time for a selfie. I look halfway decent for 7:29am.

Albi is about one hour away so it wasn't a horrible ride in. I purchased my ticket online because I didn't want to risk not having a seat with the others. THE FIRST TIME THAT I HAD AN ISSUE WITH MY CARD. Let me explain. You purchase your ticket online from the Voyages SNCF website and then you show up and print your ticket from an automated machine. However, my card doesn't have the little chip inside as the European cards do. The machine rejected my card and after trying about 10 more times, I realized that I needed to actually deal with customer service. At this point in time, it was about 7:10am and I needed to be making my way to the train. After getting yelled at by a few SNCF workers, I finally got my ticket printed at 7:23am. I met with Tamás at 7:00am and he was like like, "COME ON HANNAH, OH MY GOSH." (I can't really do it justice in writing because Tamás' Hungarian accent makes it hilarious.) Poor Tamás, I forced him to stay with me and run to the train about 3 minutes before we actually left. We had horrible "seats." They were little hinged benches from the walls of the train and Tamás was none too pleased. I just laughed it off but he wasn't going to have any positive anything before 9:00am.

We got there around 8:30am and then had to walk for about an hour and a half before finding the city central. Before getting there, we walked alongside Le Tran which is the river going through Albi. I took some pictures of it.

This is the bridge that we crossed about 10 times.
(Thank you Tamás for the picture!)


ME! I'm standing on this little nook on the Pont du 22 Août 1944.

Funny story though, I asked Christina to take a picture of me and pointed to the little nook. However, she thought I meant standing on the edge of the wall. Her face was priceless. BTW, there was a like 20-30 foot drop onto pavement so it is a good thing I didn't because knowing me, I would have fallen.

This is a terrible picture of everyone but from left to right: Tamás, Olivia, Marko and Christina. 

We stopped at a little cafe to get coffee (obviously) and collect ourselves because it was about 9:30am. I took closeups of everyone. Except Marco because he was using the restroom. (In German, "lulu" is like a childish way of saying "pee pee." So all the Germans/Austrians laughed when I told them the name of my dog).
PEANUT BUTTER SELFIE TIME!

Olivia!
Tamás!

Christina!

After that, we decided to just continue a nice little walk through the city where we stumbled upon the most gorgeous cathedral I've ever seen. Its beauty was truly remarkable.

Here is some more of the walk :)

This is the outside:
Outside the Cathedral. All of that is brick. Can you even imagine?!?!

Notice the people walking by... Just to show you how LARGE this place actually was.

This is me in front of the steps. I don't know how well you can tell but there is the most beautiful and intricate stone sculpting in the archway.

Just a lol moment: I was wearing heart-shaped sunglasses the whole day and I think that Tamás wasn't completely comfortable with his sunglasses until he saw how ridiculous mine were. I just wanted a picture of Tamás and I in the awesome sunglasses action. So we look hipster as ever in front of this gorgeous structure. 

Ignore the construction work. Notice the BEAUTY.


Aaaaaaaaaand Tamás photobombed.

Finally, after taking about 10000 pictures between the five of us, we dared to go inside. At this point, my camera was dead to many of these will be with my phone. The camera on my phone does NOT do justice to the beauty of this cathedral.
I don't know all the Catholic terminology or if that is even a thing.. So bear with me. This is the view from the congregation's point of view.
(Again, thank you Tamás)


LOOK AT THIS. I walked in the cathedral and I'm certain that I swore about 10 times and used the Lord's name in vain twice as a response to the beauty that my eyes were unworthy of seeing. (Sorry mom).




Tamás took these pictures and let me use them. I just wanted to have some closeups of the detail in the stonework. It was breathtaking!
(Again, thank you Tamás)


This is the view from the pulpit (I don't know if that is the correct term!!! Or if there even as a 'correct' term)

I laughed a little because Marko (Christina's boyfriend) got scolded for wearing a hat in the cathedral. I felt bad because he was a little embarrassed but it was nice that the staff approached him and altered him to the issue.

At this point... We all had to use the restroom. We left the cathedral and went to the tourist office to gather some maps and things. We all hoped that there was a restroom that we could use. Christina asked the person working at the office and he told us that it was attached but we had to access it from outside the building. So, we walked around and found it.... It was a hole in the ground with two places to put your feet. Christina's reaction was hilarious: "what the f***, I would rather pee in their garden in front of everyone than use that hole in the ground." I was at the point of peeing my pants and if I laughed any harder, I would have.

So, we found a supermarket nearby and used their restrooms. It was one room for both men and women. The restroom didn't have toilet paper, hand soap, or paper towels. However, there was an actual toilet so we can't complain too much. We had hand sanitizer so no worries people.

The toilet situation wasn't ideal there.

ANYWAYS!

We walked to a little park where we just sat and talked for a while and soaked up the sun!

I didn't take many pictures of the park itself but there was a section of bamboo that I decided to walk through. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. It was horrible and I nearly fell about 10000 times. It wasn't cute.

After my encounter with Jurassic Park, I had a little photo session with a daffodil that I picked :)
This is me being happy with a flower in my hair! BOOM!

Marko and Christina :)

I was over the flower after about 5 minutes so it went to Olivia's head.
She wasn't noticing me, obviously.

So after leaving the park, we noticed a sign that said, "DO NOT PICK THE FLOWERS." Well, it didn't say that but it was sign with a person leaning over and picking a flower with a giant red "X" through it. So... Whoops!
I'm certain that Tamás doesn't read my blog... But if you are reading this Tamás, I don't know why you trusted me with this photo. We all took turns with the flower in the hair and then we just forced him to put it on his head. He was NOT happy about it if you can't tell from his face but we laughed hysterically.


After that, we walked back into the town and there was a CARNIVAL! I don't know why I was so excited but I think that my internal age is 6... There was this giant and probably super dangerous ride but I HAD TO RIDE IT.

This no-doubt death trap was called the Pulsion. It was about 140 meters in the air and it just spun around. I screamed like a child and I had a grin on my face the rest of the day. It made the trip. Nobody else wanted to ride it. It was just Olivia and I :)
Here is Olivia and I about to ride the deathtrap!


On said deathtrap. We didn't die. So best 5 euros I've spent :)

After the amazing ride, we stopped at a bar for the wifi... And a beer, I guess. It was an Irish pub so I clearly needed a Guinness.
And there was beer foam art :) Check out that clover. I was so happy.

Tamás snapped this awesome one of me... Trust me, I haven't lost any bit of my personality while being here.



I had an awesome day with some of my awesome friends! Stay tuned. Maybe I will update it before I leave... Stay tuned!

No comments:

Post a Comment