Oui, Oui, Oui...
Okay, back in France and writing to you from the town of Arles (pron. Arl), but only after visiting Barcelona. I am kinda sad to be out of Spain, partially because I kinda knew what they were saying, but also because it is a really great country. Our first day in Barcelona was good, we started with a walk on Las Ramblas. This is a huge street with a pedestrian walk way down the center. At the north end of it is a huge department store, which kicks the butt of any I have seen in the States. The basement is a huge supermarket, it is kind of like Wal-mart on steroids.
The pedestrian walkway is filled with street performers and pet stands. They sell all kinds of animals there from parakeets, chickens and roosters, and pigeons to chinchillas, fish, and groundhogs. They also have this great market just off the street that has every kind of fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, and olive you can possibly imagine. We then walked to the port and watched this huge speed boat take off. For lunch we went to this cool little bar next to our hostel that served little sandwiches which were slices of a baguette with different toppings. They had somthing like 40 different types. We also had a regional white wine and apple wine called Sidra. They pour it from high up into the glass in order to aerate it and make it fizzy. When you are ready to pay they charge you for the number of toothpicks left on your plate.
The rest of the day we just relaxed, which was a nice change, and for our last night in Spain we headed out for tappas. We went to a neat little bar near the port and had this great cheese (even though it looked nasty from the mold, it was really good); two kinds of chorrizo, cured beef, and bread with crushed tomatoes and olive oil on it (a regional specialty). To top it all off we finished off a bottle of Sidra, and Jesse even tried his hand at pouring it.
The next day we went back to the market and bought ourselves some picnic items, that was an adventure in itself. We got lucky enough to find a butcher who sold turkey lunch meat. The Spanish eat ham like it is going out of style. I think if I see another piece of ham I might murder someone. We ended up eating them at a little park in the southern side of the city while watching two guys do Tai Chi.
We then hauled ass to the train station so that we could make our train to Arles. Except for the part where the guy in Spain gave us a schedule that did not exist. Apparently the train we wanted does not run on the weekends, although the date was right on the schedule, whatever! So we ended up in the train station's bar in Narbonne, France. While we were waiting we met another couple of Americans (another Megan and her mom Jill) traveling to Arles- or at least trying to. We ended up riding the train together to Nimes and had a great time, they were a blast! Jesse and I ended up staying the night in Nimes and headed out early to get to Arles (today, the 3rd). Arles has been great, it is a really cute little town on the Rhone River and it has a ton of old Roman ruins in it. We just ended up relaxing and hanging out in town. There is a neat little festival going on this weekend where everyone dresses up in traditional costumes , kind of like a Dickens on the Strand or RenFest.
Okay we have to go, our time on the computer is almost up. Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July. Eat lots for us!!!! We miss you all tons!
Love,
Meghan and JeSSe
posted by Meghan @ 2:05 PM
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