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| Avignon crew |
The weekend was a pretty chilled one, hanging out with friends in Avignon, watching the rugby and sorting out life admin/upcoming holidays.
On Monday morning I was off to Barcelona and went to the station to get a train to Nîmes where I'd booked a OuiBus from. Things didn't get off to the best start however, as I arrived at the station only to find that the train had been canceled and there wasn't another one coming in time for me to catch my bus. Oh the joys of French public transport. After a panicked discussion with the man at the ticket office who was actually very apologetic and refunded my train ticket I went down to the bus station to find there weren't any buses either. Fortunately, I had a look on good old Blablacar and found Michel travelling direct to Barcelona from Arles that afternoon so I jumped on a train to meet him there.
In the meantime, with a couple of extra hours to kill waiting for my ride I did what every normal person would do when they get a bit of free time and casually booked flights to Australia! That's right, I'm heading down under for just over a month in May at the end of my contract in France. #YOLO.
A quick explore of Arles then Michel picked me up and we headed for the Spanish border. On the bright side, the journey gave me another opportunity to speak some French and it turned out Michel was also a teacher, teaching PE at a collège in Arles. We picked up another passenger along the way, a lovely Czech woman who used to work in Camden and was heading to Barca to find work as a piercer (she had 16 piercings herself which wasn't very many apparently). We were dropped off together at a station just outside the city and I headed into the centre to meet up with my cousin's fiancé, Jon, who was having me to stay while I was there. Top marks for hosting, Jon - if it were an AirBnb I'd give you 5 stars!
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| Exploring Arles |
On Tuesday I met up with fellow Avignon assistants Lily and Christine who had already been out there for a few days. We spent the morning at Parc Güell and as it was a lovely day we headed to the beach in the afternoon, stopping for churros on the way (when in Spain). Unfortunately the funiculars weren't running due to planned engineering works, but we took a replacement bus up to the Montjuïc Castle for amazing views of the city. We descended back via the Olympic park and the National Museum of Catalan's visual art, then walked all the way to Born where we visited the impressive basilica of Santa Maria del Mar before some well-earned sangria.
Wednesday I was on my own to explore the city, despite not speaking a word of Spanish, let alone Catalan. The whole new language thing threw me off a bit as I hated speaking English to everyone and kept wanting to reply in French! Visited the Sagrada Familia in the morning which was absolutely stunning, 100% worth a visit for anyone planning a trip to Barca. I spent the afternoon wandering around the city before going on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter, where I picked up tips for the best places to go off the tourist trail. Had a walk around a pretty park my guide recommended then hit the shops, although had to be very disciplined about what I bought - I'm saving for Australia now, remember! Caught up with Jon in the evening and watched Inside Out for the first time. Think it might actually be one of my favourite Pixar films now!
Final day in Barca was spent hunting down more free views at the Caxia Forum art nouveau terrace and the top of the old bullfighting arena. Pinchos for lunch (small snack/canapé type sticks at only 1€ each) before a visit to another of Gaudí's architectural masterpieces, Casa Batlló.
Could definitely get used to this back-to-back holiday thing.
A la semaine prochaine,
Katie x
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