Hello again! This past weekend I took a bus to Tollouse, France on one of my program excursions. First, I will recap the week. I’m not sure if I already mentioned this or not but I have officially bought flights to Ireland and Tenerife. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, which are off the coast of Morocco. More are being planned but I’m excited to have two locked in. The highlight of the week was definitely the free Waka Flocka Flame concert. He is a rapper for those who don’t know, and honestly not a great one. His DJ just played his music and he danced in the crowd for a while, but he was entertaining. That was Wednesday night, and we left for France early Friday morning.

I’ll explain the itinerary as I go along, but when we left I didn’t even know all the stops we would make there and back. It would’ve helped if I actually read the itinerary. We departed at 8:00am Friday in our tour bus with hard, plastic seats and no leg room. The first stop as we drove North was in Girona, Spain. This town was about an hour North of Barcelona. I really enjoyed the town, it was small but with a rich history. It has several churches and city walls that were built as the city expanded. Originally it was built by the Roman Empire and since then it has changed occupants several times. Napolean tried to conquer it three separate times.  The third time, he laid siege to it for so long that half of the population died and eventually surrendered. On top of all that, the most recent season of Game of Thrones was filmed in Girona. On our walking tour, our guide showed us the different places where certain scenes happened. The town was very beautiful and interesting, I would recommend it to anyone looking for history and looking to avoid tourists.

After about two hours there, we left and continued North. Another hour later, we stopped at the Salvador Dali museum. Dali designed it himself, so it was very abstract and strange. It was like walking around inside his mind. Dali was a tremendous artist, and I really enjoyed the museum. It is in a very small town that I don’t even remember the name of. We left after about an hour and a half, so the stop was also pretty fast. I wish we could’ve spent more time at the stops along the way, but we did have a lot of driving to do.

We then drove across the French border and inland for a few hours to reach Tollouse. It was hard to get a good look at the city because we arrived at night. The hotel was nice and the beds were extremely comfortable. After settling in, we went out to find dinner at about 7:00 or 8:00. We were obvious tourists because we walked in a huge group together. The city itself is the fourth largest in France, but it doesn’t have many attractions to make it a tourist destination. Every restaurant we tried to enter claimed that we needed reservations. We got many stares and some people yelled at us in French. We did not feel very welcome. There were stories from other groups of much worse interactions.

Eventually we found a Moroccan restaurant where we all shared couscous. That was an ordeal trying to order when none of us spoke any French. The chef spoke some English, so she came out several times to help. We went out after dinner to some bars. The three bars we found were right next to each other and were all overcrowded. We spent some time in one but we just didn’t get very good vibes. We went home early disappointed with the town and the night.

The next morning, we got a big, free, American breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and everything else fatty and delicious at the hotel. Sometimes you never realize how much you miss something until you have it again. Some tour guides led us to the city center for a walking tour. The city is the fourth largest in France, but it doesn’t feel very big. There is no skyline that I know of and we got everywhere by walking. The tour was interesting, we saw two churches, some art, restaurants, and some public plazas. We also had a wine and cheese tasting at the end of the tour in an outdoor market. The cheese was so potent I didn’t understand how people regularly ate it. The tour ended at noon and we had the rest of the day free. A few of us went to a store in the market place that sold fresh seafood. I tried an oyster for the first time, it was weird, but not bad. We then walked further and checked out some clothing stores and bakeries. Later, we returned to the hotel to rest for a while before going out again later.

I was starting to think ISA got a good deal on the hotel in Tollouse, because they advertised the trip as an excursion to “Southern France”. That term makes one think of drinking champagne on the beach. On TripAdvisor, the third recommendation of things to do is go for a jog. The third best thing in Tollouse is something that you can literally do anywhere else. It was a fine city, but when you spend a weekend traveling somewhere you expect the city to impress you a little more. Anyway, the first night gave me a bad impression.

Next door to the hotel was a McDonald’s where I ordered a Royale with Cheese (any Pulp Fiction fans reading?). I was pretty stoked about that. Later for dinner I just ate Subway, not wanting to deal with another restaurant. Before going out that night, Cole and I bought a 20 pack of bottled Heineken for 11 euro. Cole, Eva, and I watched French TV for a while in the hotel room and I invented a drinking game where you role a quarter down a table in between two posts. Even though I invented it, Cole destroyed me at it.

We had too much fun watching TV so we ended up going out too late. The group we met up with were leaving the bar we planned to go to once we got there. It was 12:30ish at the time, so not very late, but everyone wanted to go home because they had to “wake up early”. Weak. One guy of the group, David, wanted to stay out longer. Him, Cole, and I searched for another bar and found one that was pirate themed. The décor was cool and the atmosphere was lively. After a few minutes some locals who spoke English began talking to us. We all struck up a conversation together and we must have talked to them for two hours. We talked about politics and the differences in culture between the U.S. and France. They were curious about what we thought of Trump and they told us how to pick up French women. These people were the coolest and completely redeemed French people in my mind. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of French people are jerks, but many are great. A French person visiting the U.S. would probably think the same thing about Americans.

We left early the next morning and had the same breakfast, which was delicious. On the way back we stopped in two towns. The first was Carcassone, France which we only spent an hour in because one guy didn’t show up to the bus in the morning and got left in Tollouse. So we were running late, but we really only visited the castle that over looked the town. I can probably count on one hand the number of castles I’ve been to in my life, but this was the best. Not even close. It was more of a fortress actually, and walking along the outside wall gave us a fantastic view of the town and landscape. I wish I knew more about the history, but I imagine it was a difficult place to conquer. It had a moat and everything.

Next we drove to Collioure, France. This was a beautiful town built right into the hillside by the beach. This was my favorite place by far and I wish we could’ve spent more than two hours there. The weather was cold, overcast, and a little rainy, but walking through the town and seeing the ocean was great. Here are a few pictures, I’m not sure that they do it justice. I’m sure the town would be much better in the summer. If I’m able, I’d like to go back there in April or May.

After lunch, we began the final stretch home. For the record, it was the least comfortable bus ride I have ever been on. The guy sitting next to me had to be pushing 280 lbs, and the leg room was so small that I had to swing both my legs into the aisle. Once we arrived in Barcelona, I was actually really relieved to be reading Spanish again. French was so foreign to me compared to Spanish and it made me realize how much Spanish I’ve learned. I was ready for a full night of sleep, but the next day would be Cole’s 21^st. So I really savored that one night of sleep.

Monday we went out for Cole. We went to a bar called D9 where you can buy 6 shots for 5 euro. The rest is history. This week I’ve actually had school work to do, which is why this post is late. This upcoming weekend I’m going to Menorca, Spain, which is an island in the Mediterranean. Well, thanks for reading.

Hasta luego,

Jack