Catching up

Okay, so it's been forever since I've updated this thing, and I really feel like I should let everyone know what's going on with my life.

1) Jobs

So first of all, the law school had the OCI's (off-campus interviews) on Oct. 17th. I ended up getting an interview with 5 firms, including 3 IP boutique firms and my top choice firm, Gilbert's (all from Toronto). The OCI's are a crazy day, filled with 17 minute long interviews, and about half of 2nd year class at my school goes in for interviews, and something like 100 firms from Toronto come in. So I thought that my interviews went fairly well, at least with a few of them. October 27th was the day where we got calls from the firms to tell us if we were getting a call-back for November interviews, and I unfortunately did not get any call-backs. But don't worry, I was too disappointed, because only something like 25% of 2nd year students actually get law firms jobs, so it's really not a big deal. Plus I can apply for all the smaller firms in January/February, and I can also still work for my IP prof again next summer hopefully, so I'll have a job doing some kind of law regardless.

My one roommate got 1 interview, and my other roommate is an all-star and got like 10 offers, but only ended up taking 7 November interviews. She seriously is an All-Star and she was the most nervous going into OCI's!

So they're both in Toronto this Monday to Wednesday doing Toronto interviews at the actual firms, and I have the apartment to myself! So that's what's been going on in terms of jobs, at least so far. I will update more about all that in January when I start applying again.

2) Health

So I recently had some health worries - at the beginning of September, I started working out more often and more intensely than I really had before. Beginning of October, I started having chest pain and tightness, and naturally because of my heart surgery when I was young I started getting worried. So I went to the doctor on campus, and had echograms and electrocardiograms and a pulmonary holter (wires taped to my chest and attached to a little box that recorded my heart beats) and finally got a cardiologist appointment, and after all that (and a lot of worrying and stress!) figured out that whatever it was, it wasn't my heart, and I didn't need to worry about anything. That was just last Thursday (Nov. 2nd) that I found out that it was no worries, so I had about 3 weeks of worrying that I would maybe have to have heart surgery again or something!
But now everything is okay, nothing to worry about, I can go back to working out. So it's all good!

3) Concerts

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a Pink Floyd Tribute concert. The band was really good, pretty much as close to Floyd as you could get without being Floyd. But there's something about it being the real band, who created and originally played the music, that makes a concert so much more amazing. The tribute concert just kind of felt like I was listening to the music being played really loudly - the band was pretty much irrelevant, which was too bad.
Plus it didn't help that it was like 2 hours of standing in a bad neighbourhood of T.O., with a rough crowd!! Let's just say Adam and I may have stood out a tad... ;)

This past Saturday, however, I had an entirely different concert experience - ELTON JOHN!!!! It was by far my best concert experience yet. I know I keep saying that, but Elton John is a musical legend, and so incredibly talented, and he plays the piano which makes me love him even more. He played for almost 3 hours straight, and the only break he took was at the end, when he went off-stage for about 5 minutes then came back for a 2-song encore. No intermission, nothing! It was absolutely amazing. I actually started crying when he first came out and started playing, because it was just so intense to see a musician/artist like that, playing, in person. Nothing compares, let me tell you!
And we went because it was my step-dad's birthday present, so it was my sister and I, and our mum and step-dad. He loved it, which was really nice. My parents aren't so big on downtown Toronto, but it was kind of fun to show them around, take them on the subway, etc.

So that was concert experience since my last updating. This month I am also going to see Guns 'n Roses again (well, really Axle Rose and a bunch of musicians who aren't Guns 'n Roses, but good enough), and I'm also going to see a LEAFS GAME!!! And the best part is that the Leafs that night will be playing New Jersey, and New Jersey happens to have Adam's favourite goalie of all time (Brodeur). So unless I manage to jinx it, Adam will finally get to see his favourite goalie in action! I went online the minute the tickets went on sale, so I actually got them for the real price, only $50 each. Not great seats, of course, but cheap and we can see what's going on, and that's good enough for me!
I'll let you know about how those two things go, don't you worry! I'll also let you know if Axle is till rocking the leather pants and the same 3 stage/dance moves... hehe.

4) Kitty

So I'm finally getting a cat, picking it up tonight. Turns out (very fatefully!) that the very building manager who I had to go to, to get permission for having a cat in the building when I thought I was adopting from the London Humane Society, is moving and can't bring her cat along with her. I ended up not being able to adopt from the Humane Society because apparently the one in London doesn't give animals to students, because statistically students tend to bring animals back at the end of the school year. That's ass, in my personal opinion! I was going to go to Toronto Humane Society, because I know they would give me a kitty, but then my building manager put up a poster about her cat, and I jumped on the offer! Ironically, she got the cat from the London Humane Society... hehe, I outsmarted those bastards! :D

So the cat is all black, she's a year and a half old, and her name is Spice (isn't that cute?!). I'm really hoping that she'll like me, and get along with bunny, at least eventually. She's a little shy apparently, I only met her very briefly last Thursday and she spent most of that time hiding under the bed, but I'm sure that when she gets used to me and my roomies she'll be fine.

So finally after years of waiting I will have my very own cat!

5) Travelling

I don't know if I actually wrote about this before, but Adam and I are going to the Bahamas in December!! We got our payments all paid up in time, so we are officially going. I am so frigging excited, I can't believe that I finally convinced him to spend the money and to travel, but we're going, and it's going to be amazing. If anyone wants to know where exactly we're going, send me an email, and I'll be happy to tell you all about it! ;)

Conclusion

I love that I organized this posting like this, I am such a frigging nerd sometimes. Anyway, that's all the important things that have been going on in my life the last 2 months. Now you're all caught up. Everything in-between is just me going to school, working on assignments, visiting Adam. Really nothing exciting at all, which is why I really don't update on a regular basis. Although I would like to be done my posting on my last trip before I go on my next one, but that's not looking so good right now!

Ta ta for now!

Unfortunately, mentally incapable people are common

That title doesn't have anything to do with this post - it's just a quote from the professor of the class that I'm in right now. Civ Pro has the potential to be interesting. Too bad the professor is (hopefully) a much better litigator than a professor. I am including a picture that will hopefully give you an idea of how my Civ Pro lectures by this prof are structured:

PS - NOT an exaggeration. It's a damn good thing this prof is cute - and he is very cute!
(Edit: finally got the g-damn picture to go in the centre, like I wanted - is anyone else having issues with actually getting their pictures to upload into their text?)

Also, just for an exciting update, I am going to see ELTON JOHN in November!!!! (I thought pink was an appropriate colour to use there). And the coolest part is that I'm going with my sister, mum, and step-dad, for my step-dad's birthday. It's going to be so much fun! I've never gone to a big concert with my parents, and my step-dad really likes Elton John (well, we all do), so it'll be a really good time, I think.


This past weekend I went to my first 'humanistic' service for Rosh Hashanah - very interesting, although since it was at 10:30 am on a Saturday morning, I did have a strong urge to nod off. But it was neat to see how they deal with celebrating that whole holiday, without praying or worshiping or anything. It's really all just about celebrating this Jewish history, and the Jewish people - pretty cool, actually! I can see that that type of thing is something that I would enjoy getting involved with, and I definitely agreed with a lot of the values that were discussed during the service. I did feel bad for Adam - he definitely didn't want to be there, but he was being a good son, so that was nice.

I also had breakfast this past Sunday with my mum, my sister, and my sister's apparent boyfriend - someone who my family has known pretty much since my sister and I were about 4 and 2. Which is weird. Also, I dated him, and he was my first kiss (in gr. 6, though, doesn't really count). There is absolutely no kind of jealousy, I'm just having a serious problem with figuring out how my sister can actually look at him in that kind of way - not as any insult to him, but just because we've known him for so long, and he's just, you know, him. Anyway, breakfast was awkward, and my sister hates it that I think it's so weird. Hopefully everything will work out, cause right now it's just a bad scene.

The good part about the breakfast was seeing my mum and my sister together. The 3 of us got to spend the afternoon together, and we went to the Word on the Street literary festival in Toronto, and it was really nice to get to hang out. My mum's visiting my sister now, and she's coming to my place on Tuesday evening, so it's going to be a good week!! I'm going to get a KITTY, and a keyboard that plays like a piano (finally!), and get to watch Top Model with a bunch of my friends and my mother, which will be interesting and fun!

Anyway, that's really all I have to say at this point, so I'm going to publish this and then do another entry soon about the next part of my trip - although not necessarily right now, but it's coming!

Are we there yet?

I was last speaking about the cute little rest/picnic areas on the island... here's a picture of one, which is also one of my most favourite pictures of our whole trip. I hope that this picture gets across how beautiful the whole island is. And I would definitely recommend looking it up on Wikipedia, to get an idea of the history and stuff - it's pretty cool!

I don't have a picture of the lane of eucalyptus trees, or the swamp, which is too bad because both were beautiful. What I do have is a little picture of part of this cute, tiny little cemetery that was on the island. The littlest cemetery I have ever seen. It was about 10 feet x 20 feet, and very old. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there is actually a village on the island, and people still live there (although that's the part where tourists aren't allowed to go). So I guess the cemetery is for them - either way, it was adorable. Which may sound like a weird description for a cemetery, but it really did apply. This is one of the crosses in the cemetery - you can tell it's really old! And then there's one more picture of a view from the island, as we were coming back to catch the ferry back to Cannes.

On our way back, while we were waiting for the ferry, Robin and I each got a sandwich, and we were sitting down on a bench by the quay, and these birds kept walking around us and trying to get food. Unfortunately, Robin had to delete the pictures because she was running out of space, but it was really cute. There was one little seagull, he had a lot of character for a little bird - I know, everyone hates seagulls, but he was my little friend, and he kept us entertained while we were waiting.

So then we took the ferry back to Cannes, went to pick up our stuff at the hostel (and it was still all there!), and went off to the train station on our way to Cinque Terre - which ended up being even more beautiful than Cannes! But that is a story for another day...

This is one way to get through Income Tax class...

From now on I'm just going to delve right into the stories about the trip, cause I'm tired of doing intros. So no more niceties.

So my sister and I were walking along the beach on l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea, and all the big, beautiful boats that were parked between the island and Cannes. Here is a picture of me wandering along the beach (my sister took it from far back so that we could get the view in there too):

Look at that boat in the background, isn't it beautiful?!






















So as my sister and I rounded the Northwestern shore, we got an even better view, because now we were looking out over the water, without Cannes right across the bay.

I'm going to include a picture of a map of the island, so that you can get an idea of where we were when different pictures were taken:







The red dot (Northwestern side) is where the ferry from Cannes dropped us off.. Cannes is north of this map. Robin and I starated walking along the white path (and then along the beach) westwards. The next couple pictures are of the very western point of the island.

You can still see the land across the bay a little here, but we were starting to get to see an 'unblocked view'. The shore along here was really beautiful, very rocky with lots of really pretty plants - SO 'naturey' compared to what we'd been used to in Lyon and Cannes. Also, there were lots of ruins here, because a bunch of viewing post type things had been on this point, because it was such a good look-out area.






This was our attempt at getting both of us in a picture, and also getting a view from the island. Didn't really work so much, but I still really like it as a picture of the two of us (even if I am wearing my 'bug glasses'!).

So we kept going along that path, and basically covered all of the white path parts that you can see in the picture above, that are on the western half of the island. The variety of flora on that island was incredible. In one area there was a swamp, (the blue in the middle of the western part), and then just a little more to the east was a whole lane of eucalyptus trees that had been planted there a while ago. On the point on the southern side of the western half, that you can see on the map, was a really nice little lookout point with a bit of a disply of the different types of plants that you could see on the island. There were also a lot of really nice little picnicking and rest areas (which was good because it was uber hot!).

Back and better than ever

Well, here we are, ready to delve into the adventures of l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite . I'm in class - Company Law to be exact - but I have taken all the notes on the stuff that the prof is talking about (aren't I a good student!) so I'm going to do this instead.

So after Robin and I got off the boat, everyone spread out to head off to the areas of the island which we found most interesting. As I mentioned in a previous post, the island and its attractions were really well marked, so it was easy to figure out in which direction Robin and I wanted to go. We decided to walk along the edge of the island, because it was such a beautiful view over the water, as you can see in these pictures:

After a while, we realized that it was silly to be walking along a path when we could be walking right along (or in) the water, so we took off our shoes and waded along the edge of the water. Which was amazing, because the water was nice and cool (but not too cold), and it was just incredible to be wading in the Mediterranean Sea!

Of course, we gave that up fairly quickly when we discovered that the stones on the beach were a little too sharp for walking on, so we put our shoes back on, but still walked along the beach because it was just too pretty not to. Here's a picture of me walking along the beach - Robin took it from fairly back so that we could get the view in, too.

Okay, so I keep running into this problem that I can put a few pictures in a post, and then it's stops putting them in. So my new theory is that only so many pictures are allowed per post. So unfortunately for you all, I'm going to have to split this trip up into even more posts. But I promise there will be pretty pictures to make it worth your while!

We interrupt this program....

Hi all. Okay, everything has finally calmed down and sorted itself out sufficiently for me to continue my tales of the voyage. However, I thought that I should update first, because there have been some interesting things going on with me in the last week or so. So, first, my two roommates moved in this past weekend (of the 1st). They are two of my good friends from first year law. We officially took over the apartment in May, but I was the only one of the three of us living there for the summer (one of my roommates had a really nice subletter, so at least I wasn't living alone all summer) because the other two roomies were in Toronto. But now we're all moved in, and I no longer am living alone, which is nice. And so far it's going pretty well, we're having fun, and our other friends are coming over a lot because that way they're guaranteed to hang with three of us. So it's cool beans. Plus our apartment, if I do say so myself, is awesome. Undergrad friends, you are more than welcome to come visit at anytime! This past week was also the first week of school, starting on Tuesday. I am taking two not-really interesting classes, Civil Procedure and Income Taxation (but they are required), and two interesting classes, Intellectual Property and Company Law. IP is interesting because of the subject matter and because of the prof (who happens to be the prof that I worked for officially this summer, the one who was on sabbatical and who I met on Sept. 1 for the first time in person). Company Law is interesting probably mostly because of the prof, although I can't say for sure because we've really only had one class, and it was just an intro class. But he's hilarious (not intentionally, but because he's just so dry and sarcastic, and very 'unique'), and that makes things interesting, so it's all good. Plus he's like an expert of international renown in the area of Property Law, so that's pretty cool. Income tax, like I said, is not very interesting, but the prof is this kind of dorky guy who thinks it's incredibly interesting, so that should make it somewhat better than it could be otherwise. And the Civ Pro guy is a hot lawyer from Toronto who wears nice suits, so at least there's some eye candy going on! ;)

Most importantly, this week was also the week that applications went in for Toronto OCI's (Off-Campus Interviews). All of the students in Canada, basically, who are in second year law and who are interested in working in Toronto, apply for these second year summer jobs with the law firms in Toronto who are participating. So obviously, only about 25% of second year law students actually get summer law firm jobs, because hello, literally thousands of applications may be received by some firms.

I will be totally okay if I don't get a summer job in general, because I'm very sure that I can just work again for one of the two profs whom I worked for this past summer, which is also really good experience. However, my absolute top choice firm only hires its articling students from its summer students, because it's really small, and it only hires as many summering students as it would want to have articling students, and it makes sure those students are people who they want to become associate lawyers. So I'll be disappointed if I don't get in with them this summer, obviously, because that will mean I will have to wait until I am an associate lawyer, and then pester them with applications until they hire me. Which is fine, I can do that, but it would be way more awesome to get in with them this upcoming summer, because I really, really want to work for them, and they're incredible, and it would be like I had already arrived at where I want to end up! But anyway, we'll see, and everything will work out the way it should, I'm sure. Oh yeah, and about the applications, I stupidly for some reason did not realize that we needed to include copies of our official first-year law transcripts as well as our undergrad transcripts (I don't know why we can't just do print-outs, since they only want copies of the official one anyway, but whatever), so I didn't order them in time. The applications were due to be given to our Career Services Office at noon on Wednesday, and I didn't order my transcript until Tuesday morning, and it takes 2 - 3 days processing, so I had to mail the applications myself. So instead of paying $1/application to the school, I paid ~$7.00/application to the post office. Since there were 14 applications, you do the math of what that stupid mistake cost me! :p But I mailed them off, and they'll be there in time, and it's all good, so it was worth it.

Oh, I guess that the above thing was most important in terms of impacting the rest of my life, but this next topic is most important in terms of awesomeness. I went to see TOM PETTY and the HEARTBREAKERS last night, and it was one of the most amazing concert experiences of my life.
That guy and that band put on an incredible show, let me tell you! He played almost all hits, even though he has a new album out, called "Highway Companion". Which, judging by the few songs that he did play from the album, and the reviews I've heard, is just as amazing as everything else he's ever done!
That's what I really liked about it (well, definitely not all that I liked, but it impressed me), is that he knew enough to know that his new album would sell because he's amazing and has so many fans, so he knew he didn't need to promote it too much, and he knew that his fans would want to hear the classic stuff. So it was just super awesome. I was on the lawn at the Molson Ampitheatre, and there were about 20 of us in the group, and the entire lawn was packed (as were the seats), and everyone stood the whole time, because there was just so much energy! And the whole stadium was singing along to pretty much every song, except his new ones. And at one point, he actually had the audience sing the chorus while he did other kind of background singing. It was the chorus "I'm learning to fly/But I ain't got wings/Coming down/Is the hardest thing". It was SO COOL!!!!! Okay, that sounded really teenagery, but it's hard to describe the feeling of awesomeness in listening to thousands of people sing the same thing and be 'united', I guess, in this feeling of incredibleness and excitement. See? That's cheesy. SO COOL is less cheesy. Although the unitedness is true. Anyway... at the end, it started to absolutely pour rain, and it was lightning, but the vast majority of the people on the lawn stayed right 'til the end, which is a supreme tribute to Tom Petty, I think. We got totally and completely soaked, but it was totally and completely worth it. And it was definitely a misadventure, which of course is the best kind of adventure!

I also got to buy some merchandise on the way in... I bought the shirt on top for my step-dad, since he couldn't go to the concert and he loves Tom Petty, and the shirt on the bottom for me:

























Oh, before the concert, I got to go downtown to visit my sister's place. This is the place that I found for her and her friend, when I spent a half-day in Toronto, going around to different places and calling my sister to tell her about them. She would then call her friend who was in London, England at the time, to tell her about the places. It was a whole big thing. But I found them this 3-bedroom apartment, which is actually the top 2 floors of a house, near College & Bathurst. And it was grimy at the time because it was three guys living there, but my sister's friend's parents repainted, and the girls cleaned it all up (sister and her friend found another person to take the 3rd bedroom), and now it looks really nice. So I'm glad that I got to see it yesterday. After I saw my sister's place, we went and met Ange, and went shopping - yay!! I got a comfy cozy fleece zip-up at Winners, and some socks, and an awesome purse that is Hush Puppies (did you know they made bags? Cause I didn't!) and I think it's absolutely beautiful. I also bought two of those new 'ITEC' bras from La Senza, so we'll see how that works out. Anyway, shopping was fun, and I got to spend a whole day with Ange who I never get to see (although I never get to see any of you anymore, do I?). So that was fun.

Okay, I think that may be everything I need to update about. So next time I'm on I will continue the European trip saga, I promise!

The saga continues... l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite

Bonjour là!! So I haven't updated for a couple of days, but I was at Adam's cottage and it was super slow (woohoo for dial-up), so I couldn't. Now Adam and I are at my parents' place, relaxing and chilling and hanging out, and Adam's getting to 'bond' with my parents (haha) so all is good with the world.

So, I will continue my France/Italy saga.

Oh, I should add a very important note: All photos are taken by My Sister Robin, unless they have only her in them, in which case they are taken by me (or unless noted otherwise). I figured she should probably get her credit for them, because God knows I sure don't take pictures, and I definitely don't take good ones!

Okay then... so Robin and I finally got to the place where the ferries left from, and after a little confusion (of not realizing that l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite actually was one of les Îles des Lerins) we got our tickets and went on board, with those charming French men who I mentioned last time. On the way over on the ferry (it was only about a 10, 15 minute ride), we got these two guys to take our picture, so that we could have at least one picture of the two us not actually taken by one of us!

Yes, I just absolutely love this 'chubby' picture of me. Oh well, what are you doing to do, eh?



So once the ferry arrived at the island, we all loaded off, and everyone set out on their own to explore the island. It was really well marked, with maps and signs everywhere, and the maps showed the different things to see on the island. Basically that made it really easy to figure out where you wanted to go, what you wanted to see, and how to get there (and how to get back to the ferry!). The ferry left about every hours for the next few hours, so we had a lot of time before we had to be back, which was good.

Side note: I put this aside for a couple hours, because my computer was wonky, but I fixed it, so we're good to go! Just wanted to say that to explain why I haven't updated before this today.

Another side note: apparently my computer is totally fixed, except for its unwillingness to put up any more pictures on blogspot. So it's a no go for today, folks, and possibly for the rest of the week, because it may be my parents' satellite signal.

So see you all next week! :(

As Sean Penn once said... "Whoa!"

That's right, I'm writing a post for the second time in like 2 days. Don't have a heart attack now, folks! I love blogspot so much I can't even begin to explain, I can't believe that I didn't switch earlier than this. But now I've learned my lesson!!

So where was I... Oh yeah, finishing up Lyon. Yeah, so we jumped onto the train in Lyon, headed for a (much shorter) ride to Cannes. Arriving the day after the Film Festival, of course - just our luck. When we first got to the train station in Cannes, we had a little bit of a problem finding our hostel because we were thinking that it was going to be more confusing than it actually was. Turns out all of the hostels are right in the area around the train station, which is awesome and easy. We got there late enough, about 10 pm, that we had to sign in at the 'sister hostel' down the street, but that was super easy and then we were in our room and set to go out exploring - and eating! We wandered around for quite a while. The weather was so warm and nice, and the city was so pretty, and it was not at all in the dirty area like in Lyon, which was awesome because we felt totally safe. The hostels also happen to be basically right in/beside the nice shopping areas of Cannes, which meant we got to walk around and at least do some window shopping, and see all the beautiful clothes we couldn't afford. Plus it was cool because the signs and everything for the Film Festival were still up, which you can see in this picture:


It is just unbelievable how much nicer this area was than the hostel area of Lyon!! Keep that in mind, folks!

We eventually found a little bar/restaurant where we had just a light meal, since their restaurant was mostly closed. It was one of those super sophisticated little places, so we felt a little 'gauche' (especially cause the French are just too damn cool), but it was still really nice.

Then finally we went back to bed for the night. Oh, we also managed to find an internet place practically across the road from our hostel, which was awesome because Robin could upload all her digital pictures there, and I could charge my ipod, plus check our email, and the prices were super good! I highly recommend Cannes - it is so made for tourists, without being tacky or over-peopled. Plus there are freaking palm trees - sweet!

So the next morning, after a bit of arguing about timing, etc., we decided that we could pass on spending the day in Monaco (we were going to just spend the day there, then go on that night to our next overnight stop in Cinque Terre, Italy), because we really wanted more time in Cannes. It was just way too beautiful, and it was the first time that I really, really felt like I was in a different country (and continent!) because of the palm trees and the incredible weather. Paris had kind of felt a little like Montreal - obviously cooler and older and more full of history, but at least the same kind of feel, if that makes any sense.

So we spoke to the woman at our hostel as we were checking out, and learned that we could 'check' our baggage at the sister hostel (the one we'd checked into the night before) - of course, 'checking' our baggage ended up just meaning leaving it under a table in the restaurant room of the hostel, but since all of our valuables were with us and they promised there would be employees around all the time, we decided to take our chances. Cause man, let me tell you, those bags are freaking heavy!!! When we were carrying them around at the Louvre in Paris, they were so heavy that we didn't even want to do much walking, which obviously was a waste of being at the Louvre! So we didn't want that to happen again.

The woman at our hostel had recommended going down towards the beach and harbour, and then taking a ferry across to les Îles des Lerins. Here's a travelling tip for all you backpackers and tourists out there: LISTEN TO WHAT THE LOCALS RECOMMEND!!! Every time we asked for recommendations on our trip, we ended up having an absolutely awesome experience.

The walk down to the harbour area was incredible, because it was SO beautiful and sunny and warm, and there were people out but everyone was just wandering around and relaxing, so it was a really friendly atmosphere. And the good thing about the festival being over was that the crazy crowds were gone, so it wasn't too busy anywhere.

Here's an example of how gorgeously tropical Cannes was while we were there:

Isn't that building beautiful, with the palm trees in front of it?! I'm pretty sure those were fancy-dancy apartments that rich people and celebrities stay in when they come - there was a lot of that in the harbour area, obviously, because that's right where the festival takes places.

Here's a picture of the Film Festival headquarters - they still had all the signs and stages up, and were just in the process of starting to take it all down, so we were lucky enough to get pictures of what it would have looked like.

(That's me in the foreground there - just a cool tourist, hanging out at the beach in Cannes.. lol).

After we walked around there for a little while, and stopped at a cute little tourist shop to buy some really nice postcards, we kept walking towards the actual harbour part of the harbour, where all the boats are kept.


Up on the hill to the right of us, behind those buildings, was this really neat old building:

Isn't that cool? You can see all those buildings in the picture of the harbour, and it looks all cityish, and then right behind it is this old, old building. Also, all the little houses up on the hill (you can kind of see it a little to the left of the building) were that old style, with the shingled roofs, like you'd expect to see in Spain and stuff. Very pretty. Apparently it's all like that on the outskirts of Cannes - if we'd had a car, it would have been really neat to drive around and explore all of that, but oh well - next time!

So we gradually made our way down the harbour towards the ferries, stopping a LOT to look at all of the beautiful boats (and yachts!) that were in the harbour. Man, that must be the life, let me tell you!

Eventually we made our way down and bought our tickets to the ferry. The boat guys were very cute and french and flirted with us ever so charmingly (I believe it was something along the lines of 'ah, madamoiselles, we always enjoying having beautiful women on our ship', but in french of course - honestly, how do you not 'teehee' and blush to something like that even if it is such a line!).

So at this point I am going to stop for the day, because our time on l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite (the main island of les Îles des Lerins) is a whole separate adventure in and of itself, and deserves a good retelling. And this entry is already pretty long!

Well I hope I'm impressing you all with my actual updating (haha), and hopefully I will get to tell about our adventures on l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite soon!

Dirtay

Well folks, I think it's about time to welcome a new member to the blogspot world! That's right, while you may previously have seen me in the 'comments' area of other blogs, I am venturing into a whole new area, mainly because trying to put images up on Livejournal sucks ass!!

So, here goes... I am going to attempt to continue my Europe trip postings that were started in Livejournal (yeah, I know, a bit late, but oh well). So let's see how this all works out, shall we?

The last time we spoke, I had just finished up my sister's and my adventures in Paris. That evening, after le Louvre, she and I hopped on the (slow and every-town-stopping) train to Lyon. We arrived quite late that night, about 10 pm. I had printed out a map of the area where the hotel was located. At least, that's what the map was supposed to show. After we got there, we figured out that it was actually the most useless map ever - mostly because it turned out to be completely wrong. Sister and I spent about 10 minutes standing in the subway station (we did at least manage to get from the train station to the subway station closest to the hotel), looking at the map, looking at a map of the area that was on the wall in the station, and generally apparently looking very confused. We were finally recognized by a cute young man (does that make me sound old?) who came over and offered to help us. Unfortunately, because our map was so crappy (and as I mentioned before WRONG), he couldn't help us. So then he took us over to his supervisor, who turned out to be originally from Montreal. So between the young guy and the supervisor, we eventually got onto the right road to go to the hotel - mostly because they walked us out of the station, around the corner and pretty much halfway down the road until we could see the sign for the hotel!! They were so nice and sweet, and we were definitely appreciating the fact that you're just more likely to get help if you're two young girls travelling together!

So we walked the rest of the way to the hotel, realizing that this maybe wasn't the greatest area of the town. We got to the hotel and checked in, and realized that maybe this wasn't the nicest hotel in town. It wasn't bad, really, at least not dirty or anything, but it was definitely the most dingy and tacky of all the places we stayed in. By this time we were absolutely starving, and there were no restaurants on the street we were on at all. There was a (very) little grocery store on the corner, which we went into, but at first I didn't see anything, and I really wanted a meal, so I convinced Robin that we should walk for a while to find a restaurant that was still open. BAD IDEA STEPHANIE!! Yeah, turns out that that 'impression' that it wasn't the nicest part of town was true. We walked for about 30 seconds and encountered way too many creepy guys - and I mean really, really creepy, and scary, and saying rude and obscene comments, and looking at us in that way that all girls recognize and shudder over. We just about ran back to the grocery store where at least the proprietor looked like a nice old man. That was definitely the scariest part of our whole trip, because these guys looked like they were either going to rape us or ask how much we were charging (and then rape us). Seriously. So we just got some bread and cheese and fruit, and went back to eat in the hotel room. Oh, and I don't have any photos of this part, because we were trying as hard as possible to not look like tourists in that neighbourhood!

The hotel room was actually kind of fun, because we sat around in our underwear and ate and giggled about the experience (now that it was over), and it was a little relaxing after going constantly in Paris. And sorry to any males (or sorry, not just males, anyone potentially interested) reading this, we also don't have any pictures of this. :P

So the next day was a whole lot better. We packed up and went to the train station, where we were able to store our baggage (after going through some fairly intense security measures just to put our bags in lockers!) so that we could wander around Lyon for the couple of hours that we had until we left for Cannes. We went to the 'Traveler Info' office, where an absolutely adorable old man told us about Vieux Lyon, the best part of Lyon to explore, and gave us a map and directions and everything. He was so sweet and nice, I wanted him to be my grandpa! So we headed out to the bus stop, but it was taking so long and it was nice out (because it had finally decided to stop raining), so we decided to walk.

There were some absolutely beautiful buildings along the way. Here's a picture that shows how pretty some of them are:






















This image on the right, above, is an old church in Vieux Lyon. Isn't it pretty??!

This kind of architecture was everywhere in Vieux Lyon - an absolutely beautiful part of the city!

And here are some pictures of a big plaza in Vieux Lyon - plazas are huge in Europe, or at least they were in France and Italy. Well, in Italy it's called a 'piazza', and in France it was 'esplanade'.















So we walked around Vieux Lyon for a while, did a little shopping. We stopped into an electronics store, because I was convinced that I could find some electrial outlet adapters, since my sister had insisted that I bring along my hair dryer and she would bring her adapters, but then she decided to throw them out at the airport because her luggage was overweight!! (I was a little annoyed, I'm not going to lie, but I thought I controlled it fairly well). The electronics store didn't have them, and I never did manage to find any. :( We also stopped at a little convenience store type thing, to buy stamps and postcards - people were so friendly, everywhere we went! The lady helped us figure out what kind of stamps we needed, and told us where the postcard was, and everything.

Then we went to this absolutely adorable little restaurant on this cute little street full of adorable restaurants. It had really traditional French food, and the waiter ended up recommending stuff, including the yummy wine that we had. It was so nice, plus we were lucky because it decided to rain again, but right as were deciding to go in, and it finished just as we were finishing up our meal! Then it was nice for the rest of the day. We did a little more wandering and shopping (my sister bought a beautiful pair of nude leather heels, and I went into the Ferrari store but didn't buy anything), then walked back towards the train station.

Here's one last picture of Lyon, of Robin and I on the bridge across the le Rhône. The view was so beautiful, and we really wanted a picture of the two of us, but there wasn't really anyone else walking around, so we had to take it ourselves. This was the only one that worked out okay:


I know Robin and I look like dorks, but isn't the view absolutely beautiful!! The sky and the water were both so incredibly blue, even though it had just been raining. And you can see the other bridge in the background, that's what the bridge we're on looked like too.

PS - I'm wearing those huge sunglasses of Robin's (and Robin's wearing mine) because my contacts got messed up and I couldn't wear them, and it was so bright that I had to wear sunglasses, and those sunglasses fit over my glasses so I could still see too. I look funny, but my eyes didn't fry! ;)

So we walked back to the train station, got into a big fight because Robin wanted to show me some Indian songs that her friend had put on a cd for her, and I listened to one and then said something about not needing to hear more because they all sound the same (yeah, I know, it sounds worse than what I meant though), and then of course we made up and got on our train.

So that was Lyon, and next episode will be CANNES!!!

See you soon,

Steph

PS - I know that these entries are pretty much boring, but I figure that now it's recorded so that I can remember, and if people are interested they can read it, and otherwise you can just skim and look at pictures! :)