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! :)