Spring holiday!

So, you got a little pre-taste of what's to come. Helena and I packed our bags and a little late, a little ill and a little extremely excited we made our way to the train to begin our journey to Montpellier! Wohoo!

We are well greeted with a warm, humid spring night and a very happy Julia at place de la Comedie. A glass of wine later it's time for the bed. Pleasantly surprised we go to bed in our own room, no dorm, we have breakfast included in the morning and it's actually quite fresh. The only complaint was the damn door... We had to spend at least 5 minutes and 50 swipes to get a green light, once the green light shone we had to break our way in with force to open the door and that quickly before the light went out and the process started all over again. This is til we realised that you pull, turn, push and not turn, throw yourself at the door....

(We forgot towels...)

BEACH! Oh dear beloved sun caress my body and bronze my skin. After two whole days at the beach we were almost tanned, my legs aren't too bad... I'm very pleased. The best part though was playing volleyball with Carl and his friend Sebastian. Julia went to school with Carl who is now studying French in Montpellier. It was great fun and we did well! Just barely bruised, tragically tired muscles (its the gym that priority one once back in Swedenland!), sun kissed skin and a somewhat sore mind we went out for sushi. Next day we were up early to profit as much as possible from the sun and the heat.

 In the afternoon Carl and his friends rocked up, we played volleyball, I managed to brutally tackle a 5 year old, yeah thats how its done! Great job Madeleine. His mother was not particularly happy, BUT she was the one who threw me the ball, so if your kid is in the way its not my problem! (He was totally fine), we decided to stop when we nearly killed a little baby, not my fault! I only hurt one kid a day... Julia also managed to tackle my foot so I got a bump literally 1,5 cm high, it looked worse than it felt. However, the combination of my injury, rocking my jeans shorts cowboy style (managed to drop my undies on the parking lot while walking to the dressing rooms... Great,
wasn't going to pick them up! So there they lied, bright yellow int he middle of the street...) and missing the second bus because of a big group of wreckless, annoying little brats I lost it. Helena made it on the bus, while Julia and I were left for the second time. There's one bus every half hour (France!!!) and about 100 people waiting again... So we walked to the next bus stop, me not having anything to throw at something, took my anger out by screaming, very mature... We decided to hitchhike home instead of chancing it with the next bus. Eventually a really nice black well-polished Mercedes stops and gives us a ride back to town. Perfect! Instead of a sweaty bus we get a first class ride. The man driving us was an old Italian and I kept my guard even though he made no attempt at anything. It was actually a very pleasant trip, I got to speak French and discuss the Roman civilisation, the renaissance and Mussolini's time in power. All in French!! Well done me!
At night we went out, a little intoxicated, the Mussolini convo kept going as Carl apparently also is interested in the Italian history, after bar we went to club, danced a lot, Julia and Helena got a drink which was purely alcohol so no surprise they got a bit drunk and at 2.20 we realise that the hostel closes at 2.00.... Great....
Luckily we met some guys who lived in the neighbourhood and knew the man in the reception. Thank you for that because the back up plan was climbing up through the window and it was a bit higher than I primarily thought.... Not a brilliant idea....

Next day we met up with Celine in Nîmes where we waited for the bus taking us to Uzès. We found a small Colosseum so me and Celine went in while Julia and Helena remained at the café.

The bus to Uzès offered an incredible view and despite being on the border of throwing up for most part of the trip I really enjoyed it.

(Uzès - beautiful no?)

Uzès is a tiny town, very old but oh so beautiful. We had four hours to spend here and it went by too quickly. It is definitely worth a visit even if it's a bit out of the way. In the afternoon the taxi picked us up and we continued to Celine's house in the middle of nowhere. The nearest house was about 2 km away...

We only had 2,5 days here but we really made the most of it. We went up early, went for walks through the vineyards, took time to prepare wonderful meals, relaxed with wine, films, reading, playing cards and board games. There's a little hill not too far away which we climbed friday afternoon and it was such a beautiful view! We decided that we were going to try to catch the sunrise the next day. So we made pancakes to bring and eat for breakfast on the hill, with fruit and nutella, mmmm!

 It took us about an hour to climb it and although we weren't blessed with sunshine it was an incredible feeling and made for some great conversations and reflections.
Celine said something rather interesting about me. "You can jump from a rock to another which could even kill you without fear whereas a spider will freak you out." True... I had a traumatising experience visiting Celine's wine cellar. I discovered a little late that there were a lot a lot of spiders in a very little space and I was caught because Julia and Helena were blocking the stairs. Turns out I haven't really gotten over my fear of spiders. But after that I was prepared for spiders, I know it's only when they surprise me and I can't get away without having to go pass the little creature. It's interesting what scare us though, being several hundreds metres up in the air, jumping between rocks that could kill me if I misjudge the distance or land just a little off and fall doesn't scare me at all, it's just adrenaline and I love it!

The best thing though, was being able to walk around in pyjamas all day long, no make up no caring about anything!
I must mention that we took the train back to Paris from Avignon and this town is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to! Many old buildings, very picturesque, a nice river going through it, big park and fantastic castles!

Finally I shall finish my novel by thanking Julia and Helena for a great trip and especially Celine for inviting us to her house. It was an unforgettable time spent with three wonderful girls.