Day 44-City mouse and country mice

(Asli vs. Hannah and I)
Asli decided to stay in Paris for another day and Hannah and I boarded a train this morning on our way to we-weren't-sure-where. We intended to end up in Lacoste, France, which is a tiny mideval village where my alma mater has a campus, but it's literally not on the map, and with no train station, it was a challenge. We took a train to what I assumed was the closest station in Cavaillon, then hung out there for a couple hours before hopping a bus. The bus wound up through vineyards on a tiny road to the top of a hill where we were let off at an intersection with a sign pointing to the left to Lacoste. The road was nearly a sidewalk, and at the end, one is met by the chateau of the Marquis de Sade. From there, it is difficult to tell where to go, but we started down a few paths until we found a roof, then another and were in the village only minutes later. At the first prive gate that I found, I went in and saw a drawing on someone's door and knew I was in the right place. A historic preservation professor pointed us towards the cafeteria, where we found Hannah's roommate, Meghan, along with some of my other friends, Michelle, Lucas, Missy, and John, all of whom were very surprised to see me. We ate dinner there, and I took advantage of the vegetables, which I definately have not had enough of in recent weeks. (I'm incredibly sick of bread, but that's nearly all I can afford...so sad!) We said hi to those we knew and Meghan showed us around a little bit before we hit the internet and I am getting to do laundry as we speak for the first time in a (I'm embarrassed to say how) long time.

Last night was a blast after the Louvre update, we headed to the Centre Pompidou, which is an amazing and huge 6 story postmodern art museum. They had a dada show up as well, but I didnt have enough time to see it, sadly. (Duchamp's fountain was there!). After that, we headed to the Moulin Rouge and saw yet another red light district (somehow I see a trend forming). We wanted to get something to eat/drink, so we randomly turned up a little street and to my absolute delight, we ended up in the cafe of 2 windmills (Cafe des deux moulin- or something like that), which is the cafe that Amelie Poulin worked in the the movie, Amelie! I love that movie and it was such a happy surprise to me. Hannah and I decided to get a beer (we hadn't bought ourselves anything all day) and of course, some famous Amelie creme brulee, which we both cracked at the same time. It made my night, and we headed back to the hostel as very happy little mademoiselles. (again, spelling...English I can do, French, not so much)

So from here, its a 24 hour travel extravaganza to Madrid from Saturday at 6:50am to Sunday at 7. Yikes. We'll meet up with Asli again there, and continue our journey to Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, and Barcelona though our 9th country, Spain.

For those of you who are curious, I'm flying from Barcelona to Istanbul on the third, then back to the states on the 7th. I have a job waiting for me in Jacksonville, FL (thanks, Chad!) and will head down there after a few days in PA (including my b-day, which will be co-celebrated on the 12th with Mom, who's was on Oct 18). I'll be stopping by the SAV to get my life out of the storage unit there, so I'll keep all of you SCADites updated.