Privas

As some of you may remember, last October/November I went to Montpellier with 2 assistant friends, one of them being C, a girl from the USA who's spent this year living in Privas. I finally got the chance to go and visit C this weekend, and I had a really good time!

First things first, a bit of information about Privas for you lovely folks... Privas is the capital of the department of Ardèche, which is a department in the southern area of the Academy of Grenoble. It's the second smallest capital of any department in France, and is known mostly for the puree of chestnuts that is made there. It's about 250km / 155miles away from Annecy, and because it has no train station you have to get a coach from Valence if you're using public transport. The train to Valence itself takes around 3 hours from Annecy, and then the coach is another hour.

I arrived in Privas without problem around 5:30pm on Friday, 21st March, 2014. C met me at the bus stop and we went to the supermarket to get some snacks and wine ready for a night at her friends house before going to the local bar. I got to meet some of the other assistants in Privas and their French friends, who were all lovely! We went to a bar called Le Bouchon Litteraire which is their local wine bar and apparently where they usually go on a night out. They had a very strange system of paying before you leave and you just told the bar staff what you'd had to drink and how many. I did not end up paying because I thought C paid for me, but it turns out she didn't! Friday was Saint Joseph's Day according to C's friends, and as such the wine bar was offering each glass of wine at 1,50€! I only had 2 so it's not like I left the bar without paying a lot of money, but I still feel quite bad! We ended up going back to C's house at about 12am and I couldn't get to sleep because her house was freezing cold! In the end I put my socks and hoodie back on because I was shivering that much!

Saturday we woke up around 9.30am and went to meet one of C's friends for a coffee. We just chatted about the night before and other stuff before heading back to C's flat for some lunch. We also did some baking together which I'd been looking forward to for a very long time because C posts lots of pictures on her Instagram of lovely recipes she's tried! We made cookies but instead of butter we used greek yoghurt... They turned out quite tasty but had more of a sponge texture than a cookie texture.

Later in the afternoon we met up with the other assistants again and had another coffee. In the evening we met up with her boyfriend and went to a lovely little restaurant called Le Petit Resto. It was incredibly cheap considering what we got to eat (only 20€ for a main, dessert and a glass of wine!) and was really tasty.

On Sunday we got up and went for a walk around Privas because the rain had finally stopped. First we went to the Site of the Three Crosses which has a great view over Privas, and then we walked through a smaller commune of Privas before heading back to the flat to do some more baking, this time it was Avocado Brownies! 

The avocado in the brownies replaces most of the butter and sugar, and you can't taste it at all once it's been cooked! They were really fudgy and absolutely delicious!

I got the coach back to Valence around 2pm and then caught the train from Valence at 4.15pm. Unfortunately my journey back to Annecy wasn't as smooth as the way there; the train stopped at Grenoble and usually it waits for about 5 minutes before setting off again, but this time we waited for about 30 minutes before anyone would tell us what was going on. The train conductor eventually came around and said there was an electric fault on the lines ahead and we couldn't move for a while. About 15 minutes after that he came back and said that the train had been cancelled and we'd have to get on another one but for now we just needed to leave the train and wait on the platform for more info. We all waited out in the cold for more information, and the conductor came back and forth telling us he hadn't heard anything, when suddenly over the loud-speakers a voice came on saying "immediate depart for train to Annecy from platform A". Of course, we were all on platform B and we had to run down the stairs and back up the other side to get onto the other train. I eventually got back at about 7.30pm, so I imagine I'll be getting a refund on this ticket too! 

Overall I had a really great weekend with C, and it was nice to see another part of France before I leave. Only 5 weeks until I return home!

Roller-Blading by the Lake

In Annecy it's possible to hire bikes, scooters, and roller-blades and use them for an hour or 2, or sometimes a half-day/whole day. My friends and I decided we wanted to go roller-blading by the lake because the weather this week has been gorgeous so far (sunny and ranging between 10 and 20!!). We rented the roller-blades from a place called Roul' ma poule ("ça roule ma poule?" is an idiomatic expression meaning the same thing as "what's up duck?"), and roller-bladed around the lake. My friend K and I went round to the other corner of the lake by Annecy-le-Vieux and I've never been that far around to that side of the lake, so it was quite a nice new perspective! 

Here's some photos of our little trip:

K, myself and J ready to go!

The other corner of the lake

Looking back towards Annecy

Lake Annecy

St. Patrick's Day in France

As most of you know, Saint Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland. On March 17th it is his feast day to celebrate the arrival of Christianity in Ireland and the heritage of the Irish. In England it's mostly seen as an excuse to get drunk, and apparently it's the same in France! 

Our local bar/pub is called Finn Kelly's and it's an Irish pub, so of course they had a special event on to celebrate and that's where we spent our Saint Patrick's day this year. A lot of my assistant friends were out to celebrate the occasion; most of us wore something green and we were all given hats at the bar. It was quite a fun night, but because it was a Monday this year we didn't get that drunk. The bar closed at 12am what with it being a Monday so we all got ushered out, but it was still a nice night!

Here's some pictures of the evening for you:

G and I

J and I with our hats

P and I; we had balloons attached to our glasses (as you do!)

Me, T, L, A and P in Finn Kelly's

Holiday March 2014

Since most of you will be reading my blog in chronological order, I figured I'd do a summary post with links to the other posts last, so that it will actually appear above the other holiday posts...

It was recently the "vacances d'hiver" (Winter holidays) here in France (the first 2 weeks of March). I decided to go on holiday to make the most of my time here on the real continent of Europe, so I visited Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. You can read more about the different places by clicking on them. Unlike my trip to Switzerland, this time I wasn't alone; I went with my boyfriend, K, who I met while I was at home at Christmas. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision to ask him to come on holiday with me, but I'm really glad I did! 

The hostels/hotel:

• Our first hostel was called Wombat's City Hostel - The Naschmarkt. This was a pretty decent hostel with kitchen facilities. The bed was comfortable and it was quite quiet most of the time. You could sometimes hear people walking up and down the corridor with heels on but that was it. We could've done with a Do Not Disturb sign because we slept in most days but the cleaners came round at about 11am and we could always hear them getting closer to the room! It sort of forced us to get out of bed!
• Our second hostel was called Hostel Blues. I wouldn't recommend this hostel to anyone who doesn't fall asleep easily or is a light sleeper. It's in a great location and the staff were amazingly helpful, but the room was small and cold, and there were people making noise until quite late in the evening. There was an alright kitchen available for use though.
• Our third hostel was called Mosaic House. If you're going to be in Prague I'd definitely recommend staying there! The rooms are amazing and it's not that expensive (it was cheaper for us than the hostel in Vienna, and included breakfast and was much nicer). We paid 261€ for 5 nights (52.20€ per night), but that was for a private room; dorm room prices vary between 65€ and 105€ for 5 nights! Only thing that could make it better would have been a self-service kitchen.
• Our hotel on the last day was called Hotel Vienna. As I said in the blog post - not worth 182€ at all. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone!

Overall, the holiday was awesome. I think my favourite place was Prague, and Bratislava was a pleasant surprise. Vienna was lovely but a little expensive and the architecture wasn't mind blowing, but I still enjoyed it there. My main highlight was the free walking tour by our lovely tour guide, Andy, in Bratislava because she made the whole place so much more interesting with all the historical information and funny stories. My most disappointing moment was possibly our last hotel; it was nice, don't get me wrong, but it was not as good as it sounded on the website. If I could do anything again, I would probably have gone inside a few more churches/cathedrals, up a few more towers, and I wouldn't have stayed in the hotel we had on the last night. 

If you would like to see all of my photos instead of the select few I added to the posts, please click on this link: Facebook Photo Album of March 2014 Holiday . You do not need a Facebook account to view the album, so don't worry if you're not on Facebook or don't have me on there!

Holiday March 2014: Prague, Czech Republic

Facts about Prague:

- Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic.

- The Czech Republic used to be known as Bohemia, and the country of Bohemia was formed around the pre-existing town of Prague.

- Prague Castle has the largest total castle area of any castle in the world at 18 acres in total with numerous courtyards and subsidiary buildings in its grounds.

- Czechs consume the most amount of beer per capita in the world.

- The Old Town is one of the best preserved in Europe due to it being untouched during both World Wars.

Day Eight: Monday, 10th March, 2014

We stayed in an absolutely amazing hostel that was more like a hotel; it was called Mosaic House. We got free breakfast included in our room price so we had to make sure we were up before 9.30am to have time to eat before cut-off at 10am. We did a town walk that was suggested on the map, with sights including:

• The John Lennon Wall (see the Wikipedia page for more info because it's a pretty cool idea).
• The Dancing House (the towers are inspired by the dancing couple, Fred Estaire and Ginger Rodgers).
• The Benedictine Emauzy Abbey (the abbey was destroyed at the end of WWII by American bombs; the old towers were replaced with concrete steeples which are supposed to be the wings of an angel).
• The Basilica of Peter and Paul (originally the building was founded in 1070-1080, but it was destroyed in 1249 and reconstructed between 1885 and 1903) and surrounding ramparts and Vyšehrad cemetery (established in 1869, it is the final resting place of many composers, artists, sculptors, writers, and those from the world of science and politics). 

We had burgers and nachos at the hostel restaurant for tea before going on a Ghost Walking tour. The walking tour wasn't so much a ghost tour as a night time history talk with a couple of ghost legends thrown in so we were a little disappointed.

  

1. Our room at Mosaic House.

2. The John Lennon Wall.

3. View from the ramparts surrounding the Basilica.

4. Looking over the River Vltava at night-time. 

Day Nine: Tuesday, 11th March, 2014
We did another city walk that was supposed to be the city centre but it didn't seem much like the city centre. The sights included:

• Peaceful Square (the square is in the shape of a peace sign) with the Church of St. Ludmila (built between 1888 and 1892; it houses the tomb of St. Ludmila and St. Wenceslaus I) in the centre of the square.
• The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord (built in a post-modern style between 1929 and 1932).
• The Žižkov Television Tower (built in the 80's and completed in 1992, it has appeared on a sci-fi book cover and been nominated one of the ugliest buildings in the world).
• The Bethlehem Chapel (tucked into a small yard with wooding paving leading up to it - I thought it looked more like a bomb shelter).
• Vítkov Hill where the National Monument (used to be a Communist VIP mausoleum and now holds an exhibition on Czech history) is located. In front of the National Monument was also a statue (one of the largest equestrian statues in the world) of Jan Žižka.
• The Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius (between 1730 and 1736).
• Municipal House (seen as the Art Nouveau jewel of Prague; it was constructed between 1905 and 1912).

We finished in the Old Town Square and had dinner there; we found a place that did traditional goulash with dumplings, and it was incredibly tasty. We went to a comedy night in the bar/lounge of the hostel and they had some pretty funny people up on stage.

1. The National Monument
2. Part of the Old Town Square
3. Municipal House
4. Hanging People seen all around Prague
5. The Astronomical Clock

Day Ten: Wednesday, 12th March, 2014

We didn't do much in particular for the morning; we started off in a medieval shop that K wanted to have a look at and he bought a t-shirt there. We then headed to the town centre and went to the Museum of Torture which was pretty cool but it was quite small so it didn't take long to look around. We also had a look at a Gallery of Architecture and we were quite surprised because it only cost us the equivalent of £2 to get in but it turns out there was only one room in the Gallery, so that was a little bit of a let down. It was cool to see how the fashions have come back around though, for instance in 1920 one Polish architect was quoted saying that the modern man needs minimalism and space and white walls and lots of light, and then the 60s/70s happened where there was lots of colour and as much furniture as you could fit in the room, and now we're back to being minimal again! We went to T.G.I. Friday's for lunch and it was so delicious; the steak was so well cooked! I tried a Blackberry Long Island Iced Tea (which is pretty much a Long Island Iced Tea but without the Coca Cola and with Raspberry Liqueur, Blackberries and Lime Soda) and while it was so incredibly tasty, it was pretty strong! We went back to the hostel after that to relax before our Dinner Cruise! There was an all-you-can-eat buffet, and a guy playing quite a few different instruments (including a saxophone and an accordion). It was nice to see the city from the river at night-time too.

 

1. The Old Town Square

2. The Old Town Square

3. The inside of a church decorated in Baroque style

4. Me and K on the cruise

5. View from the boat

Day Eleven: Thursday, 13th March, 2014

We did the last of the map walks which took us up to the castle and round through the Castle Quarter and Lesser Quarter. This main sights were:

• Wenceslas Square (a.k.a. 'Unsatisfied Square' - it has witnessed many important events in Czech history, including student Jan Palach setting himself on fire in 1969 as a protest against the Warsaw Pact Invasion).
• Prague Castle (founded around 880, it is the largest castle complex in the world. The castle is now the seat of the Czech President).
• The Cathedral of St. Vitus (the present day Cathedral was founded in 1344).
• Charles Bridge (the oldest bridge in Prague; the foundation stone was laid by King Charles IV in 1357 on the 9th July at 5:31).

We also went to see the Parliament Building (the architect of the building aimed to make it more beautiful than Prague Castle; unfortunately most of the statues were stolen by Swedish troops during wartime in the 17th Century). We went to another Medieval restaurant for dinner called Spider's: I had the roast duck and it was quite literally half a duck with some sort of gravy and apple; Kam had some sort of meat that came in a cast iron sizzler pan. By that point we'd nearly run out of CZK so we went to Tesco to get some snacks for the journey back to Vienna and then went back to the hostel.

1. Cathedral of St. Vitus

2. Prague Castle

3. Posts - all of them were slightly different

4. Charles Bridge

5. The Parliament Building

Holiday March 2014: Bratislava, Slovakia

Some facts about Bratislava for you!

- Bratislava is in the extreme southwest of Slovakia. It is the only capital city to border two neighbouring countries (Hungary, to the south, and Austria, to the west).

- The language and people in Slovakia are called Slovak; the language is very similar to Czech and can be understood by Polish speakers. 

- The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia (the Velvet Divorce).

Day Six: Saturday, 8th March, 2014

We had to get up early to be out of our hostel by 10am and get to the coach by 10.30am. We got to Bratislava around noon and checked into the hostel (Hostel Blues) and put our stuff down in the room. The guy at the hostel who checked us in gave us loads of helpful information about what we can do and what we should eat. We first went to a place called Slovak Pub to try bryndzové halušky (dumplings with bryndza - a sheep's milk cheese made in Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine - and bacon and sour cream), bryndzové pirohy (pirogi with bryndza and bacon and sour cream), and kapustové strapačky (dumplings with cabbage). It was all nice but the cabbage had a fishy/smoky taste to it, and it was all very rich so it was a struggle to eat it all. After filling ourselves to the brim we went and did a free walking tour with a woman called Andy; she was a student and was very knowledgeable and fun and made Bratislava become more interesting that it would have been for us just walking around on our own. That evening we cooked for ourselves in the hostel; they had a Tesco in Bratislava and we decided to cook ourselves curry. It was so ridiculously cheap there, we got 450g of chicken for 2,25€ approximately, and with all the other ingredients plus breakfast for the next morning the total was less than 10€!!

1. The food we tried - in the order mentioned above.

2. K sat on a bike rack with penny farthings on the ends.

3. Statue of a man in a manhole - Bratislava has lots of random statues apparently; this one has no meaning, the artist just thought it'd be funny. It didn't used to have a sign next to it and lost it's head twice in car accidents, so now there's a specially made sign depicting this guy to warn the cars!

4. Statue of a man who used to wander the town talking to people, always wearing the same thing, so they made a statue of him!

5. The town hall - Apparently Napoleon came to visit for his birthday once and decided to bombard the town with cannon balls, so the black dot is a cannon ball that has been put in the side of the building as a sort of memorial.

6. Revolution Square.

7. St-Michael's Gate - The gate is part of the entrance to the Old Town and is therefore a sort of guard tower.

8. A plaque to commemorate the first hanging of a witch in Bratislava in 1602.

9. Me in front of the Blue Church.

10. The Blue Church.

Day Seven: Sunday, 9th March, 2014

We went and visited the Castle (slowly built and modified between the 9th and 18th centuries) but we didn't go in on the advice on Andy the tour guide who said it wasn't worth it. Then we went and got some food for the coach journey to Prague. We stopped by the Slovak Pub to try another delicacy, which was called Cesnaková polievka krémová v bochniku posypaná syrom (creamy garlic soup served in a loaf of home-made bread with cheese) and then went back to the hostel to make our sandwiches for the journey and then headed back to the coach station. We got on the coach to Vienna and then had to make our way to a different coach station to get the coach to Prague. It felt like quite a quick coach journey because there were films to watch and we both slept a little bit too.

1. A church that has a golden crown atop a golden cushion on the steeple. Nobody is sure how big the crown actually is.

 

2. Bratislava Castle

3. The most pointless gate in existence

4. Bratislava Castle

5. Bratislava Castle

6. The Presidential Palace

7 and 8. Cesnaková polievka krémová v bochniku posypaná syrom.