Festivals and Food in Avignon

16/07-17/07

Our next stop on the tour was just a short one. We spent one night in Avignon, a walled French city that was the residency of four (?) popes at some stage – once again on point with the facts.

I had been to Avignon before, when I was in Europe a few years ago with the parents and sister, but this time I really got to see the city, because we got a walking tour led by Kiki that showed us all the sights of the beautiful city. We were showed the Hotel De Ville, the main square, and the Palais de papes where the Popes lived for their time in Avignon. It was such a cool place with its small winding cobbles streets and what I think I loved the most is that there were no cars in the main part of the city, it was all bikes and people walking which gave it such a nice and relaxed atmosphere. After the tour we crossed to the other side of the river to where our camp site was – the view we had from the camp of the walls of Avignon was amazing!

Fun fact: every french town will have a carousel in their town centre! 

Proper french crepes and ohmygod they smelt amazing!

That night we had a completely free night, so after we had set up our tents and had showers to freshen up (because it was about 30+degrees) we walked across the river from our campsite and into the city. Dinner was incredible and we used our really poor french skills to order our food to a very patient waiter (who we later found out spoke perfect english..) After we had finished our dinner we walked into the centre of the city and were entertained constantly while we walked through the streets, because there was some kind of festival going on, so there were performers every few metres, so what should have been a 5 minute walk took us closer to an hour because we were constantly stopping and watching performers or listening to their music, which might have been why we got so lost... We ended up walking to the wall, and then following it around until we found one of the exists and then walking around the outside of the city until we found the entrance we wanted. We eventually made our way to the main square and walked up the srairs where we found another couple of people from the tour watching some dancers. So we sat on the railing in front of a 700 year old building watching incredible dancers. It was one of those moments where you just sit there and take it all in and feel insanely lucky to be there.

After the dancers finished we walked back through the city just as slowly as before, stopping at every performer and watching them do their thing, wether it be caricatures, dancing, singing, juggling, and everything in between. We finally made it back to the campsite after midnight and went straight to sleep, because when it's that hot, you're always tired!

Justin testing the caracture skills. I personally think they did pretty well!

The next day we had the usual morning routine of packing up our tents and getting onto the coach for our drive to Barcelona (!!!!). but before we arrived there, we stopped off just outside of Nimes and went to the Pont du Guard! For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's an aqueduct built by the Romans hundreds of years ago and is a piece of architectural genius! So it's safe to say my inner classics geek was seriously excited to see it (again, but this time I was actually interested in it, rather than just walking around pretending to be interested like I did last time..).

Gotta love graffiti from 1843..

Another fun fact: Napoleon liked to put plaques on things that were there before he was, and claim them as his own! 

We only had a short stop there before we got back on the coach and made our way to Spain, but that's another post... So stay tuned!

Brighton surprises and back to reality...

Right, so as you may have noticed this post is a few days late, which I do apologise for, but I'm back at work as some of you may have guessed, and my day off has changed from a monday to a Friday, so I no longer have time to post on a Monday (so new blog day is a Friday).

Right, so last Tuesday I went on one last little adventure before my summer holidays ended, so I got on the train and went off to Brighton. I didn't really have any specific plan for the day, but there were a couple of thing I wanted to see. Little did I know that whatever plans I may have had would be forgotten soon after I got off the train. I was walking down the street heading to the seafront when I happen to look up in a pub window and see two people from my topdeck sitting there! I was so shocked and so were they by the look of their faces when they saw me! So instead of spending the day wandering around by myself like I thought I would, I had two buddies to walk around with!

We went down to the seafront and had fish and chips at one of the restaurants, and then walked along the sea front to the pier. Now I was seriously impressed with the pier, there were arcades and a mini amusement park and food stalls and it was just awesome! We decided to go on one of the roller-coasters and it was hilarious! It was right on the end of the pier so as you went around the corners all you could see was the sea. Nat was shrieking so much that I was crying with laughter by the end of it. After the pier we walked through the shops and then through the lanes, which were so cute with their bunting and flowers and little boutique stores. Once we had managed to find our way out of the lanes we got a coffee, and then I got the train back to London.

I seriously loved Brighton, even if I was only there for a few hours, but seeing Paul and Nat again was increbidle, and we were all saying how much we missed everyone from the tour and wished we could do it all over again (but maybe without the tents this time...)

Me, Paul and Nat exploring the lanes and celebrating our being reunited with a selfie 

The inside of chocywocydoodah. Yes that is the shop's name (or something along those lines..)

Wednesday was a little bit different, because I went to visit my Grandad's cousin! I got on the trains across London to Cheshunt where Roy and Joan were waiting for me at the station. We soent the day comparing adventures around the world, talking about politics, current events, what our families were up to and drinking a load of tea. After a couple of hours of chatting we went to a local pub for a delicious lunch (and the biggest meringue for dessert) and then I got a tour of the town! I was shown the olympic white water course, their shops, community centre, and then they took me to the house that Grandad lived in when he was a boy! It was quite odd seeing where my grandparents lived, and Roy was saying that Grandad wouldn't recognise the area at all. It was interesting to see just how much it had changed even in the time that Roy and Joan had lived in their house. Roads and houses that were all fields and trees when they first moved there..

After another couple of hours of chatting that included seeing the family trees (and adding myself and my cousins onto one of them that was printed before we were born) I got the trains back into the city and back home.

My Great-Great-Great-Grandad... 

Thursday was spent making the all too familiar journey back to school for the inset days, which I was not so thrilled about.. However it was made a bit easier when I saw the parcel in my pigeon hole that had tim-tams and luxury hot chocolate packets in it (thank you so much Nanny and Grandad!!). There's not a lot else to tell you all about my week since then! Except for the fact that I have mastered the school car and can now drive to the local town without muttering every bad word I know as I try (and fail) to get into the right gear! Other than my timetable has changed so I no longer have games, I instead have admin and support for music and art, and then forest school once a week again.

Because of this I've been thinking, and because my week's aren't exactly riveting and wouldn't be too interesting to read about, I think I'm going to try to post my topdeck adventures instead of boring weekly updates. So from now on, no more dull posts about the woods and stuff like that! Unless I go on a trip or it's the holidays, in which case I'll keep you updated- don't you worry!

Some random cool looking thing i found in Shepton while i was there.. 

I guess it's not that bad to be back at work, especially when we have nights like this...

So until next Friday then!

Mountains and Chocolate in Switzerland

14/07-16/07

So, after the hustle and bustle of Paris, it was a nice change heading into the peaceful country of Switzerland. Now I have to admit I didn't know anything about Switzerland, other than it was neutral in one (or both of the world wars,yeah I paid attention in history.. Sort of) What I didn't know is that Switzerland has been neutral for YEARS. And also if there is a zombie appocolipse, it is the place to be, because they have built the roads leading into the country so that they can easily be destroyed making it really hard for people to get in. They also have enough bomb shelters to accommodate something like 140% of their population, and all the men are inlisted into the millitary once they reach a certain age which I currently cannot remember (I mean don't quote me on any of these facts but I'm sure most of them are along the lines of what our tour guide told us. I tried..)

So other than Switzerland having a really good defence system, it is ridiculously beautiful. When we first drove into the country everyone on the bus swarmed to one side of the coach to get a photo of the stunning lakes that we were driving past. Little did we know that there was plenty more where that came from. 

Poor Bessy having a break from the tough hill climbing 

We had a little bit of difficulty getting to the campsite, as our beloved bus Bessy didn't quite make it up the hill, and sat broken down 3km from the campsite with us all sitting willing her to start again. Thankfully she did after a 20 minute rest, and we slowly crept up the hill to the camp (she spent all the next dy at the mechanics).When we arrived at the campsite I could not believe what I was looking at. The site in Paris was dusty and, well exactly what you'd expect a campsite on the outskirts of a major city to look like. The one in Lauterbrunnen was breathtaking. Like usual I can't put it into words so instead I'll just show you....

So once we pitched out tents and the cook tent -which took us ages compared to the end of the trip- we all sat down in front of the cook tent and chatted between ourselves until it was dinner time. Now as you saw in Paris, Matty (our chef for the tour) was insanely talented when it came to cooking (and also dancing, as we found out that night) but considering he cooked for 37 people in a little tent with two gas elements and not a lot else, the food was amazing!

Now because we were in a valley, there were strict rules around the noise level after a certain time, so when we were told to keep it down we all made our way to the bar that was on the campsite.

It was there that I realised just how small the world actually is, because in this little bar in the middle of Switzerland, I was asked if I went to Sacred Heart in Lower Hutt, to which I replied with a curious yes. It was then that I found out that the lad who asked me was the older brother of one of the girls in my year, and also the step-son of my teacher when I was in year 5 and 6!

The next day some of us walked into the adorable little village, and had a quick look around before walking to the train station, where we would get on a train that would take us up Jungfrau. Now thankfully Topdeck had reserved a coach for us so we didn't have to battle the swarms of tourists for a seat, and I am so glad that we didn't, because a two hour train ride is a long time to be standing. Before we went up we were warned that the altitude may affect us, and I think we all brushed it off as something that wouldn't happen, however on the way up we suddenly all got the giggles over nothing particularly funny, so I think it may have affected us just a little bit..

 

My bag of crisps expanded so much i genuinely thought it would explode.. 

Once at the top we had a wander around, and I found the Lindt chocolate shop which as you can imagine made me ridiculously happy (swiss chocolate in Switzerland, how could it not make you happy?)

I struggled to to spend 20euros on this... I was amazed by my will power

Once they managed to pull me from the chocolate shop we headed out onto the mountain, and the view was incredible. Even though it was the middle of summer the mountain was covered in snow, which meant there were kids tobogganing and skiing down the mountain and people throwing snowballs all over the place. We spent a bit of time on the mountain taking photos and just standing taking in the views, and then we headed back inside, ate our lunch and got a couple of souvenirs before queueing back up for the train.

Toblerone, Swiss Alps and a person on a flying fox. Not bad eh?

On the way back down the rush of oxygen made us all really sleepy, so at some stage on the way back we all nodded off. Once we were back in Lauterbrunnen, we stopped at an ice-cream shop to use the wifi, and then wandered in and out of the few shops that the town had to offer. I got a Swiss army knife for Chloe's birthday present (which I was informed I couldn't post when I tried to post it weeks later in London.. awesome..)

That night was much the same as the previous one, we had dinner which was incredible again, and then headed into the bar when the noise restrictions kicked in. I didn't stay there long because I was shattered from the day, so I snuck off to bed pretty early compared to all the others.

The next day it was another bus day, so we packed up our tents, hopped on the bus and left the beauty of Switzerland behind as we made our way back into France and towards Avignon!

But that's it for now! I'm sure the next post won't be too far away (I hope)!