It all began when Jetty missed the 6:15am train he needed to get on so he could get to Luxembourg City on Saturday morning. The one that he caught came in exactly five minutes after the chartered bus we were taking to the Loraine train station was supposed to leave. Did he have all of the tickets we needed?
of course.
Luckily, by acting like the desperate American tourists we were, we got the driver to hold the bus while Jetty and Chris (who had gone to meet him) sprinted through the station like madmen to where Zack and I were waiting.
And so began our Champagne adventures.
Reims is a beautiful city - small enough that i think we walked the whole thing in the time we spent there, but full of interesting places. We went and did the cathedral bit, and it really was gorgeous. The kings of France were crowned there and it's also the place where Joan of Arc recognized the dauphin even though he was in a disguise and there was an imposter in his place. We ended up going to mass on sunday too, in the Basilica of St. Remi. It was all in french, but hey, i have a pretty good idea of how it goes.
Of course we went on a champagne tour, complete with a free taste test of 3 different types of champagne which meant we were in heaven. The whole deal only cost 9 euro, and the process for making champagne is actually fascinating. there's so much work that goes into just one bottle, i'm a lot more appreciative of it now.
on saturday night, due to a closed indian restuarant that had a sign suggesting we try another indian restuarant that wasn't open, and a good conversation with the server at the restaurant we finally ended up at, we missed the cultural french comedy that we were planning to attend that evening. So, like any good americans, we bought a few six packs from the local grocery store and spent the night playing kings instead. good decision? absolutely.
i really loved traveling with the guys - i don't know when i last laughed so hard so often. they're not really good shopping buddies, but i guess they're actually helping me save money that way. haha. oh, and i learned how to play euker, which is pretty cool - zack also made the best king's rule ever, which is that everything you say must be ended with the words "in my butt". it's horribly immature, but honestly it can be hilarious. try it some time. you will laugh.
the crowing event of the weekend has to be the mile walk to the train station though. after one last drink at a portugese place down the street from our hostel, we trotted over the the 'K' bus that was supposed to take us to the train station. this was logical, as it had picked us up from the train station the day before.
so, the bus stops literally in the middle of nowhere, and we all look around and zack says "why are we even stopping here?". the bus driver then turns to us and goes "gare?" and we said yeah, we were going to the train station. he said that was our stop.
we asked where the train station was.
"There," he said, and pointed off into the impossibly flat, wide, expanse of distance that was nothing but a field where they were doing construction and (as we would later learn) a steep moat of muck around the train station.
to this statement, we simply responded "you've got to be kidding".
unfortunately, he wasn't.
so off we went, carrying bottles of champagne that we bought as gifts for people and dragging our luggage along.
honestly, it was hilarious. particularly when zack pulled out his knife and started going on about how someone was probably hiding in the bushes (he soon started singing the ABC song too). we were going to attempt to traverse the moat, and then go around the fence that was on the hill after that (it's a freaking train station people, do you really need a partial fence around it?) but it was too steep and deep to be able to get down and get back up again without serious issue.
at any rate, about 40 minutes later we finally arrived and were homeward bound.
all in all though, a fantastic weekend and a great adventure.
it's the things that go wrong that give you stories to tell.
love,
me
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I'm trying to picture you trekking through a moat to get to some random slab of concrete that passes as a train station.
It's got a sort of Sprited Away feel (I dont know if you ever saw that movie, but if you havent you should. It's fantastic, despite the fact that it's anime.), with the train tracks that are entirely submerged under water.
Glad all is well. I'm still debating on whether I'm going to go to Lux 2nd semester sophomore year. Sarah and I are toying with the idea of rooming together. Just think of how that could go....
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