French Riviera Photos.

The French Riviera.

Monptellier is located in the south of France, but it is just on the edge of what is considered the French Riviera. The riviera is where you see all of the movie stars in the tabloid pictures at their villas in St. Tropez, or sunbathing in Cannes, or shooting movies in Monaco(James Bond/Casino Royale). So of course what is a semester abroad without seeing all of this?
My trip through the riviera started out in Nice, the largest city in the area, and with the most to do. Nice is where I stayed every night after day trips to other cities. Nice is supposedly where ravioli was invented and I would not doubt it because the ravioli pasta I had the first night was very good. My first day in Nice I walked along the promenade Anglais which is the main street that runs along the water. As beautiful at night as it is during the day. I walked through Old Nice with a couple of my female counterparts from Montpellier and we had gellato in this little shop by the beach. We then climbed up through this park overlooking the sea that took us up past waterfalls and statues all the way up to the top of a mountain that provided us with a panoramic view of the city from the sea all the way up into its vast hills filled with villas. That night we walked had dinner in the city and then hung out at the suprisingly well maintained and well run hostel.
The next morning I met the girls, Joan and Carley, at the Gare Routiere(bus station) and we took the 25 minute trip to Eze-le-Village, a very small town that sits up in the cliffs overlooking the medditerranian sea. If you are not familiar with the three cornishes, they are the three different roads that run from Nice to Monaco. There is the lower(along the sea), middle(through the hills), and upper(through the mountains) cormish. Eze is located on the upper cornish and if has some of the best views I have ever seen. We walked through a castle located on the highest cliff and spent some time in its exotic gardens that stretch throughout the upper castle. I can't explain how crazy the views are, so I'm not gonna try, I will put up pictures but they will still not do it justice. If u ever come to the French riviera...you must come to Eze, period. After the castle we took a tour of a perfumery, pretty interesting actually but I could have dine without it, the girls enjoyed it tho.
After Eze, we caught the next bus to Monaco which was only about 15 minutes away. Whatever you have heard about Monaco being ritzy, over the top, and pretentious...they are all accurate descriptions. This city is full of ferarris and betleys and hotels that will break most wallets, however it is also has a lot to do and see. I saw the Casino Monte Carlo with its top notch dress code to get in and the harbor full of multi million dollar yachts. But I also walked through the Japanese Garden right next to the sea and walked up to the Royal Palace and saw the changing of the guard. We also went to the aquarium, which is located in a building much nicer than the Royal Palace for some reason. The views were amazing from up here...nice views seem to be a common theme throughout the riviera. It was a bit bittersweet to leave such a pretty city but we timed our bus ride back to catch the sunsetting over the meditteranian as we took the lower cornish route back to Nice. Oh and a small girl threw up on the bus ride back and managed to catch a few tourists with the splatter...I almost slipped and fell on it as I was getting off the bus in Nice...would have ruined the day for me. That night in Nice we went to this live jazz club in town where a British band was playing. This was a very hip place. We got a table right in the front and must have stayed there for arounf 3 hours.
The following day, which was Sunday and the day of the trip we went to Cannes. Now Cannes is a beautiful beach town, much smaller than Nice and Monaco, but beauty is about all it has. There are a lack of monuments or historic places to see. It is full of designer stores and film festival remnats. Still I had a blast walking along the beach and just enjoying the sun. The views are crazy as well...yet again. I want to go back for longer though because they have 2 islands off the coast that have a monestary run by monks and a famous prison that once held "The Man In the Iron Mask". My riviera weekend was a whirlwind to sa the least and I was dead tired at the end of it, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Dublin, Ireland Photos.

The Luck of the Irish.

The next trip up after London…Dublin. I had to go through Nice in order to get to Dublin because there were no flights out of Montpellier. I stayed in a hostel in Nice Thursday night and flew out in the morning, getting to Ireland around midday. Coming into Dublin I had no idea what to expect, but arriving on the Friday before St. Patty’s Day weekend…I figured it would be entertaining! My friend Kara and I got a pretty good hotel smack dab in the middle of the city on O’Connell Street, and for the price of a hostel. The room was small but clean, but the location put us within walking distance of just about everything. As soon as we checked in I made a reservation for this “Wild Wicklow Tour” that I had read about on the internet…it is a six hour tour that takes you into the Irish countryside and gives you a little taste of life and the scenery outside of the city, more on this later. Then we headed straight to the Guinness Brewery. I did not know this but the Guinness Brewery is the number one tourist attraction in Ireland…it’s a shame because the beer is terrible. I don’t understand why people love it so much. I was able to see a lot of Dublin on the walk to the brewery and on the way back, stopping at Dublin Castle and Trinity college as well, which has one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen, hands down. For dinner we had Thai food, which was decent but very disappointing as I am used to much better quality back home. Dublin at night is very lively, although there is no doubt that the cause for all the people was because St. Patrick’s Day was right around the corner. Still, it is a fun place to be at night and there is literally a pub or two on every street in this city, I have no idea how they all stay in business year round…but then again the Irish do love their alcohol.
I cut in early Friday night because of the early morning tour we had to get to that started at 9am. About 20 of us, mainly kids in our 20’s pilled onto a pretty nice luxury coach and headed out around 930am from O’Connell Street. We made a detour and stopped by the U2 recording studio on our way out of Dublin…of course we didn’t get to go in but we saw the outside of it. It is on a semi-hidden street covered from all angles with amazing graffiti art, a very cool place I must say. We then proceeded into the Irish hills and countryside outside of Dublin. The scenery was more than I could have imagined…everywhere I looked there was green and rolling hills with lakes and creeks. The guide told us that in the summer all of the green is replaced by purple as the flowers bloom and cover the fields. We saw the places where Braveheart, Excaliber, and some movie called P.S. I Love You. All of the girls on the bus went crazy when they saw this area…I had no idea what was going on at this point, and still don’t. Next we stopped in a small town called Laregh for lunch. I had to keep with the mood of the day so I ordered the Irish Guinness beef stew and to my surprise it was pretty good. Nothing out of this world, but I enjoyed it. The next place we stopped was Glendaloch, meaning “two lakes”. This town is home to two glacier lakes that are located within a national park. It is a long walk to the lakes but the end justifies the means in this scenario. The lakes are beautiful and the walk there comes complete with an old medieval town and cemetery that literally looks straight out of the “Thriller” music video, no joke! By the time we got back to the bus to head home I was dead tired from what turned out to be an eight hour tour. I can always tell that I am tired when I am nodding off to sleep and I start drooling on myself…yes yes I know, this is NASTY…but it is the truth. I rarely hold back in these stories ladies and gentlemen.
That night Kara and I had a late dinner before we proceeded to amuse our taste buds with the many pubs that Dublin has to offer. Now I know that I said that I hated the Guinness beer from the brewery, but if you have ever had what is called a “mini Guinness” then you will understand what I am talking about when I say it tastes like chocolate…great drink! I will never again drink a Guinness beer but I will enjoy a few mini Guinness’ anytime….within reason of course. After stopping at about four pubs, we went back to the hotel and called it a night as I had a 715am flight the next morning back to Montpellier. And long story short, I tried to stay up all night to make it easier on myself….bad decision. I fell asleep in the final hour and slept through my alarm! Kara somehow woke me up at 6am and I made it to the airport 25 minutes before my plane departed, ahh the luck of the Irish! In the states, there is NO way I make it on that flight…but this is Europe people and I was flying Ryan Air too. You can show up half naked and they will let you on the flight.
As the tour guide mentioned to all of us, 80 percent of the people that come to Ireland end up returning for a second trip. I now understand why and I will surely be making a return voyage back in the future.

Never in the States.

To say that the French like to strike and protest would be selling them short...it is a way of life for them.  Let me explain to you why.  During my third week in Montpellier a little strike or "La Greve" was staged not only in the city but at my University, Paul Valery...this SAME strike is still going on now.  This is going on almost 3 months of a strike that was started by the professors at Paul Valery, these professors were then joined by over 60% of the students.  What's could possibly be reason you ask?  Well, I am not entirely sure but it has something to do with new reforms that are being made within the university as well as within the country as well.  The professors are not happy with the new changes and apparently the students hold these same reservations, so they are making it known...and then some.  Just to put it in perspective, during this entire strike there has been no class at Paul Valery University.  The protesters have prevented this by the professors not showing up to teach and on top of that they broke into the school over night and barricaded the doors to classrooms and even the main entrance to the school at one point, with chairs, tables, and anything else they could find!  A bit extreme but if it gets the job done then how can you complain?  

To be honest, I don't buy any of this "We hate reform!" bull being preached by the protestors.  That is not the reason they are striking...they just don't want to go to school and they are doing something about it.  It also helps that the professors share the same sentiment or a lot of students would be missing class.  And I don't blame them for not wanting to go to class, it is sunny here everyday and the beach is minutes away...why would they even build schools in this city?!  I chose to bring La Greve to your attention because something like this would NEVER happen at a US university or college...or any school for that matter.  This is due to a laundry list of reasons but the two that come to mind is that 1. Us students in the US would never have the guts to stage such an elaborate strike for such a long period of time, we would be too concerned about how it would effect our GPA!  and 2. Our parents would literally kill us if we ever tried to pull a stunt like the one here in Montpellier, especially if they are paying tens of thousands of dollars for our educations...this is not an issue for the students in Montpellier as a years tuition at Paul Valery University is 400 euro!  Such are the benefits of the French government and social system...you see why they are striking to prevent reform?

  And just to be clear this has not effected my class schedule because I am not directly enrolled into Paul Valery University.  I am enrolled in an international language school located on the campus of Paul Valery, so we have not been effected much by the strike...no worries mother!  

Why is everything closed?

I don't know if you are aware of this little tradition in France and what seems like the rest of Europe for that matter, but on Sundays everything shuts down....completely!  I did not know this coming into my study abroad experience, at least I don't recall if I did or not, but it can tend to be slightly bothersome.  Lets just say for the sake of argument that it is Sunday afternoon and you just left the gym and you are walking home...you are thinking to yourself, "Hey, I would love 'insert favorite food here'.  I have a great idea I should stop by the grocery store on the way home and buy it"...WRONG!  You would not be able to buy whatever food or drink or anything purchased in a store for that matter because everything is closed on Sunday...even the usually handy grocery stores.  I understand that the French like their time off and vacations, but for everything to close on Sunday is a bit severe.  Can't they at least leave the grocery stores open, if not for the entire day then for a select number of hours?  What if a mother(or father) needs to get food for their baby?  Or some of the nasty ass milk the have here for breakfast?  There are countless necessities that someone might need on a Sunday that they will not be able to get over here.  

This is just one of many observations that I have made while in France and one that ranks high up on the list for most intrusive on my everyday routine...but only on Sundays of course.  I guess what we can all learn from this is that you need to think ahead and be prepared for the worst on Sundays...because if the worst happens, you better not be in France. 

LondonTown.

So here is the deal, originally I was going to be lame and not go any where for the weekend after I was in Switzerland...I can't really give you all an excuse for why but I was tired and I had a lot of homework etc. etc.  The problem that developed out of this is that I had already promised my friend Gemayal, my roommate from school last year as well as ex-teammate, that I would come visit him in London before we went back home to the states.  And given that this would be the last time for awhile that we would both be in Europe together at once, I couldn't let this weekend pass me by without heading out to London.  So I sacked up and bought my tickets and before I knew it I was in London by Thursday afternoon.

I caught the train into the city from Gatwick to meet Gemayal and the first thing we did was head for an open gym that Gemayal went to on Thursday nights.  This could not have made me happier as as you all have read, Montpellier is lacking with the basketball availability.  The runs were fine, nothing too serious but good none the less.  There after we headed back to Gemayal's flat and called it a night.  The next day consisted of G, I will now refer to Gemayal as G for sake of less typing,  going to work all day and myself exploring the city.  London is a very cool place with a lot of history...but I wont bore you with all that.  That night after G got off work we went to another open gym in the Shell Corporation Building, this was a different place than the previous night and there were more players in attendance.  The gym was very ragged and beat up, as hoops were bent and the floor was in terrible shape...it made me wonder why Shell couldn't throw a couple million into there athletic facilities from all the money they make in oil.  The games were very rough from the get go, with designated civilian refs that consisted of players who had just lost the previous game and were sitting out on the sideline.  This made for extremely bias reffing as bitter players who had just lost the game before attempting to swing games one way or another by calling phantom fouls for benefit of one team or another.  And if you know me then you know I would be talking shit to the ref the entire game for his off court antics and game calling.  Only making him angrier and more resentful towards myself and my team.  

In what seemed like only the 4th or 5th game of the night, my team was playing a team full of French speaking players.  The game had been going on for at least 30 minutes due to the bitter ref who had lost to us the game before and was calling fouls left and right for the other team...only prolonging the game and causing me to give him more and more of what I was thinking...I wont elaborate.  But as this continued and we arrived at game point the fouls became harder and more dangerous and players from the other team just started fouling me whenever I would touch the ball or make a move.  This did not make me mad as I have had worse but it got to a point where enough was enough and after one play on the opposite end of the court from our basket one of the players proceeded to foul me for at least 10 seconds straight...for no apparent reason.  Haha, so of course I didnt get too mad...but what I did do was address him, to his face, in French and ask him "Why?" "For what?!" What was the point of that?!"  WOW...this did not go over well with any of the players from the other team...who seemed to all be native French speakers.  They almost lost it...no scuffle of any sort ensued but I was amused at how well I was able to get under their skin.  G, who knew these players from previous open gyms, had to mediate the situation a bit but in the end we won the game and they went home bitter and angry at the American boy who came onto their court and not only beat them at basketball but yelled at them in their own language to top it off.  

Oh and just for the record, in case G decides to read this post, this event I just described usually happens between G and myself when we are on opposite teams...except the shit talking only occurs between him and I while the other players on the court wonder why we are so angry at each other.  To be honest, we only do it because it makes everything more fun....and competitive for everyone involved.  

The rest of the London trip included no further basketball but DID include a night out on the town and plenty of fun and humor.  But unfortunately this will have to be left up to your own imagination because I cannot elaborate further.

Swiss Weekend.

To round out my trifecta of ski trips this winter I took a trip to the Swiss Alpes to a resort called Grindelwald just outside of the capital city of Switzerland, Bern.  The resort was bigger than expected and proved to have plenty of good runs.  I even tried a traditional Swiss dish that included some sort of bratwurst sausage and what looked and tasted like hash browns.  This was all topped off with an onion sauce...sounds worse than it actually is.  The weather stayed nice for us for the majority of the time but we had to call it quits early once because of too much fog.  I got to see a lot of Bern on this trip as well.  I experienced what seems to be an expansive nightlife in the as well as the over the top prices on everything...you can't get a pair on Converse there for less than 90 US dollars!  On the way back home I had a long lay over in Geneva so I got to explore that city as well.  Although I was greeted with a mix of snow and rain so after a few hours I called it quits and retreated to a movie theatre where the only movie that I had time to see was called "Twighlight" about teen vampires or something.  Not a bad movie but not one I would have picked.  My impression of the Alps over th past three weeks has been good but definitely not what I had expected, the slopes can tend to be very repetitive and simple.  And there is a clear lack of black diamond's as most resorts seem to be dominated with middle-of-the-road runs.  But hey I was able to ski in both the French and Swiss Alpes...and for that I am very thankful!

Another Visit To The Dentist.

So you all remember when I was elbowed in the mouth while playing basketball and had to go to the dentist to have my front tooth checked out?  And he convinced me that everything was fine, etc.....blah blah you know the rest.  Well apparently he was WRONG!  After about a 2 weeks I noticed that my tooth was beginning to change color, it wasn't very noticeable at first and I thought I was being paranoid, but when people started telling me that I had something on my teeth I figured it was time for another visit to the dentist.  I returned to his office, Dr. Wotan's office, and had the tooth checked out yet again.  This time he agreed with my presumption about the tooth being dead and without hesitation he proceeded with the root canal.  This was probably the fastest and most painful root canal of my life, simply because it happened so fast and usually I can tell what is being done to my tooth in real time when I am at the dentist back home because I can understand the chatter back and forth between the dentist and their assistant...this tends to put me at ease as I know when to prepare for a drill, needle, etc.  You know the terrible methods dentists use for the upkeep of our teeth).  Well this doctor had no assistant and even if he did I doubt I would be able to understand much of it.  I left the dentist feeling tired and drugged up only to get home and have the pain meds wear off, leaving my mouth throbbing with pain that a simple ibuprofen could not alleviate.  The long and short of it is that what was once thought to be over and done with came back to smack me in the mouth...literally!!

Les 2 Alpes.

I made a commitment before I even came to France that February was going to be the month that I dedicated all of my weekend trips to skiing.  Up until this semester in school I have had basketball from October to the middle of March and thus have barely been out on the slopes the past 4 years.  So naturally I followed up my initial ski trip to the French Alpes with another one to a much LARGER resort, also in the French Alpes, that goes by the name of Les 2 Alpes or for us Americans...The 2 Alps.  This resort is located about an hour and a half outside of Grenoble, France which is about a 3 and a half train ride from Montpellier.  I was very excited for this specific trip because it was going to be my first self-planned trip in Europe and I wanted to make it a memorable one!  So I did hours of research and probably went through 20 or so different ski resorts before I came across Les 2 Alpes.  The entire time I was searching the internet for resorts I couldn't believe the ridiculous abundance of ski resorts that lie in the Alpes...they are everywhere!  I had to make sure that the resort I chose was at a high enough elevation to get good snow cover as some of the resorts I was looking into were having below average snow fall which does not translate into good skiing for Huston.  Moving on, I booked my hotel...with the help of my wonderful mother who's French is way better than mine, got my train tickets, and was ready to go.  I decided on a hotel for this initial trip because I wanted to go big and they were offering two free meals a day...if you know me at all, this is what sealed the deal entirely. 

Joining me on this adventure was my friend Kara who I know from Portland.  She is studying in Florence and decided to join me on this trip as she is also an avid skier.  With my bags packed and ready to go I left on Thursday late afternoon from the Montpellier train station.  My trip took me from Montpellier to Valence and then from Valence to Grenoble where we were supposed to have a bus waiting for us to take us to the resort...SUPPOSED is the key word here.  After getting off the train in Grenoble and switching to a bus in Valence I arrived in Grenoble at 830pm on Thursday...and to my surprise the f*&$king bus station was closed...at 830pm!  Ok I can figure this out, I said to myself, I just need to speak with someone in the train station.  So I go straight to the information desk at the train station and ask the gentleman when and where the bus to Grenoble will be arriving...as the hotel we were staying in promised us that there would be a bus to take us from Grenoble to the resort.  he calmly replied and smiled as if he were actually helping me with, "I don't know but just go to the bus station and ask them.  They will surely know.  It is right outside and to the left."  Hmmm, you do not know how much I wanted to reach through the glass and choke him to death after he told me this...first of all the bus station is closed and second of all how do you not know that?!  I respectfully mentioned to him that the bus station was closed and asked him how to proceed...then he just through his hands up and shrugged his shoulders...I have no more words for this specific moment.  I went back outside and asked three bus drivers if they knew anything about the bus to Les 2 Alpes or how I could get there and they all had the same response..."NO".  At this point I figured I was going to either have to spend the night in Grenoble and take the bus in the morning or just penny up and take a cab.  I decided on the cab and as soon as Kara arrived we hopped in one and headed for the resort...but not before I tried to barter with the cab driver for a lower fare.  He just looked at me and said "Sir, I just start the meter.  I do not determine the price."  I then shut up and got into the cab for the normally hour and a half ride that only took us an hour because our cab driver never took his foot off the gas the entire ride.  We were at 2500 meters elevation hitting tight turns and flying up 2 lane roads, next to CLIFFS, going about 70 mph!  I held on for dear life.  We arrived and went straight to bed so that we could get out early the next morning.  Oh and by the way the taxi cost us a cold 190 euro...terrible.

The next morning we ate breakfast, which was an absolutely amazing buffet style meal, this made me very happy...and then went and rented skis and got 2 day passes for the lifts.  Once we got out to the slopes it was about 1030 am and the sun was shining.  This resort is huuge!  There are about 45 hotels in the village along with chalets and the like everywhere.  The village is in a valley that lies in between 2 different alpes...hence the name Les 2 Alpes, you should all get that now.  We skied for most of the day and went in around 4pm as the lifts close at 430pm.  No night skiing in the alps because it is too hard to control and monitor.  The next morning we got out even earlier and were able to take the gondolas up to the runs that we couldn't get to the day before because of the high winds.  We made it up to 3200 meters!  the skiing was amazing and the snow cover was perfect.  There were your powder runs, plenty of moguls, and downhill runs a plenty.  Although it was a bit difficult to search out the black diamond and double diamond runs...i found some but definitely not as much as what I was expecting.  This could be because this specific resort was so big and touristy that they tend to groom their runs to appeal to the mediocre skier with a lot of blues and medium difficulty hills(Just  heads up!)  Stevens Pass in Skykomish has waay better diamond runs that Les 2 Alpes..not to downplay the resort or my time there, I just found that very interesting.   On a good note, I could have honestly skied this resort for a week straight and not went on the same run twice if I wanted to.  Although the alps are very very cold, there was no clouds and plenty of sun on the second day and my hands were numb within the first 45 minutes of skiing!  Not to worry tho...our room had towel warmers.  I did not know what they were at first but Kara knew what they were as soon as she walked in.  These are in-genius...it is like getting your towel out of an oven!  

The two days of skiing were much needed as I got my skiing fix for the week and we left the next afternoon and took the bus back into Grenoble...it only cost us 7 euro for two tickets!! A better deal than the 190 euro taxi ride eh?  We then had to sit in the ice cold Grenoble train station and wait for our trains for what seemed like eternity but eventually they came and Kara and I said our goodbyes and both headed home.  I cannot comment on her travels home but mine were quiet and uneventful for once.