I had a fantastic time with Jurek... as you might have guessed. We went shopping in Holland, on Tuesday and then went to the most AMAZING cathedral in Cologne. There's something about old buildings that has always drawn me to them. I think that in Europe as well it's even more incredible... because the buildings are just so old and to think about my European ancestors who were walking around the same streets and seeing the same things goodness knows how many years before is pretty powerful. We just don't have that in Australia. This cathedral took more than 640 years to build. Imagine starting a project like that and thinking you would never see it finished....Looking at the size of the cathedral (one of the largest in the world) it was incredible to think that it wasn't made with modern machinery either. Just mind-blowing.
We also had 'essen' (German for food) in a town called Essen with Jurek's friend, Marco at a restaurant where there were a whole lot of Australian signs and things. It was really strange to see, but it was nice there, a lovely warm evening and we all sat outside and talked until the restaurant closed.
The area in Germany where Jurek lives used to be a big area of production. Even now there are a lot of factories and I believe that industry is still pretty strong in the region. He told me that about 20 years ago, however (and I can't quite remember how) but a lot of the industry stopped and there were high numbers of unemployment. Anyway, a lot of the structures which were initially used were then left empty and untouched....they just stayed that way for several years, but in recent times people have started doing cool things with them. We went to a museum which was in a HUGE old cylinder that held gas. It was so tall! I think i read it was about 100 metres high. Anyway, there was a really great exhibition that we went to inside that had pictures of natural, beautiful things on one floor, and then beautiful, man-made things on the next floor. It was awesome....and I felt quite at home there too, as you can see...
That night Jurek took me to a 'park' to show me how an old factory had been recycled. Amongst this so called 'park' was an old, abandoned steel factory. It was so cool! There was an outdoor cinema, lots of different coloured lights, a kid's playground...and it was safe too. An old tank formerly used for production is now used for people to practice diving in. It was really cool. The next day we went to Dusseldorf, ate at an amazing place where you order Italian food and then they make it for you...in front of you, on the spot and the pricing was reasonable as well.
Friday, yesterday was a big day. We left home early, took a train to Cologne and from there I went to Brussels with my HUGE, heavy suitcase and another reasonably heavy one. Getting on the train was fine, because Jurek was there and able to help me, but getting off was an issue because there were so many other people trying to get off as well. I was last off, people were yelling and it was hard to get the suitcases down, but in the end a nice girl helped me. Again on the fast train to France there were people to lend a hand and I chatted to the guy next to me who helped me with everything when I arrived at Lyon (THANK GOODNESS). On arrival, Chloé was supposed to meet me at the platform but I couldn't find her, then someone told me that I had to go down and that she'd be there...so I did....still no sign of Chloé...so then I panicked and called Nettra (the only other person I knew in Lyon apart from my house mates...whose numbers I didn't have), but she wasn't around and anyway.... eventually Chloé found me (she got lost).
The apartment is really nice. It's comfortable, I have everything that I need here and in a fantastic location. It only takes about 10 minutes to get to Lyon's main central station (and who can complain about that?) I think it might even be this city's answer to Parkville. That's cool. I haven't had a lot of time to explore the area yet. Yesterday we did some grocery shopping with Caro (a girl who is living in the apartment but about to do a semester's study in Lebanon) and then I made a pavlova and we had ravioli au gratin (yes...I know it has a lot of cream). It was great, as we had a lot of time to talk and get to know each other a bit. I'm so relieved to be here in a country where I can understand what people say and to have somewhere stable to call home. Chloé and I made a huge trek to Ikea today. To cut a long story short, we went past my university which was cool, got to Ikea a lot later than we planned, Chloé was struck down with pain in one of her legs and couldn't walk for a while but then she was ok. I bought some things, like towels, bedding...a lamp...etc and then because it was going to take a long time to get home we figured we'd take a taxi (The apartment is about 10 minutes drive away, and at the moment more than an hour by public transport at the moment because they're doing work on the tram lines during the summer months). The taxi driver told us 25 euros which we thought was expensive but we went anyway because...well we didn't have too much choice. It was 45 euros. I was really annoyed about it... but what could we do?
We went to my church tonight to see how to get there, how long it takes etc. It's actually not very far and easy to get to as well. That's something I'm very pleased about.
Well we really need to eat...as it's already 10 pm and it's been a huge day (as you can probably tell) so I shall post soon. Love from France,
Alice
PS. I changed the name of my blog. I thought this sounded better and now everyone understands it too!
We also had 'essen' (German for food) in a town called Essen with Jurek's friend, Marco at a restaurant where there were a whole lot of Australian signs and things. It was really strange to see, but it was nice there, a lovely warm evening and we all sat outside and talked until the restaurant closed.
The area in Germany where Jurek lives used to be a big area of production. Even now there are a lot of factories and I believe that industry is still pretty strong in the region. He told me that about 20 years ago, however (and I can't quite remember how) but a lot of the industry stopped and there were high numbers of unemployment. Anyway, a lot of the structures which were initially used were then left empty and untouched....they just stayed that way for several years, but in recent times people have started doing cool things with them. We went to a museum which was in a HUGE old cylinder that held gas. It was so tall! I think i read it was about 100 metres high. Anyway, there was a really great exhibition that we went to inside that had pictures of natural, beautiful things on one floor, and then beautiful, man-made things on the next floor. It was awesome....and I felt quite at home there too, as you can see...
That night Jurek took me to a 'park' to show me how an old factory had been recycled. Amongst this so called 'park' was an old, abandoned steel factory. It was so cool! There was an outdoor cinema, lots of different coloured lights, a kid's playground...and it was safe too. An old tank formerly used for production is now used for people to practice diving in. It was really cool. The next day we went to Dusseldorf, ate at an amazing place where you order Italian food and then they make it for you...in front of you, on the spot and the pricing was reasonable as well.
Friday, yesterday was a big day. We left home early, took a train to Cologne and from there I went to Brussels with my HUGE, heavy suitcase and another reasonably heavy one. Getting on the train was fine, because Jurek was there and able to help me, but getting off was an issue because there were so many other people trying to get off as well. I was last off, people were yelling and it was hard to get the suitcases down, but in the end a nice girl helped me. Again on the fast train to France there were people to lend a hand and I chatted to the guy next to me who helped me with everything when I arrived at Lyon (THANK GOODNESS). On arrival, Chloé was supposed to meet me at the platform but I couldn't find her, then someone told me that I had to go down and that she'd be there...so I did....still no sign of Chloé...so then I panicked and called Nettra (the only other person I knew in Lyon apart from my house mates...whose numbers I didn't have), but she wasn't around and anyway.... eventually Chloé found me (she got lost).
The apartment is really nice. It's comfortable, I have everything that I need here and in a fantastic location. It only takes about 10 minutes to get to Lyon's main central station (and who can complain about that?) I think it might even be this city's answer to Parkville. That's cool. I haven't had a lot of time to explore the area yet. Yesterday we did some grocery shopping with Caro (a girl who is living in the apartment but about to do a semester's study in Lebanon) and then I made a pavlova and we had ravioli au gratin (yes...I know it has a lot of cream). It was great, as we had a lot of time to talk and get to know each other a bit. I'm so relieved to be here in a country where I can understand what people say and to have somewhere stable to call home. Chloé and I made a huge trek to Ikea today. To cut a long story short, we went past my university which was cool, got to Ikea a lot later than we planned, Chloé was struck down with pain in one of her legs and couldn't walk for a while but then she was ok. I bought some things, like towels, bedding...a lamp...etc and then because it was going to take a long time to get home we figured we'd take a taxi (The apartment is about 10 minutes drive away, and at the moment more than an hour by public transport at the moment because they're doing work on the tram lines during the summer months). The taxi driver told us 25 euros which we thought was expensive but we went anyway because...well we didn't have too much choice. It was 45 euros. I was really annoyed about it... but what could we do?
We went to my church tonight to see how to get there, how long it takes etc. It's actually not very far and easy to get to as well. That's something I'm very pleased about.
Well we really need to eat...as it's already 10 pm and it's been a huge day (as you can probably tell) so I shall post soon. Love from France,
Alice
PS. I changed the name of my blog. I thought this sounded better and now everyone understands it too!
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