Lourdes

I survived travelling all alone to Lourdes! I was pretty proud of myself. I took 3 trains there, totalling 8 hours (not including the hour long wait inbetween each connection). I got into Lourdes at about 4pm, walked around took some pictures until Elyse's camera (which was falling apart to begin with, in my defense) broke. Then I bought a disposable camera at a Tabac for like 10euro which was way overpriced in my opinion. at least it had a flash. i walked through centre ville and then went to my hotel around 5. i checked in, spoke some horrible french but got my point across lol, and went up to my room. then i realized i had the entire night to do absolutely nothing because it was getting dark out so i didnt want to walk around alone, so i was stuck in the hotel. i had brought hw with me but didn't feel like doing it, so i watched 7th heaven in french, tried to take a shower and realized there was no hot water, and then ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. it was REALLY good and only 9euro for a giant pot of soup and a pork meal. i didnt know if i was supposed to tip or not so i left a euro, but the waitress came running after me and gave it to me so i guess not lol. the hot water came back on so i took a nice loooong shower (which are virtually impossible in my host mothers house: tres vite! tres vite!), put on my pajamas and chilled out the rest of the evening. i found the french version of america's funniest home videos. whether u understand the language or not, people falling and hurting themselves is always funny. then i watched some svu re-runs and understood them better than i expected. mark called me at like 1am and we talked til 2 when i decided i needed to go to bed cuz i was getting up early to see all the sites the next day.

so looking like a complete and utter tourist i checked out of the hotel, got out my map and walked to the shrine i wanted to see. there was a huge church at first so i took pictures of the outside and went in to check it out, which was gorgeous. u could also climb to the top and there was a small basillica up there, and when i went in mass was just starting so i stayed. after mass i went around the back of the church to where the grotto was, which is the big thing to see. this is where Mary appeared to St. Burnadette 18 times in the 1850s, and i'm pretty sure it's where the rosary was initiated too. i know i'm a huge catholic nerd but it was very cool! the place where Mary told Burnadette to drink the water and wash with it was there and covered with a glass plate, so that was cool too. (there was no water there at the time, so Burnadette scratched the ground where Mary told her the water would be and uncovered a hidden spring). i walked along the Gave (the river there) and it was really pretty, and just chilled out by some rocks for a while. in the words of elyse, i just "be'd" for a while. i walked around centre ville for a little while longer which was pretty, but almost everything was closed cuz it was sunday and nothing's open on sundays in france. i had lunch at a cute little cafe, and then headed up to the train station and caught the 2:00 train back to aix. with the length of the train rides and connection layovers i didnt get back til 10:30pm. i recognize it was ALOT of travelling for one little thing but it was pretty cool and i've been wanting to see it foreverrr.

only 16 days til i come home, 13 days left in aix! craziness, but i cant wait :-D