FFFFFRIDAY!

Started out by waking up super early in the morning (5am) and doing some last minute things before leaving. On Wednesday I learned that there were supposed to be problems with the trains on Friday due to a huge snow storm. This caused me to be super worried and check the train schedule periodically for any news of problems. After I checked my train, I finished packing, grabbed a banana for breakfast, and left. I left at ten to 6 and by the time I got to the station I still had 15 minutes before my train. I found the platform and got on without any troubles. The train ride was smoother than I expected given the fact that trains were supposed to be delayed which made me feel really relieved. 

A couple of interesting things happened during this ride.One, there was a lady across from me who was asleep with her headphones in. I didn’t think to wake her and she awoke as we were pulling away from her stop. I felt really bad for her and wished I could tell her how much I understand how it feels when travel plans go wrong, but I didn’t feel I could portray it very well in French. She got off at the next stop but had to wait over two hours for the next train. I hope she finally got to see her daughter ok. The second thing was really interesting, a man sitting across from me on the train ride. At first, I was like oh, a mid 40 year old man sitting across from me, whatever. But no less than a minute after he sits down does he bang his hands on his brief case and start tapping out the beat to whatever he was listening to on his ipod. He used his full body and I couldn’t help but smile. After a few seconds he seemed to realize he was not alone and stopped. This spontaneous burst of music madness was awesome and made me realize that everything is going to be ok and finally relax. 

We got to Lyon right on time and I dashed over to the shuttle to the airport. After buying a ticket and waiting 5 minutes, I was on the shuttle and on my way to the airport. Interestingly enough, another man (about 10 years younger than the other) sat across from me, and no sooner than we left did he start whistling a tune and tapping out the beat. Once again it made my day and was very entertaining. Anyways, finally got to the airport and raced to my gate. I got through security and realized I had over an hour before boarding. So I went to the bathroom and got some real breakfast/lunch because I was starved and sat down to eat. Finally, we got into the boarding room and I was excited because I hadn’t missed anything. Little did I know we would be standing in the boarding room for over an hour. At last, we get on the plane and I nap most of the way there (I don’t even remember take off because I was asleep!!). We touched down and no sooner did I get out of the main section did I see Liz!!

We took the metro and had to change three times until we finally got out and walked to our hostel. We got checked in with no problems and got into our room. The room is actually really nice. It’s pretty big with two decent beds (that squeak a lot!) and a decent bathroom. It also has a small balcony which I’m sure is nice in the summer. After we got settled in we left to go check out the town. We saw Plaza del Sol and went shopping at H&M on the Grande Via. After a while we got some dinner at Mickey D's and went back. We used the wifi in the lobby and I went to bed early for it had been a really long day.