The 14th of July

First of all, these pics are long over due... And yeah. So here is what we did to celebrate Bastille Day in France (French Independence Day). We went back to Marseilles and hung out with our buddies John and Nathan. There was a ward party at the church that afternoon, so we hung out there a bit, then we headed out on the town for fireworks etc. There were tons of people, and they did fireworks over the port... It doesn't sound very cool but it was... take a look at the pics.

Toulouse

I really wanted to stop in Toulouse to see my mission companion Soeur Boucaut, so we went. We weren't really able to arrange anything because its been crazy trying to find internet while traveling (you would be surprised how many hotels don't have it!) so when we got to the train station, we sent her an email (thank you McDonald's Wifi) and she came right over. We talked for a few minutes (she was on her lunch break at work) and we arranged to see her later for dinner, and to stay at her sisters house that night. It was SO good to see her. Unfortunately I was so excited about seeing her that I forgot to take pics! She was my companion in Charleroi for 3 transfers. I just LOVE her. She came home the same day as me, got married shortly after, and now has a 10 month old baby. He is seriously the CUTEST baby I have ever seen. We ate dinner with her and her husband at their appartment, and just talked and talked. It makes me sad that some of my most favorite people in the world live so far from me, and I will so rarely see them in my life. But I'm lucky to know them and to be able to call them friends, so I can't complain.
Also, I forgot to mention that we randomly were able to meet up with our friend Landry, someone Clay taught on his mission. Normally he lives in Lyon, but he just happened to be in Toulouse that day visiting his mom, and he was coming to the train station to catch a train home to Lyon, and we were able to meet up and grab a snack together, and he showed us a little of the city.

Cerbere

We spent the night in a little border town between Spain and France. It started pretty hectic, but turned out to be quite cute. We got into the town around 6? or 8 p.m? It was still light out, but for this little tiny town, things had pretty much ended for the night. We walked around a little trying to find our hotel, and could not. Suprising since there are only 4 hotels in the town. We finally went into a different hotel where a very nice lady (she owned it) helped us with our dilemma. Turns out that the hotel we booked online was about an hour and 15 minutes away in a car... no access by trains. She was so nice, she called them for us and talked them out of charging us a no show fee, and she also offered us a room in one of her hotels at a discounted rate (still more than we were going to spend at the other hotel, but we didn't really have options). We got settled into our hotel, and then walked over to the little carnival that was going on in the middle of town. There was one bumper car game thingy, and cotton candy. There were maybe 4 people there. We got some cotton candy, and just sat there on the beach looking out into the water. It was just adorable.

Holaa... from Barcelonaaaa!

After Marseilles, we headed straight to Barcelona. Clay had been here before, and loved it, and really wanted to bring me back. We had a little bit of a struggle right at the beginning, we had booked our Hotel online, and when we got in they were full... Apparently their computers were down so they didn't know we were coming. But it turned out ok, since they put is up in a supposedly nicer hotel about a block away. And, we got free breakfast for the inconvenience, though we did have to ask him for it. The next day we headed out and checked out the port. Then we walked over to the Mercado Boqueria. Its a food market that sells pretty much everything. It was awesome. They have stands with Fresh juice in about every flavor/combination imaginable. We shared 3 of them I think, and then we bought some fresh fruit platter thingys for one or 2 euro each, and enjoyed breakfast. We spent the rest of the day exploring Barcelona and looking for all of the cool buildings that were designed by the architect Gaudi. When we were at Sagrada Familia, the awesome looking cathedral designed by Gaudi, we completely passed out on the grass in an adjacent park. When we woke up, Amy had an insatiable urge to eat chips, so we found her some salty goodness and continued on. We checked into a hostel for the night and went out for dinner. We had an incredible three course meal for only 10 euros a piece, drinks included, where we enjoyed chickpea stew, walnut pasta, steak, fried cod, flan, and ice-cream. The next day we explored Park Gual, another beauty given to us by Gaudi. It was incredible. All in all, Barcelona was a success.

Marseille

Well, it has been a while since we last posted. The trip is winding down to an end rather quickly, but Im going to try and catch up on a few posts today. After Cinque Terre came Marseille. We have a few friends doing internships there, and they were kind enough to let us sleep on the floor for a few nights. We spent the first day walking all around the city. We probably walked like 8 miles! And we were in swimsuits and flip flops!! W also had a chance to catch up on our laundry, go to the beach, get sunburned, go cliff diving (my fear of sharks kept me from jumping into the water, so I just took pictures) and visit a neighboring city (Aix-en-Provence) for a cute night out.

The dark island is actually Le Chateau d'If... Counte of Monte Cristo anyone??