I'm Back!!!!

So after a short hiatus with no internet, here I am again.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, leaving Paris heading to Avignon. That day we learned the hard way that we should book trains in advance and ended up paying for a first class seat to Avignon (YUCK). But we made it! After an hour long detour through Avignon's industrial park, we found out we came in at a different train station than the one on our map and found a bus that took us to the right place. Haha... I guess not a very good start to the day. Anyways, it got better.

Avignon was absolutely gorgeous and it was really nice to be somewhere that wasn't a huge city. We basically spent the afternoon wandering around the town, exploring. Like me, I'm sure a lot of you have only ever heard of Avignon from the song. The funny thing is that the bridge from the song isn't a real bridge!!!! It only goes half way across the river. I think that's hilarious. And they actually charge money to go on it! Anyways, we were content looking at it from the outside. The coolest thing about Avignon, in my opinion is the wall that goes all the way around. And in some parts you can walk on it :-) We had supper in an actual restaurant (I think that may have been the first time) and then headed back to the hotel (yes, a REAL hotel! Luxury!). That evening, I decided to go for a walk by myself. I found a spot by the river where I read my book and watched the sunset. It was really really nice.

The next day, we were off to St. Raphael. Graham and I slept in while Justine went out shopping (again.... she's a big shopper :-P). Since we had learned our lesson and booked our train in advance, we made it with no problem. When we got here, we went to the Tourist Information who helped us find a hostel, but it didn't open until 5:30, so we went to the beach :-) Oh how I missed the ocean!! And the Mediterranean is BEAUTIFUL. The water is SOOOO blue. We spent a few hours swimming and hanging out on the beach and then caught the bus to our hostel. The hostel was definately the nicest we've been in yet (and the cheapestt). It's in a sort of park, pretty secluded from the town and we had a room to ourselves with our own bathroom!

Yesterday was Graham's Birthday, so we decided to celebrate we were going to rent a sailboat and go sailing!! (I've never actually been sailing, but Graham promised me he was good :-P) The guy at the hostel told us where we could rent boats so we got there nice and early (around 9:30). The only problem: there was no one there. So, after hanging around/wandering/going to the tourist info. for about an hour, we found a guy who told us we couldn't rent them until the afternoon. So back to the beach we go. We bought a beach ball to play with, so we spent the morning sunbathing/swimming/playing with our new toys. After lunch we headed back to the boat place and (after a short delay when they told us not until 2) we finally got a boat! We rented a catamaran for an hour and it was so much fun!!! I could definately get used to sailing... have I mentioned yet that I love the ocean? So after a bit more swimming/reading/playing we headed back to the hostel and then walked into Frejus to find a restaurant to have a dinner in Graham's honour. It was a very nice restaurant (if a little expensive) and the waiter was awesome. So, on the whole I think Graham's birthday was a success. I hope he had fun!!!

After those 2 days in the sun, I'm a little burnt (that might be a little bit of an understatement) despite ample application of sunscreen, so today I don't really feel like being out in the sun very much. So here I am, on the internet instead. Justine's out shopping again, and I might to a little myself when she gets back. We're heading to Nice at some point today, but like the hostel here, the hostel there doesn't open until 5pm, so we're in no rush (it's about and hour's train ride). I'm going to try to answer some of my emails (though I likely won't get to all of them). Luckily I can't get distracted by MSN because it's only 6am at home... hahaha....

Anyways, I think that's all for now! I don't know if Nice will have internet, but we'll be in Venice tomorrow and I'm sure they will. Talk to you soon!!

Kaila