Catching up with mates... France and Germany

The good thing about the weather being so hot in Barcelona is that it forces me to stay at home in the shade during the hottest hours... and then I can catch up with my blog!

I have been away the last two week ends to catch up with my friends.

The last one, I was in Germany, near Koblenz... in a small village. My first time in Germany... and sorry mates but I will not say that I loved it! I guess I have a problem with this language... neither I like the sound of it, nor I understand a word of it, which does not help for communicating... and we had a kind of a shitty weather too, except for the 1st day I arrived

Luckily enough, I found a ride from the remote airport to get to Koblenz with 2 really nice dutch girls, a mother whose husband is into sailing and her daughter, so that was really awesome talking to them and sharing adventures. They first planned to drop me on the highway but after chatting happily with me, decided to take me straight to the train station of Koblenz... so lucky!

I wandered around, walking along the 'Rhin' while waiting for my ex flatmate Sara from NZ to show up. Quite a nice place, with restaurants and cafes, lots of boats and even cargo ships with containers... reminding me of my work

Sara was stoked to see me, all the more that she did not really get on well with the girl she was travelling with and after 3 weeks, had enough of her! No need to say then there was some tension between them, really weird for me then, stuck in the middle... anyway, we still had a good time as Sandra left us by ourselves, fighting with a long lasting migraine.

There was a concert in the village the day I arrived and we enjoyed some nice Riesling wine with pizzas and bretzels. There was quite many people there, and Sara really surprised me as she knew quite a few, only being there a few weeks... that's what happens when the place is small I guess! The band was nice and the square really pretty with its nice typical houses...not one good looking german to be seen anywhere unfortunately, another false idea I had!!!

The day after, Sara's friend was kind enough to take us to the closest train station and we went to Cologne for a quick sightseeing tour. The cathedral was pretty impressive...

As for the rest, nothing special really, shops, a nice lunch by the 'Rhin' again, chilling out, shopping and having quickly enough of the city. Back to our 'shithole' in the country side for a very quiet night. A movie and a walk in the morning in the bush, picking up a few wild raspberries, delicious with some vanilla ice cream before heading back to Koblenz on a bus, then to the airport.

I've never been so happy to be back in Barcelona, with the sun, the sea and a nice language to be heard

The week end before was of another kind. Sharing a car to get to Toulouse to catch up with my loved Berangere, my friend of Les Saintes whom I had lived with for over a month before crossing the atlantic again... we caught up in Toulouse's train station... she had a little burden with her, her lovely Louise, almost 4 months old and we were very very happy to see each other again!!! We took the train to Gaillac, another 'shithole' this time in France so with the advantage of 'croissants' and 'chocolatines'!!!

We had a fantastic time, just chilling out in her grandmother's house, the kind of old one, you know with the old paperwalls, kitchen tools, furnitures. Luckily enough, restaurants were still open when we got there, as there was a local fiesta, so we managed to get some food to take away, pizza and chinese noodles... and there was a bottle of rosé in the fridge...

Poor Louise who saw her mother drink it thinking... 'I sure will sleep well tonight with what my mother's gonna sip... her milk will taste yummy'!!! Look at her face: does not she look worried though?!!!

The day after, we had a cool picnic in the garden, with vegetables homegrown. We were just about to go shopping when we found bags of fresh veggies picked up with the lady taking care of the garden... thanks Mother Nature!

At night, we went to the local fiesta as we heard a band was playing. No shit, it was so funny to see only grannies and grappies dancing old dances together, some of them in a line... too bad I did not have my camera to take pics. We had a lot of fun watching them and Louise finally fell asleep in the noise and the light.

On sunday, we went for a walk in the village, quite pretty with old houses and narrow streets.

Then we just sat down in a nice park, chatting and talking... taking some silly pics as always...

It was just nice to relax and enjoy being together.

Louise also seemed to like it:

I must say it was hard to leave her again... but no doubt we'll see each other soon... we are way too good friends to loose contact!