Quite the interesting few days. The hostel, it was an "Auberge de Jeunesse," which are owned and operated by the government and so this means (apparently) that while the privately owned hostels in France may not be the nicest, the ones owned by the French government have to adhere to certain rules of conduct which therefore make them a little bit nicer (Justin, thoughts?). I must say that it was quite the pleasure.
I mean, I have nothing to compare it to expect for one time in Seville, Ramin Ostad stayed at this hostel, and omg, it was the sketchiest place ever with this random man behind the counter who was like Romanian or something and wayy overcharged Ramin for this tiny room and he wouldn't give Ramin a receipt because he couldn't find a pen or paper when Ramin paid. Remember I was so creeped out and I felt legit bad for Ramin.
So anyway, the rooms were built in a dorm-like manner, our roommates changed quite frequently, and during the five nights that we stayed there, I can honestly say that I met some of the most interesting people I have ever known. let me tell you something, its the people you meet par hazard who seem to make the biggest impact on your life. You may not think that a brief conversation is going to lead anywhere until a person says something that completely surprises you and you're just left thinking about them for a long time.
It's funny because these people, you dont even know specific things about them. I know them now by, for instance, the Chinese girl, the Australian guy, the strange Quebecois. In my head they are labeled like that, but only because its so unnecessary to really learn the specifics if your encounter with them is so fleeting.
So the young travelers who were there with us, they literally had no money and they were going around Europe, trying to fit in as much as they could on a very very limited budget. They came equipped with HUGE backpacks, the best stories, and amazing attitudes about life.
Our roommate the first couple of nights was this Chinese girl who was traveling around Europe for 60 days and she was trying to fit in like 25 countries in that time. Which, she admitted was the most exhausting thing she had ever done. Anyway, she fascinated me. She was funny because she could sleep in an instant, but then she would have these long and loud rambling sessions in Chinese. One night, Salma swore she heard her yodeling.
Who else?
Oh yeah, at breakfast we met this Australian guy from Adelaide who had moved all the way to Nice to be with his French girlfriend, but then a couple days before he came in, she broke up with him. So he was lost and looking or jobs on boats. We became friends and he was genuinely surprised when I recognized Adelaide, and was even more surprised when I told him that I had a friend from Adelaide (I considered explaining to him that for a bulk of winter term, I pretended I was from Adelaide myself, but I refrained). So anyway, poor guy was looking for work, looking for anything! Each day when we saw him, he looked more and more jaded by the lack of opportunities he was finding in the south of France. Of course, Salma got emotionally involved, and as we were walking to the train station she said, "I feel so bad for our friend. I really hope everything works out for our friend. I sure hope he finds some more friends. "
Our roommate for the last couple nights was a super-cool girls from Vancouver who was studying photography at school in Toronto. She was traveling around Europe, but we bonded over the fact that she was a music festival fiend and she shared all of her thoughts and hints on music festivals. We had an amazing conversation about the Kings of Leon and the story behind "Cold Desert." It's so interesting, want me to tell you?
Ok, so apparently the name of the band, "Kings of Leon," comes from the three brothers of the band, whose father's name was Leon. And he was a traveling, what, priest? Who would go around middle America and take the three young boys around during their childhood. Needless to say, they grew up with a religious backbone which has continued to follow them during their time as musicians. Although it's not the forefront of their music, you can definitely find little hints pointing to their faith in some of their songs. So, ok, one night, the singer of the band, he got really drunk, or high or something, under some sort of influence, and he went into the recording studio and started messing around with things, and just started to sing some lines, and somewhere along the way, "Cold Desert," was created. The recording on the album is the first time he ever sang it all the way through. And then he fell asleep in the recording studio. The next morning, he woke up and he was like, "what the hell, what is this?" and he listened to it, and there's this line that says, "Jesus don't love me, no one ever carried my load," and he hears it and turns off the track and he's like, no way, I would never ever ever say that, like Jesus don't love me? Of course Jesus loves me! But the band ended up keeping the recording, and adding music to it. So when you listen to it, his voice which is already pretty raspy, is a lot raspier. And after hearing the story, I've been trying to pick out different things that fall into this story.
Now go and listen to the song. Cold Desert--Kings of Leon
SO ANYWAY, we met some other crazy weird people too. I'm pretty sure Sally got over, what she calls, her "anti-social tendencies," and she can totally go up to people and talk and have conversations. I loved meeting new people. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I love the hostel life-style, I want to do it again. Maybe I can travel again when I start making money. Oh money, what a concept!
Anyway, apart from some minor pitfalls, the trip was great and we had a lot of fun bronzing and getting out of Paris.
But now, wow, 8 days are left. 8 days! We have so much to pack and soo much to do. Oh man oh man. Ok, I'm not going to get emotional. That's for the next blog. I think my next blog will be my goodbye blog. Wow. Wow. Haha, I remember when I got here. Seems like forever ago....
Alright guys and gals, hope you enjoyed this blog post as much as i enjoyed writing it.
Ranna OUT.
4 comments:
in my defense, we had a conversation as follows:
salma: so, who else do you hang out with? have you made any other friends?
aussie: well, no not really, aside from you two. but hopefully when i find my job i'll have a solid group of people to hang out with and it won't get lonely.
and then when we were leaving he said, "it's been an absolute PLEASURE" as he shook our hands and it just sounded so incredibly genuine. i just might cry.
i hope he found a job.
remember when we first saw him, he had this twinkle in his eye when he was describing the job he wanted and you could tell he really expected to find the job and apartment right there and then and by the last day, he was sitting there, eating his sandwich, looking at his french phrase book, completely dejected, and it was just so sad.
it was funny, we saw him so many times during the trip and EVERY TIME no matter where we were or what we were doing (whether it was in the grocery store or just sitting around in the hostel) he'd come up to us and say hi and start a conversation. bichareh. i wonder what he is doing now.
(I considered explaining to him that for a bulk of winter term, I pretended I was from Adelaide myself, but I refrained)
HAHA oh man i laughed at this line. and then i kept reading, but i would keep thinking of that line and laugh and get distracted. im gonna go read the rest now
i loved that blog ran. i re-read the whole thing 3 times just cause it was so entertaining. hey dad-
fun fact: once i stayed in a hostel in iran and it was so disgusting and the bathroom smelled awful and all of us almost threw up every time we got near it
Okay, so I have been behind on Ranna's blog post but since you shouted me out, I will respond with a simple phrase:
The Italians always said Mussolini made the trains run on time.
If you don't get it let me know :)
Post a Comment