Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Uncertain Days


(Canada comes out on top!)

No posts in awile but a few interesting things have been happening. Zack and I went to Mont St Michelle last week. It is a huge attraction in Europe, but I had never heard of it until Benoit mentioned it. Its basically an old Abbey that was made in 700Ad, which turned into a jail and a few other things throughout the years. Words cant do it justice, as its turely amazing to see. It was nice to be purely a tourist for a day.





The real fun started later that night when Benoit dropped us off at the train station. No big deal. He was headed to see his girlfriend who lives in the area, and the plan was the take the train back to Flers for the night.

We soon found out that there is only three trains that depart from that town in the course of a day, and of course we had missed all of them. Well friends, we didnt really have many options of what to do. I miraculously had Francks number in my bag so we called him in Flers to see if he could get us, but he wasnt home. Zack and I then walked to an internet cafe and facebook stalked Benoit to get his cell number. We tried calling him to see if we could devise a new plan, but it turned out Bens cell had died.

Well it seemed Zack and I were shit out of luck(excuse my French). We walked around the town with the ten oclock hour approaching and went into random bars to see if we could use their phones, to make a long distance calls to Flers. Of course with this I had to buy beer at each place. Zack doesnt drink so I found myself with 3 beer into me at 3 differant bars within an hour.

Anyone who knows me knows Im a cheap date, and I was feeling pretty good by this point. Also, it had becoome obvious that no one was answering their phones and we should find a place to stay for the night. The train station seemed like the best option, but was something each of us were looking to get out of.

Keep in mind I dont speak french well, Im basically useless to tell you the truth. Any progress we had made was solely from Zacks french skills, which he tells me arent very good. If it were up to me to get us home and we had gotten ahold of someone, I would have no idea how to get the message accross that were stuck in a town 100kms away. My key role in this was to drink the beer that got us the use of the telephone.

So, Zack and I walking around this cool little town when we spot a group of 4 girls. We walk up the them and Zack speaks french when they abruptly cut him off and say "We speak English" in perfect English! Turns out we meet 4 gals who are teachers. Ones from England, ones from Mexico who speaks perfect English and the rest are from France who also speak English well.

I instantly have a mini freak out, as other than Zack this is my first face to face conversation with anyone who speaks English in over a month, Ho daisy.

So we head to the bar. We all get drinks and I have a couple more beer which puts me in a good mood. The ladies offer us to stay at their place for the night and it ends up being a great night, and an even better story.

The next day Zack and I wake up early and head out to explore this little town that proves to be a sight in itself. Its directly on the water and reminds both of us Maritimes boys, of home. Feeling the salty air and seeing the active fishing harbour is something only a guy from the Maritimes can appreciate.


With that we get some breakfast and wait for the train to take us to Flers. An omlette and a few coffees later we meet up with a brother and sister from Austrailia that just finished an extensive bus tour of Europe. They were quite the cats and we chatted for a good 45 minutes before they had to take off to find a rental car.



We made it home later that day with tired bodies and the scent of adventure still in our minds. It was the random and uncertain days like that, that will stay with me as memories from this trip.

1 comment:

hooked on phonics said...

Great tales! Kinda makes ya wanna stop racing yer bike and go backpacking 'round Europe for the summer don't it? ... every week would be like last weekend. Endless summer, exotic brew, foreign tail, oui, oui.
See Lelacheur's FB page if you need more guidance.