la FRANCE !

Well my time in Salamanca was up and it was time to go home, or should I say time to go to France. Now call it small mindedness or whatever but I've always been cautious about the French and France, however this was helped by the fact I lived with two French people in Salamanca who were absoloute legends, however despite my narrow mindedness I was excited to go. The catch? A 16 hour bus trip from Salamanca to Rennes which I was dreading, considering the longest I have ever been on was about 8 hours from Salamanca to Lisboa (Libson) and that seemed for ever, however luckily this one was overnight so at least some chance to sleep. Luckily it passed really quickly, and I managed to sleep quite a lot, however during the day in Rennes I was absoloutly knackered from when we got there until when we left and couldn't really appreciate the city for what it was as I just wanted to sleep. However we met up with Léa who is from a little village just outside Rennes therefore she knows Rennes really well and showed us around everywhere, we then had some lunch (an Indian- strange) and then we were pretty cream crackered so we headed back to Léa's where I watched a bit of Wimbledon as I had not seen any up to this time (the tuesday of the 2nd week, and summer is just not an English summer without the rain interruptions at Wimbledon) and then we stayed for a very French dinner of Frogs Legs which were lovely and yes, it is true what everyone says, they are just like Chicken. We then had to race to the station to get the train to Vannes where Emilie's Mum was coming to pick us up. That night I probably gave a really poor impression as I had slept for a few hours if that on a bus and spent all the day walking around after a weekend of constant going out and drinking as it was the last weekend so on this Tuesday if just all caught up with me and I was exhausted, luckily I went to bed soon after arriving, first day in France...DONE!

The rest of the week was spent doing a mix of things, from dodging the rain, bowling and coming last, kayaking, seeing a Creperie on every single street corner.... but overall France was very nice and I would very much like to go back one day.

The language problem? Yes, obviously I did GCSE French at school but that does not really teach you anything more than 'j'aime le foot', so that would not get me far and the Frenchies in Salamanca had only taught me words such as 'je veux te manger le minou', 'salope' and 'connasse' which are not really for parents, but I did my best, understood a fair bit when people were just speaking to me but when they were speaking in big groups it was pretty much impossible and so I just kept my head down and waited for Emilie to translate it into Spanish, luckily further help came towards the end of the week when her brother came and his German girlfriend who both spoke excellent English so that was good.

Other wierd foods I tried included oysters, moules frites, langoustines and winkels! All new things that were lovely!

Luckily towards the end of the week the weather improved and we also got to swim in the sea, went kayaking which is bloody hard work as was getting the dry suit on, was knackered afterwards! As Emilie lives in the south of Bretagne it was about 2 hours to the north were I was going home from Dinard to East Midlands, we went on the Saturday and stayed on the Saturday night there and come Sunday it was pouring down so we just headed to the airport and went home....aurevior France....

Funny advert feat Fernando Torres

Most people who read this have some interest in football or Spain so most of you will find this video very funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8cDvm26VYI&NR=1

PODEMOS Y PUDIMOS !!

Ballack cabrón saluda al campeón !!! España campeón!!


What an amazing last night in Salamanca, Spain wins Euro 2008 and an emotinal goodbye after an amazing night...after a night like that I almost felt I could say... Yo soy español, español, español!!! On the Friday night my Mum and Dad, Gran and Aunty arrived in Salamanca for a short weekend break and to help bring some of my stuff home as I had accumalated a lot of crap over the year! They had a really awesome time but it was topped of for them, Emily and myself (Who were leaving the next day for France) by Fernando Torres' strike to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany. We watched the game in the main square in the center of Salamanca as the local ayuntamiento put up a big screen and the Plaza was absoloutly rammed, it was an awesome night and as the final whistle blew people went crazy, drinks were flying around, everyone getting a cerveza and calimocho bath, people were hugging and kissing random strangers, dancing, singing and living it up. Then everyone headed to the fountain at the Plaza de España where people were literally going to get drenched, by the end all the water had gone out the fountain it was that wild. After saying goodbye to the parents we headed out to the bars we have visited so often during the year, Bar Segundo, Paniagua to name a few, everyone who I had been hanging around with the final moments was out apart from Léa and Julien who had unfortunatly already left it was one of those nights that was so perfect that you never wanted it to end, but as all good things must come to an end it did.... not before Tom, John, Simon and I had time to throw Emilie fully clothed into a fountain, luckily she took it in good spirits and it was so hot that by the time we got to the next bar she was pretty much dry anyway, in a word... a perfect end.

The day of my actual departure if was a quite affair, saying goodbye to my parents and then having a quick lunch before getting on the bus for a 16 hour trip á Rennes... which was not half as bad as I thought it would be, anyway I will update on my trip to France in the next few days.