Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Last day at Oxford (for reals this time)
Had some time to spare in the morning, so finally found an opportunity to visit Christ Church, a college founded in 1546 and known for producing 13 British prime ministers. After all, I couldn’t go to Oxford and not see one of the Top 10 places to visit in Oxford.
Took my luggage and left Oxford for the last time. Took the Oxford Tube to London,
where I met up with Lianet, who was at UCL, for a late lunch! It was wonderful to catch up on our lives. We went to the British Library, where they had historical artwork and artifacts on display—including of how the Beatles once played in the clubs of Liverpool and Hamburg!
My dad’s flight arrived from LA that afternoon—he was coming to Europe for a week to travel to south France and Spain with me, which was super exciting as I’ve never been to either France or Spain. After checking into our hotel at St Pancras, we decided to go to the Winter Wonderland carnival at Hyde Park, full of food, games, and rides.
Craving something sweet—Belgian waffle w/nutella
Thursday, December 7, 2017
London -> Aviñón, France: A broken car in a lovely little town
My alarm jerked me out of bed in the cold morning hour of 4:30am—
Train to Paris: over 5 hours. We must’ve gone under the ocean but for all I could see, we were underground in a black tunnel.
We were greeted in Paris with everything French. Even the Information desk guy barely spoke English. French is such a beautiful language, it’s a shame I can’t understand a word of it (other than bonjour and merci). But we found our way to Paris de lyon, from which we took the train to Avignon (Aviñón). I got motion sick and felt groggy, as I was sleeping most of the time I was on the train—but at least I was no longer sleep-deprived.
Avignon is a nice little town, with old-fashioned buildings, confusing roads with branches going in all directions, and narrow alleyways, making driving frustrating—especially when the car isn’t functioning properly. As we were driving through narrow roads in our rental car, inching by students casually walking home from school, the hood started to smoke. Then we found that the car wouldn’t reverse. We decided to drive back to the car rental, but we didn’t make it. The clutch stopped working and then the car stopped driving completely—we were stuck in the middle of an intersection at the entrance to the highway, where we waited 45 minutes for a tow truck. We said screw the taxi, and dragging our luggage, walked 30 minutes to our Airbnb apartment. Walking is our remedy for a lot of things.
The faulty rental car cost us our only afternoon in Avignon. But on the bright side, we saw some of it at night. Restaurants here don’t open until 7pm for dinner, and CO2, one of the restaurants our host recommended, didn’t open until 7:30, so we walked around beforehand. Initially it didn’t seem like there were many people in this small town, but the main street was quite lively, lined with shops and restaurants and decorated with lights. It was a cold evening, but my new coat and hat kept me warm. We walked by a couple bakeries, a McDonald’s, antique stores with cute items, and a beautiful cathedral.
Neighborhood near our Airbnb
The dinner was fancy but also a good portion:
Crispy Dorado fish fillet with green beans, snap peas, and mushrooms. Served with bread slices
Walked back to our apartment. What would we do without Google Maps?
Fact of the day: Entrée means entrance!
It’s funny how everyone we came across in Avignon spoke decent English; I wonder if people in Paris can speak English but simply choose not to.
Friday, December 8, 2017
A 2000-yr old aqueduct and an inquisitive horse
Slept really deeply and woke up at 8. At the train station, we shared two crepes for 3 euros each (one champignon cause it sounded fancy—turned out to be mushroom—and one Nutella). The Nutella was better, as the mushrooms weren’t very cooked.
We took the train to Gare d’Avignon Centre, rented a different car (obviously), and soon were off to Pont du Gard.
Observation #1: There are lots of roundabouts and roundabouts with traffic lights, but very few traffic light intersections.
Unlike yesterday’s car, this one had a GPS navigator, which was nice, especially since there are so many little roads and branches here. I couldn’t help thinking how the GPS is making us dumb; it tells us literally every step of the way, even repeating itself as we get nearer to make sure we turn at the right spot.
The navigation for some reason decided not to go the shortest highway route, instead taking us on a detour through the French countryside, on narrow country roads through fields of dry grape vines and yellow and reddish dried grass. It must be gorgeous here in summertime.
Observation #2: Large arrows painted onto the one-lane road asphalt to signal which side can pass using the opposite lane (instead of dotted/solid lines in the States).
Observation #3: Plant structures built into the middle of the road making the two opposite lanes into one lane, forcing cars to stop when two cars going opposite ways pass. A way to get cars to slow down?
Highlight of the day: A noble white horse by the side of the road, staring at us. It didn’t move, even when I whipped my phone out—the only movement I saw it do was blink. I wonder what it was thinking.
The Pont du Gard was an ancient Roman aqueduct built to cross waterways and valleys. It was part of the Roman aqueduct of Nimes, built around 50 AD to transport water from the spring in Uzés toward Nimes up until the 6th century.
Nimes, one of the largest cities in the Western Roman Empire, was founded during pre-Roman times on the banks of the Fontaine Spring, the site of the god Nemausos. Beginning in the 1st c. AD, the spread of aqueducts in the empire spread the practice of taking a daily hot bath, which became an essential part of Gallo-Roman social life. This Roman lifestyle slowly took over in Nimes,
We read about the history and architecture of the huge canal in the museum. About how it had to follow the contours of the land, which sometimes meant boring tunnels through rock. We were amazed at how the Romans were able to design such a monumental structure, and how much work and planning must’ve gone into it.
Bars preventing us from walking on top of the aqueduct—for good reason
The Gallo-Roman amphitheater, built at the end of the 1st c. AD, was designed for public shows, gladiatorial combats and wild beast “hunts.” It has been used since the fall of the Roman Empire for different functions including a fortress, house, and church. It was inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, though it didn’t seem as large or grand as the Colosseum. We didn’t want to pay 10 euros to go inside, so we took pics of the outside and walked back to the car (we parked outside the city centre since parking is so difficult to find near the center). It was a nice sunny day, not too cold, with lots of evergreen trees.
Stopped by Casino, which turned out not to be a gambling place but a supermarket:
Observation #4: Found out at checkout that we were supposed to weigh produce on a scale ourselves before checking out.
Enjoyed a home cooked meal that evening: We ate the colorful wheel-shaped pasta I had bought in Italy and cooked it with turkey, onion, tomato, and some green vegetable we had never seen before.
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