Safely Back In Chalais...Eventually

So I may have hinted at a slight hiccup in my travel from Germany...again. I just can't figure out their trains! The French trains are SO easy! Anywho, I missed my train to france... Who knew there were TWO Mannheim stops? Now I do :) So after swapping my tickets around, I make my way to Bordeaux where Marta and Guillaume are my saviors! I face booked Marta when I had a few minutes of wifi in Germany and asked if I could stay with her for a night since I was stuck in Bordeaux. There were no more tickets to Chalais at that time :( She said yes! Which is amazing. The were both recovering from being sick and they still were kind enough to let me stay there. THANKS YOU TWO! We ate dinner with Guillaume's mom (delicious) and chilled in front of the tv till slumber time. I made it back to Chalais safe and sound :)

Marta and Guillaume had this dog, Hippo. I think his name should be changed to Manatee, personally

See below for the striking resemblance...

 Just saying...

 The walk to the close tram stop to return to the station and back to Chalais :)


Chalais again!

 Barbara's sister and kids were visiting :) So I taught them all to skate in the barn :)

 Thomas learned a lot!

 Ema had my phone and snapped this candid photo of lesson time ;) Thanks, Ema!

We went to the skatepark the next morning and everyone loved it. I was sad to see them go.



We'll see what happens next!

4 days in Germany (not lost)

Day 1 we went to downtown Weinheim and strolled through the streets (tourist style)

Directions with these argumentative folks 

I explored this cool fort! Windeck it's called. Very neat and lots of stairs. I got my cardio ;)

The AHMAZING view from the top

The otherwise shows more of the ruin and a tent for eating. I walked up from way down there in the city! Aunt Trina and her super nice friend, Judy, awaited my return down there :)

I went the back way down through the woods!

And of course, it was beautiful

We swung by the next morning to see the market

And went by the oldest tree in Germany! That is a big ol tree

Heidelberg with Aunt Trina!

We were dropped off by the bridge and walked through Heidelberg 

And of course I had to explore this cathedral!

And climb more stairs (I ran up these!)

Here's the view of Heidelberg :)

You can see the castle (Schloss, in German) in the background. Fear not! I went there the next day ;)

This antique bookstore would only be better if I was able to read German!

The next day, I went to the Schloss alone so I could sprint all over the grounds ;)

And it was gorgeous! I ate a bratwurst while walking around. mmmmmm.

Impossible to get this without ten people crossing my path >:(

Courtyard

One of the towers didn't do well with time...

Lots of stairs, but so pretty, I loved it!

Just look at that greenery!

Good ol nature on the walk back down from the Schloss.

And then I returned to Chalais, France with no mishaps on the train!

...

...

Just kidding I totally blew it and missed my train. More on that once I take a few photos from my unplanned stop in Bordeaux for the night with my new friends, Marta and Guillaume!

Lost in Germany? No Big Deal!

The trip to visit Aunt Trina in Germany might not have been the easiest trip ever, but fear not! I made it :)

It started out with the train from Chalais to Bordeaux being cancelled. As this was step one in the journey, it put a bit of a hiccup in the endeavor. Fortunately, Barbara is AMAZING and drove us to Bordeaux. (I was going to travel with Rochelle to Bordeaux before we separated) it was an hour and a half drive and I still can't thank Barbara enough for saving the trip! YOU ARE GREAT, BARBARA! Anywho, it went smoothly for a while after that.

Though, I don't think Cassandra is a common name in France... 

So all went well into Germany, until Meinheim when I transferred trains to Heidelberg. Now at this point, I am under the impression that Trina wants me to go to Weinheim. (Unbeknownst to me, there are 2 emails explaining that it's easier to go straight through to Heidelberg, go to Heidelberg, respond to this email, for gods sake go to Heidelberg, etc). I'm a bit apprehensive since I don't speak German, but the trains are usually easy. So I hop on my train. Unfortunately, those train maps are like labyrinths! So I find an English speaking German and I point at Weinheim on the map. He tells me at which station to get off. No problem! Except...this is the station at which I get off:

It's deserted. Only two platforms, no help desk, and in the middle of nowhere. There's no wifi so I can't email Trina. So I climb the stairs to the street and look blankly at signs for a bit, pondering the meanings of the fun words on the signs, then I return to the platform and stare at the map some more. Finally a group of teens swoop by and buy tickets at a machine. I wait until they're done and ask a girl if she speaks English. She does and becomes my new buddy! She helps me find the train to Weinheim and buy my ticket. Just FYI, she said the map is confusing to her and she's from Germany. Not that I'm defending myself or anything...

Lost! Somewhere that has an 'w' in it's name (hint, it's NOT Weinheim)

So I make it to Weinheim. Probably later than planned, but who knows! At this point it's about 10pm. It's pretty empty here, too. But there were some people. No car with Trina though! So I looked around for a bit, checked if there was wifi. No. Pay phone? Yes! But after ten minutes, I realize it's out of order. It takes pressing random buttons for a while for it to say out of order in English...There was a restaurant across the street, but no wifi there either. Non English speaking girl was the only one around besides taxi drivers, so I asked to use her phone. The number to Trina's friend did not work... So finally, I pull up the email Trina sent a while back with Judy's address and hopped in the taxi! I was there in five minutes :)

All makes for a good story and it's not so bad compared to getting swarmed by bees! So I'm safe and sound in Germany, excited to see what memories I'll make tomorrow!

Not My Best Idea Ever...

So, it's common knowledge for most of you that I'm not a fan of bugs. One might even say that I fear them. It could even be said that I don't like making eye contact or acknowledging their existence... Anywho, keeping this in mind, it may come as a surprise to you all that I offered to watch as Barbara moved the bees into a new beehive yesterday. I know it doesn't sound like the greatest idea, but it's all for the sake of photos and memories! It's for you! 

Side note: Bees can sense your fear.

So here are the few photos I took before the first bee crawled under my protective hood and onto my neck. Before the rest of his friends joined in and fed on my slight discomfort (panic? Pfft, only if a head banging, hairtie flying, handflailing sprint counts as panic... Not in my book). Fortunately, I kept a cool head (afore mentioned non panic) as I quickly made my way to safety, in the mean time, I was stung on my hand, shoulder and neck (3 times on the back of my neck). Apparently, if you flail your hair, all the bees want in on that. And it's hard to get them out...

Back when I was young and naive

Prior to my immediate departure from the vicinity.

Shockingly, the world did not end and later we walked Rochelle, Barbara's sister, and Celestine, Barbara's daughter, on horseback.

I lead Rochelle on this beauty

During lunch, Celestine and I had a cat petting party. My fav!

So I survived the day with new memories! Huzzah!

The last few days at farm #1 in Rouffiac, France

Everyone here is so nice! I was sad to see Barbara's parents leave (I thought they lived there) and her sister, Rochelle, is also leaving tomorrow. We will go to the train station together, though! So that will be fun. I'm visiting Aunt Trina in Germany for 4 days. I leave tomorrow so Rochelle and I will take the Bordeaux train together and then separate. Here are some pictures I've snapped over the past few days :)

Barbara and Celestine the mouse with the cat

Skate trip with the family!

Bernard wants to become a skateboard professional!

Barbara was fearless!

She tried both! I fought Ema to go do the ramp on her rollerblades. And Celestine is getting rollerblades soon :) Recruiter Cass, that's me!

They got me to try this oyster... Je n'aime pas.....

Lunch with everyone!

I helped to clean out the bee hives :)

Nicest dog ever!

Potato prep with Ema

Second time to the skatepark!

I taught Ema hacky sack! They don't know this game. We ended up just throwing it to each other haha

Fresh baked bread all the time. I'll be spoiled forever, sorry everyone! Jerome makes the best bread.

And the best lemon tarts...heavenly!

We had dinner with the nicest couple ever. They are bread connoisseurs and travel to buy Jerome's bread. When I say nicest, I mean LITERALLY the NICEST people EVER. I miss them after only knowing them for a few hours.

Look for some Germany photos tomorrow!