Stardate: -314178.253801103

This morning, we decided to check out Villeneuve, you know, the town just across the River Rhone with the giant building? We left to catch the bus, which was a little walk, but not bad. It was at the bus stop mistake number one was made. We decided to walk to La Chartreuse since the bus was not coming for another 15 mins. It really did not look that far on the map. Plus, it is Europe. When things look far, they really are not!

About 1/4 of the way across the bridge, we saw the bus fly past us, and we all just thought, "shit." Needless to say, walking there took a little longer than anticipated. By the time we reached the tourist office, it was almost time to head back to Avignon to check out of our hostel on time. There was no time left to see La Chartreuse and everything else was closed. Oops!

Upon return to the hostel, we gathered our belongings, which, or course, I forgot my phone charger. We went to check out and the man behind the desk told us since we did not pay, the computer system was stuck on the previous day. He was basically blaming us when no one even asked us to pay. We even had our money out and ready to be taken from the clerksmen....oh well.

As mentioned before, our hostel was a 10 min. walk to the gare and we actually caught the next train to Arles, so we did not have to wait around with nothing to do! It was only a 20 min. train ride and it really just kinda snuck up on us. We thought we were going to miss it so we scrambled out there and the French man in our little compartment thought we were nuts.

We began our walk to the hostel, which turned out to be quite a hike, especially with all of our giant bags! However, the hike was worth it, because when we got there, it was fantastic...mostly because it was a hotel. The room was very big, it had a pool, and we had our own little patio looking into the courtyard. It had very "South of France" feel since there were palm trees and little lizards that look like the ones from Florida. The room was decorated in a lovely bright pink and orange pattern. Kristi accurately described it as a, "teenage girl's bedroom." Spot on.

Naturally, I was extemely tired and wanted to take nap, but the girls would not allow me to do so. We left right away to do some touristy stuff. The first order of business was to get some lunch....we were sooo famished. We found a lovely little place that was moderately inexpensive, but not really. It was finished with a lovely dessert of pistachio icecream and brown sugar and pecan icecream. Both flavors were fucking fantastic and I am glad I was American and got both flavors.

Sufficiently energized, we made a plan of action to go to the tourist office to get a map and ask questions about the passes in the city. Along the way, we stumbled upon a little place with a nice little fountain and a lovely church. It was set perfectly in front of a beautiful blue sky backdrop. You cannot go anywhere in France without finding somewhere to be!

After the T.O., our first stop was the Roman Arena. It was not the grandest of the Roman Arenas, but there is absolutely nothing as old in the US. Well, there probably is but we destroyed whatever remnants of American Indian culture that survived. Once inside, it was surreal to think that people were sitting where I was sitting 4,000 or so years ago. The building was so well engineered it is still used today for "bull fighting." The top also provided breathtaking views of the city and surrounding areas.

Next on our agenda were the Thermes, or Roman Baths, if you will. This was very interesting as well. I have never seen them before. There was not much left, but the bones were still there. But I will tell what was still there, a cat who decided this was a good place to live. Well, i really wanted to pet it, but this 4 year old and his mom beat me to it. But when he finished I swooped in. He was ignoring me, so I tapped his tail, ever so lightly, and he looked at me like I was crazy and mini-attacked my hand! Thankfully no skin was broken. That's just what I need...to go to a French hospital and not be able to tell them what the hell happened.

The finished our Roman monument tour with the Ampitheater. It was 1000s of years old, but still used for concerts today! Absolutely fantastic. Earlier in the week, I caught wind that Van Gogh painted "Cafe Terrace" in Arles. This is one of my favorite paintings and probably my favorite Van Gogh. I told the girls we had to see it and it was magnificient! A lot of the cafe has been remodeled to look like the painting. We then went to another Van Gogh inspiration place: a former mental hospital. I have never seen the painting before, but it was still cool to see the originals.

This took up the entirity of our day and the weather was beginning to turn bad. We headed back to the hotel and grabbed dinner from a grocery store along the way. The rest of the evening was very quiet and we watched CNN Europe. I thought it was interesting to get a different perspective on world events...usually caused by the US. Sleep followed very soon after.