Grenoble

So I’m sitting in Grenoble, in my friend Rory’s room, listening to the four guys that live here in the basement argue over where the top of Bastille is. It’s pretty funny, intermingled with talk about throwing meat and cheese together to make some concoction of food, it’s quite the conversation.

I started my trip yesterday morning at about 5:45am, needing to leave by 7am on the train. I made it, slept on the train (which was only interrupted twice by phone calls from someone who will remain nameless) and had some decent conversations. It was nice because I held up in French with a girl who could speak English well, so I was proud. The downside was that in my haste and exhaustion I left my jacket on the train… goodbye jacket.

I need it too, I finally got to Grenoble at 3:30PM and it’s cold here (the tower above being in a park next door). But not before spending a few hours in Marseille, it was sweet. I read a lot yesterday, got about 200 pages into Terry Brooks’ new book.

But eventually I did get to Grenoble. It’s beautiful up in the Alps, a nice change of scenery (no palm trees) but soooo cold! I got picked up by Rory’s roommate Melissa (there are 8 people living here) and hung out at their house for a while, meeting Amy (the house dog). I was exhausted and sat around for a while, napped a bit, and hung out with Rory.

Getting ready for the evening's festivities.

We ended up going to the Sand Bar, this bar downtown that is nearly impossible to find due to the lack of lights or anything indicating that it’s there or open. But inside the floor is covered in beach-sand, crazy. It was pretty fun, I made friends with some police officers there and talked with them forever. They just started in September, pretty green. Nice guys though, too bad they aren’t in Nice in case I ever get into trouble… not that I’d ever get into trouble! I… er… look at the pretty photos!

See? How would you know this silent, dark place was even open?

This is how you serve beer.

So we got back last night, the kabob place was closed so I was ticked, and then watched some Tom Yong Goong, great movie. They were a weeee bit drunk so they enjoyed it even more. And tonight it’s a Halloween party that is supposed to be crazy huge, so hopefully it’s fun. The only problems for me are A) it’ll be a drunk-fest and I don’t drink that much, so I’m expecting the quality of conversation to drop a bit; and B) I have to leave the house by like 5am tomorrow to catch my train for Passau.

This sucks too because it’s gonna be 17, yes SEVENTEEN HOURS of travel tomorrow! I stop in Geneva, Zurich, and Wels Austria (which I’ve never heard of). I’m already tired; I’m going to die tomorrow. So I’m gonna try and sneak away from the party by midnight and sleep, but I have the feeling that it could be difficult even if I do sneak away as there are supposed to be upwards of 50 people here. And I doubt they’ll be quiet… oi.

So, we’ll see what happens. I’m gonna take a nap now, then upload this and some pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy my pictures of my trip so far, and hopefully I get some sleep. I'll leave you with a little preview of what I'm expecting tonight to look like:

White Trash Rory