Things I Love This Week

Hello Friday, oh bearer of the weekend. I love you so.

What am I loving this week?

Toulouse, France

Those are just a few of the photos from a weekend trip. Toulouse is a fairly small city, close to the border of Spain.  I'll be honest when I say it was not my first choice for a weekend trip, but by matter of circumstance, I found myself there last weekend.  Two of my American friends joined me in exploring this unknown city in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France.

Fortunately, I had an amazing time.

What I loved:

• The weather: 70s and brilliantly sunny. A welcome break from cold and rainy Switzerland. 
• There are lots of hidden architectural gems, if you look close enough you can find them. I went a little nuts with my camera, taking photos of all the patterns and colors. From the old monastery that houses the Augustine Museum to the fence on the pedestrian walkway over the bridge, there were interesting shapes and plays of light. 
• Sitting next to a young man who wore a light blue pashmina sweater and smelled faintly of vanilla definitely made four hours of my train trip a delightful trip down memory lane. Considered telling him he reminded me of my grandmother, but then thought better of it. 
• Eating a Pain Suisse on the banks of the Garonne River and watching the sunset. True contentment.
• Favorite moment: Saturday night, sitting a sidewalk cafe talking with friends over some excellent tea, not realizing that nearly 3 hours went by.  Hands down, the thing I miss the most about home is having friends who've known me for longer than two months. I'm not good at the pleasantries, I like to hop right into those wildly silly or deep and pensive conversations. Ones you can't have unless you have some history with the person. 
• Staying in a hostel for the first time. I've been fortunate to travel from couch to couch but this time I was going to a city where I knew no one.  So I put on my big girl pants and got myself a room in a hostel. Surprise: the room was clean and no one tried to rob me. I'm going to chalk that up as a win. That said, I have no qualms about admitting I'm a total pansy. At the slightest sign of danger I would have taken my credit card to the Grand Hotel L'Opera. Fortunately for my bank account, there were no shady characters hanging around my hostel. 
• Sunday morning meeting = three different languages were spoken. Communication barrier? BROKEN.

Speaking of sunshine, it's lighting up the afternoon for the first time in weeks! The countryside is calling. 

A tout a l'heure, mes amis!