Flamenco, Hamburgers and Policia - September 23, 2008

So here I am again....sorry for that break, it's just I get so tired of typing after a while. So, on Saturday night after our day trips and a nap we were invited to go and play music (me to listen) at his friend Samir's house. Another friend , Raphael was coming down from Paris and it's like a regular thing. They both play Flamenco style guitar and Steph plays the flute with them as well. SO , I thought it might be annoying but sure enough, I had a blast. I just drank with them, which consisted of at least four different types of wine and a French beer. Let's face it folks, I was shitfaced . I hardly ever drink so it was a rare occassion for me. But actually (seemingly normal) I have been drinking a lot of wine since I have been here. SO, Steph's friend lives in Presqu'ile which is a different part of the city of Lyon. A magnificant part actually. Really beautiful with murals on walls (see pics) and also really old buildings. It is on the other side of Lyon from where we live on the Saône river. If you did not know this already, Lyon lies between the two rivers, Rhone and Saône. Really pretty. SO after getting wasted and listening to Flamenco music all night we all decided we wanted to get outside in the fresh air and went for a walk at 2 a.m. LOL instead of playing more music, because they had brought their instruments, we ended up just talking and getting into interesting political discussions. It was interesting because they seemed quite fond of talking politic with an American. They asked me about Obama and Bush and different voting stuff. I also talked to them about socialism and Sarkozy. I have to admit I only was able to offer my somewhat limited opinion but it was honest and they seemed to buy it which was good. After all we were very drunk. So after we left them around 3 I really wanted pizza, but we couldn't find any of the pizza places open, so instead we went to this Muslim hamburger joint which was like really busy. We double parked and at one point, we realized there were like six cops outside looking at Steph's car. Of course I felt bad because I was the one who had told him to double park. So anyway, just like America, there are always way too many cops on the scene for a simple parking violation. He got a ticket. So those burgers ended up costing about $75 euros a piece LOL but it's fine.

So on Sunday we went to Les Puces du Canal ( or The Fleas of the Canal = Flea Market) LOL Everything sounds better in French. I took my bike and Steph rented one of the rideshare bikes. They have this awesome system (which Philly first told me about) where they have bikes you can "rent" from an automated system of bikes and stations all around Lyon. The first half hour is free and then it only costs like 1 euro an hour or something. You rent it at a kyosk and can return it to any other kyosk. So anyway, he rented one and we took the long ride along the Rhone. We passed a French gypsy camp along the way, which really is like a trailer park, but gypsy sounds so much more interesting. At the flea market we had some VERY traditional French food. I had Fricassée d'Andouillette with mustard. Stupid me, I thought it was sausage being the world chef I am. But no, it's chopped up cow intestine. Which is what sausage is, but believe me when I say, it's totally a different experience. So after we rode home and took a nap to sleep off the hangover we went shopping in Chinatown. It was awesome! I mean, they have these everywhere but I love Asian food so it was a treat. Then when we came home I called my Mom and talked to her on Skype for the first time. Pretty cool. So yeah, if any of you have Skype or want to download it we could chat. My nickname is DeeseTara. Hit me up.

Until then, see you next week. This weekend is the beginning of the grape harvest so we will go to the Beaujolais region and check out some wines and vineyards. HELL TO THE YEAH