Bonjour Annecy! (April 8th)

This was a big travel day for us as we left Paris and headed for Annecy, France…a place that Jessie suggested we go to. We still hadn’t resolved exactly how to use our rail passes, so we woke up early and headed to Gare de Lyon to get a reservation. We got a ticket for a train that left in 3 hours, so we had some time to kill…most of it spent trying to find an internet café so we could reserve a room in the hostel at Annecy.

This is where we first ran into French keyboards. They’re chief difference from American keyboards is the replacement of periods, a’s, and w’s…which is apparently the only keys we use when typing cause it was about the most frustrating experience of my life. Nevertheless, we got our hostel situation worked out and eventually made our early afternoon train.

The train ride was going well until we were about ¾ through it, but then we stood at a train station for about an hour and a half waiting for what we thought was a technical problem with the train (Scott and I would learn later that the train actually ran someone over!). Numerous announcements were made over the intercom (in French, of course) as we finally began moving. We were trying to discern the meaning of the announcements as a fellow American approached us and asked us if we knew what they were saying. We of course did not, but I noticed he was wearing an Ankeny Fire Dept. shirt…could he be from Ankeny, Iowa?

It turns out that it is indeed a small world as our new friend, Mark Ludwick, was in fact from Ankeny, Iowa. He and Scott had a mutual acquaintance and we spent about a half an hour talking to him and we learned that he was on his way to Milan, Italy to investigate an Italian financial circle wanting to build casinos in Iowa…very important sounding stuff, eh? Nevertheless, it was nice to meet someone from our neck of the woods.

We then found out that we had to switch trains (when we actually weren’t supposed to before, but due to the “technical problems” we did now) due to the kindness of two multi-lingual girls. A short train ride from there and we were in Annecy.

Again, not knowing what the heck we were doing, we got off the train and headed to the information desk to get a map and find our hostel. We were helped by a very nice woman named Celine, who not only showed us where we needed to go but actually gave us a ride from the station to right near the hostel in her own car…such a kind lady!

After checking into our hostel, we trekked down the hill into the town of Annecy, France. What we discovered was one of the most beautiful towns we’ve ever seen! It seemed straight our of a novel or something…quaint, multi-colored buildings, rolling over hills, straight down to the crystal clear stream cascading through it’s core (how do you like THAT alliteration?!?).

And here was where we FINALLY found our perfect French meal. Handed a completely French menu by a solely French-speaking waiter forced us to simply point randomly at the menu and choose our meal. We ended with three courses; the first being potatoes with salad and some rank fish; the main course of meat and potatoes for me, and a weird chicken-crepe with an egg on top for Scott, complete with a dessert of jam filled crepes. Au manufique!

Thoroughly satisfied, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and tried to snap a few pictures on the way back …though Scott couldn’t manage to hold the camera steady enough for them not to turn out blurry.

Tuckered out from the days travels, we climbed up onto our respective top bunks and drifted off into a deep slumber…awoken only once by the snores of our new roommates.