Small French Islands and Small French Cars

June 27 -

We woke up in Lorient had breakfast at the Hostel, typical French style - juice, coffee, yogurt, croissants and jam.  

We then headed to the train station to catch our train to Auray, bus to Quiberon, and ferry to Belle Isle.

We had a picnic on the seawall when we arrived:

\

  We found our way to the hostel, which we loved but also think it must be advertised in a hiking France for seniors book somewhere because we were pretty much the only people near our age other than Holly, our new Scottish friend who worked there at the time.  For dinner we utilized the large kitchen and made a shrimp pasta.  We bought some pre-seasoned shrimp, Farfalle pasta, butter, Parmesan cheese, and pepper, mixed it all up and served with a baguette.

June 28 -

We decided to rent a car for the day to get a chance to see the whole island, only about 10.5 by 5.5 miles.  We could have no doubt biked around the island, many people hike it.  (people over the age of 70 I might add) but it was rainy and we were feeling a bit lazy.  We we tried speaking to the car rental people - who you might think would speak English but on an Island this small it was less common to find an English speaker.  A very nice woman helped us find a car to rent because we were not 21, the age the company states you have to be to rent from them.. Nonetheless, she called a couple people and  even for a discount, offered us a car.  A very special car.    It was an old, dented, stickers scratched off the back, creaky, broken door, Twingo.  But we took it!  When we got in the car and realized it was a manual, our plan was to drive smoothly off the lot and figure out how to drive it around the corner, as I have no idea and zero experience with stickshift, and Abi with only a short amount of practice.  No other car was avalible for the 17 year old American girls to rent, so...  After stalling about 4 times the cute french guy, with very twisted ideas of the safety of a New York City subway at night...  tried to teach me how to drive.  Still, not making it out of the lot without stalling the older French man with an earring got in the car and taught me how to drive manual like a pro with zero English other than the words "stop" and "slowly".  YAY!  and we were off!  We thought we were headed out of the city, Le Palais, until somehow we got turned around and ended up right back where we were and stalled.  As we stalled, two cars stopped behind us.  Abi waved them around and the French man with the earring got out of his car and knocked on the window.  Very embarrassing.  Once we assured him we knew how to drive we were off again!

We had such a nice day driving around the island, we stopped in Sauzon for lunch.  We shared what I think is called "Croque"but when I Google it, it comes up looking like the right thing but as a sandwich?  Toasted bread, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, big slices of brie, and some some spices.  yumyumyum. 

 Then we picked up some candy from a small candy shop, then to a bakery for road snacks for the day.  Wayyy to much food.  

We continued to drive around then returned the car after several kind locals helped us reverse the car when we needed.  Once again I must crush the stereotype of the French being rude or stuck up.  Not one bit.  When we got back to the car lot there was another man who spoke some English also returning his rental car (most vacationers who vacation on Belle Isle are French it seemed.)  This man translated for us a little bit with the man who taught us to drive a manual car.  I was very happy to find out he thought we were fun to teach rather than annoying or slow.  We went back to the hostel and sat at the bar and chatted with Holly.

My drink of choice while on Belle Isle:

June 29 -

We went to the beach with Holly and finished the candy from the day before.

Then we walked around town, all three of us got matching Celtic bracelets.  

It was so interesting talking to Holly in the same language and not being able to understand each other sometimes.  There is much slang that is used in the U.S. that is not used in Scotland and much slang used in Scotland that is not used in the U.S.... also the way the Scottish pronounce girl is "gettel" and we pronounce it "gurl".  We LOVED her accent.  Our conversations about Scottish vs. American English reminded me of a U.S.A. dialect quiz my friend Rebecca, who is awesome and from New Jersey shared with me.  It shows how different people from different parts of the U.S. can speak.  check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

June 30 -

We went into town in search for a large breakfast to a heartbreaking discovery, after three restaurants that the largest breakfast you can find in France is Coffee and croissants - I had to explain to a very nice, confused Frenchman, as we walked away from the sad display of the 'breakfast buffet' "We are Americans, we need a big breakfast!".  We ended up having coffee and bread outside at a restaurant on the harbor - my dad's perfect breakfast.  

We then went to the grocery store and picked up some eggs, bread, sausage, potatoes, onions and milk and juice - for a real American breakfast.  

By the time we made it back up the hill to the hostel, made breakfast, and ate breakfast it was almost noon, and at one we were meeting Holly, and the English girl, Makayla, who would be taking her place, and Holly's French friend Chlem who worked at the hostel before Holly did and lived on Belle Isle for

lunch.  Obviously we were stuffed when we got to the restaurant we ordered a pizza to share barley being able to eat anything. Chlem recommended a Brittany (the region of France Belle Isle belonged to) traditional pizza.  Very unfortunatly the name of the pizza I can not remember but It was a different kind of ham I had never seen before and an egg in the middle.

Again we spent the evening in the hostel bar.  Holly was showing Makayla what was what and we played connect four and Chlem played Frozen soundtracks in French - so cute!

Holly left early the next morning back to Scotland then the Spain to teach English to Spanish children (a quick moment to acknowledge how cool Holly is, she can speak English, French, Spanish and German!!!)  

July 1-

Lazy Day - 

For late breakfast/ lunch: Crepes

For dinner: We made my mom's famous egg noodles! (pasta, with butter, parmesan, egg and pepper).

July 2 -

Ferries and buses and trains to Barcelona!

Paige

An American Student in London

June 23 - My sister and I biked along the River Thames through the park to the school she will be attending in the fall.  Richmond, the American University in London.   We picked up some rolls and croissants, and sandwich makings.  We had a picnic in the park and it was beautiful.  Just from our bike ride I can see why she wants to go to school there..  

We biked around the school then headed back to catch our ferry from Portsmouth to St. Malo.

June 24 - When we arrived in St. Malo we sent a large amount of things home - we way over packed.

Next, we caught a train to Pontorson, France where we would then bike to our bed and breakfast near Mont Saint-Michel.  We met two guys who were very interested in our folding bikes...  They were also biking around Europe.  We have found that the bikes are a great conversation starter for us meeting other travelers.  Specifically biking travelers.

June 25 - morning we biked into town and had two crepes for a late breakfast/ early lunch..  We both had an egg, ham, and cheese crepe as well as a Nutella crepe.  They were soooo very delicious, I wish I would have taken a photo.... I will have to look into crepe cookery gear for my apartment when I get back to the States and move to Texas.  I love the way the french plop an egg on the top of some foods, such as pizza and crepes, and serve it nearly uncooked.

We biked to Mont Saint-Michel and glad we had bikes, or it would have been a very long walk.  There were honestly miles of sheep around the mont.  Beautiful.

When we headed back into to town we found an even more beautiful, quiet, and quick, way back into Pontorson, where our train left from.

Our train took us into Lorient, were we stayed for a couple nights.  The first night we missed dinner all together because it gets dark so late here in the summer we did not realize how late it was when we finally left the hotel.  So we ended up picking up some sandwiches from this large/store vending machine.   Pretty cool.

One night, we went out for pizza, and after we shared a pizza ended up ordering three desserts;  passion les glaciers (I am pretty sure interchangeable with gelato.), a banana split and chocolate mousse.  All were great!!

June 26 - We met several very kind people during our time in Lorient.  FOR THE RECORD:  The French are very kind, not to mention beautiful, attractive people.  Our hostel/hotel was right on the harbor, riding our bikes around the area was so fun!!

I'll post again soon!

Vlog from last blog post...

Paige

Happy and Hungry in London

On June 22 - (video coming soon)
I landed in London and met up with Abi in Heathrow Airport (she was flying in from Dublin).  My view from the plane when landing:

We had a difficult time getting any of the vending machines to give us a cold Coke.  It was about 95 degrees underground in Heathrow going from terminal to terminal pushing our backpacks, and bikes.  We finally found the underground, unfolded our bikes, and were told we could not bring our bikes on the tube from Heathrow for some reason - so we folded our bikes again, and again, got many weird looks - a couple of Spanish guys even asked to take our photo with our bikes.  We caught a cab to our hotel.

We ordered fish and chips, but were then told by a british man to never order chips and fish from a pub but to order from a chip shop.... Whatever that is.

We ordered two Strongbows (because it was the only option we knew, for sure, we could pronounce without embarrassing ourselves... However it was much too sweet for either of us.

We later went out to a delicious dinner and walked around Teddington.  (The neighborhood in London we were staying in).

We ordered Lamb Shank and Potatoes:

Yum yum yum...

Then for dessert Chocolate Fondant and ice cream.

YUM

and YUM!

we nearly ordered another -

I have decided for my blog; while I am traveling I will write and post photos about my day and the foods I eat... when I return home I will attempt to recreate my favorite meals, snacks, pastries, desserts.... recipes.

Paige

Birthday Party in Laos!

July 29, 2013:

Today was my birthday!  It started off with a delicious breakfast made by P-Koko and Abi giving me a birthday gift - a beautiful painting that perfectly describes our trip.  (I'll include a photo)  

It was an awesome day to celebrate our birthday on the other side of the world together.  We taught and played with the local kids, worked on the community service project (a bathroom for the village we are staying at), we played cards, showered in the stream while playing with the kids and Abi even found a leach stuck to her arm twenty minutes later!  Dean caught the runt piggy I had been chasing around for the past few days and I got to hold him.

After our delicious dinner and singing of happy birthday we were given the traditional birthday gift of killing a chicken.  We had a hard time with this and we agreed to convince everybody to let him go.  By naming him Gunther.  However, this did not work and other people started to say they would just kill him.  So, we decide we had to do it.  Abi would hold him while I slit his throat.  After five or ten solid minutes of me laughing and crying at the same time our friend Seton came to help steady my hands and help.  We were warned not to cut to hard or we would cut his head off when we only wanted to slit his throat.  So the first three slices were unsuccessful.  By now everybody was yelling "kill him already" and "you're making him suffer" and "Ah! I got blood on me!!"  As you can imagine the two girls who wanted to set him free ran away at this point and the chicken was finally dead.

Then we went inside where the room was beautifully decorated with balloons.  Khom Thai put balloons in his shirt and was pretending to be a ladyboy.  We had our birthday pancake and shared the last third with the local kids.  After this most everybody went to sleep.  I stayed up with my friends Dean, Anya, MengYang, Anou, and Khom Thai.  Khom Thai cooked the chicken with a little bit of cilantro and I enjoyed a small tasty piece of Gunther.  Dean ate the chicken feet and the chicken head (both common in this part of the world) ; brain, tongue, eyes, skull and all.  However he couldn't quite crunch down on his beak.

R.I.P. Gunther 7.29.13 Mok Dou, Laos

Definitely my most memorable birthday so far. 

Claire Russack

In the group of people I traveled through Thailand and Laos with for the last month I met my now good friend Claire.  She's a seventeen year old girl who lives in Connecticut and is an incredible singer and self taught guitarist and pianist.

I encourage you to check out her Soundcloud page:

https://soundcloud.com/clairerussack

As of now she only has covers posted, but one of her original songs is coming out at the end of this month!

https://soundcloud.com/clairerussack