Toulouse!

We successfully made it to Toulouse after navigating more last minute trains and waiting in a McDonnalds (our favorite wifi hotspot) for Maxime to get off work. Somehow we were able to fit ALL our luggage into his tiny European car and weave through the streets (very quickly I might add) back to his place.  It turns out he has a huge apartment, especially by European standards. Every room was covered in American decorations, including a giant flag on the wall, a clock, a poster of New York, a New York City tablecloth, plenty of American clothes, and Top Gun memorabilia.

He took us on a tour of Toulouse with his roommate and his friend (who also stayed with us the entire weekend). We saw their city hall (much prettier than ours), an old hospital, and a Japanese garden. After we came back we had some appetizers and wine before heading to a typical, little French restaurant (which may have been slightly out of our budget but it was so worth it).

The next day we were awoken from our air mattresses (that had American flag sheets, no joke) with our national anthem. They had surprised us and bought chocolate croissants from a nearby bakery, because we had mentioned something about wanting to try them the night before.

We took a short walk around the beach and then headed to Carcassonne (the castle city we had heard so much about).  They all thought it was hilarious when we had to pretend to be Italian to get in free with our Visas, because we were so obviously American, but it worked anyway! We spent the day touring the massive city and they even bought us an English audio guide.  Kate and I were coaxed into going in the Haunted House with them, which ended up being a lot of fun to see in a French version. I definitely screamed my 6 Euros worth.

At night they cooked us a delicious French meal of duck, little potato puff things, and green beans. They also served a dish called Cassolet, which was excellent, and is apparently a specialty of Toulouse. Later that night they brought us to a club, which was actually more like a wedding. We started up the Electric slide, which was awesome. They played songs from Grease (the movie) and American music, but mostly strange songs in English we’d never heard. Even our Zumba moves were broken out for the song Waka Waka. The club itself was entirely different than a typical American club, and it was so much fun just dancing and being silly with them all. This was one of the many songs we picked up from them!

We stayed up all night because we got back at 4am and caught our 6 am train (thankfully we made it which is where I’m writing from). Then we said our goodbyes and thanked them for the amazing time we had in Toulouse.  Now we’re off to ROMA!