So Toulouse

Well first things first about Toulouse.

I believe the last time I wrote about Toulouse I was principally updating another blog post but I couldn’t help myself from revealing a spoiler that Toulouse is in fact an awesome city (despite being three weeks away on blog time).

Well this time. I am much further than three weeks away. Approaching two months probably. And not to mention I am in Haiti. And in a different mindset altogether – all the more reason to write it now before I forget it all.

So. What do I even remember about Toulouse?

O man. A great many things.

First things first was arriving to Toulouse.

I just looked at the last post I actually wrote. I was already getting extremely lazy. I did the last 10 or so posts from my friend Ronan’s apartment in Madrid - where I spent the last week of my European trip. (half of that time more specifically on Ronan’s couch – the combination of laziest/most enjoyable period I can recall)

The last several posts didn’t even have words. Just pictures, and I planned to fill in words later. Well that time has come!

So! Toulouse!

So! Toulouse!

As vaguely mentioned in the last post, leaving Bordeaux we were fortouitous enough to have the canal du midi to follow…all the way to the Mediterranean sea. And it would have been impossible to make me more grateful. Dane and I divided a few responsibilities. He did more than his fair share of messaging couchsurfers, and I did more than my fair share of navigating with the iPhone. And I was getting tired of it. Hours and hours at a time can be very straightforward. Follow some country road …until x…turn slightly…follow the next for 100 km… but sometimes…its more like navigating a complicated treasure hunting map with slight right turns every 10 meters. And by Bordeaux I needed a break. And that is exactly what this bicycle route/canal brought us. 6 days of non-navigational biking. THRILLING. This was a very productive period for uninterrupted audiobook listening.

(My longest paragraph ever, can you tell I have a LOT of free time in Haiti?)

President Thomas Wilson??? (and acutally wikipedia proved this correct afterall, but Dane and I got a good laugh regardles)

We spent about 40 euros at this cheese shoo. oops.

Toulouse is a three days ride from Bordeaux. We camped along the canal for two nights. Lots of cheese. Tiny cute towns. Lot of lochs. Sycamores. Romance…

And finally Toulouse. Some people we met previously told us that Toulouse can be a sketchy city…So not only did we have no expectations as was common for many cities, we had negative expectations, which was probably a first.

So when we rolled into Toulouse my guard was up. But our couchsurfer lived in a nearby and peaceful suburb and nothing seemed sketchy, if anything, pretty homey feeling. Our arrival at the couchsurfers was a unique experience. Yes every couchsurfer is different, but weve met new couchsurfers countless times. This time, no couchsurfer was to be seen. Some of his friends/roommates were hanging outside the house on couches and smoking and drinking in an unexpectedly relaxed manner. They said they heard couchsurfers where coming, but didn’t necessarily know where our host was. That was okay. We excepted there beer and chilled out after a long days ride.

He eventually came down to meet us, and was indeed a nice fellow, if not a little rushed or somehow uninterested in us. That was fine. We didn’t need to be babied, but that was not standard couchsurfer behavior. Anyways. He went off to by meat to barbeque and more beer, so that was fully appreciated.

This is getting absurdly long. Okay. Basically. When at the couchsurfers home, we were chilling with a bunch of very laid back French people. The whole experience feeling more like the stereotype of southern California than the real southern California I know.

And then there was Toulouse. Beautiful. Pink. Glowing. FOOOOD. CHEEEESE. FOOOOD. Walking. Markets. River. Everything good in a city and more. I had an amazing time. Toulouse is wonderful.