A Thursday on Vacation

(regarding 9 April 2009)

Wednesday night I decided I wanted to go to the market the next morning. So on Thursday I woke to my alarm and promptly hit the snooze, then altered the time, giving me another hour of sleep.  When I got up around 9:20 or so I decided I didn’t want to go to just the fruit market, but I wanted to go to the clothes, scarves, purses, etc. market.  In the Croix-Rousse that market takes place on a Tuesday, but I knew it had to take place other places too.  I went online to a site that listed all the markets and I found a “manufactured products” market in the 3e for Thursday. It was open ‘till 12:30. So I got myself moving and soon enough was dressed and fed and out the door.  I had never been to the place in the 3e where this market would be, so I had drawn myself a little map.  I got off the bus and started walking.  It was a touch further than I thought it would be- by the time I got there it was 11:45 but that didn’t really matter because there were about a dozen booths, 2 with “manufactured products” like sheets and upholstered chairs and the rest with fruit, cheese and charcuterie (ham and sausage and little meats like that).  Fail- this was not what I wanted.  “Oh well, nice walk… and I might as well just keep walking down this street- I think it will lead me to a metro,” I thought. 

 

My next plan for the day was to head to the Art Museum because I haven’t ever been yet.  All this time I’ve been living here and IT’S FREE and I haven’t been! Insane.  But I was also beginning to think that any plan that took me inside on this absolutely beautiful day was also insane.  I kept walking. 

 

Long story short… I got lost.  The map I had drawn was only good from where I got off the bus to where the teeny market was. I hadn’t thought of bringing a real map with me, after all, I have lived in this city for a while and for the most part I knew my way around.  But wandering the residential areas of the 3^rd Arondisment had not been in my plans either.  I tried to find my way back to the river, but I was failing miserably.  Then I came upon some Velovs.  (Velo means bike and in Lyon they have these bikes all over the place that you can borrow.  I think it’s free for the first ½ hour and then a Euro per hour after that; but you can exchange bikes every half hour if you want, thus sort of cheating the system.  Technically, you could ride the Velovs all day and never pay a dime as long as you changed bikes ever 30 minutes. Hence the idea Velo-love or Velov. :D )  This was another one of those things in Lyon I’d never done.  I had been waiting for better weather.  Well now I had it.  Besides, my time for doing things in Lyon that I haven’t yet done is quickly dwindling. 

 

So I took about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get a Velov… only complicated the first time when you’re alone and unsure how the whole system works.  But eventually I got it worked out. I put my purse in the basket in the front and biked off in the general direction I believed the river was in.  I stopped once to actually ask someone where the river was- which I think must have sounded to her like I was a dimwit- but oh well. It was in the direction I had thought and soon enough I was back in territory I was familiar with.  At this point it was almost 1:00.  I had to work at 5.  I decided I would go to the Art Museum another day.  I had some psych to read anyway. Lucky for me, I had brought my psych book with me.

 

I veloved across the river and into Old Lyon, found a spot to return my bike, grabbed an apple, some strawberries and a coke from a little vendor and headed to the ruins next to St. Jean.  I sat in there eating my fruit and reading psych in the glorious sunshine! I hadn’t thought to buy sunscreen so I was trying to not spend too much time with one particular side of me facing the sun, but at the same time I couldn’t bring myself to either A. go sit in the shade or B. leave the lovely ruins to go buy sunscreen. 

 

As I was sitting there I heard, “L’Assistant!!!” I looked up and a group of boys were playing on the playground next to the ruins.  High school age boys… I didn’t recognize any of them right away, but when they left the playground to come to the ruins- they were taking pictures- I noticed that they were, in fact, some of my students.  I glanced at them frequently, intrigued by the pictures they were taking, but we never approached each other and soon enough they were gone. 

 

I finished my psych reading and pulled out my knitting.  I LOVE the project I’m currently working on! :D

 

Around 4 I got up and walked back across the river to catch the metro up to my apartment.  It was just about time to go to work.  I had to stop at the pharmacy and pick up some sun screen and after sun lotion… despite, or more accurately because of my frail efforts to protect my skin I had one hell of a sunburn across my shoulders and upper back.  The rest of me was fine- I’ve got a touch of color, which is nice.

 

Then I changed and headed into Paddy’s for the night.  I’ve decided I enjoy working at a bar.  I like the people I work with and usually the atmosphere is fun.  Sometimes you get pushy, snotty French people in, but most the time everyone is really nice and enjoyable. 

And that’s it… that was my Thursday… I love vacation!