Highest Highs, Lowest Lows

Ok…so since the last message, Elisa and I have mostly been settling in and having a good time here exploring the sites in the city.

A few days ago we were exploring Vieux Lyon, or “old Lyon” which is sort of the touristy area of Lyon. It’s perched up on a mountain/hill, and the further you go, the higher up you go. It’s got the typical narrow, cobblestone streets, tons of little cafés and restaurants, tourist shops and very old churches and buildings. We had some time to kill so we decided to start walking up the steps, up the mountain towards this basilica which is perched at the top. After about 30 minutes and lots of huffing and puffing later (it was a lot higher, and further than we first thought), we finally made it to the top. It was well worth it. The view was amazing, and this “basilique” overlooks the entire city. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. We were lucky it was a nice sunny day, so the view was spectacular. We took lots of pictures, and then ventured inside the actual basilica to take a look around. Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so the carvings and wall murals made out of tiny tile pieces will have to remain a secret!!! ….after a good look and more pcture taking outside, we decided to take the funiculaire (sort of gondola/tram) back down the mountain instead of walking back to our rez….our beds were never so welcome that night!!

A few nights later, due to our issue with the slow internet, Elisa and I decided to walk to campus to use the internet at the university and have some skype dates.We were doing our thing when all of a sudden the lights went off!!! We decided we’d better pack up pronto, and get out. Unfortunately, France uni’s don’t have security lights, so it was pitch black…just after we noticed this, we discovered that all the doors were locked, and we were in fact TRAPPED inside. We didn’t know what to do, we couldn’t see, we didn’t know where we were, and we were quite clearly the only people around. Using our heads we were able to manually unlock one of the doors from the inside so we could at least get outside…unfortunately our university is a giant square with a courtyard in the middle, and the entire thing is BARRED at night time. So even though we were out of the building, we quickly discovered that we were in fact still trapped inside the university. We walked the entire perimeter of the building, and it was barred and too high to climb over. On top of that we had no idea what number to call the police at! We were stuck, and at this point, very upset. After discovering that security people had also gone for the night, we really started to panic. We called a friend to warn them they might need to call the police for us…no answer. We kept wandering and finally decided we had to get the attention of some random people who lived on the edge of campus (as some sort of maintenance) …luckily they somehow knew how to contact security. They managed to call security back and security had to RETURN to the uni to let us out….not a good night…needless to say we were very glad to get out of there, and not get in trouble…we went home and ate chocolate to make ourselves feel better…hopefully this is an adventure that won’t be repeated any time soon!!!

School starts soon, so I’ll post a new update once that begins!