Interrailing in Europe summer 2010 LYON

From GuiGui's place we found easily to the train station and we had to pay an extra 18€ for the train to Lyon because it was the TGV train. That was our first train trip that we used our interrail cards. :) It was an afternoon train to Lyon and it took only two hours. 

On the train we listed things we've learnt so far in France:

• We have learnt the french kiss on the cheeks. Boys usually always say hi to girls by giving them a kiss on the cheek (usually one to each) :) 
• English was spoken rarely in Paris! People only wanted to communicate in french which was annoying. And that even happened on the sightseeing places where you could expect people to speak english..
• We learnt that our orienteering skills are excellent. :D  We could navigate in the tube and in paris metro and train.
• We have tasted new foods (read Ira has tasted..) like: BEER, shellfish (or what is that called), chinese food, lots of different sea foods, meringue, spinach food etc. 
• We also learnt couple of words in french: Merci, au revoir, ca va?, la ferme =shut up and bonne nuit =good night :D 

After our train ride we got of at Lyon train station and had our little map with us. I saw this huge hill and I told Saija that please say that our hostel is not on top of that hill. We started walking and walking and after 80 minutes we arrived to our hostel (Hostel AJ du Vieux Lyon), which was on top of that hill! We walked along the river Saone and walked pass the old town and on the way going up this uphill road we passed two girls because we were afraid that if the hostel is full and with our luck they're gonna take the last two beds.. :D We got beds from a room with 4 other girls. It was different than our first hostel which was a youth hostel, in Lyon there were people from all age groups. The view from our huge hostel room window was amazing! We could practically see the whole Lyon!

We went out and ate in the old town, a three course meal with only 12€. After eating we just wandered around the city until we discovered that it would be easier to go around with bikes. It took us around 40 minutes to get the bikes off from the stands....! Several people tried to help us and finally we were able to get the bikes off. We spotted little version of the Eiffel Tower ="Tour métallique de Fourvière", Cathedral of St. John, Cathedral of St. Jean and Notre Dame de Fourvièren Basilika which looked like a castle from some fairytale story! We cycled around the city almost two hours, returned the bikes and went to this lovely, quiet cafe/bar on a Sunday evening around 11pm and had beers! Finally it was time to call it for the night and climb back to our hostel. Before going to bed we first admired Lyon and its amazing view by night! 

Fairytale castle on the hill

View from our hostel window

Hostel's balcony

The uphill (not even the steepest spot)

Fairytale castle and little Eiffel by night

Behind me Cathedral of St. Jean by night