And so we reached Lyon around 4pm in the midst of a transport strike. We soon found out that none of the buses/ trams/ metro lines were running, and there was no other way to get around, except walk! So here we were with our backpacks weighing a tonne, and we had to walk 1.2km to our hotel..I know that doesn't seem that far..but try it with a backpack man! It seems like you'd never survive. Of course kind David helped me carry my daypack halfway..so that was half a tonne less (yes, the mystery of my super heavy daypack..we still cannot phathom why it always ends up weighing so much..) And to make matters worse, we realised that we had left all our posters..collectively 5, back on the train!! Our pretty, pretty posters!! What a complete waste!
But we were to be rewarded with a perfect evening. :) When we reached the Hotel du Bretagne, we had a free upgrade to double rooms and they were so pretty I almost flipped! (*winkz*) They had attached bathrooms with towels and soap provided! Then we tried to make dinner in our rooms, and while boiling water with our immersion heater, we somehow managed to make the whole floor black out. Haha. So I was sent to call the little old lady from downstairs (and I acted extremely innocent of 'cos) who trudged up 5 flights of stairs, and was so flustered that she couldn't fix it.. but of cos it was a simple matter of flipping the switch in the circuit box (beats me..) and we valiantly offered to help (Is he an electrician?-she points to Sirui..haha!) and everything came back on! The lady was soo utterly thankful, she praised us so much and even offered us free drinks at the bar below..of 'cos she was blissfully unaware that we had caused it in the first place..and we felt too guilty to take up her kind offer. :p
So after our first Maggi Mee meal (no one wants to eat my instant bee hoon :(((( ) we set off to explore Vieux Lyon (or Old Lyon). The area was stacked against the Saone river, at the foot of the Fouviere hill..can u imagine! With pretty little cafes and restaurants in the alleyways. Then we scaled the hill (damn, I hate going uphill! But as we learnt..going up takes a lot..but always lands u with the best views ever!!) to Roman Lyon, where we stumbled upon a GORGEOUSSSS rose garden, with sweet-smelling roses as big as our palms!! There was even one that we swear smelled like bandung, and soon after lychee! So we secretly went about cutting off stalks of pretty roses to press in our books (the uses of Sirui's swiss army knife)..the guys of 'cos cut them so they could stuff them in their shoes to make them smell nice (what the..) It felt so nice ot sit there amongst the hundred different roses, looking down on the city, the sun setting (at 8pm!! haha), the air so serene and nice.
Looking up, we could see the massive Basilique Notre Dame de Fouviere looming overhead atop the hill. It looked so majestic against the skyline. We walked up to take a closer look, and stood in awe. There was a lovely cafe by the side of it, overlooking the park and the rest of Lyon. It had finally gotten dark by then and the city was all yellow and lit up. We perched precariously on a ledge beside the church, enjoying the scenery and the cool evening air. (Although one silly building marred the view in the distance..the Credit Lyonnais building that was shaped like a crayon!) Then it was back down for an early night..amazingly we even met the 10.30pm curfew. ;p And my pretty pink roses scented the room for the night, mixed with sweet lavender lotion. Haha.
[P.S. This was the first time Sirui and David were getting a room to themselves. We hear in the morning that David had a hell of a time, he even managed to sneak his hand over Sirui in the dead of the night. Sirui reports in disgust (feigned, we believe). :p)