Day 40: Lovely Ladies' Lyon Tour

When traveling there are days when you can see a city on a shoestring and there are others which are going to cost you an arm or €91. I'll give you three guesses what type of day I had, and the first two don't count.

My experiences in France have been rivaled only by my time in Italy. As I visit more countries this hierarchy is bound to become more confusing. Knowing that I was leaving for Geneva in two days, I was already sad to leave Lyon. It's my first French love and I will never forget this city. My time in Lyon drawing to a close, I asked the girls that I was staying with if they'd show me around.

After impressing the girls with an amazing American breakfast, we headed out to the farmer's market. Then up the Croix Rousse to peep the lives of the young and hip. For dinner we gorged ourselves at a bouchon in Vioux Lyon. We capped the night off with a viewing of the Banksy movie about street art. Amazing!

Cat plates – cute or creepy?

It was only American because I made it. How could poached eggs over sliced tomato and baguette with pesto not please? I treated everyone to three of these little monsters. At the Hundred Acre Wood I learned how difficult cooking for lots of people can be. While I wasn't cooking for seven people, four is plenty. My friend Joshua Stokes taught me this recipe and has helped me improve my poached eggs considerably. Unfortunately, he didn't include a technique for poaching a dozen at a time. Because I could only make six at once, Charlotte and I had to eat second. She nearly ate her plate in the meantime. I wish I got photos of the final product but the speed of my shutter finger was outmatched by appetites. I'm glad we ate before going to the farmer's market because I would have tried more than the samples.

From right to left: Elsa, Bibi, Charlotte

Lyon has two farmers' markets. One is along the Sôhne and the other is by the Croix-Rousse. Elsa, Charlotte, and their friend Bibi were buying groceries for the next few days. I soon found out why they waited for the market.

The first few booths of the market.

Eating tangerines and staying warm.

Living in NYC for four years I've seen some amazing farmer's markets, but even the mightiest of Union Square Greenmarkets didn't compare. This market was huge. It probably had 50 venders. The types of food being sold and the presentation of the food were different from NYC. The booths were set up along the coast of the Sôhne. The booth at the beginning of the market looked rather normal. Two men were selling fruits as chickens were roasting in a rotisserie across from them. As we got deeper it quickly became apparent that we weren't in the United States anymore.

Free cheese samples? Oh guda.

The weirdest items that I saw in Lyon's farmer's market were a round of mega French cheese, some stew ready rabbits, and a dude selling truffles. Perhaps they're not that weird but they were new to me!

Welcome to France.

We're cooking wabbits.

Dude selling truffles. I wish I saw how much they were.

I enjoyed Lyon's farmer's market because it was everything a farmer's market should be. High quality food at cheap prices. Expense is a big reason I didn't frequent NYC's farmer's markets. There was a great little market every weekend just a few blocks away from Pratt by Fort Greene Park. I loved going there to see and smell but I hardly ever bought anything because all of the food was so expensive. I could go on complaining about how the US's food infrastructure is upside down and a burger from McDonalds is cheaper than a head of broccoli, but I'm in Europe and don't have to worry about these things.

Got olives?

I love this photo.

Oranges in France are exceptional. 

Moody French avocados don't compare to Texas'.

Bibi and leek.

What's better than dried sausage? Dried bison sausage.

So lovely!

Off to the Croix-Rousse!

Elsa and Charlotte live on the same hill as Fourviere (praying hill), one of Lyon's two hills. The other hill is across the Sôhne, called the Croix-Rousse (working hill). Home to much of Lyon's young community, the Croix-Rousse is a hip and fun place to walk around.

To get to the Croix-Rousse we walked through the center of town. The streets were full of eager window shoppers and desperate people buying last minute gifts. We encountered a group of protesters who were great photo material. This is the third or fourth protest that I've seen while in Europe.

Passionate people are cool!

..and sometimes scary!

The only down-side to the Croix-Rousse is the up-side – you've got to walk up a beast hill! Thankfully it's not that bad if you're a fit, sexy, young backpacker.

"Un, deux, trois!"

This was my second experience with the hill. A few days ago I saw a French theater performance at the Théâter de la Croix-Rousse. The best part was after the play, comparing what I thought happened to the reality of the play. "What do you mean they weren't prostitutes?"

Lots of graffiti. Up and coming vibe.

Beautiful views.

Bibi's old street.

Foreshadowing for the Banksy movie later that night.

Bibi next to the door to her old flat.

Awesome!

I'm going to add a design inspiration section soon.

At the bar with Bibi's glasses. They said I look like Woody Allen.

When we had our fill at the Croix-Rousse, we headed home for a well deserved nap. Walking around and drinking is really hard work! Feeling refreshed from our nap we headed out to grab some chow. The plan was to meet up with two of Elsa and Charlotte's friends – Lisa and Val, who knew a good bouchon to eat at. I just learned about bouchons the night before over coffee with another CouchSurfer. A bouchon is a type of restaurant that's only found in Lyon. They serve traditional Lyonnaise dishes in an environment that's an interesting mix between fancy and approachable.

In my last post about my backpacking budget I said "avoiding restaurants saves money" but sometimes exceptions must be made! Ever since I learned about the bouchons I was super psyched to experience one. When I pitched the idea to the girls I was kind of surprised how they were all excited to go. I thought it might be a touristy or common deal for them but apparently not. We were all psyched – and hungry.

The charming interior of the bouchon.

Their menu was based around three courses and was surprisingly affordable. Sweet! The restaurant was rather small with only 20-30 places to sit. The majority of the seats were taken by a large group of Australians. We arrived while they were ordering. The waitress was French but spoke a confident broken English, clearly poking fun at the Australians. Everyone was having a good time because everything about the bouchon contributed to an incredibly hospitable atmosphere. Even the odd poster on the wall next to our table that illustrated the innards of a chicken was rather friendly. If you go to Lyon, make a bunch of friends and go to a bouchon. I highly recommend it!

Lisa and Val split a fondue. Note weird poster on wall.

I had a veal stew. So good – I even ate the mushrooms.

Lots of food = happy people

Half way through our main course we realized that we were late! We were on a schedule! We had a date! We planned to see the Banksy movie, which started at 9:30. It was 9, leaving us only had thirty minutes to get there. Thanks to some fast eating and bill paying, we turbo waddled down the street towards the movie theater. I think I almost had a hernia.

As we got to the metro I realized that I was completely broke from that meal. Charlotte suggested that I double up with her so I didn't have to pay. Despite her "not seeing any controllo" there was soon a large man behind me asking if I had a ticket. Borp. Charlotte sweet talked to no avail as I was lead into a back room. "Do you want to pay now?" the man asked. Having just spent all of my money on dinner I was helpless. Elsa came through the door like an angel from heaven – checkbook in hand. Afterwards we learned that she saved me from going to jail. That's cool. It's good to have friends. I may not be eating for the next week but the Banksy movie was excellent.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

After the movie, we walked home after a long day. We passed through the Christmas market, which was closed for the night. We also also got to climb more stairs. 

Oh the benefits of living on a hill.

My last view of Fouviere.

Packing up the next morning.

This was one of my top days that I've spent in Europe so far and I've had some pretty killer experiences. I fell asleep full of love for Lyon and my hosts. What an AMAZING day!

Au revior!

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Day 37: Ross' Backpacking Europe Travel Budget

Money is funny and unknowns make me uneasy. Embarking on a 10 month journey through Europe is exciting but stressful. In order to have a pleasant trip, I had to budget my money. Coming home early is not an option!

I'm extremely lucky to be able to travel after graduating from Pratt Institute. When I was in high school one of my great uncles left me a nice chunk of inheritance. Part of the deal was I couldn't use the money until I turned 21. So the money sat in the bank and grew interest. On my 21st birthday, I had quite a nice sum. I could have saved the money for a downpayment on a house or bought a new car. I didn't know what to do with it so I kept it in the bank. When I made the decision to travel, I was glad I saved it!

Like I said, I am extremely lucky. Not everyone has money sitting around to go traveling. My experiences have put traveling into financial perspective. I'm realizing that even with a small sum of money it's possible to travel. By sharing my financial records I hope to put traveling expenses into context for all of you future nomads.

Going into this trip, I had no experience with budgets. I've always made enough money that as long as I spent wisely, I didn't have to keep track. Planning for this trip was different than any financial situation I've been in before. I have one lump of money to last the entire time. I knew I needed a budget but I had no clue how to make one. Naturally, I turned to my old friend, Google. After reading a number of sites about "How to make a budget," I understood the concept but I didn't know how to put it into practice. Thankfully my friend's dad is an accountant. I set up a dinner date!

A creme sauce perhaps?

A few days later I paid the Clemens family a visit. Ding dong! After a stellar dinner (thanks Mrs. Clemens!), Mr. Clemens and I got down to business. It was financial bootcamp. We reviewed what I learned earlier and then he asked me about my trip. At that time I had no clue. I didn't plan this trip at all. My "plan" was to fly into Rome, head to Florence, then figure it out. He sighed. Apparently, in order to make a budget, you have to have a plan. If I had all of my expenses planned, I would have been able to construct a budget around them. Since I didn't know anything, I was unable to set up a budget. Bummer! However our budget meeting wasn't useless. He suggested that I keep track of all my expenses and after the first two months I'll have enough data to set up a budget for the remaining eight. The most important advice Mr. Clemens gave me was to keep track of expenses other than traveling. Since I'll be traveling for 10 months, I would need to pay taxes in that time. I also had car insurance and a handful of other expenses that added up quick! I took his advice and subtracted this money from my reserve before I made my budget. Keeping track of my expenses has benefitted me in a multitude of ways.

Even without a budget, keeping track of my money has helped me out immensely. This is the first serious attempt I've made at quantifying my finances and it's been a positive experience. No offense to Mr. Clemens but if I were an accountant, I'd go crazy. Going into this, I was apprehensive because I thought keeping track of my money would be like filing taxes. I've found it to be quite the opposite. I actually enjoy knowing what I've spent money on. My mind is at ease! At the beginning I was very stressed about my money – pinching pennies at every turn. But now that I have records of how much I spent, I can plan ahead and not feel guilty about spending money. Large purchases would really stress me out. On my first train ride I got nailed for a €50 fee, causing my ticket to be €67,50 instead of €17,50. I was majorly stressed out because I thought I wouldn't be eating for a week or something horrible. More recently, I spent €188 on a pair of top-quality hiking boots. That's a whole week's spending money. But I'm confident that I can save that money in weeks to come by CouchSurfing instead of staying at hostels. That's cool! I've also learned a number of ways to save money from watching what I spend the most money on.

How I've saved money:

Avoid restaurants: I've eaten at one restaurant since I've been here and I got stuck with a big bill. Restaurants are fantastic ways to sample local cuisine, but they can be expensive. Ordering can be difficult and it's difficult to know how much you're spending. For example, restaurants in Italy charge more if you sit down. I enjoy buying food from the grocery store and cooking for myself and others. I dive into local flavor through my CouchSurfing experiences.

Not Buying Maps: I'm lost most everywhere I go but I still refuse to buy a map. I would rather spend that €2,50 on gelato! Most hotels and information centers give free maps. I also take photos of maps on the street or from my computer with my camera and zoom in later.

CouchSurfing: Housing is my largest expense. Hostels are cheap but €15 a night is more than half of my daily allowance. I love staying in hostels, but CouchSurfing is way cooler – and free!

No Souvenirs: My friends are the best and if I could I would buy them all something. But let's face it, most souvenirs are only good for collecting dust. I show my friends I'm thinking about them in other ways. Not buying souvenirs leaves me with more spending money and a lighter pack!

Cheap Entertainment: I haven't been spending like a king, but I am living like one. Traveling is awesome because I don't need to spend much money on entertainment – train tickets are my entertainment! The $12 that I would spend on a movie ticket in Brooklyn could be a train ride to Venice. Spending money on entertainment like museums or other local places enriches your experience but it's not necessary. Walking around is free!

Here is my backpacking Europe travel budget:

At first I was using TextEdit because I didn't have Microsoft Excel, but recently I discovered Google Docs. It took me a while to set up all the statistics that I wanted but I can't wait to use this tool. Now I'm able to calculate how much I can spend each day for the remainder of the week based on what I've already spent that week. I know this is only the beginning and I can't wait to see what else this powerful platform allows me to do.

This budget is live and will be updated every day. If you're thinking of traveling you should bookmark Ross' Travel Budget.

I hope this article encourages you lovely readers to travel. I've been extremely lucky but without my budget I would still be stressing. I wonder if Uncle Carl would approve of how I'm spending his money. I like to think he's watching over me. You can have enough money, but never have enough luck!

Au revior!

Day 35: Fantastic French Food & Lyon

As soon as my fingers thaw out I'll write this blog entry.

France has made a wonderful first impression. My CouchSurfing experiences have brought me many new friends. I am grateful! While the locals are great, communicating with them is proving difficult. French bends my mind. I can't pronounce anything to save my life, save "Putain."

Case in point. Last night at the grocery store I was buying a loaf of bread. I gave the cashier more than enough but he said something in French and looked at me so I gave him a few more cents. He ended up having to count out the money from my hand. It was slick. At least he was nice about it. Time to learn how to count.

My gracious hosts Alice and Florent put me out to pasture two days ago. Leaving them was difficult. I have separation anxiety because Alice did my laundry before I left. I've been crashing at their friend, Antione's place. Antione's apartment is kind of like college dorms all over again. It's messy and there's no heat or water pressure, but remains charming none-the-less. Antione is a bass player in an up and coming reggae band that will definitely make it onto my 'Ross Recommends Music' list (soon to come). He's extraordinarily busy producing his cd, working a full time job, and taking care of his daughter. Whenever he's home we have nice conversation. He tries to help me with my French. I need to ask him how to say "It's hopeless!"

Boil the potatoes then slice them up. Cover in cream and cook.

While I was staying with Alice and Flo, they made me a classic French dish of potato slices baked in cream, gratin dauphinois. It was groundbreaking. Magnitude 11. Thankfully I had the pleasure of savoring a similar dish tartiflette, which Antione cooked last night. Tartiflette is a gratin base with the addition of ham and reblochon cheese. Ooohhrf. The French totally know what's going on in the kitchen and can magically turn a few simple ingredients into an amazing meal.

Two big cheese hunks on top. Yum!

On a personal note, I'm continuing to explore myself. Two days ago I chanced into this goldmine of a blog about self improvement. One of the articles that got my attention was about polyphasic sleep and becoming an early riser. Perhaps Sebastian's 10 day water only fast was inspiring to me, so I thought it's time to do an experiment for myself.

I've been a late sleeper all my life. It's like a superpower – passed down from my mom. I've slept through hotel fire alarms, people trying to wake me, you name it. One time my mom slept through an entire weekend. At Pratt I could have majored in experimental sleep studies. As wacky as my sleep schedule is, it's never been a problem for me. It's still not a problem, but reading this article made me curious.

Living in a tent and rising with the sun in Austin, TX made a huge improvement on my productivity and overall sense of well being. I found myself accomplishing more in the first two hours of when I got up than any other time in the day. After reading Steve Pavlina's article, I realized how much time I was waisting by sleeping. If I sleep 9-10 hours a day, I could save at 4 hours by waking up earlier. That's 28 hours that I gain of do-what-I-want time, per week! Steve wakes up at 5 am every morning, but I thought 7 is more reasonable because some nights (like tonight) I'll be up to 4am writing a blog entry. Normally I would be super cranky on 3 hours of sleep, but I have a secret weapon.

Bonjour Lyon!

Surprisingly, this morning when my alarm went off at 7 am, I was up no problem. Perhaps I got a perfect 6 hours of sleep and was in sync with my sleep cycles. When I woke up I didn't know what to do. It was still dark out so I checked what time the sun would rise, headed out the door, and walked up the hill to Fourviere. Despite the dark, I could see little snowflakes. My first European snow. Aw. The walk up the hill went well and I got there just in time but the clouds were still asleep, blocking the sun. It was mega cold this morning. You could freeze icicles on the devil's butt. Upon returning to the apartment, my hands were so cold I couldn't turn the key.

Bonjur Fourviere!

Down a super long staircase.

Lyon waking up.

Finally I got inside and prepared some lunch and worked until 12, when it is NAPTIME! This is the secret weapon I'm talking about. The only good thing that comes from Mexico other than the taco. Siesta! In an effort to better my blog, I've been reading other blogs. Believe it or not, this is largely new for me. One of my new favorites is Fluent in 3 Months, and they just published an outstanding article on how siestas can improve your life. In a nutshell falling asleep after lunch aids in digestion and gives your body the energy it needs to function through the rest of the day. Simple, right? Another benefit of the siesta is that you don't need to sleep for as long in one chunk every night. Today I slept for 20 minutes and I felt great afterwards, especially after my breakfast of 3 poached eggs!

Out of the sleeping bag and back into the cold. Oh the burdens I bare for you, dear readers. I wanted to make a general post on Lyon today so you could see what it normally looks like. Even bundled up, two hours of -4ºc weather froze my soul. Texas made me a cold sissy. You'd better enjoy these pictures.

This building near my place has some awesome trompe-l'oil.

Apparently all of the figures are famous people from Lyon.

This camera man is my favorite. Action!

This fountain was made by the artist who made the Statue of Liberty.

Even the horses were cold.

Place Bellecour.

Little toy wheel.

Christmas markets suck when you don't have money.

Super creepy.

Still super creepy.

Walking south, out of the train station.

I wanted to see the rivers join but I just found old rail yards.

Great public transportation. Super clean!

Headed back to the apartment.

My first European snow.

I've adjusted my travel plans. Since people keep asking me where I'm going, I added My Master Plan to the blog. Check out my map because I've updated it with where I've been, where I'm headed, and where I want to go to.

Currently, I'm staying in Lyon till around the 18th, then headed to Geneva, Switzerland! From there I'm catching a cheap flight to Nice and making my way along the southern coast of France, into Barcelona, Spain. Niice!

Au revior!

Check out the rest of the photos!

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