Day 8 & 9: Bus Day(s)

Saturday and Sunday

14-15 September 2013

Around 8:00 am we got on a bus traveling to the South of France. Our bus driver was a Dutch man named William (Will-um/Vil-helm were the two pronunciation options he gave us for his name), and he stayed our driver until we got to London. We had lots of good times with old William.

The bus ride was 13 hours. Luckily I had my own seat and was able to sleep a little bit. One of the boys in our group bought Toy Story 3 at a rest stop for the professors' kids. That killed about 6% of the trip. We passed through some beautiful Italian countryside, Swiss countryside, and French countryside all without having to go through any customs, but stopping at what seemed like every gas station and rest stop in all three countries. The gas station stores actually sell some decent food but after about an hour the novelty of eating chocolate and gas station bread for every meal wears off really fast.

We arrived in Avignon late at night at a hostel. There were communal bathrooms and showers which kind of freaked me out, but I just bucked up my courage and dealt with. They were pretty clean, and we were only there for one night so that helped.

The following morning we walked around Avignon and saw the Palais des Papes and Pont d'Avignon which were basically really pretty gardens. 

 A pretty sight to see in Avignon.

 View from the top of a hill.

 Yes I was there, and I was really tired.

Church in Avignon. Look how cute my friend Jackie is!

We went to church in Avignon and once again more than doubled the size of the ward. I was really happy that I was able to sing the hymns in French even though I didn't sound very good. We only stayed for an hour before we got back on the bus to go to Tours. It was another long bus ride and really boring. But the next day was really great and redeemed the boringness of the bus.