This is a continuation of my last post.
My train left Nice at about 9.00 am. I had planned beforehand to drop by Montpellier along the way to Toulouse, and so I did after a journey of about five hours. I had originally intended to check out Marseille for a bit before then moving on to Montpellier and Toulouse, but my plans had changed, my time was limited, and I figured there was only so much sea you could see before it starts to lose its luster.
My attraction towards Montpellier, just like my attraction towards coming to France in the first place, stemmed simply from my love of football. While I was with Fabian in Lyon, he was pleasantly surprised to find that I had some knowledge of French football; one of the things I knew was that not too long ago, before the PSG juggernaut took over everything, Montpellier had somehow managed to crown themselves French champions - they weren't exactly a glamor club, so it was big news. Their top scorer that season was a certain Olivier Giroud; I remember getting all excited when he joined Arsenal that summer.
As it turned out, I only had about an hour to explore Montpellier, so I decided to use that time to get something to eat as I wasn't fasting (I hadn't yet fasted while in France as I was still getting used to the long hours). I also had my luggage with me, which meant I couldn't go too far anyway. Fortunately, I found a halal kebab place a short walk away from the train station.
While I was in Nice, one of the guys there told me that he liked the architecture in Montpellier. During my brief visit there, I noted that the city did have some nice architecture, and also that it seemed to be fairly clean. I didn't take any pictures or record any videos though, because I felt it wasn't fair to the city for that small area to be my lasting record of it. Now that I've done a quick Google image search, that decision may just have been the right one. Montpellier is home to some magnificent sights, and I wish I could have gone to see them.
After I'd had my lunch, I went back to the train station and got on my train, reaching Toulouse about two hours later. Rahimi/Remy met me on the platform, and we took the metro and then the bus back to his place, where he was staying with three other Malaysian guys and a cat.
Before I continue, let me just say that I was quite impressed with the public transport in Toulouse. We used the metro a number of times while I was there, and the thing that struck me the most was how regular the trains were - one every minute or so. As someone used to the LRT and Monorail, KL's (and in fact Malaysia's) equivalent of the French metro, I just found it incredible that you didn't really have to rush to get on the train because you knew the next one would be coming along very soon anyway.
As for the bus, Remy had an app on his phone that told him exactly when the next bus would be arriving at any given station. Back in Malaysia, I would never take the bus if I could help it, but I might just change my mind if such an app existed for Rapid KL (and also if that app was reliable, of course).
Another thing was that you could use the same ticket for the metro and the bus (and the tram, too, but I didn't get to take the tram while I was there) along the same journey. A single one-way ticket was also the same price (1.60 euros, I think) regardless of how many metro stations or bus stops you passed by along the way. In Malaysia, LRT tokens (I wouldn't know about bus tickets) are priced according to where you buy them and where you're going. It's quite exciting to think that Malaysia's various modes of public transport could someday (probably in the distant future) be as good as its Toulouse counterparts.
Anyway, the first activity I had in Toulouse was watching the Italy vs Sweden match at the Fanzone near the Palais de Justice (Palace of Justice; it's a courthouse). The security just to get in and watch the match live on the giant screen was tight - I'd unfortunately forgotten to remove my Swiss army knife and my nail clippers from my bag, so those got confiscated.
There was still a huge turnout, with fans of both sides showing up to cheer their respective teams on. The match itself was pretty awful though, with Zlatan missing an absolute sitter. There was a point during the match when some people in the crowd got into a bit of a scuffle for some reason, and they were duly escorted out by the security guards. Eventually, Eder scored to give Italy a 1-0 win, thereby ensuring that we at least got something from watching the game.
The next day (or evening, rather), we went to an iftar gathering for all the Malaysians in Toulouse. There were maybe about 40 people in attendance - many of them were young students like Remy, but there were also a number of families (husband, wife, kids) there as well. Remy told me they had these gatherings fairly often, sometimes just for the heck of it, but the turnout for this one was rather larger as it was a special occasion. I thought that was good, as it indicated the strong sense of community that these people had. When you're a minority in a foreign land, you have to stick with each other and help each other out, 'cause no one else will if you don't.
On other nights, the five of us in the house (excluding the cat) would have iftar together in the living room while watching whatever Euro match was on at the time. The group stages were on every day while I was there, so we'd always catch the 9.00 pm game while waiting to have iftar at just before 9.45. As Isya' was at about midnight, we'd watch the game until it ended at around 11.00 before praying Maghrib together.
The day after the Malaysian iftar, Remy drove us to Carcassonne, which was a French city (according to Google anyway; I thought it was more of a town) an hour away from Toulouse. It was notable for being home to the Cité de Carcassonne, a sort of fortress from the medieval ages, which was of course the reason we drove there in the first place.
It was my first time ever visiting a castle of any sort, and it was Remy's first time there as well, so we took our time exploring. I'd read about medieval castles when I was much younger, so it was a bit surreal checking out the outer ramparts and looking down on what used to be the moat. Seeing for myself the things I'd only ever read about and seen in movies, online or on TV is always great.
The inside of the fortress housed a bustling town filled with restaurants, small hotels and other shops. We also checked out a large cathedral - it was the first time I'd ever entered a Christian house of worship, and I wondered why it was so dark inside. The architecture was amazing, and Remy particularly liked the stained glass windows.
Besides that, there was also a small castle where I guess the rulers of the fortress must have lived in back in the day, but we didn't go in as I had to pay to enter. It would have been nice to have gone, though, as we would have also gotten access to climbing up some of the fortress' inner walls.
We also bumped into a group of Malaysian Malindo Air flight officers, whom Remy chatted up and even gave them some contact numbers they could order Malaysian food from. He told me he always chats up fellow Malaysians, which is a nice thing to do, especially if they're tourists, what with him having been in France for four years and all. It's probably not something I would do, though, particularly if they were in a large group. I'm not good with small talk with strangers.
After we were done with the fortress, we stopped by a nearby lake, the name of which I didn't really pay attention to. It was a beautiful place, though, and the water was clean enough to wash your face with. There was even a kind of inflatable waterpark, though no one was playing there at the time. The lake was also surrounded by lush greenery. I didn't get any of it on camera as I wanted to just soak it all in and live in the moment. Remy and I walked around the entire lake (must have been a few kilometers); it was tiring, but, at the same time, somewhat refreshing. I guess it was good to spend some time with Mother Nature for a change, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
It was a pretty eventful first few days in Toulouse, as you can probably judge from this very long post. I still had a few days left, though, so we decided to spend them just exploring the city.
To be continued...
Anyway, the first activity I had in Toulouse was watching the Italy vs Sweden match at the Fanzone near the Palais de Justice (Palace of Justice; it's a courthouse). The security just to get in and watch the match live on the giant screen was tight - I'd unfortunately forgotten to remove my Swiss army knife and my nail clippers from my bag, so those got confiscated.
There was still a huge turnout, with fans of both sides showing up to cheer their respective teams on. The match itself was pretty awful though, with Zlatan missing an absolute sitter. There was a point during the match when some people in the crowd got into a bit of a scuffle for some reason, and they were duly escorted out by the security guards. Eventually, Eder scored to give Italy a 1-0 win, thereby ensuring that we at least got something from watching the game.
The next day (or evening, rather), we went to an iftar gathering for all the Malaysians in Toulouse. There were maybe about 40 people in attendance - many of them were young students like Remy, but there were also a number of families (husband, wife, kids) there as well. Remy told me they had these gatherings fairly often, sometimes just for the heck of it, but the turnout for this one was rather larger as it was a special occasion. I thought that was good, as it indicated the strong sense of community that these people had. When you're a minority in a foreign land, you have to stick with each other and help each other out, 'cause no one else will if you don't.
On other nights, the five of us in the house (excluding the cat) would have iftar together in the living room while watching whatever Euro match was on at the time. The group stages were on every day while I was there, so we'd always catch the 9.00 pm game while waiting to have iftar at just before 9.45. As Isya' was at about midnight, we'd watch the game until it ended at around 11.00 before praying Maghrib together.
The day after the Malaysian iftar, Remy drove us to Carcassonne, which was a French city (according to Google anyway; I thought it was more of a town) an hour away from Toulouse. It was notable for being home to the Cité de Carcassonne, a sort of fortress from the medieval ages, which was of course the reason we drove there in the first place.
It was my first time ever visiting a castle of any sort, and it was Remy's first time there as well, so we took our time exploring. I'd read about medieval castles when I was much younger, so it was a bit surreal checking out the outer ramparts and looking down on what used to be the moat. Seeing for myself the things I'd only ever read about and seen in movies, online or on TV is always great.
The inside of the fortress housed a bustling town filled with restaurants, small hotels and other shops. We also checked out a large cathedral - it was the first time I'd ever entered a Christian house of worship, and I wondered why it was so dark inside. The architecture was amazing, and Remy particularly liked the stained glass windows.
Besides that, there was also a small castle where I guess the rulers of the fortress must have lived in back in the day, but we didn't go in as I had to pay to enter. It would have been nice to have gone, though, as we would have also gotten access to climbing up some of the fortress' inner walls.
We also bumped into a group of Malaysian Malindo Air flight officers, whom Remy chatted up and even gave them some contact numbers they could order Malaysian food from. He told me he always chats up fellow Malaysians, which is a nice thing to do, especially if they're tourists, what with him having been in France for four years and all. It's probably not something I would do, though, particularly if they were in a large group. I'm not good with small talk with strangers.
After we were done with the fortress, we stopped by a nearby lake, the name of which I didn't really pay attention to. It was a beautiful place, though, and the water was clean enough to wash your face with. There was even a kind of inflatable waterpark, though no one was playing there at the time. The lake was also surrounded by lush greenery. I didn't get any of it on camera as I wanted to just soak it all in and live in the moment. Remy and I walked around the entire lake (must have been a few kilometers); it was tiring, but, at the same time, somewhat refreshing. I guess it was good to spend some time with Mother Nature for a change, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
It was a pretty eventful first few days in Toulouse, as you can probably judge from this very long post. I still had a few days left, though, so we decided to spend them just exploring the city.
To be continued...
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