Bordeaux

Do you remember that scene in the movie Big when Josh (Tom Hanks) spends his first night in the St. James Hotel in NYC? Well I had a similar experience last night here in Bordeaux complete with the angry, raving person yelling at someone for like two hours in a language I couldn't understand. Check out this tiny, tiny room:

The Youth Hostel at which I wanted to stay was all booked, which left me with this second place in my guide book. I should have known better when they describe it as "good accomodations for the price." The good thing, though, was that it was the first room I've had to myself since I got to Europe. And the three Austrailian girls staying in the room next to mine more than made up for it ;-)

I went on a wine tasting tour to two Chateaus outside of Bordeaux in the Medoc region, which mainly grows heavier grapes like Cabernet Savignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Fraun(sp?). The Chateaus were gorgeous, built in the 17th-19th centuries. The wines we tried were pretty good. For some reason, the Medoc region is required to blend different grapes in whatever wines they produce... strange that they require it, but the wine was definitely complex. One cool thing on the tour, although we didn't stop at it, we drove by Chateau La Tour, which is a world famous winery.

The downside of the tour was that the only train I could get to Madrid left at 6:50pm. The tour was scheduled to get back to the Tourist Office at 6:30pm. So I was worried the entire time that I wouldn't make it to the train. Fortunately, I there were like two or three other groups of people trying to make the same train. Thus, the tour guide brought us back a little early. It was kind of fun sprinting from the bus with all these people to the train. One group was a couple, Brett and Amy, who were my age and over here for about the same amount of time as me. They hung out with me at the sketchy Border station where we switched to the sleeping train.

My first experience with the night train was pretty good. I slept pretty well and saved money by not have to get a hostel for the night. Yeah! Now on to Madrid...