It is Tuesday night here in Grenoble and can I just say that I am LOVING it!!!
Sunday, my French comrades and I woke up super duper early (I am talking about 5:30 a.m. early) and my sweet host mom took my friends and I to the Place de Verdun to meet the buses to go to Chamonix for the day. She gave me a pack of these amazing cookies that I always seem to find when I come to Europe and all of us ate the whole package.
The drive took about three hours which consisted of me listening to my iPod, Kathleen sleeping on my shoulder and everyone else passed out as well. But the early morning drive was completely worth it...
Chamonix is a little town at the true base of the French Alps...more specifically, the home of the tallest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc (which I stood on top of, by the way...). The town looks something like Breckenridge, Crested Butte or some other cute little ski village.
But the best part was going up the mountain. Oh man. If you ever want to be reminded just how small you are, stand next to that thing...
To get up there, we took the téléphrique (which is - as my professor put it - the téléphrique that goes to the Bastille on steriods. If you want to see a picture of it, google is good resource for you.) from the base of the mountain to a small station on a small mountain next to Mont Blanc. From there, we took the remaining part of the téléphrique to the station on top of Mont Blanc....We were basically pulled straight up the side of the mountain in a cable car for thousands of feet. Needless to say, there were some people that were freaking out...I may or may not have been one of them that was having a silent panic attack in my head.
Once we reached the station, we went outside onto the bridge and looked around...there were tourists in some normal snow clothes, such as jeans and boots and other stuff like that. But I have to say, we saw some pretty brave souls up there. There were quite a few people in shorts and sandals. But anyway, we also saw some intense climbers hacking there way up. I noted there bravery and took pictures of them as my acknowledgement.
We then took an elevator to the very tippy top summit. WHOA. There was white EVERYWHERE. You could barely see over the rail and we only lasted about 5 or 10 minutes until a major gust of wind came that convinced us it was time to descend and get food and a warm something to drink.
(And those brave people I was talking about....they were even at the summit...the guy in front of me in the line to go up the elevator was wearing sandals and no socks. I took a picture. Then there was a kid at the top running around in a thin sweatshirt, shorts, socks and flip flops. I attempted to take a picture when he wasnt looking, but then he saw us and started whining and saying to stop taking pictures of him. He asked for it....but I sadly never got my picture. When you go to the top of the highest mountain in Europe, you normally would never think that getup is a logical choice.)
After we descended, we ate lunch, shopped, and then went back to Grenoble.
Yesterday was definitely Monday. I have never had a Monday ever feel like such a stereotypical Monday until yesterday. We were all still tired from the big day before and time just seemed to drag. But I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up this morning feeling great (be proud Dad and Halpert...).
I love you all!!
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