An American Girl in Avignon

You meet some interesting people at the beach, especially when that beach is in Europe. It is not uncommon to see women with their tops off, men sporting speedos, and lots and lots of limit-pushing PDA. It’s a completely different world.

We decided to go to another beach today called Nova Icaria, because it was supposed to be less touristy. When we arrived in the early morning, hardly anyone was there. It felt like we had the place to ourselves. The feeling didn’t last long before the tourists and happy couples came flocking. While lying with my back to the sun, I was disturbed to see an old man completely exposing all of his goods behind us. We moved our sunning spot quickly. Ew. Nudity is taken lightly across the pond.

Yet men are the same everywhere. But it seems to me that American men have a different approach to getting women than the Europeans. One could perform a sociology or psychology experiment after a day at the beach. For example: two very, very loud American students with their tops off were approached by two American boys (he was wearing American flag swim trunks, and they were all talking loud enough for the whole beach to eavesdrop) using the classic line, “Would you like some sunscreen?” to the two girls bopping around sans bikini tops. They ended up pulling their towels next to each other not long after that. Ha. Amusing. At least it’s comforting to know that some things never change, even when you are thousands of miles away from home.

Well, I knew that we had spent way too much time in the sun, and fair skinned, freckle faced me had been reapplying sunscreen every hour, so I was happy to leave after our whole day at the beach. Although it was really relaxing, I feared I was burnt. Thankfully I wasn’t, but Elisse and Marie were a different story. We stopped at the pharmacy and mimed what we needed with the aid of our broken Spanish. As if walking to the metro wasn’t bad enough with our heavy duffels, try it with burnt shoulders, legs, backs, and tack on the fact that we were running late. Although we were behind schedule, none of us were too worried, since the bus had a record of being at least an hour late both times. However, we did start to worry when the metro was halted for twenty minutes and when we realized that we had taken the long way. Oops. We ran to the station, bags in hand, exhausted, sweaty, and gross from the beach that day, only to get there just as the bus was getting ready to leave. Figures that the time we are running late is the one time the bus is close to being on time.

I plopped myself down in the very back of the bus next to a bunch of French students who talked across me throughout most of the early morning journey. When we finally pulled into Avignon around 4:45 in the morning, I grabbed my bag, ran through the deserted city streets to my house to jump in the shower and try to lie down before class.

Don’t get me wrong, my trip to Barcelona was my favorite I have taken in Europe so far. The city had such a cool vibe. It’s hard to explain, but each city I have visited has a different feeling to it. London has a hip, rocker, masculine (and somewhat americanized) vibe…with a touch of royal historical flair. Paris has a very elegant, feminine, and romantic feeling. Barcelona was just plain fun. There was a laid-back beachy-bohemian feeling, mixed with some stylish Spanish flair for good measure. I can’t wait to come back here someday. Three days is nowhere near long enough to see all you want to. I’ll be back, Barcey!