huck » Europe

Horchateria

joshuahuck — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:19:09 +0000

Right before I left, we had real, tasty horchata at what appeared to be the spanish equivalent of a Dairy Queen. Made with a special nut found only in this region, this ain’t your grandma’s horchata.

Valencia!

joshuahuck — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:09:59 +0000

Paloma showed me all around her hometown, a place that, up until my arrival, had only existed in my mind as vague images I had assembled during our time as roommates. I imagined smoky, sketchy Spaniards arguing in the streets while cars careened into one another and crazy garage pop blared everywhere under the dim lamplights of impossibly old architecture. I wasn’t far off.

Highlights included Paloma’s fave building, the Rialto, and the giant, colorful market where I saw more obscure animal parts for sale than Fiesta has ever come close to selling.

Portbou

joshuahuck — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:02:29 +0000

Just a sleepy little town on the Spanish-French border. A handful of tourists wandered around, apparently disoriented, while I nibbled on a bocadillo y chorizo and waited for my connecting train.

Gnutella

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:45:08 +0000

We ended our evening eating Gnutella, dark chocolate niblets, and talking about our periods.

Just like back home.

Une Carte Postale Formidable!

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:30:35 +0000

So evidently, this guy, known as Johnny Halliday, is the “French Elvis”. To me, he looks like the unholy progeny of The Fonz, David Hasslehoff, and post-plastic surgery Kenny Rogers. Sacrè bleu!

Une Grande Soirée

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:30:05 +0000

Lordy lordy, Avignon knows how to party. To welcome the new flock of foreign exchange students, they throw a giant shindig in the center of town and play shitty techno for everyone to make fun of. Truly, this is the Austin of France.

Note my friend Flo representin’ UT (his gf is in law school there).

Just Another Gorgeous Day In Avignon

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:22:57 +0000

Unfortunately, I went to the wrong train station this morning, so I had to spend another day in the pestilential hellhole that is Avignon. With its gorgeous architecture, temperate climate, ever-present breeze (called “le mistral” by locals), and young, gregarious citizenry, I swallowed hard and allowed Aude to take me back into the maelstrom.

Dîner

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:14:14 +0000

Since Aude is a student at the University of Avignon, the city where she grew up, her roommate is her mum, who had just returned from choir my first evening. As Aude improvised a late dinner, I spoke with Madam Rochat in best French, and she sang a brief aria in the hallway on her way to bed. We stayed up to drink wine, and look up pictures of Austin on the internets.

Nightsites

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:06:11 +0000

So, evidently, popes used to live all up in Avignon before the whole Rome thing. A few drinks in us, Aude gave me the skinny on A-town’s centuries-long history of papal couch-surfing, whilst we walked among the quiet, cobblestone streets and got dizzy staring up at the towers and turrets.

Aude

joshuahuck — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:47:50 +0000

Meet my friend Aude (pronounced “ode”), my beautiful host in Avignon. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she – and every city has one of these – is the girl that all the dudes are totally in love with, but since she’s so humble, most abandon their pursuit of her and resign themselves to friendship, where they’re allowed to bask in her awesomeness and be extremely protective. You know EXACTLY what Im talking about.

As soon as I arrived into town, she picked me up at the station, dropped my things off at her house and took me downtown where we met a bunch of her grear friends from “Uni” for drinks.