Epilogue

And now I'm back in Norway. I guess I'll just leave the road-trip story for another time. (We all know where that's headed :-<.) Suffice to say that at the end of the road, circumstances kinda stacked up to make the car drop-off a somewhat more tense issue that it should have been. And we only managed to catch the train out of Munich by running full speed across Munchen Hauptbahnhof!! Not a short distance, from the S-Bahn to the Intercity, and littered with way too many stairs. And believe me when I say that we had barely stepped on when the automated doors hissed shut! Then we had walk about half the length of the train to find our compartment and seats :-<. Thereafter life got much easier, via breakfast at Stuttgart and lunch at Paris. A little taste of the Paris underground again, as we had to make our way across town from one train to the other. I even managed a peek at the tower as the TGV chugged out of Paris. And on the succession of trains I managed to get through about half of Vernon God Little.

I'd finished with A Long Way Down on the plane ride off the boat. And even though I did finally manage to lay my hands on my long lost bag, with the two unread books in it, I somehow managed to check it in at the airport without actually swapping out my finished book with one from the bag :|. So come the long stop over in Dubai, a stroll into a book store, and a book with a vaguely familiar looking cover, and the first part prefaced with the heading 'shit happened', I had to read the rest of it. Of course I didn't get past that heading till that train out of Munich.
Nantes, despite most people (or at least most people I know) being utterly unaware of its existence, happens to be the 6th largest city in France, and one of the largest in the region. In my week long stay, I managed to establish the fact that it does seem like a fabulous place to actually live in. But as tourist, you can quite easily see all that really can be seen in a short visit, within about an afternoon and a half.... There's the castle, and its supposedly 'high-tech' museum. And of course the bona-fide moat complete with a working draw-bridge! Which is pretty cool. As is the walk along the ramparts all around :D.Then there are the several rather nice cathedrals and churches, but with distractingly painted-over exteriors :(. (I mean come on! Pink?!! Seriously :|.) And there's about a zillion feet of twisting narrow alleys, lanes and streets with shops of every kind. Your average shoppers' paradise. Loved the -spend the average afternoon sleeping in the nearest sunny patch of grass- attitude that people seem to have :). And the totally mesmerising food displays :P.Unfortunately, we were rather busy for the most part, what with the course and being rather on the outskirts and all that. Not like I'm dying of regret though. And on the way back to Asker yesterday, managed to finish off the rest of V God Little. I'm not sure if it's just me, or is there like this distinct segmentation to the book? For the most part it's darkly funny, irreverent, and generally awesome with it's messy characters and equally messy progression of plot. But then... I dunno, I think I was just a wee bit let down by the overly sweetened ending... Despite that, it was a pretty awesome read.
Unfortunately, this time I don't get to stay at the apartment... The hotel I'm in happens to be the same one I stayed at in 2005. There have been some changes :). In fact everything barring the walls seems to have changed! And I'm on the other side of the corridor this time. Thus far, I've turned the wrong way when leaving the room on each attempt :|. I guess about ten times a day for two straight months is long enough to develop a pretty strong habit :-<.

Currently: sleepy :-<
Listening to: DJ Tiesto - Adagio for strings