lyon

typing this on a wonky french keyboard in my lyon hostel with letters in all the wrong places. in a much better mood; this city is like chicago if it were 500 years older and on the meditteranean. Lyon isn't actually on the sea but it feels like the coast of spain or italy. it's the largest city in the country and i hadn't even heard of it until reading up for the trip about a month ago. the streets are beautiful dust, the sun is intense, and the people are relaxed and vibrant. there seems to be some kind of 1980s american music cover festival and the streets are throbbing with tens of thousands of people eating falafels with one hand, drinking belgian beer from the other.

money is fine actually; i just like to complain apparently. The prices here are much better than paris already and this is still a huge city center.

it's strange to be traveling and instead of culture shock just have one stereotypical behavior demonstrated in abundance. French people really do say "Oui, Oui!", have a strange predilection for horizontally striped tshirts, and smoke like smug chimneys.  The food is great, the waiters neither rude nor fawning, and the mona lisa was about exactly the size i thought it was (maybe 2' x 3').

Tomorrow I may take my good mood to Brusells Belgium, depending on the trains.