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Traveling alone is pretty neat. Funny things happen to me. I've gone out on the town almost every night and I have yet to be disappointed. Let me set the stage a bit. When I go out in Tours, I walk down to the old part of town appropriately called "le Vieux Tours." It's about a 35 minute walk from my host family's house. Anyway, this is the same area that I went out to when I studied abroad here 6 years ago in 2003. The bar I used to go to, called "l'Alexandra" has the cheapest beer and typically caters to the foreign crowd. I got to know the owner and bartenders pretty well in the summers of '03, '04, and '05. In '06, the owner moved to le Mans to open a bigger better bar. Since then, but not for that reason, I haven't spent much time in Tours.

So on Monday night, my first night out alone, I made the obvious decision to check out my old hang out. It wasn't very busy but i decided to go in and treat myself to a tasty beverage while I reminisced of memories past. The reminiscing proved to be short lived, for right as I walked into the bar I noticed Wii tennis being played on the big screen in the back. Perfect. At least I wasn't going to get homesick at this bar. Naturally, when a controller finally freed up, I took my place in front of the TV. By this time my pint of beer was only half full. I proceeded to go undefeated in tennis and golf. In doing so, I managed to meet a few interesting people and half of the employees, including the new owner. Although relatively uneventful, the night was a success; low-key and entertaining.

When I woke up Tuesday morning I was pleasantly reminded of how great life is in Tours. Like clockwork, my host family wakes me up at 12:15 for lunch. After awesome food and good company (more on that later), I'm free to do as I please. This often consists of a nap. I know. Rough, right? Tuesday night rolled around and after dinner I was off for another night on the town. I went right back down to l'Alexandra, grabbed a pint and once again picked up the Wiimote. Don't worry, I've since moved on. I hung around for an hour or so. I finished my beer while playing a few rounds of Wii golf and decided that it was time to move on. I started wandering around town just people-watching. The French have such a different lifestyle (much more on that later), it's fascinating. I walked by a night club called Excalibur and noticed a group of drunken teeenagers trying to get in. I had to stop and watch. In a nutshell, it went a little something like this: The drunkest of the kids was trying to negotiate with the bouncer. He wasn't having it. Drunken friends were telling drunkest kid not to worry about it, that they'd go somewhere else. Bouncer advised drunkest kid to listen to friends. Drunkest kid, spitefully agrees to leave, but not before telling the bouncer (while flashing three 20 Euro bills) that he just made a mistake because he had lost the club a lot of money. Bouncer, laughing as they walk away, turns to a couple of his friends standing by and says facetiously, "putain, on a perdu cent Euros!" (Shit, we lost 100 Euros!) They all laughed and continued to talk sit on the stupid drunken teenagers until they noticed me right there just standing and laughing along (mind you, I was a few beers deep at the time). This sparked an interesting converstaion between the four of us, and 15 minutes later I had officially become friends with the bouncer and his two friends. I ended up going inside for a bit to check the place out but at that point I was tired so I left shortly after.

Wednesday night it was back to l'Alexandra to kick off another fine evening. I had a beer and sat down at a table right next to a group of three guys and a girl. After about 90 seconds I realized that all the guys were French, but the girl was American. Typically, a lone American girl will never agree to do much of anything with three frenchies so I was a bit curious as to how exactly this situation came about. As soon as I realized that there was a bit of a language barrier between them, I came up with an obvious plan to incoporate myself in their converstation. "Would you like me to help translate?" Instant gratification, "sure, why don't you join us?" Turns out the girl met one of the guys on couchsurfing.com and was staying at his place for a couple days. I spent the rest of the night chatting with them. At some point the girl invited me to join her on a bike ride the next morning to one of the nearby castles in the region. Since I'd never been and I felt like a fat ass for not engaging in any physical activity since my arrival in France, I gratefully agreed. At about 1 a.m. we all exchanged facebook info and called it a night.

Waking up at 6:30 Thursday morning wasn't easy but I was motivated to get in some exercise. The bike ride was about an hour and a half each way. The scenery was amazing; beautiful French countryside the entire way. Nevertheless, I only took three pictures on the actual ride, not one of which was of the landscape. You'll understand why in my next "Really?!" The castle and its gardens were impressive too; we spent a couple hours walking around. Overall, it was a pleasant morning and a nice change from my standard routine (sleep). Luckily I got a nap in when I got home mid afternoon!