Ice cream wonderland

Hey guys! A restaurant might not be the first thing to spring to your mind when you start to think about your holiday. Nevertheless, I must mention this ice cream parlour called Latinos, which became one of my favourite places in Saint Raphaël thanks to its marvellous desserts. They had more or less 40 flavours to choose from including the exciting Red Bull and delicious chocolates like Kinder Bueno and Mars. Even their fruit sorbets tasted much better than the regular Finnish ones! It's too bad we don't have these ice creams over here... I guess its one of the privileges of travelling. Eating different kinds of foods... or ice creams, if you like!

Pebble beach paradise

Good day everyone!

I'm pretty excited how it's getting sunnier all the time. Spring is coming slow but sure. More importantly, the 28th of February is nearly here! And what's special about that? Because on that day my friend and I will be going to the Canary Islands with my mum and her husband! It's really a dream come true getting out of Finland in the middle of the winter. You know, you kind of get fed up with the -20°C weather and all the warm clothes.

But hey, I wanted to show you something guys. Just in case you find yourself in the French Riviera, I still want to share some of the beautiful places there. This pebble beach is called Les Roches Rouges, which got its name from the huge, red massifs around the area. I tried googling it but the only results were hotels called Roches Rouges and some occasional photos of the cliffs. Location: near St. Raphaël, near camping le Dramont.

île d'Or - the island of gold

...and finally a small campfire by the seaside! We had to put it out, though, because it happened to be illegal to set a fire at the beach. 

First video from France - rainy days, crazy rides and dancing

My blog has been dead for a while, so I decided it's time to revive it a bit by making a little video.☺ The first video I've ever edited... Every day was full of different kinds of activities, new words and new places. Not to mention new friends! Since our journey lasted for 24 days, you can only imagine how little this video tells about our trip. My "good night's sleep" was approximately 6 hours a day because there was so much to see and do...

Anyway, here it is!

                                      


1. Our home town Saint Raphaël 
This is where our school, discos, beach and evening activies were. Click here to read more!
We were offered access to the EF lounge, which had computers, nintendos, board games and other kinds of activities for us. The lounge was in the school's area and we could spend time there with our new friends after school (mon-fri 12.00-->) I didn't really feel like spending time there because it was boiling hot outside and the beach was close. However, on one of the last days in Saint Raphaël I decided to check it out!

2. Cannes

The city that is famous for its movie festivals! I made a post about the weird art of Cannes earlier on. Click here to read about it. 

To be honest, it wasn't that special. But of course it was fun! We went shopping and saw the place where the celebrities go for their film festival. Something that I won't forget, though, is the bus ride to Cannes. It was the only day of our language course when it rained. And boy did it rain! It was raining cats and dogs and there was lightning in the sky. Many people found it quite scary because the bus was driving high in the mountains, right next to the edge where the sea was.

3. Luna Park 

After reading all the 2/5 reviews on the internet, we wanted to test this amusement park ourselves. All I can say is that it wasn't extremely fun. On the other hand, we didn't really have high expectations about it. There were a few rides that didn't seem to be very secure. All the bumping around hurt my neck. But I don't regret it, not at all! In fact, I returned to Luna Park with some Italian friends just to enjoy the ambiance.

EF Activities - accrobranche

© Finnish EF leader, except the last photo

Climbing in the trees on a summer day - what a way to spend a day! Rope and tree climbing became one of my favourite activities during our trip. It's something I definitely want to do again! The only thing which made me a bit sad was, that we couldn't do to the course which would've had gliding over a lake. Perhaps it would've been too dangerous or too expensive, I really don't know. Well, the next time I get an opportunity to try climbing and gliding again, I'll take a more difficult course. Maybe the Canary Islands offer these kind of nature adventures. I really hope so!

New friends from all over Europe

My three weeks went as fast as a lightning. I made absolutely wonderful friends from many countries, who I'll probably remember for the rest of my life. I'll be thinking of you with joy, when I'm in a retirement home. Hahaha, thank you so much everybody, I love you. I've always thought, that it's such a richness to have friends in other countries. 

During my trip, this feeling only grew stronger. It's always hard to say goodbye but it just might be worth it. Amongst hundreds of people around Europe, all the cultural differences nothing else but emerged. It was amazing how united I felt with the other Finns. Our language is so weird, that many people wanted to learn it. In favour of teaching, I got to learn some extremely important Italian and German phrases

The roomies! Martina, me and Tora.

Swedish people and me going to the beach!

The SUOMIURPOS. Our little group consisting of two Finns and an Italian. Don't ask why.

The roomies! The two Italians have gone missing though :-(

 My Spanish friend and me in the classroom. She gave me a beautiful bracelet after the three weeks. I thought it was so sweet. Te echo de menos, Mariña <3

The Danish, Swedish and Finnish. Heyaaa!

Tuesday market at Saint Raphaël

Today we accidentally bumped into a huge market! We were just casually walking from school to the beach and there were these tables in front of us. We enjoyed looking at the weird things, especially the African masks and other decorations. A lot of Finns went to St.Tropez today but I didn't want to go, so I decided to stay with my room mate and her Swedish friends at the beach and shops. The variety of the languages you hear here is so awesome - so far I've heard English, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Russian and of course Finnish.

Home sweet home in France!

So the city where I'm living is called Fréjus and the city where my school is located is Saint Raphaël. I think they have around 80 000 inhabitants all together. Anyway, there's a lot of beaches, small roads, cafés, merry-go-rounds and beach stalls, for example. They also have two big bus stations, a cinema and a beautiful cathedral. At night time it's really beautiful because there are lights everywhere. I like how it gets dark during the night. Makes the sleeping a lot easier! It's been really hot here, around +33℃ all the time. Well, at least we'll get tanned!