Writhe and Shine

From Writhe’s journal:

I’m on a train to Avignon.
I met this guy, G from Berkeley and hung out with him all day in Carcassonne. We were in line for a very long time at the info booth in the train station and started talking to each other. We ate at a fast food place and then found our way to the old city. We stopped at another info booth there and got to leave our bags in their storage room so that we could wander around without lugging our heavy packs. They were very nice and helpful people which was different than what I had expected. We walked into the castle part and jumped into a French guided tour as it was the only way to get onto the castle wall. We ditched the tour shortly after joining them and wandered on our own. It started to get rainy and windy. We found a youth hostel right in the middle of the old city and I reserved a bed for myself. He was concerned about getting a reservation in Rome and left on a 17 hour train ride that night. Spent some time socializing with other English-speakers. We got our bags from the info booth and dropped them off in my room. Wandered around the old city again – it was so cool! Better than York, I think. Ate dinner and socialized more – talked to the bartender when he asked me if I was goth. We compared music collections and he played some of the music I had on me. They had an interesting mural on the wall of the bar/dance room/social area. Watched a part of a soccer match with everyone. Bartender gave me a free beer, which was nice.

I was looking at my maps trying to figure out the next leg of my journey and decided to skip going to Barcelona and the rest of Spain because I heard they were having railway strikes and other backpackers were having a hell of a time getting around in that country. I decided to go to Avignon instead and take M up on her offer to crash at her place. Wrote a bunch of postcards and talked to a Canadian girl named S. Went to bed (alone for all you pervs!). I was told by one of the roommates that I had a bad cough during the night and I remember coughing a bunch of phlegm on my had in the middle of the night and stumbling to the bathroom to wash it off.
Ate my smashed banana, packed, and checked out of the hostel. Stored my bag at the info booth again and took a tour in English. It wasn’t that great but I got to see a bunch of other views of the walls that I missed the day before. The museum was quite stupid. Tried to call M in Avignon and got the answering machine. Walked on the outer wall and took a lot of pictures. Finally got in contact with M and decided to take the next train out. Walked quickly to the train station and ended up getting on the train with S and her friend. Had a lot of laughs on the way. The station at Montpellier was packed and I almost missed the train to Avignon. I just remembered to remind myself to get in contact with an artist I met at the castle he was from Holland and made these very small great etchings. I met people on the English tour that were on the same tour with me in Edinburgh – strange! They decided not to go to Barcelona either. Sent out mail and it cost me quite a bit. My train is stopping frequently. Hope I make it to Avignon.