Fête des Lumières 2008

Last weekend was the Fête des Lumières in Lyon. On Friday I found out that the university had organized a bus to take students on the trip. Two Chinese students from my class and I hurried to sign up ... luckily we got the last three places available! That night I worked a bit on a presentation for uni, then went with a friend to Aix-les-Bains. It's close to Chambéry, and from the little I saw, I can tell it's very pretty! (oh it has a lake! - Lac du Bourget).

Saturday evening the bus left Chambéry at 5:30pm and we arrived in Lyon around 7:30pm. I met up with the two students and then we set off. We took the métro, went to the Tourism Office to get maps (very important!), and walked around a bit. However, a little later on, I had stopped to take a photo of one of the light displays and we ended up getting separated! It's not very surprising though since Lyon was packed with people!!!!!!! I continued using the map to locate more displays. There were also Christmas markets and people singing/playing instruments. Somehow I didn't expect Lyon to be hilly ... I sure got some exercise! lol. The métro was free because of the Fête des Lumières, so that helped!

Other activities for the night included visiting a church and taking a ride on a 60m high Ferris Wheel! Four teenagers/friends and I were in the same Ferris Wheel thingy (compartment? I dunno...). At first one girl was freaking out/screaming/laughing nervously and holding on to her bf! None of us wanted to fall off from that height! lol. Another girl said that she believed that last year someone jumped out... (uhhh? why mention that when we were trying to remain calm?! lol). Then that girl's gf started to spin the comparment we were in!! Hahah, it was scary spinning so high up, but funn! We didn't die, whew!! I was tempted to go on the ride again but didn't bother. After that I took a walk towards the Rhône river.

A little after midnight, I felt a bit sad/surprised when I saw a muslim woman and her little daughter sitting in the street begging, holding a sign written in Arabic. I'm guessing they were hungry since they were kinda close to a display for "Action contre la faim" (Against Hunger). (I made a small donation :))

Around 1am, I made my way back to the train station (Gare de Perrache) to get the bus. All the students were supposed to meet for 1:30am. I had a little difficulty finding the actual location of the bus since parts of the gare were closed. While explaining my situation to a group of security guards, I saw some students (including the leader/organizer) walking in my direction, yay lol! We then met up with the rest of students waiting for the bus. I even saw the German assistant from Chambéry! I didn't know he was on the trip too. Apparently he and some other assistants (Italian) got a friend at the uni to sign them up. I then met back up with the students I lost earlier on lol. Well the bus arrived some minutes to 2am, and by 2am we were off. It was sooooo cold when we arrived! I walked quickly to my apartment and was so thankful for the warmth!!:-)