The hotel called with a wake-up call at 7:45 AM and it was the last thing I wanted to hear. I set a timer for twenty minutes and went back to bed. We had to have eaten breakfast and be ready to leave by 9:15. Considering I had gone to bed at 3 AM, this was not an exciting prospect. Harry and I eventually got up, then I showered and packed all my stuff up. To my surprise, I found out the hotel had a free breakfast. I headed downstairs expecting a very small European breakfast.
Boy was I wrong. Harry and I each got a giant croissant, baguette and chocolate brioche along with our own pitchers of coffee. It was truly a beautiful sight after a morning of drinking.
Just look at this beauty
After inhaling my mountain of carbs and two cups of coffee, I was ready for the day. We all left our bags at the hotel and walked as a group to Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, which was an old and beautiful church in Lyon. It was up a very steep hill, so we took a tram that went up at a super steep angle to the top. From there we walked uphill for a while and finally made it.
Outside the church, some French boy scouts were selling cookies and pastries. I went over to buy one and tried to explain to them that I was an Eagle Scout in America. Despite the help of Sebastian’s translation, they didn’t really seem to understand. My muffin was pretty good at least.
As expected the church was super beautiful. We went inside to look around and into the crypt areas below. Both were very pretty.
Here’s what the church looked like.
Outside of the church was a really nice view of Lyon from the top of the hill. You could see the entire city.
Lyon from above
After walking around for a bit, I headed to the church gift shop with some people. I was inspired by my brother and ended up buying a cheap sterling silver chain. After the gift shop, we began the steep descent down the hill to Old Lyon. When reached the bottom, I said goodbye to my friends because I wanted to check out this famous skateboarding spot in Lyon. Two minutes into my walk, I went to try on my new chain and realized it was too tight. I was very contemplated, but eventually decided to forgo the the skateboard place and walk all the way back to the church store. This meant going up a ton of steep stairs. I made it happen though, and returned to the church more sweaty and tired than before. I also stopped at a subway for a quick cheap lunch on the way up. It was pretty mediocre, just like American subway. I guess somethings don’t change.
At the store, I was able to explain in French that I wanted to exchange it and fortunately they let me. After exchanging it, I ran into Nick, Jonathon, Sebastian and Katie. We all walked back down to Old Lyon, the second time for me, then back to the hotel. We grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed back onto the bus. We went for a quick fifteen minute ride to the other side of the city, we were going to the Musee de Confluences.
We got to the museum and the first exhibit was all about the invention of film. It was really cool and there was a bunch of interesting setups and videos.
I thought these guys were funny.
Cool wall with a ton of screens
I didn’t realize how tired I was until I sat down for a short film and somehow fell asleep during the ten minutes the lights were off in room. I made the executive decision to head to a less dark exhibit.
We went to one entirely dedicated to poison. It talked all about famous poisonings throughout history, different methods, poisonous plants and animals and other cool animals. My friends and I all enjoyed this.
Some of the poisonous snakes and bugs. I weirdly love bug collections like this.
Afterwards, we headed to a species exhibit that had a ton of taxidermied animals. I forgot how cool the animal kingdom was and it made me feel like I was in elementary school again. We all briefly thought about switching to marine biology or animal science majors. All of us also got hyped when we saw the skeleton of the dodo bird. There were also some taxidermied extinct animals which was awesome.
The Dodo Skeleton
After another exhibit, we met up with the rest of the BU group and left the museum. Outside by the water was Lyon’s famous “Only Lyon” sign. Of course we all took pictures climbing on top of it. It reminded me of the giant Amsterdam letters I will run into in a few weeks.
I had to show off my parkour skills
After this, we headed back to the bus where I immediately fell asleep. The trip felt like five minutes and we were suddenly in Grenoble. I made plans to meet up with my friends to watch the super bowl later.
The tram took forever but I eventually made it home. For dinner I made myself a pasta that technically expired the day before.
My Pasta
Despite not looking amazing this pasta was easily the best microwavable meal I had so far. It tasted good and I could have eaten much more of it. It’s a solid 9/10 for a microwavable meal and I will definitely by again.
After writing some blogs for a bit, I took a power nap to prepare for my late night of watching the game. By the time I woke up, my body was telling me that it would not be leaving my bed. I listened and called it a night.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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