Tour de France and the world cup!!!

This morning I woke up around 7 and got all my stuff ready quickly so that I could catch my train. When I got downstairs to have reception call me a cab no one was there so I called the number of the cab that had picked me up the night before.  No answer. Called again and asked for a taxi... his reply. No. No? No. Alrighty. About then the lady who runs the place came in and called a cab for me. Same cab company and same answer. No. She told me to go into town and a taxi would be there. No one was there. By now I am really late and freaking out. I went into a restaurant that was open and she gave me a list of cabs. No one answered. She called and got someone to come get me. Yay! But I had offically missed all of the trains and so I had to have her drive me another town away. Cost a fortune. I decided not to stay another night because it was so expensive and so far away which meant I had all my stuff with me. When she dropped me off at the train station I was planning on putting my stuff in a locker there but it was the tiniest town ever and therefore the tiniest train station ever so no lockers. I went and grabbed breakfast and asked about a hotel to stay at. No hotels. I was not having a good morning. At all. So I started my walk to the tour. I had planned on walking to the tour but not with my giant pack on my back and my day pack on my front. When I got to where the sidewalk ended I was really freaking out. It was such a busy road!! So I called my mom at like 1 am her time to see what her input was. Take another taxi or walk. About then a guy appeared from behind his fence and asked on French where I wanted to go
I think. I told him tour de France. He said hold on and disappeared. I got off the phone with my mom and was about to hoof it back to the train station to get a taxi when I heard a car start so I waited for a second. A hillbilly Frenchman ended up driving me up the road to the tour. I was only a 10 minute drive but I was terrified the whole time. The only thing that made me comfortable was that his 15 year old daughter came with. He ended up dropping me off on the side of the road and I started walking. I walked from st. Jeoire to mieussy which took about an hour and a half. Keep in mind I'm still Sherpa-ing all my stuff around. There were already people set up with their cars and their rv's and their attentas and radios all along the road. I also got passed by a hundred cyclists. It was so cool to see everyone so excited about the tour. It was only 10am and they didn't come by until at least 2:30. So after I walked forever I came into mieussy. The first thing I came to was the tourist office. Didn't speak English. Of course. But I asked about a hotel and a taxi. I wasn't sure I had it in me to Sherpa back down the mountain considering I had already walked 4 km. When I got into town I grabbed some breakfast and water and continued on. The whole town was decorated with white and red for the climbers jersey. Bikes painted everywhere. Big jerseys hung up. Scare crows on bikes. It was awesome. As I was about to go up the first round about I saw a hotel up the hill so I turned around just to see what was up consdering I had already sweated out half my body weight. I asked about vacancies and how much a taxi would be in the morning. She said 50 and she would drive me. Deal. So I dropped my bag and continued on with my smaller pack. I could have stopped anywhere but I wanted to be far enough up so when they passed me they wouldn't be one huge peleton. So I hiked and hiked and hiked about 6 km up the mountain. It took me about 2+ hours but the scenery was amazing. Thousands of people lining the roads. Bushes decorated. Flags flying from all countries. It was so much fun to see!!! Really amazing how big of a deal it is in Europe! Very cool. I have a lot of pictures! Along with all of the cars I was passed by hundreds of cyclists! So many in all shapes and sizes! Mountain bikes, crap road bikes, the nicest bikes, young, old. Everyone. I was so jealous! When I finally decided on a spot I still had about 2.5 hours until it started. I tried to nap but I was affraid I would miss it. About an hour before the riders there was an entire parade. It was the craziest thing ever. You hear about the riders but you don't hear about the show before hand. Advertisments throwing laundry detergent, maganets, candy, jerseys, caps. Everything! And they are all bumpin music and in big flashy cars... Like modern day floats! One company even had people riding their bike a foot off the ground on rollers attached to a tiny segway looking thing. It was really cool and I got a lot of loot out of it! Although I threw a lot out... that pack is heavy enough. They also had a travelling store and I was looking at the pics in my official guide because i can't read what it says. French. And i saw the official kit. Yep a van drove by and I bought it. Talk about instant gratification. So now I had the shirt and a wristband! Yay! 

It took about another hour for the riders to come by. You could tell they were close by the 5 helicopters swarming overhead. They have so many team cars!!! Each one must have at least 20! They came before, during and after the riders. They came by in 5 or more different groups. The leaders (2), four chasers. The peleton. A couple stragglers. Another peleton. And more stragglers. They weren't going very fast but yet they were. And no. I didn't specifically see lance. But it was amazing to see the whole thing. The riders, the fans, the towns decorated, everything. An experience of a lifetime!

After the riders went by and the end of the stage van I packed up my loot and headed back down the mountain. It took me only half the time to walk down, but I was so sweaty and exhausted that it felt like forever. I was also starting to get pretty lonely... Travelling alone can do that to you sometimes. When I made it to my hotel it was awesome because they had the tour on tv and I got to watch the last 20 min. And I have to say... It is amazing to see the tour when you goto it and experince the culture... But not to watch it. It's kinda hard to see a 200 mile stage in a football field distance. You just don't get the whole gyst. After the tour I went upstairs s to shower and watch a little French tv and right when I was about to hop in the shower the power went out. Annnd therefore if you know me you'll know I didn't shower. Still afraid of the dark haha. So I went downstairs and waited... They had said five minutes and 30 later still no dice so
I went out to eat. I wanted to watch the world cup so I went to the only bar in town and found out that it didn't start for a while anyway but I decided to grab a bratworst like thing anyways for dinner. Just ok. I had an hour to kill so I went back up to the hotel and showered and then headed back down for the world cup finals. Hup holland!!! There were a lot of people there. Families and then the normal bar crowd. I watched the whole game in french, good thing soccer is kind of self explainitory. The waiter came up to me and said something in French... I think he was asking if this guy outside could buy me a drink but i didn't understand so he left. Haha but after holland lost... Sad day... And I walked outside that man approached me and asked again.  I was bored so I was like why not. I asked first if he or his friends spoke English... He obviously didn't and after talking to his friends they barely did. So I drank my beer and he was like oh you want another? I told him no but he wasn't having no so he filled it up... They had this contraption at the table. So I thought to myself ok drink it he fills it so I just won't drink it all. I drank the next one and left a fourth of it in the glass and set it on the table behind me. We talk for like 45 min. That was all I could take. They would speak French to eachother and laugh and I would speak the basics with his 2 friends but it was so dull and so hard to understand eachother that it was just pointless. Everyone once in a while the guy who bought me a drink would try and say something to me but I could never understand what he was saying and you could tell he was annoyed I wasn't talking to him. Whatever. So I went to take my last sip and head home. When I turned around my glass was full and I was just like no way. Not because I was drunk but just because I  couldn't stand that dull conversation any longer  so I said goodnight. They were all like you go home with alex? And I said no no I go home alone. Not with alex? No. By myself. Alex was obviously upset by this and he was like you have to finish your beer. I told him I'm sure one of his friends would drink it. Nope. Going to bed. Apparently when a boy buys you a drink over here there are expectations and we were warned of this but it hadn't been true throughout Europe yet so I thought I was fine. Not fine. I did wise up and stop saying that I was alone though haha. But alex definately expected something. I left and talked to some Americans for a minute and then headed up the hill. As soon as I was out of sight I started running. Best decision of my life. I ran until I saw my hotel and then I walked up some stairs and across the parking lot. When I was halfway across the lot a car came ripping around the corner. I am now sprinting towards the door. When the car saw me it stopped. Put it in reverse. And came speeding into the parking lot. Meanwhile I'm punching in the code as fast as I can. Thank god there was a code to get in and thank god I remembered it! Door unlocked as he pulled up and I slipped inside, barely looked at him and waved goodnight and went imediately upstairs shutting every door behind me. Wow. Creep. I don't know what his plan was once he found me but I don't want to know. I need to invest in pepper spray. But I am writting this story days later, I'm not travelling alone anymore and we have boys with us! All is good. I'm nessled safely on graces couch! After that I was careful about shutting my blinds before I turned on my lights and I went to bed. Whew. Great day... Scary end!