It's +3'c and the sun is shining outside, I guess the situation in Finland is slightly different. Anyway, Christmas time is here as well even though we don't have snow and it's not dark all the time (the sun rises at 8:12 a.m. and goes down at 4:56 p.m.).
Our biggest shopping mall, Part Dieu, got its Christmas decorations about a month ago already.
Kind of cheesy I know but definitely helps you to get some of that Christmas spirit when you're doing your shopping. Oh how much I miss shopping btw, I haven't bought anything after my Interrail trip about a month ago.
This is how Bellecour looks like. This is the city center area if I haven't mentioned earlier. All the riots and all that took place there too.
I love the big Vans Era advertisement at Bellecour :)
A couple of weeks ago we had something very funny at Bellecour: a ski-jump ramp! That looked so much fun!
Some of the jumpers were wearing funny costumes. And they came down from the ramp with whichever thing that slides e.g. snowtube, skis or whatever.
There was also a specific fake snow area for children who could try skiing there.
I found that kind of funny and it's nice that children from cities and urban areas can try skiing here without having to go to a specific skiing center.
Merry-go-round :) They have a lot of those in Lyon.
Candles are the best when it's dark and cold outside.
And last week we got a shitload of snow. It melted already tho and this week the temperature bumped into +18'c :D Way to go France! And I think that I don't even have to mention French people's ability to drive in snow. Nothing worked here when it was snowing.
So yesterday we decided to cancel our flights through Heathrow (the worst situation was there of course) and buy new flights from Genève, Switzerland, to Finland. So tomorrow we take a train first to Genève and then fly to Riga and from there to Oulu. I just wanna get home already.
Packing has been quite a pain in the ass today. Luckily we could borrow a scale from my dear French friend and could decide what to take and what not to take. I had to leave 8 kilos of stuff behind - which means that I'll be seen in Lyon next spring! Yay!
All in all it's weird to say goodbye because I've been gone for such a long time and living here feels like I've always been here. I shared the best moments with the Finnish gang and all the Atlantis and Erasmus people and this definitely was an opportunity of a lifetime, even though it didn't always feel like that (strikes, riots, traffic jams, buses that didn't run because of snow, bureaucracy, stupid French people etc). But what I'm always going to look back on, will be the awesome people I got to meet here from all the different countries, the friends I made, the places I saw, the concerts I went to, shopping at Part Dieu, the parties we had (especially our house parties) and all the funny stupid things that we did and got to encounter during our stay here.
Thank you for everybody who read my blog during my time here and please stay with me a little while longer while I finish and publish all the entries that I haven't yet had time to post here. It's been awesome :)
