Toulouse or to loose?

Vila Real, April 15th, 2009

There is a city called the Pink City. It's hard to say if its closer to the Mediterranean Sea or to the Pyrenees Mountains but for sure it's located by the river Garonne and Canal du Midi, that was created to make a short-cut between the sea and the Atlantic. The city I'm writing about is mainly famous for the aerospace industry - Airbus factory. What really shows how modern the Pink City is, are metro trains without drivers. If someone told me that 'all roads lead to Rome' I would have to disagree. My experiences proved that all roads lead to Toulouse!

Rue du Taur

The Capitole de Toulouse

My adventure with Toulouse started in 2007 when, thanks to AEGEE Summer University in Istanbul, I met Florian who is studying there. It wasn't hard for him to convince me to come to France - I've only visited Lyon till then. After few days in Paris we took a train and after 6 or 8 hours arrived to the Pink City.

Florian by the Canal du Midi

Me in front of
the Abattoirs - contemporary art museum
(by Ze Mario)

As it is not a very big city, after a few days I knew names of most of the streets and my new Portuguese friends, who were doing Erasmus there - Ze Mario and Ze Pedro- said that even when I'll be gone to Poland they will call me to ask how to get to some place.

Ze Mario in The Georges Labit Museum

It wasn't more than a year when another friend of mine, Kasia, announced me that she is moving to Toulouse together with her boyfriend Daniel. They've been living there happily together with their new cat since February and they seem to enjoy it.

Daniel&Kasia

...and the same fountain in one of my pictures.

It wasn't the last time when the city suddenly showed up in my daily routine. Last summer, during the Summer University that I've organised, it turned out that Simon from the UK did his Erasmus in Toulouse for a year! Unfortunately, he didn't share my enthusiasm about the Pink City because he was there a while ago...

The Saint-Sernin basilica

The Saint-Etienne cathedral

And here I am, in Portugal, going out with my flatmates and their new friend Piotr who came here from Poland by car. Every person hearing this would ask: Have you made any stops on your way? The answer was absolutely unbelievable: Yes, I did... In Salzburg and... in Toulouse!

I'm not writing this post to praise how great Toulouse is - although it is - but to show how small the world is ...and also because my toulousian friends are visiting this blog most often.

Qui ne saute pas n'est pas Toulouse!

(eng. Who doesn't jump is not from Toulouse!)

This is a sentence that the crowd usually screams during big parties, rugby games or concerts that are taking place in Toulouse...

Warsaw, October 14th, 2009

Here I am, 6 months after writing all the stuff above and never publishing it. It's been snowing behind the window for the entire day. It doesn't resemble the sunny days I've spent in Toulouse or those in Vila Real, which I used to waste in front of the computer screen but it's a perfect day for this post to see the daylight!

Kasia and Coral@AEGEE-Toulouse LTC

 
Special thanks to Coral, Kasia and Flo!
How I wish, how I wish I was in Toulouse with you last weekend :))