Elephant!

Today was another relaxing day spent exploring the city. I'm still trying to get over my jet lag, so after waking up at 11 a.m., I slept again from about 1-3. Hopefully I'm pretty much caught up on sleep after that, because I'm sure I won't be getting much sleep at all in Madrid (I'm sure it'll be worth it though!)

Ivan picked me up around 4, and we walked along the river to a museum with all sorts of machines. We didn't actually go in, but we saw the merry-go-round and a gigantic mechanical elephant that takes people for rides around the area.



After that, we took a short boat ride to a very small island where a lot of fishermen live, according to Ivan. The houses were so cute, and just walking through the narrow alleys was quite enjoyable. We had a beautiful day, so we made the most of being outside.


We took the tram back to the main part of Nantes, and decided to get some food. I had my first gallette, which is similar to a crepe, but it's a buckwheat batter and typically has a savory filling instead of sweet. I got mine with ham, cheese and a fried egg. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat it all. I also tried demi-sec (semi-sweet) cider, which I liked, though I think I would have preferred full sweetness.

While we were eating, two guys came down the street carrying a futon. We didn't think much of it, until we saw two more people lower a rope out of a second-story window. Turns out, they were going to lift the futon up to the second story using the rope. It was comical to watch, especially when some patrons of the restaurant got up to lend a hand, as the futon was a bit too heavy for the owners to lift themselves. They finally got it up after about 5 minutes, and everyone at the restaurant cheered.

After dinner, I took the tram to the train station to get a reservation for my train coming back from the airport on Wednesday night, but they said I had to come back during normal business hours... apparently on Sundays they only sell tickets to people traveling on Sundays. Good to know.

Once I got home, I started getting packed for my trip to Madrid. I needed to dry a few towels, but had a really difficult time trying to figure out how to use the dryer. The buttons are labeled, but mostly with pictures (see photo below), so understanding which knob to turn and what buttons to push was a challenge. Luckily, I was able to put the washing machine number into google and found an instruction manual written in English. So my towels are drying as we speak, and it's time for me to go to sleep. Big travel day tomorrow!!