Montpellier

Because I wouldn't have the finances to fund my explorations to places like Carcassonne, Sete, Arles, or Avignon, I had 2 full days to explore Montpellier, and that really isn't required. As such, I took my time exploring and seeing what was on offer. Overall, I do like Montpellier. It's less touristy than other places in France and Italy that I have come from. This was a nice change, but it does have its disadvantages. This is mostly things like English speakers, which are few and far between but given I wasn't eating out or doing much travelling, it wasn't a big issue. It also means there is less to do to attract tourists, but like I said, this is good as well. The historical part of town is quite interesting and the town itself was really nice and clean. There are trams that run everywhere and it seems so convenient for catching public transport. I did not see many cars my whole time here. It is a place that would be cool to live but not so much for travelling. Nonetheless, I had little choice but to explore and see what's about. The first thing I did was simply walk left out of my hostel and see where I ended up. The first thing I arrived at was the Promenade du Peyrou, which has a cool monument of King Louis XIV of France and some very well maintained aqueducts. This runs opposite the historical part of town, which was what I explored next. The entrance is via an Arc de Triomphe. You walk past the courthouse and along a really cute main road with some beautifully old buildings on either side. Most built in the early 1800s. Further exploring led me to the Nice Cathedral that wasn't that exciting (especially given how many I have seen at this point), and the doors were closed, so I figure you couldn't enter. I have since been told you can enter, so I will have to try and find the entrance tomorrow, perhaps. It has cool main doors, but other than that, it was just another cathedral. I wandered around the main areas of town some more before heading back to the hostel. That was most of what I wanted to see in montpellier and so I returned to do some journal logs. I figured I would use my downtime to get my social media's up to date as well as my journal logs. I have to begin to plan my africa trip (mostly just visas), but I need money before I can do these so I am getting a bit stressed that without some money coming in I will have to ditch parts of my trip. I will have to see what options I have.Read more