the day i got to be a tourist in lyon

Maybe the whole Berlin fiasco turned out to be a blessing in disguise... cos since i was free this week, i was able to host Alvin and Weimin who are doing exchange in Edinburgh and Birmingham. And i can finally be a tourist myself in Lyon and really take the time to tour the place and discover little streets and stuff. Kelvin came from Grenoble for a day trip as well and all 4 of us had a BLAST, despite him not knowing the other 2.

Went to Parc de la Tete D'or and showed them around the free zoo.... and look at the beautiful flowers that have bloomed!

All i can say is i am REALLY glad Siwei taught me how to use my stupid camera with all these functions.... these pictures turned out AWESOME!

This really erotic Centaur kissing a guy.... the first time i saw it i tot its some gay shit thing cos i saw it from a different angle and i automatically asumed the centaur was a guy.... cos i havent heard of a female one before.... so i was thinking "what the fuck is this gay statue doing in a family frenly park"..... until i saw the boobs... Get that male faun away from the female centaur NOW!!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how a city i THOUGHT i knew manages to surprise me time and time again... have been to Place de Terreaux probably a million times... this is the first time i've seen mini water jets from the ground! NICE!

And i got to visit the Museum des Beaux Arts as well, which was free for students!! WOOTS! Wasnt really that fantastic thou.... but there were some pretty nice sculptures! like this one:

and quite a number of Mummy artifacts!

We visited the Fourviere also but this time, we took another route and discovered a sky bridge leading to the mini Eiffel Tower first, and caught a breathtaking view of the city down below

The Fourviere from another angle

and it's insides.... nice... but really tacky and in-your-face cheesy opulance

and then Alvin wanted to buy some postcards and came across the painted walls thing and asked if we were going there and i was like "OH FUCK I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THOSE DAMN WALLS".... it wasnt really in my itinery cos me myself, havent been there and i dun really know where those are.... but we went to the tourist info and found out that they arent actually concentrated in one place, its all over!

Like there was one near Fourviere:

Can you spot the real windows from the fakies??

and the fake father/son duo? i think its kinda freaky... at nite, when there is no one and u see them, moving from window to window waving at you.... a la the people in the paintings from Harry Potter.

Fake kids loitering around the neighbourhood

And this one is at the Croix Rousse region..... erm if you haven noticed, this whole thing is fake.... it was painted on a flat wall of a building and it looks FUCKING REAL....

A close up..... ALL fake

fake bank, Fake Atm FAKE FAKE FAKE!!!

fa-.... ok you get my point. Basically all these paintings were painted to spice up the place and to depict normal Lyonaise lifestyle and i must say i am extremely impressed!

At night, the guys treated me to a fantastic dinner at a Bouchon, the one i ate the other time. Its freaking good. 12.50euros for 3 course!

And this is my plat.... drools....

Kelvin checking out Weimin's food. The food was fantastic and the waitress was damn nice! She even commended my french was good! WAHAHA in fact throughout the day when i was asking for directions, i met some of the nicest french pple so far. Which was nice, cos after 4 months, i would like the stereotype of French being total ASSES to be broken.... so yes, yesterday, finally, it restored my faith.

We went to the rivers as well, and see the city light up.... and i finally understood why Lyon was named UNESCO heritage site..... one of only 6 urban cities in the world..... it was simply stunning.

After that we came back, drank some wine and played some good old fashioned DAI DEEEEEEEEE!!!! YES LAH!!

That's Alvin and Weimin

And Kelvin basically KO-ed on the bed....

It was kinda sad to see all of them leave today, cos i really had fun with them, like decent guy fun. And it sucks more cos school is starting in 2 days and i really havent been doing any catchup... argh. 4 more months till i come home.....

Can't wait