Hotel St. Severine

My hotel is okay and right next to the Ibis hotel. You may say, who cares, why mention this? I will tell you why I mention this! While waiting 45 minutes for my “free shuttle” I saw a free shuttle to the Ibis hotel. I know I did because I am staying with them in Aix-en-Provence. If I had known, I would have caught a ride and saved my 5 euro, oh well, next time. Back to the hotel. There is no elevator and I am located on the second floor, which means I got up two flights of stairs for those who are asking. They reminded me of the stairs in my sister’s old apartment building, narrow. These were made of marble though, much classier. No lights on my floor, I had to squint to find my room. It is tiny and smells of smoke. There is a window but it leads into nothingness. Like it looks like there should be flowers or a tree at the bottom but it is not, just three walls and a high ceiling leading to a opened sunroof. The bathroom is large very long. There is a toilet, a butt cleaner (yes, I know it is really called, but I don’t know how to spell it and you know what it is when I say butt cleaner, don’t you?!), a sink, and a shower. I think that is all for now, I am sure more stories will arise.

Okay so the area of Toulouse that I am in has a whole lot of hotels but they are all sketchy. It is like a bad part of town kind of neighborhood. The first night in Paris was not a great area but when you walked to the town it was fine. This place is like skeevy. I had some guy driving stop twice to talk to me. I think I was on a street with hookers and he was trying to pick me up but after the second time he stopped. I was looking for food but the places look horrible and just not a place for me to go alone. I was going to ask someone but it was couples who looked like they were on a mission or beggars with dogs. You know the old guys or homeless kids who were backpacking but decided to get a cute dog and stop traveling and have no money. I finally found a place across from my hotel, it was going to be my breakfast spot but after my short walk it was my dinner spot too. I got a chicken salad sandwich, orange Fanta, and some pastry.

I went looking for a spot to eat it and came across the large bus/train station in the area so that is good. It looked like a little park so I went to investigate and it said there was a canal but it smelled like sewage. There were men and women who looked homeless everywhere drinking beer. I found a bench across from a grassy area that had two normal people resting and a family playing. I thought it was safe. Between the canal and the porta potty it was not the best place to eat. But I was starving and did not want to eat in the hotel room. A man stood staring at the woman who was resting across the canal because her legs were bent at the knee and she was wearing a skirt, I am guessing he had a view because he could not stop staring and went to get a new beer and came back to stare some more. I left when he returned.

A lot of people were biking away from where I was so I think I will investigate that tomorrow along with figure out where the bus station I need to take is. The internet here is very low and will not connect for me.