I really like Lyon, it's a really relaxing place to be. The whole place screams sit down lol. I'm being serious though, every few roads there is a plaza with loads of benches, fountains, trees and flowers.

I woke up this morning still conflicted on where to go and despite having a wicked nights sleep I was still tired. I went down to breakfast and instantly felt ripped off, it wasn't worth 6€. A mini croissant and pain au chocolat and bread and juice.

I repacked my bag and off I went to explore, map in hand! I stuck out like a sore thumb lol the typical tourist. I couldn't wait to drop my stuff at the next hotel at 3pm. I walked about 10 minutes in the direction of the city centre and came across my first pretty plaza called Place Carnot. It was so relaxed I decided it was the perfect place to stop and write in my diary, I needed to update it since my first day in Nice. I sat and wrote for 2 hours!!! Where the time went I'll never know!

I then headed in to town, there was no rushing about and loads of shops, cafes and pretty places to sit down. In one of the main squares there was some sort of fair with a stall from nearly every country in the world. All that seemed to be in each tent were leaflets! I wandered around it feeling slightly confused and bored lol and decided to move on. I continued on the main shopping street which spans the entire city end to end. Sitting at various plazas and taking pictures of the fountains. I was aiming for the metro station to get me to my next hotel as it got closer to 3.

On a map it didn't look like it was a long walk from the station but it was deceptive and confusing. As I got closer I could see on the map that there was a massive park pretty much opposite my hotel and was planning on going there after I'd checked in. I wasn't expecting to come face to face with gigantic black and gold gates in to the park and carousels and stalls around the entrance. I was even more sure I was going there once i'd dumped my stuff.

I checked in and headed across the tramlines to another entrance to the park and was confronted with the most beautiful park I'd ever seen. At the moment you must think I'm crazy but have a look at the pictures I'll put up in a minute. Also as I explored it I realised there was a free zoo in the middle! Not a farm or pansy animals but giraffes and leopards, monkeys and lemurs and loads more! Just wow! I was in this park for 3 hours, I found out when I found a map in there that it is about twice the size of the city centre! I managed a loop of the whole park but still missed bits!

I headed back to the hotel at about 7 and had my eyes and stomach set on a Thai restaurant near my hotel. It was called the Blue Elephant. Inside it looked like I'd stepped in to another country, there was a river in the restaurant lol I had yummy food, a real change from soooooo much bread lately!

Now back at my room chilling out, a little lonely, can't wait to get back to hostels! I've decided to head to Barcelona :) I'm hoping to get there 2morro night but the train schedules I can get online says I won't get a train until Monday morning so I'm probably gonna have to do a night in Montpellier.

The weather has still been good for me today, no-where near as hot as the south coast but still good. Barcelona is gonna be awesome, bring on the tan! It's the only thing that makes a female backpacker look better. I realised that men carry off the backpacker look a lot better than us girls. If they don't shave and get a bit grizzly it's rugged and sexy. If we don't shave it's not a good look lol!

Goodnight, wish me luck for getting to Barcelona!