Arles

Despite the fiasco of trains and places to stay, Arles is magnificent. Today there was a market pretty much all morning with everything from fresh produce to cheap clothing to windshield wiper blades. This made the city a little bit more crowded im guessing than usual. This city is a lot bigger than I thought it would be but still there is so many old buildings that have been around for ages.

The Roman Ampitheatre, which is currently undre reconstruction which kinda takes away some of the ambiance is magnificient. Its almost hard to believe that they constructed this in the 1st century BC. Going inside its very clear that it is still used today for bullfights in the summers, i unforunately wont be able to see one while im here. But walking up inot one of the remaining towers you can see much of the town; Right near by is the Ancient Theatre which is a true ruin of what the Roman Theatres were. There were 3 stories for the various classes of people in roman civilization but now all that remains is the lower level that was reserved for knights and members of government or royalty. You can vaguely see the backstage that now only consists of crumbled coluns, however its still pretty cool.

In the main forum is the Cafe at Night, famously painted by Van Gogh. Today its obviously very much modernized hozever the original sign still remains. Im definately going to return at night and see it illuminated as he saw it. All around the city are spots where he painted marked by bronze easels and pictures of the painting from there. Its cool the see the actual place and then what he saw through his eyes.

Im here until Tuesday so I think tomorrow im going to make a day trip to Avignon/ Pont Du Gard and laundry needs to be done, badly. Some clothes are really starting to stink. My hostel is closed from 10 am to 5 pm... kinda sucks.