Our drive back to Lyon was a rather eventful one. Through this entire trip whenever we mapped our course in Google Maps we would tick to avoid tolls and avoid motorways. Though this made the trip take longer we were always driving through tiny villages and the like. It was amazing. But for this leg because we wanted to get back quicker we didn't choose to avoid motorways, but still avoid tolls. This meant that we were on and off the motorways a few times. One of of these times we were suppose to change one we missed the turn off.

In the process of trying to find out way back we ended up driving around in some mountains up these windy little cracked roads. There were actually quite a few people around in what looked like it might be a bit of a camping area. But we just kept driving up, hoping that eventually we would start down the other side. But we didn't...

We found ourselves at a dead end at this tiny little town. Like population 20 type tiny. Called Refuge I Re Magi. Or something like that. Amazingly enough, despite being so small and so out in the middle of nowhere, it still had a pub, with wifi. So we grabbed a beer and launched Google Maps and figured out how to get back on the right path. Some of the locals actually laughed at us when we told them we were trying to get to Lyon. But we did eventually get back on track and we did make it there.

It was Saturday night when we got there, the night before having to return our car. We drove around for ages in the centre trying to find parking. We eventually did, went and got dinner and came back to find a parking ticket on the car. Oh well. So then we drove further out of the city towards the airport where we had to return the car and parked around the corner from a McDonald's and then again, for the last time, slept in the car. Then we got to wake up to McDonald's breakky.

We then returned the car and then hung out at the airport for a while. Had a few beers. Had a bit of a nap. And basically just spent the entire afternoon trying to figure out what the hell we were going to do now. We looked at flights, trains, whatever. Lyon apparently also doesn't have a single hostel. So by the time about 7pm rolled around the only plan we had was to go to this Couchsurfing meetup at an Irish pub and hopefully find a host for the night. This lead to one of the weirdest nights I've had.

Turns out that this meetup wasn't very popular. The main weekly event was actually held the following night. Long story short, barely anyone turned up and we didn't find a host. So the bartender, who actually owned the bar and organised the meetup said we could just stay there the night and we would just drink until morning then we could be on our way. Seemed like a good plan at the time so we went for it.

He decided that we should play a drinking game. It was a very simple one. Each player got a card and the lowest card took a shot. But there was a twist. At any one time there was only 3 shots poured. The loser would take one but not refill it. When no shots were left the next loser would remove an item of clothing instead and then refill all 3 shots. There ended up being 5 of us play and the shots were going down crazy quick and the clothes coming off. I can't really remember how long it took, what time it was or exactly how much I had drank, but I do remember at one point sitting in a bar naked drinking more shots.

After a while we all got dressed again and then just sat around taking shots and listening to music. But then for some reason the bartender decided he wanted to close up and go home so he kicked us out. We had started drinking quite early so I think it was still only something like 2am and we were beyond hammered. We ended up wandering down the street a little way without backpacks and found an open basement entrance to an apartment building. So we went down there and slept. Probably not the most comfortable sleep ever, but we were so drunk it didn't matter.

The next day I had the worst hangover I think I've ever had. We could both barely even function, it was horrible. We eventually managed to drag ourselves far enough to find a hotel and we were just beyond doing anything or caring about anything so we paid something like 80euro between us for a room there and just slept all day.

At some point that night Saul managed to book a bus to London, and I booked one to Nice. The next morning I managed to miss my bus to Nice because they wanted a print out of the ticket and were very unaccomodating. Saul's bus on the other hand accepted his ticket from his phone no problem. So we parted ways here and I was left to figure out what the hell I was now going to do.

For another 3 times the cost of the bus ticket I managed to get a train to Nice. Kinda sucked I had to pay so much, but I didn't have much of a choice. So then I was on to Nice.