Bored-eaux!

      Bordeaux was intended as a transition spot for a night between the city of lovers and the city of vicious savage party animals (and party humans). So we took in the city along with some cheese and wine because we are classy as hell. Being the world’s wine capitol, I was convinced my 2 Euro glass was top-notch stuff but it very well could have been Franzia poured strait from it’s industrial sized grocery bag in a box and I wouldn’t have known the difference. Unfortunately, we missed the two-hour wine class, so any shot of sounding like total tools while discussing “the beautiful legs” of the wine and whether or not we prefer half or whole bodied wine with rich men in black mock turtlenecks was stifled. Instead we just walked around and were lucky enough to catch the live stream of a ballet outside the opera house!!!! Apparently ballets are like sporting events here, except no guy playing or watching is strait. The crowd gathered on the theater steps boggled our minds, and we left after 5 minutes of some life-changing pirouettes by a man in excessively revealing white tights.  Sadly, we couldn’t find any Gamecast coverage on ESPN.com of the performance on Goose’s phone at dinner so we missed the end – if anyone could fill us in that would be excellent.

Gathering of the masses for a particularly moving piece here..

Went to dinner and a bar and that was pretty much what Bordeaux had to offer. That night, extensive mental preparations for what was about to take place in Pamplona began as we returned early around midnight. (Cliffhanger: stay tuned for the Pamplona post. It’s a dandy.)

 Bordeaux's Power Ranking:

Hostel – 8.5

Lucked out with a 3-person room without a third roomie. This meant only one thing: I got to put two beds together to form a king, despite Goose having about 3 inches and 60 pounds on me. He slept in a twin with half his body hanging off. I wasn’t backing down. This was worth a whole half-point bonus.

Food – 8

Wine and cheese in a place too nice for us was pretty cool, although I was raving more about the prices than what we were actually consuming like a true wine connoisseur. Had some average crepes and some excellent nachos (a French delicacy!), leaving Bordeaux with an 8. 

 Sites – 8.5

Pretty cool small town to walk around with old school French architecture galore. It was Soldes Week, which is basically when every store in France cuts their prices in half and heteros, homos and metros alike celebrate in peace with a shopping frenzy. Bordeaux is apparently wildly big on fashion and wine, so Goose and I fit in perfectly walking around the joint.

Best Site – St. Andrew’s – 7.5
This would have been more like a 9 if it were the first cathedral we had seen instead of the 100^th, but instead it was a 7 with a .5-point bonus for being named after the patron saint of blogging, Nebraska Football, and unhealthy decisions – Saint Andrew.

"Go Eagles" - Saint Andrew

Nightlife – 6.5

The ballet that blew our minds was a definite game changer. Unfortunately not too much else outside of some casual pub drinking occurred that night. The real fun would kick off the next night…

For now, Bordeaux comes in with a 39, leaving the standings as follows:

1) Rome - 46

1) Prague - 46

2) Paris - 44.75

3) Madrid - 44

4) Barca - 43.5

5) Amsterdam - 42

6) Vienna - 41.5 

6) Venice - 41.5

7) Nice - 41

8) Brussels - 40.75

9) Frankfurt - 40

10) Genoa - 39.5

11) Florence - 39.25 

12) Berlin - 39

12) Bordeux - 39

13) Marseille - 38

14) Narbonne - 36