A night with Gypsies

Backing up a little...
About a week ago, we were with our large travel group of 6 people and we landed at the Train Station in Toulouse. We got there late at night and could not get out of town to find some nature to camp in. So, we had to take to urban camping and look for a spot to sleep in this large French city. The canal ran right down the center of town, and there was a large slew of gypsies sleeping along the canal in tents. Perfect! Around 11pm we found an empty spot of grass between large groups of gypsies and started on our dinner. We stuck out quite obviously to the gypsies and soon had a Moroccan join us on our blanket. He spoke no English, but communicated that he will help protect us. Of course this was unsolicited but we didn't think much about it. Later some others came over to talk to us about Obama, and the one gypsy started to push them away. No matter how much we tried to tell him they were fine, things escalated. He felt it his duty to 'protect' us. Soon gypsies were rolling around fighting all around us, pulling out beer bottles to hit each other and punching and tackling. Oddly enough, each side was fighting 'for' us, but regardless, being that our group contained two girls, we felt it more safe to camp another place. Our Ritz Carlton for that night ended up being under a bright covering at the train station.

-Adventures in the Alps to come soon...

Jonathan