Week 1
- Alexa Nickandros
- Sep 25, 2018
- 5 min read
Hello loyal followers, Winslow back again! Boy it's been a while since I've used a keyboard. Bear with me here (no pun intended).
After a week overseas the three of us are where we are supposed to be - dare I say "at home"? - in Bourges, France. But it hardly feels like we're even there yet, considering we still have to find an apartment. Well, the young one and the boyfriend have to; I'm fine just sitting in any old chair, in any old place. Good luck to them! I heard that the goal is to find French-speaking roommates, that way the young one can improve her French (it is quite rusty, but don't tell her I said that) and the boyfriend can start picking some up! I've heard his attempts at some words and he seems to have a knack for it! Well, that's where we are now, on this pleasant, crisp Fall day. Let's go back to a week ago, shall we?
On September 16th the countdown reached zero. A lot of anticipation led up to this flight; after sitting around for over a year and a teaser trip to Michigan with the tall one and the short one it was about time that I saw the ground from 30,000 feet again. I slept great on the plane since I love the cold air and tight spaces - I can't speak for my companions, however. We reached Paris and hopped on AirFrance (the best airline ever) and landed in Marseille, where our cruise would leave from the next day. There was one problem: the young one's luggage never showed up! I don't know why anyone would need all those clothes anyway, but good thing for her it was tracked in Paris and would be delivered to our hostel in the morning. Meanwhile we were given an emergency travel kit with a toothbrush, t-shirt, combs, etc. Big shout-out to AirFrance customer service!
One of the young one's favorite things to do in Marseille is to take the trolley to Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde. We could see our cruise ship in the port from up there!
Having already been to Marseille, the young one failed to take all the necessary photos to tell our present story. I will have to remind her that you can never take too many photos! It is difficult for her to see certain aspects of Europe through new eyes as she did on her first trip with me. She needs to get back in the habit of noticing the little things that will mean a lot later on. So I will leave you with what I have; a photo of our first meal in France at The Queen Elizabeth, Vieux Port.
Croque Special with frites
If you've never been on a cruise ship before, it's like a small island. A real getaway vacation. In this way, it forces you to relax, which is a tough thing for the young one to do. On the Costa Favolosa it was hot tub by day, casino by night, and alcoholic beverages by both for those two, while I got plenty of sleep. I needed it for the amount of walking around we all did in the cities. The young one and the boyfriend wished that their cabin had a window, because we would wake up to pitch blackness each morning. For me, that was just perfect!
Our first stop was Savona, Italy. It was a small place, and most of the offered excursions actually went to Genoa, which happens to be the home of the Costa Favolosa. There are two landmarks in Savona, the first being the tower of Leon Pancaldo , dedicated to the famous sailor who accompanied Magellan in 1519 on his first circumnavigation of the globe. The second is the Priamar Fortress built in 1542. This was as high as we could get on the city.
The mission from there was to find some pizza. It was a lot harder to find pizza than you would expect. We settled for something in this little bakery that resembled pizza, topped with onions and garlic. It smelled delicious and I was told it tasted delicious as well.
Even though we didn't do much but walk around in Savona, it was a fulfilling day because we felt as though we saw all it had to offer. This wasn't quite the same story for Barcelona.
If you need a refresher on how my first trip to Barcelona went, you can find it here. That time the weekend was all planned out for us, and we hit all the key places. I had made a list of all the things we needed to do the second time around to hand to the young one and was all excited to get to them! But jumping off the shuttle from the port left us not knowing where to go and what to do in the 4 hour time-frame we were given. All I did was ride around in a backpack all day wondering where all the Gaudi was (he was a cool guy, you should look him up). What we did do was walk down La Rambla, a street with vendors and artists, and grabbed a couple snacks at a very crowded market.
At the Gaudi museum, our last stop before rushing back to the ship to take further advantage of our drink package, I spotted this replica of the famous mosaic lizard located in Park Guell (way too far for us to walk), and asked the young one if we could have our picture with it. I reminded her that it was on my list of things to see in Barcelona, and if I can't see the real one, it might as well be one that looks exactly like it!
And just like that, the cruise was over, just as I suspected it would be. Sadly, I did not make any friends since they were all speaking crazy languages (though I picked up a bit of Italian). But I was glad to get to know the boyfriend better, the weather was always nice, and the perpetual view of ocean waves was relaxing.
A few more miles of the rumble of rolling luggage and steeping hot bus ride later, I got to see a very good friend of mine!
The photographing one was so very happy to see me, and it was awfully nice of him to let us stay in his home for a few nights! I could tell that the sight of La Comédie in Montpellier instantly took all the stresses of traveling away from the young one and put them somewhere else. The three of us agreed that Montpellier is the best city of them all. With the photographing one accompanying us we strolled around the city nostalgically, and even made a quick stop at 3 rue de l'équerre. On this rare occasion I went to the beach willingly, to spend a good day with my friends, but for the most part staying huddled in the young one's bag.
Me and Emil hanging out while everyone else plays Scrabble, half in French and half in English, and totally over my head.
Travelling this time around has been a little trickier than it has before. I've been getting headaches from the drone of luggage bumping over brick roads and cracks in the sidewalk and being stuffed into and back out of a backpack. There have been a lot of holes to fill in the voyage, i.e. bus, uber, blablacar, tram. We have not stayed in the same place for more than 3 nights. It will be such a relief to finally find a home.
Until next time,
Winslow
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