It was very cold and foggy outside but I must say, crossing the Seine in Paris, or really just being IN Paris for 15 minutes can truly excite the senses. I suddenly remembered that I was going on a ridiculously cool vacation and I started to perk up a little. I did end up finding the station with no problems- there were signs leading me all the way there. I had a little trouble finding my platform but once there, I realized I still had 20 minutes to kill. So what did I do? Ha ha haa I bought a "mega" Pain au Chocolat of course! It was not my favorite breakfast in the world but the food itself was incredible; definitely worth the 2.50 euros. I was able to board my train soon after that and I realized why my ticket was so expensive: I had been put in first class. Mon Dieu...
I decided to suck it up and I tried to get myself over the traumas of yesterday evening. I found an empty chair in first class and settled into this very comfy spot to enjoy my yummy Parisian pastry. I had been fooled into thinking my bad luck was gone, but no worries, I was reminded of its continued existence in no time at all. Within five minutes a guy came up to me to say I had taken his seat. He had the ticket to prove it so I had to leave. The problem with buying a ticket (like I had to) so close to a train's departure is you are often just given permission to ride and no place on the train. That was me. I spent the next hour and a half sitting on the filthy stairs outside of the train's bathroom waiting for a conductor to come around and give me a sit. I eventually gave up, thinking they weren't going to bother checking tickets and I just went back into the compartment to look for a free seat. There was a very nice Bob Marley-looking guy who told me that the seat next to him was free so I sat there. Well, it turns out that it was sort of free- it was actually his friends' seat but his friend kept getting up so he told me I could sit there. When the friend wanted his seat, we just crammed the three of us into two. The guy who offered me the seat is Joseph Kemgang- a semi-celebrity from Paris. He and his friends were on their way to their next wheelchair basketball match. I noticed pretty quickly that they were all handicapped in some way. Joseph and two other guys were in wheelchairs, one was missing from his left elbow down, another had a cane, etc. I guess they are members of the Parisian wheelchair basketball team but I didn't know who these guys all were until they were leaving. I had been sitting next to very nice Parisian sports stars for five hours and I didn't even know it! Wow. Joseph was really cool too; I had wanted to write in my journal during the 6 hour train ride but he wouldn't let me- he talked and talked and talked... and only in French! It was difficult to communicate at times but I got through it. He was very down-to-earth and talked a lot about the importance of communicating with other people. He mentioned once, "Do you remember earlier when you were sitting over there writing, and I was over here texting. We're sitting right next to each other and we aren't going to pass the time talking? We can't just talk because we're strangers? That's a problem; I think people should talk to each other. People only talk to strangers when they have a problem they need help fixing. French people say 'Bonjour' and 'Pardon' and that's it! What's wrong with talking to people?" Of course, that's not exactly how he said it but that was his point. They got off the train about a half an hour before my stop so I had time to think over the past few hours. And I remember thinking that this was kind of a weird experience, but is probably something I'll never forget. I can picture it now: "You remember that time you were taking a train from Paris to Nice and you sat next to the handicapped wheelchair basketball star and he told you that people should talk to each other? Good times."
When I got off of the train in Nice, I felt soooo much better. What a g o r g e o u s city! The sun was brilliant, the ocean was sparkling, and I was on my way to Rome. Wowzers. I walked from the train station to the beach to meet up with my group and once there, took some great pictures of the coastline. We seven were all reunited in no time and then it was time for lunch. We found a great Italian place that was still making pizzas for the day and we sat down to three large, incredible pizzas. I'm a little sad to say that I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of the pizzas before we ate them. But I guess it's okay, because they had to have been really good for ME to forget to take pictures. :) After lunch, I bought a creamy coffee and then we got ourselves strapped in and ready for the walk to the bus stop. While waiting for our bus we saw floats coming down the street in celebration of Le Carnival. I actually can't really explain to you what carnivale is because I don't know much about it myself. But it's going on until March 8th so hopefully I'll figure it out soon.
Welcome to Nice!
I just love that these seagulls flew by right then :)
A shot of the parade.... the floats and balloons were sea creatures
The bus took us all the way to Terminal 2- our terminal. We got there about 2 and a half hours before departure so we took our time eating leftover snacks and drinking water bottles; all the things we would have to throw away before security. We crammed our day bags and purses into our suitcases (Easy Jet only allows one single carry-on per person) and then we got in the security line to just "get it over with." I had thought my bad luck might be gone at this point, but it isn't so. In fact, it wouldn't leave me until I left the country. In security, my toothpaste, make-up remover cream, and my facial moisturizer all got chucked in the trash. After that lovely episode, we got in line to show our boarding passes and I was told my bag was too big. I tried desperately to shove things in my pockets to make it fit in that stupid metal square, but it was to no avail... I had to pay the 36 euros to check it. I asked if I could have my things back since my bag was being checked anyways but no, that's not possible. Needless to say, I think my eye was twitching, my neck tweaking and I was shaking all over when I sat down on the plane. That's right: I had gone crazyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!! :)
Roshanna captured this gem of a photo almost immediately after I sat down in my seat from my security fiascos. So I guess this is my "I've completely lost touch with sanity" face. I told her afterwards that it might also be my "Hi there, I'm going to kill you now" face.
I decided that if I had any chance of getting rid of my bad luck before vacation really started, it had to happen then, on the plane. I was frustrated and beaten down to the point of tears but I absolutely refused to let things take that turn. So I took a giant breath and forced all of my focus and all of my energy into letting everything go. I tried to let the stress flow out of my limbs through my fingertips and toes, and I immediately threw away or ignored every negative thought that entered my mind, no matter how small. I used the hour and a half flight to Rome to flip through my travel book and write down all of the things I wanted to see in Italy. It was a great distraction. By the time Rome came into view through our little plane windows, I was feeling so much better. A little numb, in a way, but much better. I was at that point where if you asked me if I was happy I would have said, "absolutely!" but it would have been in a defiant way. Like I was completely ignoring and paying no mind to anything negative. If you told me that your dog had just died I might have said, "that's too bad" and walked away. But hey, it was better than being the wrecking ball of stress I had been before.
Once in ROME (omg we were in Rome!!) we waited a good 15 minutes for my suitcase then found Allie's friend Ricardo. Allie was going to be staying with Ricardo for most of the week and it was so great that he met her at the airport, because he was able to find us a cheap taxi to our hostel. The taxi ride was rather interesting. Actually, it was more like that Mulholland Madness ride in Disney's California Adventure. Italians drive just the way you would expect them to- the way that makes you want to just close your eyes until it's over. However, I chose to keep my eyes open for this whirlwind adventure to see a little bit of the city. The streets were beautiful; chock-full of little cafés, pizzerias, ristorantes, and chic boutiques. And it was like this for about 20 minutes. We were just driving along, admiring Rome. And as we were, something really strange and very big popped out in front of us. It was gone in an instant but it was burned in our minds as soon as we saw it. And I couldn't believe how close we got to it...
Recognize this? If not, there are about 100 pictures of it in the daylight coming your way ;)
After this dazzling discovery, I knew my bad luck had been left in the dust. I was in Rome... glorious Roma! It was time to check in to our hostel, enjoy my first Italian meal freaking IN Italy, and relax. And so I did! When we got to the hostel we received some bad news: the six of us were spread out all over the place for the first night. There were three of us in the same room but the other three were going to be singles in rooms for four. It was only the first night that would be like that but no one was really happy about it. Except for me; I couldn't be bothered! Anyways, we paid for our rooms, got it all settled who would be where (I was in the room with the two others), dropped off our things, and went... to... DINNER. There was a cute ristorante/pizzeria just on the corner of our street and it had a great (and cheap) menu, so it was an easy decision to eat there. It was nearly impossible to choose what I wanted for my first meal in Italy and I don't remember how I did. All I can do now is show you the pictures and let you have your own little moment over there. ;)
My totally mouth-watering shrimp and artichoke pasta tossed in a buttery, flavorful sauce!
My dessert: You guessed it buddy- that's a freaking Cannoli right there!
So happy at this point :)
Loving life and living it up!
We were pretty exhausted by the time dinner was done so we headed back to the hostel for bed. I made my bed, got myself already and pretty much crashed. We were lucky to have met our two roommates before bed, too. They seemed perfectly nice (and normal) so it was easy to sleep with them in the room. Although my pillow was hard as a rock, everything else was in order and I was drained enough to sleep through the night. Tomorrow: the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment