Our Last Week in Aix

This week is pretty sad since it is filled with all of the “last time that we will ____” events. We had all of the mandatory closing of the bank accounts, visiting the leasing office and the leasing office, and getting properly yanked around by the internet and electric companies, so that wasn’t so great, but at least everything is done and taken care of (and if it’s not, I’m leaving the country!). Wednesday Allie and I went to climb Mont Saint Victoire one more time. A big group of us went one of the first weekends in January, but we didn’t make it to the top. We had underestimated the time required to climb a mountain and had gotten severely lost, so we bailed. Allie and I went back and we made it to the top after only 2 hours rough climbing. It was gorgeous at the top and more of a symbolic victory that we made it up there. Honestly the climb down might have been harder, and I was completely exhausted by the time we made it back home that evening. We had our last dinner with our host ladies that night and invited both of them to come visit in the US and they said that we could come back to France and stay with them anytime. Honestly, these two ladies were a huge redeeming factor for my opinion of the French people.

Thursday the five of us (Chelsey, Leigh, Allie, Marley, and I) went to the Calanques in Cassis with some of our French friends: Thomas, Gary and Leondre. This ended up requiring more hiking than we expected, but after about 45 minutes when we made it to the edge of the cliffs and saw the crystal clear water coming out of the rocks below, it was well worth it. We spent the day swimming and tanning (since this won’t be nearly as easy in Cincinnati!) Allie and I accidentally wandered onto the nude part of the beach, but hey, it’s France. Unfortunately Chelsey really hurt her foot which made it pretty hard to climb back up the way that we came. We spent the night at the Woohoo for our last Trivia Night and actually did quite badly, but it was fun to see everyone. We had to say our first goodbyes to some of our friends that live here and that we won’t be seeing again while we’re here.

Today we had our last final, Anthropology of Provence, and it went fairly well. We were all just so tired of the French university system that we would have done anything to not have to take that test. We all finished pretty early and got out of there! The last time we have to be in the FAC! Tonight we’re having a big dinner with everyone in the program and then Allie and I have to say goodbye to the other girls since they’re leaving tomorrow on a two-week Euro trip.

Maybe we’ll have to get in a fountain tonight… we haven’t done it yet.

We Just Saw the Apocalypse!

This leg of the trip was a bit of a disappointment. We had planned on seeing the famous white and blue buildings that grace the postcards all over Greece, and yet those buildings are only to be found on one of the islands that is about 4 hours ferry ride from Athens. We didn’t make it out to any of the islands- Santorini is the most famous one and it was 75 euro round trip to go there; plus we couldn’t do it in a day and would have had to pay for a hotel for the night. We stayed in Athens, and although we all knew that the Greek economy recently went downhill (to put it politely), we were surprised by the overall poverty of the city. It wasn’t new poverty caused by the state of the economy, but the city is just generally poor. The areas around the main tourist attractions like Acropolis are quite nice, but very small. I didn’t feel like there was an entire street in Athens that was nice from beginning to end.

There is also a very odd ratio of men to women, and I’m guessing it’s about 4:1. This being said, we saw hardly any women the whole time that we were there, and the men are all middle aged, which was weird too. They have no problem being quite vulgar and saying whatever they want to you while you’re passing on the street whether it is daytime or nighttime. Our hotel actually ended up being in a pretty shady area (prostitutes on the street corner, you know), and we didn’t feel safe going out at night at all, so we were always back to the hotel by dark.

On the other hand, the food was really great and extremely cheap. We had gyros for lunch and dinner most days and you could get a gyro and a Coke for 3 euro! Such a steal. The baklava was to die for until we made the mistake of sitting down in the café to order some. The price quadruple and they feel no need to warn you of this, so between the four of us we accidentally spent 43 euro on cake in one sitting. Surprise.

The ruins were nice, but I had imagined them to be bigger. Somehow they look really huge in all the pictures, but in reality it’s a hill above the city with three stone buildings on top (and a million people taking pictures). We did go to the beach one day and it was very nice, we were just there too early. The official tourism season was starting the following week so a lot of the beaches were not open and there was hardly anyone on them. It was still very nice and you know I love a good beach!

I don’t regret going to Athens at all, but my word of advice would be that if you go to Greece, you should just go to the islands. Athens is nice, and perhaps worth a day trip, but not worth staying in and certainly not for four days.

Rome is burning

Next stop of the Spring Break adventure was in Rome. Marley met us there because she had already seen Venice, so now there were four of us. We flew into Rome on Easter, probably the most crowded and busiest day of the year in Rome, so we decided to stay in another camping place that was about 45 minutes outside of the city. It wasn't a bad choice- getting to the city was easy and cheap, it just took time, but we knew that going in. It was more of a minimal cabin than the one we had been in before, but we still had a bathroom in our room so it was acceptable (somehow, all bathrooms and rooming situations get compared to Malta, so this was still an upgrade).

Of course at the same time that we checked in, a group of about 300 thirteen-year old kids checked in at the same time. The walls were so thin that we could hear our neighbors next to us, the neighbors across the street, AND all the random people walking by outside. And being 13, it was still really entertaining for these kids to stay up all night doing absolutely nothing (note, this is also the age of ding-dong-ditching.... great). Somehow, us being so mature and all, we got into a ding-dong ditching competition with the neighbors. It was pretty interesting considering we didn't have doorbells, and there was a point when one of the little creeps actually tried to crawl in our window. We were playing cards and Marley yells out: "THERE IS A CHILD IN OUR WINDOW!!!!" We definitely didn't get a lot of sleep that night.

Rome itself was much more interesting than I thought. I knew there would be ruins, but I didn't realize there would be so many and that the city itself would have so much to offer. We spent one day on the beach (for good reasons, Rome is not famous for its beaches) and then two days in the city. We waited in line 2 1/2 hours to get into the Vatican, saw the Sistine Chapel (Marley missed it- she just thought we were in some random room), and then spent another 45 minutes waiting with huge tour groups of Asians to get into Saint Peter's Basilica.

We made wishes in the Trevi Fountain, saw the Parliament Building, the Colosseum, and the Spanish Steps. We actually saw a man propose to his girlfriend while at the Spanish steps in front of everyone that was there. She said yes and the whole crowd started clapping and cheering for them- literally hundreds of people- it was incredibly cute.

When we left Rome we were happy to get away from the crowds- everything had been a line, but we knew that on Easter weekend it was bound to be that way. I loved the city and we had a really great time. Definitely a good choice for the second leg of our trip.

The Beginning of the End

The semester is almost over! We just got back from our last trip in which we visited Venice, Rome, and Athens. Venice was absolutely fantastic. I have always had an image in mind that the Italians are really awesome people with great food and that Venice seems to be the epicenter of it all. Honestly, the city lived up to my expectations. It was so beautiful and clean- the water wasn't dirty (as I had heard might be the case) and the streets were clean as well. There are no cars in the city, of course, but there really are a million tourists. The most annoying ones are the people that come to Venice with baby strollers. What were they thinking? Did they not know that Venice is a city of small side streets and bridges? We probably walked up and down 2,000 steps a day... and with a stroller? That's just insane; not to mention the traffic jams that creates.

Gondola rides were ridiculously expensive: 125 euro for 45 minutes. So, we didn't take one. The food was very good and generally cheaper than I had expected. Shopping was pretty good too and there was lots to see (masks and the Venetian glass!).

I bought a print from a street painter just off of the Grand Canal who said he had been painting in Venice for 15 years and he thought it was the most beautiful city in the world; I won't dispute that.

All in all we only spent two days in Venice, which was a good amount of time but we could've stayed longer. We had a wonderful time and the people were generally very nice and helpful (not at all like the rumors we had heard about Italians hating Americans). I'll definitley be going back to Venice!!

A Weekend "in Aix"

We finally had a weekend without any big travel plans. So we skipped out on Friday and went to the beach in Marseille. The weather here has decided to skip spring temperatures and head straight for the upper-70s and 80 degree days. It's absolutely beautiful and I don't think I have seen a cloud in the sky for about a week. The beach in Marseille was really nice and we even got to play a little volleyball.

Saturday we actually attended the program trip. It's already paid for in our tuition for the semester, and this was the only program organized trip that we made it on (due to our other travel plans). We went to see a bunch of "perched" villages that are perched on hills. They're really beautiful and the towns look as if they are almost growing out of the rock. We saw Rousillon which is known for it's Ochre Footpath where the rock is orange and a gorge has been carved. We then saw Gordes, Brouillon, and the Abbeye de Senaque. The Abbeye is famous for the lavendar fields that are outside, but unfortunately it's not blooming this early in the season.

Today we went to the calanques in Cassis. The beach was rocky and incredibly beautiful. The waves were pretty rough where we were so we couldn't really swim. Oddly enough, rough waves and big rocks are a bad combination for swimming. It was still really beautiful. As warm as the days get, the water in the Mediterranean is still pretty cold. We went into the town of Cassis to get some ice cream and wander around for a little before heading back to Aix. Cassis is definitely a town I would love to spend some more time in- perhaps next weekend!

I just jumped off a mountain!

We arrived in Grenoble on Friday night and stayed in a hotel that was basically Malta part 2 (aka literally a one-star hotel that shouldn’t have had any stars at all). Instead of rugs for blankets, we had the slight upgrade to scratchy blanket haha. In the morning we got up and wandered the town which turned out to be much bigger than I had imagined, and actually really nice. We took a ride on the Télépherique-Bastille (a suspended cable car) that rode over the river and up to the top of the mountain just on the edge of the city. We had great views of the entire city and the Alps that surround it. There was snow on the mountain tops and it was a crystal clear day- couldn’t have asked for better!

In the afternoon we took a bus 45 minutes out of town to Saint-Helaire de Trouvet where we had made a reservation to do parapente (French word for paragliding). 75 euro later Allie and I were hooked up to a parachute, standing on the side of a cliff/hill with an instructor attached to us. Of course, all instruction was in French, so I was super nervous that I was going to do something wrong and then end up falling off this cliff and dragging the instructor with me. At some point he just said “run” and pointed to the side of the cliff. I just looked at him, shrugged my shoulders, and said ok! We ran and the wind caught in our parachute and lifted us up off the ground. The instructor circled us higher until we were just suspended in the air, pretty much sitting there and looking at the cities below us, the mountains all around us. After a while he let me steer and I drove in circles in the air. At one point he turned to me and said “tu aimes la sensation?” I said, yes! And before I knew what was going on, he was whipping us around in a circle, testing out my stomach for doing flips!

After the initial shock, I asked to do it again haha and then the third time that we did it we were practically flipping. I could honestly see the parachute below us; between us and the ground. It was so amazing (and terrifying at the same time!) but it was so exciting and I would definitely do it again. After landing in a field my body had so much adrenaline that I was just shaking and it took me probably 15 minutes to calm down haha. The sights were amazing and the sensation was like none other. We literally just ran off a cliff and parachuted down 700 meters (2300 feet) like it was no big deal!

I highly suggest parapente to anyone that has the opportunity, and if you can swing it, the Alps in the springtime is simply amazing. There is still snow on the mountains but the weather is in the 70s, perfectly sunny, and all the trees are blooming. Flowers and snowy mountains is such a beautiful combination.

Adventures of Marley and Me: Episode 2

We took another lovely flight through Paris Beauvais to make our way to Pisa. We stayed in a hostel there (our cheapest yet, without being completely illegitimate! Haha) that was actually pretty nice and had internet access. The designated creepy old person was in our room of course. I guess I have to explain that one a little bit… in hostels there is almost ALWAYS at least one person that is way too old to be staying in a hostel; most of the time they have been there for a really long time. In Madrid there was a lady that was in hiding while trying to sue the American government (this is the caliber of weird that we are talking about). So, in Pisa, the designated creepy old lady was in our room with her flannel nightgown, long string of pink beads, and hair cap that she slept in. We weren’t there long enough to get her story, but I’m sure it was a good one.

We took a day trip to Florence, and unfortunately got fined (only 5 euro each) on the train for not getting our tickets stamped, although there was nothing obvious to say that we needed to do such a thing. Once in Florence we ran into a group of four Americans that we had actually met on our flight and we decided to spend the day with them. We saw the duomo (the big famous churc) where we took our infamous jumping picture (and the others’ equivalent to a jumping picture: a pyramid photo, just to solidify our American-ness).

We saw the leather markets that were huge and amazingly cheap and then we wandered toward the river to see the Ponto Vecchio. It was a really beautiful day so we bought some boxed wine and classed it up on the riverside. Lunch was at an Italian restaurant called Zaza where we had some amazing pasta and really cheap and well priced house wine. Dinner, much later, was at a pizzeria that was fantastic even though the waiter tried to serve me a pizza I definitely didn’t order and was refusing to change the order until another waiter came to the rescue.

The next day my parents flew in to Pisa so Marley and I went to pick them up at the airport, grab the rental car, and drive the 2 hours through winding mountain roads to our Italian villa. It was extremely picturesque: stone walls, terra cotta tiled roof, pebble driveway that led up to the house through the olive grove in the front of the house. There was a pool and also a hot tub (where we spent plenty of time) and incredible surrounding panoramic views.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in the tiny town that was closest to us (not even really within walking distance, we had to drive). We were the only diners there and the lady didn’t speak any English. Generally we just pointed and she brought food. When we didn’t finish it all she took on the Mom Role and demanded that we must finish before she brought us dessert! She knew the couple that we were renting the villa from and then offered to deliver pizza all the way up to our house if we wanted her to!

When we took Marley back to the airport we stopped at the leaning tower of Pisa and took the necessary tacky tourist photos (yes I can hold this building up!) before heading back out into the country.

Pisa, Tuscany, and Florence especially were all really beautiful and the people were so friendly (and needless to say, the food was amazing!). I am so excited to go back to Italy at the end of April!