Greece

Part 4: Deux Nuits, Sans Lit, Sans Amoureux!

         It was a good thing we had such a good day that because we knew we had a loooooong day/two days ahead of us.  While we were at the beach, the hostel let us leave our luggage there to come back to for later (check out was at 11 but we had a whole day to kill, that’s why we went to the beach).  We got back to the hostel at around 9 PM or so, played a game of cards, had a mini-dance party with reception, and then were out of there by about ten to take the metro to the airport.  The metro only took us part of the way there but thankfully the buses were still running and we met up with a bunch of other study-abroad students from Chicago (all studying in different places) who were trekking to the airport as well—making friends left and right.  We get to the airport, wait around for a bit, and then Sandy and I head off to our 4:25 am flight to Paris with a layover in Prague.  We get to Paris and meet back up with Emily (it's now Monday at around 11, and there was no sleeping on the plane).  We have one full day to kill in Paris because our train doesn't leave Montparnasse until 8:20, so we take a metro to Parc Luxembourg (fun fact: It was in this park that I played a concert in high school with the band trip!).  We wanted to take some naps on the grass, but we didn't realize that this was a no-walking-on-the-grass parc.  Lame.  So we just chilled on some benches, talking, people watching, etc.  We mosey over to the Macdo (Mcdonald's) for free wifi and coffee and then walk to the train station (oh yeah, did I mention that we have all of our luggage?).  We get there at around quarter to seven, hang out there for a while, and then go over to the train when the terminal is posted.  We had all been preparing this for the entire day: we got a cheap train back to Bordeaux...with standing room only.  Fortunately, there are little tiny fold-down chairs in between the cars to sit and we each got one, we were separated though because our tickets had a car number but no seat number and we each got different cars.  Another sleepless three hour and forty-five minute train-ride and we are back to Bordeaux!…but not quite home.  We each have to take the tram to get home: Emily takes a bus to a tram, I take a tram and then walk 15 minutes, and Sandy takes a tram past Quinconces, a major hub.  Our train was late and Emily's bus came early.  The tram was running late too, but it wasn't going beyond the hub that Sandy needed to get past to get home (the street gets a little shady near her neighborhood).  I was going to end up taking the tram to Quinconces anyway to walk home, so I was fine.  Sandy ended up taking a taxi and Emily spent the night at my house so it all worked out fine.  We both had to shower off though before bed because, if you haven't noticed during this entire tale: we hadn't showered since Saturday, and we had been traveling, sight-seeing, beaching, and just having fun in general. 

 Exasperated Emily

 All-too-tired Adrianna

 Sleepy Sandy

This trip was such an interesting one, while we didn’t do as much sightseeing as we did in Spain, we each had our own little adventures. I really surprised myself at how well I did on so little sleep, but also I got to take a chance and do some self-reflection, something that I hadn’t done in quite a while.  It’s such a different experience when you go somewhere expecting to have these great adventures, and then come back and realize what was most important about your trip was the time you spent alone on a beach, by a church, on the tram, in a hostel, just thinking.