I’m up early. Before all of them. I shower quickly, and then wake the others up. In about 45 minutes, we have tried to run another couple of items through the dryer, and packed up the AirBnb. The sheets needed to come off and the garbage was to be taken out, and then we retraced our steps to place the key back in the lock box on our way out. We speed walked down to the train station, where we found a bakery to get some food. We bought a couple of baguettes with ham and cheese, a yogurt for Téa, a pain au chocolat for extra snacks, a fruit cup for Maylin, a coffee and a croissant for Joe. Then, we suddenly realized we had no idea where the track for our train was, and we had to leg it to the other side of the station.
By 8.10am, we were finally through the maze of Gare de Lyon, and in our seats on the train. I love travelling light! We hunker down for the next 6 hours, and then the train starts moving.
When we get off the train, we first go hunt for washrooms. This is when we realize that in this part of the country, you pay to pee. €1 per person, so the girls and I pay €3 to pee, or CA$4.80. I shouldn’t complain, it’s worse in Norway, unless you know where to go, literally.
Then, we set off in the direction of the AirBnb. We’re staying in Old Town, and it’s about a 25 minute walk, or 20 minute bus ride. I vote for walking, after having sat still for so many hours, and so we set the coordinates, and start walking. But we’re also starving, so at one point, we hop into a tiny little café and pick up a cookie for the girls to share while walking, and Joe and I shared a little almond tart. Just for some extra energy to keep lugging luggage.
Our apartment, however, was not so easy to find. Old Town is narrow streets, none straight, and alleys and stairs in all directions. In fact, our address is in a “ruellette” – a “small street”. We had to climb through tables of a restaurant (all restaurants here have at least double the amount of seats on the street outside as they have inside), take the stairs to the right and then abruptly turn up to the stairs on the left, and voila, our house was on the right! We met a representative from the rental company outside, he gave us the keys and a brief apartment tour, and then left us to our own devices.
Seeing as we’ve not yet really sat down for a meal today, we really just dropped our bags and went hunting for a meal. It’s almost 4pm by this point, and Joe has his eyes set on a place called Pitadine, a Mediterranean restaurant. We get an outside table, on an angle around the side of the building, on a platform built to create a flat surface to fit a table and four chairs. The main restaurant window is the wall to our “booth”, and it’s open, making me fear Maylin’s going to drop into the restaurant. They close the window soon after this photo was taken:
After a very filling meal, we went back to the apartment to unpack and settle in. Even though we had just spent hours sitting down on a train, we were also full of new impressions and just needed to relax for a bit.
Evening came around, it’s maybe 7pm by now, and we’re not hungry. There’s no dinner tonight, we had a massive meal at 4pm, but we want to go for a walk to explore, and maybe, possibly, perhaps, find some ice cream. We walk outside, and start walking in the direction of the beach.
We walked by plazas and shops and busy restaurants and we hear every language under the sun on our way. There are people here from everywhere, I hear every language I recognize, and then some. We pass a long wall area, filled with restaurants, and I say it’s a shame there’s a big wall there, the restaurants could all have had an ocean view, but maybe it’s done on purpose? Maybe it’s just as much wind protection as a view barrier?
After our late beach, gelato and discovery walk, we head back home to the AirBnb. Tomorrow, we’ll do some more exploring, but for tonight, we’re spent!