We woke up early. Really early. We planned on taking the
9:58 train, we had to get ready get to the train station, and figure out how to
get on to the train with our Eurorail pass. We are slightly stressing. We get
ready pack up, use the cracked toilet seat one last time, and head out.
Although the hotel was small and far from Paris, it was our first sleep in
France, and a lot of memories, so it was bitter sweet to leave the place we had
just become so comfortable in.
We arrive at the train station with all of our luggage in
tow, very large filed heavy bags. We get into line to asked about how to use
our tickets. We told the man that we wanted to go into Aix-En-Provence today,
and we wanted to use our Eurorail pass. At first he made it seem very possible,
which it should be I have done hours of research on the passes. But seconds later his face goes long
and very seriously says, “are you sure you
want to go today?”. My heart dropped, of course we want to go today, we have to
meet our landlord at 230, and we couldn’t stay in the airport over night, we
were uncomfortable enough when we were awake. Calmly I laugh it off and say yes;
maybe we could do a train the transfers, or go past Aix and take a bus into the
city, ANYTHING. We stand patiently watching his screen, he said we could buy a
pass, and it would work, but I looked at the screen and the price was 350 euro,
no way, we were so blessed to have someone that would look into every
possibility. Finally he found us a spot, but we would have to pay 18 euro each,
deal. Our train was to leave at 9:58, the exact train that we wanted to get on,
I know my mom and every one else has been praying, thanks we needed it!
We get on the train and it’s a smooth ride through the countryside,
everything was beautiful, little vineyards, farm animals, unfortunately no lavender
fields. When we arrived in Aix, we had no idea, we though we had one more stop
but no, luckily Jill saw a sign, so we popped up and ran off of the train, with
our huge bags. The train doesn’t stop for long, so we were lucky we didn’t miss
our stop. We took a bus into the city and when we got off we had no idea where
we were. We walked through the city with no map giant bags and no idea where to
go. Thankfully we bumped into the tourism office, again thank you for your
prayers. We go inside and find out that our apartment is just up the street. Literally
UP the street, so now we are up hill, with our bags, in 85 degree weather,
huffing and puffing it felt like a 2 mile walk when in reality it was only 100
yards. We get to our street and I recognized the store we are going to live on
top of from pictures. So, now what, where do we go, it should be right here, it
takes about 15 minutes to realize that we were 5 steps from our front door, duh.
We get inside and there is no elevator, we looked up the winding stairs and saw
a woman standing at the top waiving, up two flights we went, huffing and
puffing, with our luggage in hand. After this day, we don’t need to work out
for a week.
 |
| The street our Apartment is on |
We opened the door to our new apartment and it was a breath
of fresh air. If we had the opportunity
to decorate our own apartment it would look exactly like this, everything was
perfect, and more than we expected. After talking with the woman about all the
things we need to know she left and we felt relaxed, finally in our own place.
We turned the music up as we sang and danced and put our stuff away. After a quick nap we got up and got
ready for our night.
 |
| Our adorable apartment |
The nightlife in Aix is amazing. There is a street about 25
yards from our front door that I lined with bars and clubs, at night it is
packed tight with young people that move from bar to bar. Our first drink was a
Heineken, and it was delicious. We walked up and down the street in and out of
bars it felt like a movie.
 |
| First healthy dinner, with fresh food from the market |
With a long day and a successful first night, we felt at
home, THIS is what studying abroad feels like.
No comments:
Post a Comment