The Vacation Post
So, this blog entry is meant to mark the
end of the summer and the start of a new year (as a recently-graduated student,
I’m still on the semester system). Andreas and I just got back yesterday from our holiday where we stayed 3
nights in Italy and 4 nights in the south of France. It’s hard to sum up a really good vacation,
but I will say that it was lovely. I
felt like Andreas and I got to know each other better, and it was interesting
to put ourselves in a new situation like that. There was a lot of driving, but we made up for it by staying put in one
city in France (Fréjus- just south of Nice and Cannes). On our first stop we drove to a town in Italy
called Caorle (which was right on the ocean), where we stayed the first 2
nights before driving a hefty 8 hours to Fréjus.
My Italian is non-existent, but Andreas
knew some from school, so we got by. The
town was one of those great seaside towns where it’s just touristy enough to
get your fill of souvenirs, but not so much that the prices were completely out
of our range. The weather was great, and
the people were friendly, and the food was… ok. One night I decided to be daring and order spaghetti with lobster in it. I guess I expected lobster meat in the sauce
but instead found an almost fully dismembered lobster mixed in with my
pasta. I thought maybe the shells were
meant as decoration around the edge of the plate, but soon found a giant claw
hidden under a lump of spaghetti. Despite my reluctance to admit to being a lobster rookie, I didn’t get
too far with anything other than the spaghetti.
The next day was the long drive to France,
which, in a small un-air-conditioned car, felt a lot longer than 8 hours. But we had booked a room at a cheap budget
hotel for the night (right off the highway… terrible view, but easy to find),
so we could just take a shower and fall right into bed. The prices on the Cote d’Azur were definitely
higher than here, but we managed. Most
days we went swimming, except for one where we took a drive to a giant gorge
called Le Gorge du Verdon. It was pretty
amazing, and, never having been to the Grand Canyon, was the first I had seen
of something like that. We also visited
a church in town which dated back to the 3rd century, so was by far
the oldest one either Andreas or I had ever seen. It was pretty amazing, as the tour included a
bapistry and cloisters, both equally as old. The church was really simple in its design, and there was not a gold
statue or shiny centrepiece in sight.
Our first two nights in France were at the
cheapo hotel, and the second two we decided to find somewhere in the city to
stay, so we chose a 2-star called L’Oasis. It was probably about 50 times better than the first one. It had a lot of character (better breakfast
too) and wasn’t much more expensive. The
owner was a very sweet man who took good care of us and went out of his way to
get us everything we needed (eg. When we asked where an internet café was in
town, he just brought us his laptop and told us to take our time). A big plus for this hotel was that it had a
mini-fridge, which allowed us to go grocery shopping and save some money. A small minus for it was that there was only
a curtain dividing the bathroom/shower from the bedroom. Otherwise, it was by far the best place we
stayed.
And from there, we drove to Lake Garda in
Italy for our last night on vacation, and stayed in a small-ish town on the
lake for one night. We arrived around 5,
took a swim, then went out for pizza and cocktails. The next day we stuck around until 2, swimming
and then taking a quick tour of the old-town. The drive back to Austria was long, hot, and mostly uneventful. I came
back with a tan and some new clothes,
but without my cell phone (lost on the beach in France) and shoes (left at a
rest station in Italy). Overall it balanced out to be a really good vacation.
Pictures coming soon!!!
