Hell thy name is jet-lag.
So by the time we landed in Marseilles we thought we had done pretty well; the two inches of snow in Toronto had dominoed into a seven hour layover at Heathrow, which meant that we didn't get to our hostel until about ten thirty that night. Feeling like we had thwarted the 3 pm black hole of jet-laggy lethargy that my mother had warned us about, we collapsed. And didn't set an alarm. Seventeen hours later, I wake up and check my watch. I figure it must have stopped so I check Brock's watch. Can two watches stop at the same time? The odds are thin, but surely it's possible....except... the hands are moving. It's really 3:30 pm. So we laugh it off, Ha ha, silly us.
Such folly.
Four nights later, we still toss and turn. We try everything: counting sheep, counting backwards, counting by sevens, Ipods, laptops, meditation, oceans sounds.... and in the bitter watches of the night, new and unconventional practices take form ( "hey, could you maybe press on my neck for a while? like, just until I'm unconscious"). When we finally do sleep, it's broken and restless. We get maybe one or two solid hours per night. And yet, when five o'clock rolls around, we're powerless to resist the afternoon nap, even though we know what's going to happen. Weak.
Silver lining: When you sleep through breakfast and dinner, you end up saving lots on food. For those concerned that we can't figure out how to eat or sleep on our own, rest assured that we're aces at breathing, blinking, and walking (if not so aces at talking).
p.s. I'll go ahead and consider myself exempt from any critique on my rhetorical style; this post coalesced at around three this morning.
Lauren
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
...And Avignon
Hello all,
We left the Hotel Vertigo this morning on not a whole lot of sleep, still working on that jetlag, and headed down to the train station to buy tickets to Avignon. There are two different trains that run to Avignon: a "TGV" or high-speed train that stops at a station on the outskirts of the city, and a slower regional train that stops at the Avignon Central train station, about a five minute walk from both our hotel and our eventual apartment. Needless to say we took the latter, and are just getting our bearings at the hotel before heading out to explore the city. The weather here is gorgeous, and my first impressions of the place itself are pretty good!
Will write more after exploring. On Feb. 1 we'll be moving into the University apartment, which we're both very excited for!
-Brock
We left the Hotel Vertigo this morning on not a whole lot of sleep, still working on that jetlag, and headed down to the train station to buy tickets to Avignon. There are two different trains that run to Avignon: a "TGV" or high-speed train that stops at a station on the outskirts of the city, and a slower regional train that stops at the Avignon Central train station, about a five minute walk from both our hotel and our eventual apartment. Needless to say we took the latter, and are just getting our bearings at the hotel before heading out to explore the city. The weather here is gorgeous, and my first impressions of the place itself are pretty good!
Will write more after exploring. On Feb. 1 we'll be moving into the University apartment, which we're both very excited for!
-Brock
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Marseille!
Hello everyone!
We're now safe and sound in Marseille. We're staying at the Hotel Vertigo, which is a really artsy hostel about a ten minute walk (more than ten minutes if you get horribly lost, as we discovered earlier today) from the Vieux-Port, which is a bustling inlet packed full of ships and surrounded by shops and restaurants. There wasn't much to see down there today, unfortunately, as many places were closed due to it being Sunday.
The plane ride over was a really stressful experience. After being harassed for a while by Air Canada in Toronto (because the Winnipeg AC people didn't give us the proper documents for our extra checked bags), our Toronto-Heathrow flight ended up being delayed because the flight crew showed up to the airport an hour late, due to the snow. This resulted in us missing our connecting flight in London. They put us on the very next flight to Marseille, which was seven hours later. Needless to say I got a lot of reading done yesterday. Apparently seven hours wasn't quite enough for them to figure out our baggage, so I'm still missing one of my bags.
Anyways. We breezed through customs in the airport and then caught a 25-minute shuttle to Station St. Charles, Marseille's central train station. We found our hostel really quickly right after asking a security guard toting a massive German Shepherd for directions (today, we found our way back to the hostel after asking for directions from a different guard with an even bigger dog). By the time we got to the hostel it was around 9:30 pm, and we went right to bed.
We ended up sleeping well into the afternoon today, and only ventured out for a little while to explore the Vieux-Port and get a bite to eat. Tomorrow we're hoping to find a market and stock up on food, as well as heading over to the train station to figure out the train schedule to Avignon.
Till later,
-Brock
We're now safe and sound in Marseille. We're staying at the Hotel Vertigo, which is a really artsy hostel about a ten minute walk (more than ten minutes if you get horribly lost, as we discovered earlier today) from the Vieux-Port, which is a bustling inlet packed full of ships and surrounded by shops and restaurants. There wasn't much to see down there today, unfortunately, as many places were closed due to it being Sunday.
The plane ride over was a really stressful experience. After being harassed for a while by Air Canada in Toronto (because the Winnipeg AC people didn't give us the proper documents for our extra checked bags), our Toronto-Heathrow flight ended up being delayed because the flight crew showed up to the airport an hour late, due to the snow. This resulted in us missing our connecting flight in London. They put us on the very next flight to Marseille, which was seven hours later. Needless to say I got a lot of reading done yesterday. Apparently seven hours wasn't quite enough for them to figure out our baggage, so I'm still missing one of my bags.
Anyways. We breezed through customs in the airport and then caught a 25-minute shuttle to Station St. Charles, Marseille's central train station. We found our hostel really quickly right after asking a security guard toting a massive German Shepherd for directions (today, we found our way back to the hostel after asking for directions from a different guard with an even bigger dog). By the time we got to the hostel it was around 9:30 pm, and we went right to bed.
We ended up sleeping well into the afternoon today, and only ventured out for a little while to explore the Vieux-Port and get a bite to eat. Tomorrow we're hoping to find a market and stock up on food, as well as heading over to the train station to figure out the train schedule to Avignon.
Till later,
-Brock
Monday, 14 January 2013
Hello friends, family, and followers,
Lauren and I have created this blog to allow you to follow our adventures during the next 5 months. We're leaving Winnipeg on Friday, January 25, at 10:25 in the morning, and we arrive in Marseille at 10:50 (Marseille time) on the 26th. We'll spend a few days in Marseille before hopping on a train to Avignon, which is where we'll be living while Lauren takes classes at the Universite d'Avignon. We'll try to keep this space updated with photos and info about our travels!
Lauren and I have created this blog to allow you to follow our adventures during the next 5 months. We're leaving Winnipeg on Friday, January 25, at 10:25 in the morning, and we arrive in Marseille at 10:50 (Marseille time) on the 26th. We'll spend a few days in Marseille before hopping on a train to Avignon, which is where we'll be living while Lauren takes classes at the Universite d'Avignon. We'll try to keep this space updated with photos and info about our travels!
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