A Taste of Home

I was surprised with this little gem last night before going to the beach. I miss my kitty meow meow! And Derek too, of course.

Weekend de Travel-Day One: Italy

Before and during this trip, I had heard about "Post Festival Depression.": basically meaning that after the festival it's hard to adjust to a slower pace/the sadness of the festival being over. Towards the end, though, I honestly was ready to just relax. I thought I was immune. However, I wasn't completely. I guess I did suffer from PFD at times, especially going into Cannes a couple of times after the festival and seeing it much more empty and losing all signs of the festival. It was a little sad.

But, after four days of class the travel weekend came to my rescue! Although I had planned to take a trip to Paris even before coming to France, those plans quickly changed. To save money for after travel after the program, I decided to stay in Juan-les-Pins and go on day trips around here. Seeing as London and Portugal await me after the program, I was more than happy to stay back and have an eventful, yet relaxed weekend.

Thursday (May 26) I was in class until about 2 o'clock, antsy to get my weekend started. Soon after class, I hopped on a train with Sophie, Lily and a small group of the others and headed to Vintimiglia, Italy. This train ride was the hottest I had been on the entire trip--no air conditioning. Needless to say, everyone was smelly, sleepy and sweaty.

After several stops, including one in Nice for the Paris-goers to catch their flight and in Monaco for the rest of the group to sight-see, the three of us arrived in Italia. Although it's pretty much right over the line between Italy and France, the culture was completely different. I noticed right away, and it was cool to hear a different language being spoken.

When we got off of the train, we walked around for a while and just took in the sights. We walked to a park, then across a bridge towards the water. Everywhere I looked it didn't seem real!

Here I am on the bridge. Mountains were on one side and the ocean was on the other. The water was gorgeous, and the beach was rocky instead of sandy. I made sure to pick out some of the rocks to bring home with me. As we walked down to the water, "Bella! Bella!" was heard from a group of men sitting on the sidewalk. I had heard that Italian men were more forward, and they certainly were. It gave the three of us a big laugh!

Me dipping my feet into the Mediterranean.  

 

After we explored the beach and decided we would return for dinner, we went back into town. The photos above are so quintessentially Italian! Every street had Italian flags hanging outside of the windows, laundry drying on laundry lines, mopeds and scooters parked. It's funny how some ways you view other countries is based on what you hear or see in the movies--now that I was actually in Italy, I saw that the movies can be true. The women on the bench were sitting outside of a bakery we stopped in for a sweet bite. We also went to a little shop that was filled with different pastas, sauces, wines and cheeses. I got a bottle of wine, my souvenir from Italia.

Here's a fountain on the walk back towards the bridge to the beach. I love this photo. 

And now...the best part. Food! We were the second table to be seated right at 7pm when the restaurant, Stella Marina, opened. Lily ate at the restaurant last year and promised us a good meal. She was certainly right! The bread was delicious and so was my ravioli and salad seen below. Lily got fish, which they prepared at the table, and Sophie got spaghetti. Molto bene! We also had a beautiful view of the water.

 

During and after dinner that was someone flying around in this. He got really close to buildings, but I guess he knew what he was doing. It looked like fun to me!

On the walk to the bridge...so pretty. 

Lily, Sophie and me on our way to catch the train back to Juan-les-Pins.

On the train ride back, something odd happened. As we sat waiting for the train to start, two men and a woman got on as well. One of the men approached the woman and asked in Italian if he could sit with her on the ride back (knowing Spanish helped me understand a lot of what they said). At first she vehemently said no in French, pretending not to know Italian. But after he urged on more she agreed, now speaking in Italian, and then asked us in English if they could sit across from us. We said yes. From their conversation I gathered that he was illegally in Italy from Tunisia and wanted to sit with her/us so the police wouldn't ask for his ID. At the next stop, two police officers did come on the train and took his friend away, but not him. It really made me wonder how that must be a hard life to live, and was amazed that appearance/association kept him from being singled out and checked. It was an interesting experience. The woman talked to us about how she has lived in Miami and London where she learned English. They both got off the train in Nice, she to meet her daughter and husband, he I have no clue. Soon after was our stop in JLP. 

My day in Italy was great. I loved that without having to go very far I was able to experience a different culture and have a big change of scenery. It was beautiful, and I came back with lots of memories--and a belly full of pasta.