Goodbye, Bordeaux

This morning was ridiculously difficult. First, the goodbye to downtown last night--thank god Adrianna was there. It was such a nice closing night, complete with fireworks, salsa dancing, muskrats and perfect reflections in the miroir d'eau.

This morning, I woke up early to say bye to Kareen. That was hard. She has become such a mother figure to me. I couldn't stop crying. She had to leave in order to stop herself from crying. I feel like I'm going to see her soon, but sadly, I know it is not so.

After, Pascal and Matthis drove Steph and I to the train station. Laughs, jokes, pictures and promises to return were made. Steph and I boarded the train. While Matthis and I tried to keep it together, the train started leaving, with Pascal and Matthis next to it blowing bisous and the tears started flowing. I can't believe that was goodbye.

My adventure in Bordeaux may be over, but my friendships there are not. My family there will always be in my heart. I will return. I have a feeling that no matter where i travel after college, I will route it through France. I can't stay away.

We are headed to Paris to couchsurf for 5 days with a girl named Julia who lives next to the Louvre.

Nice can be Nice, right?

We got to Nice about sunset, exhausted but I was stoked be back in my second home country. Just hearing French on the train again gave me a few little chills.

When we got off the train, I called the hostel to get directions. The woman I talked to on the phone told me they were on the street that had a pharmacy on the corner. And hung up. Oh crap. There were 5 pharmacies on the street. Luckily we had the street name and ended up finding it fine. But what we found was not what we had in mind. We had read that we had to go to a restaurant and ask for "the Pink Lady." Sketchy, right? Right.

The Pink Lady was about 80, the chef and owner of the restaurant, and the owner of the hostel. She was adorable and dressed in all mismatched pink, but a bit crazy. She told us, in a reprimanding manner, that we came during the dinner rush and had to come back in an hour.

Steph and I immediately started looking for free wifi to look up another hostel and food. We ended up getting Kebobs with really good mint tea but couldn't find another hostel with any availability. So we went back to the Pink Lady and asked to see the room before we committed.

The hostel turned out to be a converted apartment (we think..) It was a little cluttered and shabby but the beds seemed clean and it had a kitchen, which we weren't expecting. We decided we wanted a story and said.

That 1st night was spend splitting a bottle of wine on the Promenade des Anglais. We had a lovely conversation and really enjoyed watching the planes land at the airport and the lights on the water.

We had a leisurely morning of pain au chocolates and cereal then hit the stores and beach. But of course, there was a flash thunderstorm, so we ended up back at the hostel, looking up ways to sanitize our beds after waking up with some unwanted and unpleasant bites. We decided we needed to get a drink or two to relieve our hostel situation and went to a pub that is known for having live music. There was no dance floor so everyone was dancing on the tables. It was a blast and we met some neat Kiwis and Russians.

The next day was spent at the beach. It was so relaxing. We got to swim, tan and eat quiche. Although we were tired and had a 6am train the next morning, we were afraid of our beds so we decided to go out all night, if not only to avoid sleeping in those beds again. We went out with the same people from the night before and a few from our hostel.

That morning, we grabbed 2 pain au chocolates each from the bakery we frequented 2x a day (they knew our order by that morning), worked out a horrific ticket situation with the help from a wonderful SNCF employee and boarded a train to go to Bordeaux.

And now here we are. On the way to Bordeaux, for the last time this trip. Holy wow, I can't believe we are already at this point. It seemed so far away.

I'm nervous about being in Bordeaux without the other Californians, but I'm excited to be back "home". Because that is what I'm feeling right now- that I'm going home. Home to Bordeaux, where a meal will be waiting for me. Where some French friends and I will reunite. Mission accomplished.

I feel so independent and I can't wait to make another town feel like home in the future. I love traveling and I love new cultures. I just want to se them for longer. I was to dissect a culture, a town. I want to become a local. I did that in Bordeaux and I will never forget it. I can't wait to do it again. where will be "home" next?