Its summertime, which means I’m back on the road, skies, and rails once again! I’ve literally taken all of those to bring me to my current and main destination for this summer – Chatillon-sur-Seine in eastern France. Knowing you are about to leave your house, boyfriend, and kitty all for over a month is a bit overwhelming, not to mention the whole packing for research, an excavation, a vacation, and pre-packing for a wedding (my Ami is getting married a few days after my return!)…I had a lot on my plate this year. Needless to say, my rational and irrational travel anxiety fears were in high gear the Sunday night before I began my travels and didn’t allow me much sleep. My travels began at 7AM on June 28th when I left glorious Minneapolis and my super sweet boyfriend, who got up before the sun to drop me off just before 6AM, via the not-as-bad-as-you-might-think Greyhound Bus bound for Chicago.
Chicago, you might note, is not in France. Why Chicago then? I can give you a $500 answer! Yes, the difference in airfare for me to leave from Chicago vs. Minneapolis was a $500 difference. *Take this as a tip when traveling on a budget – check around to other nearby airports for better rates. Usually it is the bigger airports, but sometimes it can be the smaller ones, like Lansing or Flint for my Michigan followers, or Chicago or Milwaukee for those of you west of Lake Michigan.* Since I purchased it in advance online it was only $23 – check Greyhound’s website for Advance Purchase rates, which can save you sometimes more than 50% or Megabus which have fares as low as single digits! – and the bus ride itself was eight hours, which isn’t so bad if you board at an early hour like I did or if you have some reading you’d like to catch up on! I took an express bus, which was quite comfortable and only stopped twice. It arrived on time and it was great not having to drive through traffic in Chicago. Moral of the story here is, taking a bus has a lot of benefits: me time to do whatever, technically its multitasking since you are traveling and doing something else, you don’t have to worry about other stupid drivers, you might meet someone really super and friendly like I did and learn about a life you would never have known otherwise, and the obvious two, its ecofriendly and economical.
Another tangent, sorry. I arrived in Chicago and waited a short while at a Starbucks for a friend of mine who I met on an excavation in Greece four years ago! We hadn’t seen each other in at least three years and I learned after I arrived she will be moving to Boston soon, so it was quite lucky that our paths crossed again! We had a delightful evening of catching up, chatting, grabbing some Greek/Mediterranean food for dinner, and walking around her historic neighborhood/city of Oak Park. I absolutely love staying with friend when traveling. You always get to see things or a place that you normally would not have visited or experienced if you were staying at a hotel. Thanks again, Lady Gray, for having me and showing me all the beautiful homes in your neighborhood!
The next day, June 29th the day of my flight, I was lucky to get to spend the day with another friend, my old roommate/co-worker from my video store days! He picked me up and we grabbed some super yummy Italian food and visited for a couple hours. He was nice enough to drive me out to O’Hare International Airport so I could catch my flight. It’s a lifesaver not having to navigate public transportation when you have big bags, and its always much better to have someone send you off on a big trip with a hug than going on your own.
Security at O’Hare is slow and delayed just like everything else at that airport. It took me an hour to get through everything from the time I arrived at the airport until I grabbed my seat in the waiting area. After making some last minute phone calls to family I boarded the plane and took my seat next to a smelly man. I didn’t notice as time went on and I’m glad I wasn’t the smelly one in the seat, since I worked up quite a sweat with my bags! The flight overall was uneventful, which is always a good thing in my book! I watched two movies and slept only about an hour, which is unusual for me on overnight flights.
I was pleased as pudding, pie, peaches, whatever, to see that my bag arrived this time! Yay! Huzzah! Victory, victory, sweet, sweet victory! All it takes is a direct flight apparently. An ATM was not visible anywhere and I didn’t have enough cash leftover for a bus to the train station, Gare de Lyon. After searching for a while, I finally found one and worked my way on to a bus heading into Paris. Within the first ten minutes of the hour and a half ride I knew I was going to get sick. Traffic was terrible, stop-and-go, stop-and-go. The air was on, but it didn’t help and I had a window seat and couldn’t look straight ahead. I had the forethought to go up and ask the driver if he had a bag for me to get sick into since I was already feeling my stomach squeezing and wanting to heave. The woman I was sitting with was nice enough to trade seats and let me sit in the aisle instead. I managed to fall asleep for some time and woke up as we were entering the city. I was feeling good and thinking to myself, I’m going to make it without vomiting in public, alright! But then the stop-and-go, stop-and-go started up again and my stomach demanded it stop. It took a strong offensive and won. Now I can’t blame it all on the traffic, airplane food always makes me sick or at least makes me feel crappy, but never of the vomiting sort, and I think the lack of sleep didn’t help either. The bus made it to the train station ten minutes later – I was so close!
Still feeling like crap, I checked the departure boards and saw I could make a train to Dijon in ten minutes. I tried one of the automatic ticket machines since the purchase counter line was really long, but it rejected both of my credit cards, damn. I hopped in line knowing my chance for the 11:30AM train was not going to happen. Once I got to the counter I learned that all of the second class/cheap tickets for the next train leaving at 12:58PM were sold and that the next train I could catch at the cheap rate wasn’t until 2:34PM. I inquired about the first class rate because, feeling super tired and not wanting to sit around feeling sick at the train station, paying more and at least getting to my destination seemed like a better idea to me in that moment. I pay an arm and a leg and maybe my first born for that 80€ seat on the train, but I’m pretty sure it was worth it.
I rested and relaxed while on the train and arrived in Dijon about two hours later. My friend Sarah, who I met and stayed with in Dijon last year, was waiting for me when I got off the train. Seeing a familiar face in a foreign land is a huge comfort, especially when you aren’t feeling 100%. We got back to her flat and she headed out to work for a few hours while I slept peacefully and deeply for the first time in days.
3 comments:
keep us posted!
I wasn't able to follow your travels during the summer since I barely had internet, so am catching up now. All I can see, re: riding the dirty dog, is you are lucky you were not sitting next to the man who had just gotten released from Angola after 17 years hard time, and who couldn't stop talking about getting some pussy when he got to San Diego... Cause that's how MY Greyhound trips go. (P.S. This is Ali masquerading as my pup.)
And by "all I can see" I mean all I can SAY.
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