More travel

Growing

I took a month off to travel. The first part of my journey I travelled alone. First to my dear friend N’s house in Utrecht. I flew into Amsterdam, managed to figure out the train, started on the train, had forgotten to validate my ticket…thank goodness the Dutch train people are so much nicer than the Germans with stern solemnity or even worse, the French who yell.

Arriving in Utrecht, a very cute city, and then going to a delicious dinner with N on a canal with tables perched perilously close to the edge, no overly litigious folks in Europe!

After many wonderful heartfelt talks I was off again to visit A, who was Clara’s host mum in Germany when she spent her sophomore year in Gummersbach. She has become a very dear friend. We had a delicious hamburger ( they’re into mayo but not so much ketchup).

There was a lot of singing and music with A, I sang next to her in her church on Sunday, letting her strong, beautiful soprano lead me through the German hymns.

We attended a musical rehearsal together and I was able to listen to an adorable class of hers (she’s a teacher) sing to me in German and I in turn, attempted to help them with their English lesson. One of the boys asked if I would come visit again. The children were all so earnest and beautiful in the way children are at their age.

Then on trains again to Köln then Berlin-trains were late but I made it. My daughter Clara met me at the Berlin Hbhf station and we navigated to her cute flat in Wedding opposite a church. She had borrowed a very comfy mattress and I slept on the floor after we went out to a super cool underground jazz club. Clara always has the best activities to share!

The next day we were off to Albania. We arrived to the Berlin airport to find the systems had been hacked. This was why we sat in the plane for two hours as each person was manually checked in. Then we were off to Albania! We made our way through the customs area.

I exchanged some money then we walked to the buses located at the edge of the airport. We were off in a wild 2 hour ride as our driver rode just to the back of cars and flashed his lights so he could pass. We stopped on the highway to drop off and pick up a few times, a quick pit stop at a gas station, then finally we arrived in the seaside town of Vlorë.

From our bus stop it was a couple of blocks to our airbnb - the wrong place first try but Clara figured out that we were not where we should be and guided us up the stairs to our place.

The next day, we walked to the”uje ftothe” (cold water), and swam. The water was warm and lovely. The sun shone strong and high for us. Clara played football with a young Albanian boy until he was tired and we skipped stones

Then we went to meet my friend E, and later L and her adorable family. My beautiful Albanian friends who were so kind and loving. We were both tired so off we went to bed!

The next day was resting and some walking Clara went off on a hike on her own and had an adventure. That evening E invited us out to dinner and we had a lovely night. We were both tired! The next day back in the bus to the airport. I wanted to stay close to the Tiranë airport so we could catch our morning flight easily.

I thought we could walk to our hotel after the Furgon dropped us at the airport. The first hotel we walked to was booked. So I found another and we started walking. Suddenly the rain became fierce. The google maps wanted us to walk in the highway and I didn’t want to do that but the reroute was an almost hour walk. The weather was getting worse! Hail! Wind!

We ducked into a little shed and an hour went by. The rain fell just as hard as it had been with no signs of abating so I gave up and I called a cab. Five minutes later there he was! Off we went to our lovely warm cozy hotel, drenched and laughing.

We had a nice dinner then in the morning back to Berlin (on the shuttle!)

I said goodbye to my chica then in the morning off to Marseille via Amsterdam. Berlin airport had the same issue with the hacking of the system. We manually checked in, lined up, then were called back and re checked and re lined up.

Luckily I made my connection. There was some running. I had to deal with a rather rude (drunk) French woman but survived to catch my flight to Marseilles.

In Marseilles I walked to the pickup for my hotel. I pressed a button and he sent the shuttle, I had to first walk to the taxi stand nearby but he arrived promptly and then I was in a tiny but cozy hotel. That evening I walked to the nearby town where I had a lovely dinner of Vietnamese food.

In the morning I caught the shuttle to the airport and met my husband after his flights from the US. I led the way as I didn’t have jet lag - to the bus and the train to Sète. We met an interesting American couple who were contemplating a relocation in France and we chatted til we got to Montpellier where they disembarked.

Then off to Sète which is a bit of a gritty port town in southwestern France. We had a gorgeous bnb overlooking the sea and ate our weight in húitres (oysters)and crevettes. (Shrimp). We had a mussel soup that we made that led to a bit of gastrointestinal distress that evening and we both caught vicious head colds but luckily not at the same time so we took care of each other through the process. A highlight was the visit of my wonderful niece, M who was living in France for a few months studying their farming processes. We had a great time.

Many walks were had and I swam topless, as all the women my age were doing it and it was lovely! I wish we had better acceptance of humans and bodies in the US. I loved sitting and watching people. It was like the movie, Amelie, each person so animated and unique from the numerous scooter drivers with scarves to the noisy bands to the beautiful style and panache of the people. Every day I worked on my French with my baguette seller, after a week she nodded approvingly at my attempts.

I would go shopping in the market almost every day; we would buy baguettes, cheese, eggs, fresh veg. By the end of the trip we decided we would eat out more as we only had a few days left.

Then the time had flown by and we were back home, first through Marseille where we were told the shuttle driver hadn’t arrived that morning- but a walk would do us good before the flight! Home safe to Bozeman, (after a few delays) on a beautiful fall day.

It had snowed in the morning but melted through the day. We awoke the next morning and took a long walk through the fields around our house, a little tired after the 24 hours of travel. The sky, mountains and the beautiful frosted grass with glints of ochre and somber browns and grays made us silent with awe. Home again.