Corsica

Hello everyone,



This weekend was excellent because I escaped the frigid of Grenoble for the warmth of Corsica. My friend and I flew from Lyon, an hour bus ride from Grenoble, to Bastia, the northern-most city in Corsica. The flight was EasyJet, which I recommend to only the most adventurous of you. One, and only one bag is allowed per passenger, so I stuffed all the essentials (laptop, PJs, toothbrush, and that's about it) into my backpack, and off we went. There are no assigned seats -- it is first-come-first-serve. The benefit of the lack-luster service was that it cost us about $60 round-trip.



The plane landed at about 5:00 so we headed to the hotel to drop off our stuff. We went with the cheapest hotel, too, so we got one double bed complete with cigarette-burn holes in the comforter. The precursor to this was a very scary point when my friend realized that she left her purse on the bus from the airport to town. With the help of the tourism office we found the bus again, along with the purse and all its contents. The gods were with us because she had her passport, cell phone, and 400 euros in the purse and nothing was taken.



The first thing that we noticed about Corsica is that it is extremely windy. We walked out to a lighthouse on the pier and I almost got blown off. At night it calmed down quite a bit, but it was still brisk. The view was absolutely amazing with views of the Mediterannean and the mountains on the island. All in all, we didn't really do much in terms of activities, but we greatly enjoyed the people watching and the many cafes that we consumed. The one daytrip that we did to the south of Corsica, where we walked along the shore and saw the house where Napoleon was born.



The way back was a little more eventful, though. We arrived at the airport without incident, but while we were waiting for the flight, the airport staff announced a technical failure in the aircraft. We weren't too concerned because they said it would be an hour delay and then we would be on our merry way, but ten minutes later, they announced that they weren't sure that the flight would leave at all and that we could take the plane to Paris that was leaving in the adjacent gate. I asked the staff when the next flight to Lyon was and she said that it was on Friday (keep in mind that this was Monday!). Since we had to intention of staying another four days, we decided to take our chances and go to Paris. Once we told them our decision, we were told that that was all they could do for us; once we got to Paris we were on our own. We arrived on Paris and then went to the train station where we booked train tickets on the last train of the night to Grenoble. Seven hours later then expected, we finally got to Grenoble where Jean-Pierre and Viviane were waiting to take us back. I have never been so thankful to be back home!



I definitely recommend going to Corsica, but a car would have been really useful. If time allows, I will be going back, but it will be a while before I fly EasyJet again.



Vieux port of Bastia

Sunrise on the Mediterannean

Sunrise

The two of us on the beach. Just in case you don't recognize me, I'm on the left

Pretty flower on the beach

Yes, we were on the beach on November 30!

Old guy eating peaches out of a can

The port

The coast at night

The beach were we laid

Fishing nets

The citadel of Bastia

Pictures from Annecy:

Stringing up garlands

The canals

Mist on the lake

Statue at a casino

Have a good week!

Liz