Category: London, France, Italy, Greece & Malta ’22

We didn’t get up quite as early as we had intended.. Mom definitely made it up and into the shower before I even opened my eyes. We got ready, packed, and checked out. Right beside the train station we stopped to eat breakfast. It wasn’t the quickest service, but the eggs were more cooked so that was a blessing! Haha

We got on the subway to take us to the main train station, we were there with 40 minutes to spare-and then promptly spent that 40 minutes walking in circles, up and then back down escalators, in all the wrong directions attempting to find the spot we were supposed to be in for our train to Lyon. I asked at least 5-6 different people working there where to go, some sent us up, some sent us down, finally one man took the time to explain in steps where to go..

But by then we had already missed our train, but seriously like 2 minutes. I talked on the phone with Morgana and Alex seeing if they could help me figure out what to do.. and thank goodness, because they explained how to get a new ticket for a train leaving in 15 minutes, and where to walk to get on said train. Mom had I hadn’t even sat our butts in our seats when the train started moving! And if Alex wasn’t able to tell us which platform the train was on, we’d have missed that train, too, because no where on the ticket does it say where it is! Apparently when it shows up on a big monitor, you have minutes to get to the platform. I guess if that’s our one snag, it wasn’t too terrible.. only a €104 mishap and wasting 30 minutes of Alex and Morgana’s time.. I still feel bad about that.

The train ride was 2 hours long and it went so fast that when we came to a stop, we got off, assuming we were supposed to. I did notice some other people not moving yet, but thought nothing of it. Come to find out we got off on the stop right before ours.. and Morgana and Alex were standing on the platform of the next stop waiting for us! Yikes. These French trains are just not for me, and fingers crossed that the Italian ones are slightly easier to navigate!

Once I had Morgana on the phone and she figured out what we did, they got back in their car and drove to the train station we were at and came in to get us. I’m sure they were hating us, I wouldn’t blame them a bit! I think if I had a better understanding of the French words I’d do better, but honestly it all looks like gibberish to me. I’m considering taking lessons in more languages because I hate feeling so useless.

Anywho, they collected us and we said our hellos, then quickly got the heck out of the chaos that is a French train station! Alex drove us to a cute neighboring town for us to walk around and explore. It was adorable, not crowded, and just what we needed after a day of feeling like our heads were going to pop off. We had ice cream at the best little place with over 95 flavors, and then some beer at their favorite bar in this area. It was truly perfect.

Once it started to get a bit late into the afternoon, we loaded up in their car and Alex dropped us off at their home, which is stunning and exactly what you’d picture a perfect French house with cool shutters and an incredible garden to look like.. and then he went to pick up their puppy from a dog sitter.

Morgana gave us the tour of her lovely home, she had made us each a room with a queen bed, by far the best and most spacious accommodations yet.. and definitely the most beautiful. We got to meet her older dog, Odin, who is the biggest floof there ever was, but is slow to warm up to new people, and we met their 3 kitties, one which is a Main Coon and absolutely gorgeous.

We chatted and caught up and I made it a personal mission to get to love on Odin (it didn’t take long at all, but I wanted to squeeze him and never let go, and that didn’t get to happen, but pets and kisses did-I’ll take what I can get). Alex came back with the puppy, Saku, who unlike Odin, was immediately happy to get all the loves and squeezes me kisses. Man, I love dogs.

Morgana prepared a traditional French meal for us, on a raclette.. im probably saying that wrong.. but you have potatoes and hams/meats on your plate, you melt the cheese in this dish thing and then pour it over your potatoes and meats and dig in.. while you’re eating that bit, you put on another slice of cheese to melt.. like everyone has their own little pan to melt their own cheese on.. it was awesome! And so very very filling!

We hung out and talked and played with the pups. It was a fantastic day. Sometime after it got dark mom reminded me that I hadn’t done my run yet.. so, I did a mile around their neighborhood.. there were several hills and with it being dark and unfamiliar, when I got to a square shaped cul de sac I ran around it like 5-6 times to make sure my mile wouldn’t be up a mountainous climb.. haha

When I got back, we stayed up talking a bit more before we all decided to crash. I was so exhausted from the day and knew I’d be sleeping so well in that big comfy bed that I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. Laying here now, it’s so hard to even keep writing because i just want to curl into a ball and sleeeeeeeeeep.

Which is exactly what I think I’ll do now. Goodnight!

I slept so good, minus a couple nightmares.. well, one nightmare that picked up where I “left off” every time I fell back to sleep. I didn’t wake up until close to 10, mom had already showered and I could hear Alex, Morgana, and the doggies awake downstairs. I hopped in the shower and met everyone downstairs when I finished getting ready.

We had some pastries and croissants and on the pups.. Odin didn’t take as long to warm up to me this morning, and he let me pet his head instead of just his back. Saku let me do whatever I wanted.. playful little guy! He went with the 4 of us to the cute neighboring town of Trevous, where Alex and Morgana took us for an incredible lunch. The pup was relaxed and calm the entire time in the restaurant! It was like night and day, he knew he had to be good!

We had different crepes and salads, plus desserts, wine, and cider. It truly was so very good! Mom and I were stuffed full to the point of almost discomfort! Thankfully, from there we went to the little park by the river to try to coax Saku to pee before the car ride home to drop him off.. so I got to walk of a little of that lunch.. and then I just sat in the grass and enjoyed the sunshine. I was happy the little pup was being stubborn and refusing to pee, because that park was very relaxing.

When we eventually gave up on his voiding extravaganza, we got back in the car and headed home to drop him off before venturing out to our next stop of the day. The second Saku hit the grass of his own garden, he finally peed for over a minute straight! Crazy boy! He just didn’t feel comfortable in the park, I guess!

We played with Saku while Alex took Odin for his second walk of the day, and then once both pups were content we headed out to the town of Pérouges. It’s a medieval town with the stone walls and a castle in the center, homes were absolutely stunning built from stones with wooden shutters and stained glass windows. There were a few shops and restaurants to peek in, art galleries and candle shops. Many weren’t open because of it being a week day, but Mom and I loved every second of exploring.. we just wanted to see, we didn’t need to shop or buy. We’re easily fascinated, and fascinating it was.

When we got back to their house, we hung out talking while Morgana started making dinner. She’s quite the cook and I’ve always admired her health achievements and cooking skills. She was someone who motivated me back when I was in nursing school to take charge of my health, lose weight, and make healthier food choices. Tonight, she made a quiche with cheese, mushrooms, and spinach.. unbeknownst to her: Mom’s favorite!

While it was cooking, I went to do my run before the sun set and I’d be running in circles again. Morgana told me the route that would have a trail through some woods and then open up to a lovely farm field. My one mile run turned into 2 because it was too pretty to turn around at the halfway mark, instead I ran to the end of the trail and followed the road to circle back to their house. It was perfect.

I got back just as dinner was ready. We had the quiche, a salad with Alex’s homemade dressing (awesome) and then finished with a sampling of desserts they surprised us with! I kid you not, they are so very kind for spending the last two days with us, toting us all around France and showing us the coolest of places, opening their home to us and feeding us entirely too well! I am just so overwhelmed with love and gratitude for them, and so very thankful.

I showered before bed and packed the majority of my stuff, mom did the same, and then we settled into bed. Tomorrow we have an early start: we have to catch a 7:20 train back to the center of Lyon and then catch our 5 hour train to Milan, Italy. With all the mishaps on the trains yesterday, Alex and Morgana are going to drive us to the first train station and walk us to our platform..

Morgana has already looked at our tickets for Milan and has explained exactly where to stand and what to do by what time to make sure we don’t miss that one. If we do miss it, there isn’t another one to Milan until 1:30pm, and so we wouldn’t arrive until late evening, making us miss the entire day. I’m sure we’ll have it figured out, but I’m so glad they’re patient and willing to help us anyway!

(PS: check my Facebook for more pictures, I’m having trouble getting some to upload to the WordPress app)

Thank God I set my alarm before going to sleep last night, because Mom slept through hers. I got up at 6:30 and got her up, too. We quickly got ready and packed up the rest of our stuff, then headed downstairs.

Alex and Morgana were both already awake, showered and fresh looking while the two of us looked like a bomb woke us up and we were still in shock from it.. haha. They had already taken the puppy out and everything. I never even heard them! I said my byes to my new furry best friends (Odin was playing hard to get, so he didn’t get kisses from me.. I did get to scratch his handsome little head though).

Alex drove us to the local train station and to our delight, they both walked us in! He navigated the local ticket purchasing for us and took us to our platform 🙂 These French trains give me anxiety. I better get the hell over that though, because Mom and I are traveling exclusively by train for the next 4 weeks!

We hugged and said our goodbyes. I’m still just so thankful to these two for all of their generosity. Morgana and I haven’t physically seen each other in years, potentially since college-unless there was a once off here or there.. and yet she welcomes me and my Mom into her home and showered us with so much kindness. It just felt easy.. no awkwardness or tension. I’m already missing them both!

We made our local train, got to the main train station and found us some breakfast- and then promptly hunted down the departures screen and stared at it for the next 20 or so minutes.. until it gave us a platform for our train to Milan. It worked just as Alex said it would. Ok, maybe i am starting to get the hang of these bad boys.

We lug our stuff on the train and get comfortable.. we have 5+ hours in those seats. Mom napped, I couldn’t-so I read. Another Colleen Hoover book. When my eyes start to cross, I try to sleep again-no dice. So, I get on the WiFi and play on social media, upload pictures and the last few days of the blog.

With about 30 minutes to go, and after 2 bathroom trips and a food car excursion (any reason to walk around), the lady across from me completely transforms herself. She was just a regular woman in her late 50s early 60s.. then, she pulled her hair down and fixed it, put on makeup, looked stunning and started talking to us.. hahaha she hadn’t said a peep for 5 hours, and now we couldn’t get her to shut up if we tried! Luckily, she was funny and wanting to practice her English.

She told us places to go, theaters to see, where she bought her makeup eyeshadow sticks and where a store is (in the train station). We learned all about her life, she’s a theatre performer and was coming back to Milan after singing in Paris. She’s a busy girl, telling us about her flights here and her trains there.. almost daily! And I thought our trip was jam packed!

We made it into Milan.. we left the train and walked toward the metro, until we saw that makeup store and promptly halted our travels to go find some pretty new goodies. With new stuff in tow, we eventually did make it to the metro station and got our tickets, found our subway and got on it. When we got off-we were just a short walk to our hotel. It was raining but we didn’t care!

We checked in and our room was ready, so we went to unload our stuff. The room is gorgeous! Our twin beds make me cackle, they always have them shoved together.. if we wanted to sleep that close we’d just get the queen sized bed and share! Lol The bathroom is spacious and has a feel of luxury to it. It’s perfect!

We were pretty worn out from traveling, and hungry.. plus we had a ton of dirty clothes that we needed to wash, so we got the dirty clothes in a bag, put on running shorts and rain jackets, and headed out into the mist to walk a mile to a laundromat. The services at the hotel would be astronomical and the lady told us that they have the weekends off and aren’t taking anymore clothes today-so that wasn’t an option.

We got some entertaining stares as we walked with our bags in the rain. Italians are known for being well dressed always, and here we were walking around in running shorts in the rain in 60 degree weather! Haha, I got a good giggle out of it. I told Mom that we couldn’t go into a restaurant dressed like we were because they probably wouldn’t serve us. The first tiny place we tried to eat at didn’t really go so well, we were having a language barrier for certain, plus he was looking at us and shaking his head.. so, we continued on..

The next place was nothing like that one. The man was patient, able to speak some English and didn’t mind my choppy attempts at Italian (Duolingo helps some, but not nearly enough). We ordered a slice of pizza each and a glass of wine each. White for Mom, red for me.. and the man was a bit flirty with mom, too. Exactly how you’d expect a 50s handsome Italian man to be. He had no idea he was making my Italian dreams for Mom come true!

While we were eating, he came over with something that looked like a calzone sort of.. and said it was too good for us to not have, all while smiling intently at Mom. Now my dreams really were coming true-he’s flirting with Mom and I get extra food out of it! Heck yeah! Hahaha (I’m going to regret all this extra food when we put on bathing suits in a couple weeks!)

After we finish up, we walk the rest of the way to the laundromat. It’s a small one, 4 washers and 2 dryers. One man is in there already, so we wait for a washer to open up. We end up doing 3 loads of laundry! (Mom actually separates her clothes, I throw it all in and say it is what it is.. ha So, we sit and scroll the internet and i chat with my friend Meredith (she’s always an early riser, I’m really loving that with this time difference thing!).

When we finish folding and putting our clean clothes back in our bags, we start the walk back in the rain. After seeing and hearing the way these drivers are, I’m glad we didn’t rent a car. In the 15 minutes it took us to get home, we saw a car knock off the mirror of another car, we heard a cacophony of horns blaring almost the entire time, and watched several cop cars and ambulances fly by while other cars popped up on the sidewalks to get out of their way! Sheesh!

Back at the room, we decided we were too tired to change clothes and venture out into the rain again. So, we enjoyed the new room.. laid on our beds and watched TV. Somehow Mom was able to get one of the channels to swap into English. Alright, How I Met Your Mother marathon it is! Too bad it wasn’t SVU.

It was some time during this marathon that I awkwardly ran my mile in the room. I was able to make an ‘L’ shape to run in and set my watch to treadmill mode-it worked and I guess went off my arm swing and heart rate, because it said it took me 11 minutes to do a mile, which felt accurate in that environment. I had asked the concierge if they had a gym and he laughed a little while shaking his head-damn Americans.

We eventually ordered room service (because why not), and I’m here to tell you I enjoyed every bite of whatever i ordered. It was some kind of bread with a “mountain cheese” and ham on it.. not quite pizza, not quite bruschetta, but all the way good! I do wish they did have an actual gym here, because I need it! The only real workout I’m getting seems to be my stomach, and not in a good way!

It wasn’t too long after inhaling all of that yummy food and wine that I was fast asleep.. and a good sleep it was, too.