After a strange greasy chicken finger meal on Air Canada, which definitely passed the window test, Cathleen grabbed a tuna sandwich at Heathrow Airport. I got a delicious ploughman's sandwich, which in the end, did not agree with me. I start feeling really nauseous.
My first stop at Geneva airport was the washroom, as my body was in full-on rebellion. I staggered down the hallways, trying not to vomit on the moving sidewalk. We took several wrong turns and ended up going through customs backwards. As I explained where we just came from and where we were headed, the French-speaking clerk eyed us suspiciously, then stamped our passports and sent us through security.
The feared airport controller strike did not appear to be in effect, but at that point I felt so terrible that we wondered whether we find get a flight refund due to illness! I could not imagine taking another flight at that time.
We advised Swiss (in French) that we would not be flying with them to Madrid, as we were going to spend the night in Geneva. Then to the tourist info desk to try get help booking a hotel.
Unfortunately, I didn't reserve any of the many hotels I saw earlier on booking.com that were under $100 CAD. There were so many when I first looked, I figured that it would be easy enough to get one later. I guessed wrong. Prices suddenly skyrocketed and soon there was nothing under $200. By the time we arrived in Geneva and checked with the tourism desk at airport, we were informed that the cheapest room in the city would be 450€ ($650+ CAD).
Seeing our chagrin, the extremely helpful pair of ladies at the desk suggested we use our boarding pass to get a wifi code, then try booking.com on our cell phone to get a hotel in France, as the desk clerks are technically only allowed to book us a hotel in Geneva, but if we already had a booking in France, they could help us get there and back. It turns out that one side the airport is Switzerland and the other France!
I located a room for $180 CAD in France, but before I could press "purchase" it was gone. The next room as well. I could tell from the website traffic counter that everyone was online fighting for rooms.
With the tension mounting, I finally got us a suite for $195 CAD, the ladies rooting for us all the way. One of them pulled out a map and told us how easy it would be to get to our hotel: a few minutes on a single bus that would nearly take us door to door. She even described in detail how to walk from the bus stop to the hotel, then paused, and said: "I'll get you free bus tickets from the lost and found!"
Triumphantly presenting us with the bus tickets, she also showed us which bus to take to go to downtown Geneva from our hotel, then described the little town right near our hotel which had many restaurants and a grocery.
For the first time, we considered that we might have a little time for tourism while we were there. We noticed we were extremely close to both CERN and Voltaire's home/castle. Our hotel, the Odalys, also had a pool and spa (with a hammam!) that were free for guests; However, the first sight of our bed brought us such joy, that we immediately collapsed into it.
I was exhausted not only from the travelling, but also at the amount of talking I had to do. Cathleen so glad I could speak French, because it seemed everyone in Geneva spoke French, not English. Then we ended up staying in France anyway! So I ended up speaking to everyone: customs people, info people, hotel people... To be fair, Cathleen often initiated contact, but then when they didn't answer in English, I would take over. If you know me well, you would be impressed.
We promised each other we would have a big cry once we arrived in Oviedo. Crying was actually one of the items on our comprehensive "wellness list": a list of all the wellness tools we possess that we could use to stay healthy and sane on this trip. Of course, I didn't think to look at it yet. >.<
By the time we got out of bed, we realized the grocery would be closed. We asked the hotel clerk about restaurants where we could get a simple light supper, and he recommended a family-run Italian place that would have soups and salads.
The food was tasty, but the restaurant was extremely hot and stuffy, and packed to the gills. Apparently, this was the only restaurant open for supper in the little town! I talked Cathleen into a kir, which came in a wine glass. "I am so sorry," the waitress explained in French, "we have run out of flutes!"
We returned to our hotel and Googled both CERN and Voltaire's castle. It seems that tours at CERN run 2-3 hours, and are so popular that they sell out months in advance. We were disappointed, but decided that walking to Voltaire's castle would our best option in the morning.
In the morning, we enjoyed the hotel's magnificent shower, then walked back to the little "downtown" in search of a café.
While we enjoyed our espressos and croissant, the man next to us brought out his harmonica and started playing. It all seemed so typically French. I laughed, "I guess I just can't stay away from France!" :D
We walked the 5-10 minutes to Voltaire's castle, which was closed for renovations until 2018. The host gave us a map and pamphlet and encouraged us to explore the grounds. Voltaire was buried under the pyramid in this chapel. (Here is some more info about Voltaire and his castle.)
On the way back from the castle, we stopped in at the parish church of Ferney-Voltaire. It was quite beautiful and had a lovely display of the Eucharist. We paused at a stained glass window of Cathleen's namesake, Saint Catharina.
As we were leaving the church, a very elderly woman approached us and started chattering away, "she doesn't see many people in the church... she had breakfast with her sons... she can't find her cat..." While I'm following the thread of her conversion, and answering inanities in French, I am suddenly confused that I can understand her: "gato" is not French, it should be "chat"... I wondered whether she was actually speaking French or Spanish... or some personal mixture of both! Then she cried out, "There he is!!! Could he have jumped out the window?"
We petted the lovely white gato, who was suddenly sitting in front of the door the woman had originally emerged from, then extricated ourselves from that seemingly endless description of her day, and continued back to the hotel.
After checkout, we walked back to the bus stop and realized there was no bus ticket machine. So I begged strangers at the stop to make change for us, so we could pay on the bus. Two attempts later, we had the requisite 3€ each in coins.
Arriving at the airport, we noticed that the gate for our Easyjet flight to Oviedo was not listed, even though the time indicated for the listing had passed. Again, I was the one to ask an airport staffer (in French) to look up our gate. Sitting at the gate, it occurred to me for the first time to use my energy work to help ease my stress and nausea. Sigh. Our flight was delayed, but soon enough we arrived in the Oviedo airport.
Next, I had to ask the info desk (in my broken Spanish) how to get the bus to Oviedo. We located it, with its handwritten signs, and again noticed there were no ticket machines. I walk up and down the crowd: "Hola-- hablas inglés? francés?" We first found a French guy, then a young Texan woman, and between us all, figured out that the bus cost 8€, and we could pay in bills on the bus.
HERE maps worked perfectly to show me our route as we rode, and I did more energy work to relieve my jet lag and travel discomfort.
It was a short walk to Hotel Vetusa from the bus station. Again, HERE maps worked like a dream.
There was wifi at the hotel, but unfortunately it only worked near the beds, whereas the only functioning power outlet was on the other end of the room. We got to use my double-usb port, just when I was starting to doubt the wisdom of bringing it.
We enquired about mass at the Cathedral, thinking it would be at 8pm, but the hotel desk clerk looked it up online and told us it would be 9:15am the next day. Frankly, we were relieved not to have to run immediately out again. The clerk must have misread our tired faces, because she quickly added, "but if you really want to go now, you can go to Corazón de Jesús, just down the street."
Decifing to pass on that evening's mass at Corazón de Jesús, we headed out to locate the Vodafone store only two blocks away. In broken Spanish and English, we discovered that they didn't have the SIM I wanted. The clerk circled two other stores on our map, but we decided to try the next morning, and instead tried to get some food.
By that time it was 8pm, a terrible time to try to get food in Spain, as it is between the end of tapas-time and before supper-time. We wandered in a circle, finding many noisy bars, and a few gorgeous cathedrals, like the Basilica de San Juan El Real.
We finally settled on a quieter place with delicious-looking potatoes sitting on the tables, but were quickly told there was no food. We got so depressed when we also failed to order two glasses of wine. Then a boisterous young Spanish woman grabbed the waitress and negotiated for us. Soon we had two glasses of wine and a plate of... potatoes... ??? It turns out they come free with the wine, but you just can't order them at this hour... ??? Ah Spain.
We had our girl order us another round, and we got a new dish of potatoes and fish sticks. By that point, we felt that "dinner" had been had, and waved good bye to our noisy new friend.
Then the crying began... and didn't end for a couple hours. ;) Let me express myself in verse:
I started crying in the street
When I could not get food to eat
Crying from a lack of sleep
Crying without a single peep
By the time we got inside
Crying because my friend had died
Cathleen started in the shower
Crying from a lack of power
Then we cried on our beds
Tears flying from our heads
Trying to deal with all the stress
Tired of holding in the mess
Messaging family on the phone
Feeling sad from traveling alone
Concerned about our partners' health
Unable to help them heal ourself
Big hugs that let out more cries
Morning brought puffy eyes
Wanting all the stress to go
So I can start my Camino!
**Stay tuned for Day 1 of my Camino!**
**Sorry for so few photos today, I'm having wifi issues. If I get some better wifi, I'll add a few more later.**
I have to say that I really like the verse... I did read it before, but now I am having a catch up on life day...
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