Rough Travel Days

You know what, some travel days just suck. It’s the truth. I thought I’d share our emotions because long term travel isn’t always fun and excitement. I should be relaxing after a night of enjoying the city lights and local cuisine but I’m not. It’s 1 a.m. and instead of sleeping (because I slept during the 3 hour afternoon drive) I’m trying to figure out our plan for next week. The hubs and Little Monkey are asleep but Baby Boy also took a nap so he’s crawling around the dark somewhere as I’m ignoring him. 🙂

We’ve been in France for a week now and I think we’re really missing the late night vibes in Spain and Morocco. We’re late risers and so by the time we get around to exploring things, it’s early evening and most shops are closed. Dinner spots seem to close by 10 p.m. as well so we’re usually rushing to grab something right after sight seeing. It doesn’t help that our master plan was to spend two nights at a spot before moving to the next town because we thought that was the best way to explore southern France. NOPES! I wish we had more days in Bordeaux and Toulouse. Those seemed like fun cities. We also definitely didn’t need the stress of driving a car because most spots have car free zones and the traffic is insane. Driving around isn’t all that pretty as we’ve taken the highway mostly (yes it’s also pricey!).

This morning we left a very comfy and HUGE GuestToGuest house in Montpellier and drove to Marseille. On the way over we stopped in at the beach and it was all nice and relaxing. Sadly it was downhill from there. As soon as we entered Marseille it was grid lock traffic and let us just say, after having driven for over 4 hours, the hubs was ready to park the car and enjoy the city. Unfortunately for us, we encountered a bit of a hiccup with our GuestToGuest host in this city and when we turned up at the building, the buzzer had no clear indication of which apartment was his. We were also half an hour late due to the traffic and I’m guessing he wasn’t checking his emails for updates. As the hubs circled the block (with a tiny lane in front of the building and full on traffic there was no other option) I attempted to ring every apartment through the intercom and even snuck into the building to see if I could find the apartment. It was like a maze in there and the neighbours had no idea which door was apartment #3. With no elevator I was also dreading the look on the hubs face when the time came to take our heavy suitcases up the windy staircase. The lack of a local phone number to call the host didn’t help either. Of course emailing the host was still not getting a response. After two hours (it’s now 8 p.m. and the hubs has been behind the wheel since noon minus two hours at the beach) the hubs was exhausted and so we decided to just admit that the day sucked and check into a hotel. We had no other option and we were starving and still very sandy from the beach visit.

As we ran around trying to find a hotel the hubs and I were super cranky. Many hotels did not have a parking garage nearby or were fully booked OR were $$$$. I decided to try calling the host one more time through our Google hangouts app and voila! He answered but some major miscommunication happened and lets just say that we weren’t understanding each other. Which is a shame because now as I sit here in the dark and check the GuestToGuest website (where there’s a nifty translation tool) I see that he was apparently waiting in the apartment with flowers (this is a reply after I tell him that we’re going to a hotel). Very sweet. Sometimes crap like this happens and we just have to roll with it. This is also where the GuestToGuest insurance feature comes to play. A very good reason to purchase the top up!

This is why we’re now at the Novotel Suites in Marseille. I must admit that I’m surprised by the offerings for families here. Not only is there a fridge, microwave and two single beds in addition to the queen bed, but there’s even a little divider to separate the kids from the parents. Mind you, my kids are having none of that as they want full visibility since we’re in a “o tel”. Our moods were lifted as we checked in and the kids received a little welcome gift, which was a nice touch. With sand in places where it shouldn’t be, the shower was a huge welcome as well (they have a tub AND a standing shower!).

We’re in a total slump tonight but I know that tomorrow’s another day. I had visions of running around the beautifully lit city at night and enjoying French cuisine here. Sadly we drove all the way here but we’re not going to spend two nights in this city as planned. I’m not even going to see any of it as we have to check out early and get to the next place. Marseille looked amazing as we drove through and I bet I would have enjoyed this city but such is life. Luckily for us our next GuestToGuest host has allowed us to come a day earlier (even though I only messaged her at at 10 p.m.!) and so tomorrow morning we’ll be waking up early to head towards a beach town between Cannes and Nice. We’ll spend 3 nights there instead of 2 and perhaps this is what we need to re-set our clocks and get on French time.

I can’t believe we’ve been here a week and I’m yet to enjoy a traditional French meal. All the spots we’ve stumbled upon have been Asian or American. Some mediocre Thai was had this evening as everything was closed at 10 p.m. when we finally got out. I think we’re going to end our tour of France in Lyon next week and perhaps head into Germany. We need a change in scenery and we definitely need a break from the driving. The south of France is best done via rail and we didn’t need a car between the major cities at all.

Day 77 is when we hit our first travel slump and for that I’m grateful. We’ve had a relatively good run until now but we’re starting to get tired and perhaps it’s time to put some roots in place for a bit longer. That’s the beauty of #MurphysDo148Days, we have the flexibility to realign and roll with the punches!