Friday, July 14, 2023

We left our apartment around 7am, traveled from Genoa to Livorno by train, and then took a ferry from Livorno to Bastia, Corsica. Erin arrived around 11:45, which was pretty tight for getting there by 1pm, and supposedly around a 40 minute walk (it would have been double that for our family, especially in the heat). So we waited by the taxi stall and a taxi-van arrived just in time. There are two different ferry docks in Livorno, which can get confusing. Luckily, we went to the (correct) Corsica Ferry pier, and our driver found our boat for us. It couldn’t have been smoother, but what if anything had gone wrong?

The ferry ride was nice, and it was nice in retrospect to have had a cabin. We were able to dump our bags in there, and had we needed it, we could have even taken a shower! But I put the bags in the shower instead, so that was off limits.

Ben made a good point that we used a lot of different modes of transportation on our way to Corsica:

1. Walk to train station
2. Train to Livorno
3. Taxi to Ferry
4. Ferry to Bastia
5. Taxi to Airport
6. Rental Car to Calvi

We found our AirBNB pretty easily. Again, the host didn’t reveal the true location until we were already in Calvi. Is this the new normal? If so, it is an annoying normal. Erin and I walked into town to look for food, got pizzas and wine, brought them back, and had a short and fast dinner before bed.

Saturday, July 15

Sara and Erin took the kids to the beach while I caught up on work. The kids came home for lunch and had a 3-hour quiet time, which everyone needed.

After that, the kids got to watch a “Wild Kratts” while Sara and I headed to the store. We all ate pasta for dinner, and the kids went to bed early after playing some badminton in the back driveway.

Some times we need a rebuilding day.

Sunday, July 16

The day got going slowly. The kids in the bunkroom all got up earlier, but I woke later. Sara and Erin took the kids to a slightly further beach; I still need to catch up on finishing dissertation edits; approval is due tomorrow!

We went to a restaurant along the coast. It was a 30 minute drive on a barely-maintained stretch of winding road. Google told me the speed limit was 80 km/h, but we rarely got over 45.

Dinner was excellent in the end, but it got off to a rough start.
The kids all got “lemonade”, but limonata is fizzy here. That was a no-go for our boys. So we re-ordered juices for the kids. We were the first ones there, which meant that when we got our food, all the bees around the restaurant swarmed us and our food. They brought out a “smoke pot” to keep them away, and slowly the bees migrated to other tables as their food came too.

After the kids ate, they walked around the restaurant and explored while the adults finished their food and relaxed, finally.

We got some great photos at sunset by the ocean.

Sara and Erin snuck out after the kids went to bed for an evening drink together.

Monday, July 17

Sara woke up early for a run. After breakfast, Ben, Avery, Sam and I walked to the citadel in the morning while the moms drove the younger ones. We met them in a playground and then walked up into the citadel. The old town in the citadel is occupied by residents, and had a lived-in feel. We found some great views and watched an artisan in his shop show Ben and Sam how he makes his knives from steel bar stock and a ram’s horn (for the handle). He talked the kids through the process while I interpreted (really I just told the kids what I already know about the process as I loosely followed his words), and then we watched him assemble a blade to the handle. He cut a small metal shaft and smoothed it with a gr to make a pin, inserted it into the handle and attched the blade, put on two brass washers, and pounded it all in with a small hammer. He was very generous with his time; I would have bought a knive, but it was 120 Euros.

I bought the kids gelato while the moms drank coffees at a cafe. Big hit.

The big kids and I then walked back to the apartment and we all had lunch there. We then made our way to the beach and had a relaxing afternoon at the beach. We all swam out past the rock wall and dived in ~8 foot water. We saw two sea stars, played in the shallow water, and I got a nice burn (though I didn’t know it yet). We ended our beach afternoon at the beach bar & restaurant. We had crepes (finally) and drinks and used the WC.

Sara and I snuck out ourselves and walked into “downtown” Calvi and found the quay. There were probably 2000 people all having dinner by the docks. Just as we arrived, some fireworks started. We finally found a wine bar near the end of the quay. After one drink we were exhausted, and walked home in the dark.

Tuesday July 18

The last full day of our time in Corsica, we had to split up. I stayed at the apartment with Sam while he and I sorted out some issues, while Sara and Erin and the rest of the kids went to a winery. Sam and I got ourselves sorted out (calmed down, folded laundry, and did some journaling) and then we walked into town to the nearest train station. We tried asking some folks where to buy tickets and got different answers. The first lady pointed us to a ticket machine…for the parking lot. The second couple told us we needed to buy tickets IN Calvi, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But since it was 10 minutes till the train came, Sam and I had a chance to make it to the next stop down, at the end of the line in “downtown” Calvi. We ran as fast as we could and Sam kept up well. We made it to the next station with 3-4 minutes to spare, asked someone at the information booth where to buy tickets and she said, “dans le tren”, which means “on the train”. So we had worn ourselves out for nothing. We hopped on the very hot train and at the end of the day, the conductor was not able to process my credit card, so he just let us go. What a ride. We got off the train about 5 stops away near the second beach everyone had gone to on Sunday, but this time with a reservation at the restaurant. We had some great food. Octopus, tuna tartare, two risottos, fish, a fancy burrata plate. It was really good. We proceeded to the beach after lunch; I didn’t remember my swim trunks and didn’t really want to expose myself to the sun again, so I hid under the umbrellas. Sam had to go home early because he wasn’t listening; we lost a pair of shoes (we think) in the melee. Sam recovered again, but we were really tired. After reading to the kids and mom at bedtime, the adults opened one of the bottles from the winery and packed and did laundry and chatted until bedtime.

Wednesday, July 19

We got going earlier on our last day in Corsica. We cleaned and packed and had a bit of a “discussion” with our host as we checked out….more on that later. We had a bit of a drive to return the cars and get to the ferry by 2. Our drive took about two hours, and we stopped once at an old bridge. The history of the area was described in a little park nearby, which seemed to be at the center of the Corsican indpendence movement as well.

We drove towards the airport, got gas, and then decided to take the train back in to Bastia from there. The two taxis on the way to the airport in the other direction had cost 70 Euros each! The moms took the cars back, while I waited with the kids in the station, got tickets, filled waters, consolidated our packs, and waited for the train. The girls got back with about 10 minutes to spare from the airport in a taxi after dropping off the cars. We met the train, loaded up our baggage, and went 11 stops into the town. Once in town, we walked down to the south ferry station, realized that we needed to enter at the north ferry station, and walked in the blazing heat under no shade in the bright sun. I sweated out the shirt I was wearing out that I had stayed relatively cool in up to that point.

This embarkment was a bit different…full security! We had to remove our laptops, scan all the luggage, and show our passports, which was difficult for 3 adults and 5 kids to switch into doing quickly. We caught the last shuttle to the ferry, walked on, and tried to find any place to sit. This time, Sara had not gotten a cabin, nor even seats (we didn’t know our tickets didn’t imply seats). So after some rearranging, we found a big round table in the cafeteria area that a woman had just vacated, got a lot of fried food, and slowly recovered from our morning on the move. It was 2:45pm as we finished lunch. The panic subsided and the adults all wanted to fall asleep.

A cute thing that happened was that I noticed an older man doodling on the back of a cafeteria tray liner. I brought Sam over and told him Sam was an artist, and he gave Sam his drawing,and even signed it! Sam got out his sketch book and showed the man his drawings, and then drew something for him, and gave it to him. It was a nice moment.

This was half our journey to Pisa…