Where in the World is Amanda Marcus?

Alright! So it’s been about a week since Cannes came to a close. It’s gone by very fast already, however. I figured I should sit down and spend some time filling everyone in on what I’ve been up to these days. There’s a lot!

I was writing the last post from Corsica, which was incredible! We were staying in this little town called Algajora, which none of us could figure out how to pronounce. I actually kind of fell in love with it though! There wasn’t much to do besides enjoy the beach. We went to this one café to use their wifi at least like 3 times. So basically got to vacation for 4-5 days with two awesome girl friends, Cassie and Elsa. 

Algajora!

Not too bad, eh?

Got a pretty good tan going so that’s always nice. 

We did take a day and go see Ile Rousse. There we walked around and grocery shopped. Probably one of my favorite nights was us cooking a meal at home! We bought pasta and Elsa whipped up this really fancy great little meal with pasta, pesto, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Plus, of course (of Corse! Ha! That’s the French word for Corsica.. sorry), we bought a fresh baguette which we had with cheese and snacked on while Elsa cooked. That night we went and sat on this rock overlooking the sea and talked and looked up at the stars.

Elsa's masterpiece.

View from the rock we ended up sitting on that last night.

The next day was my last day. We did our usual beach thing. Wanted to paddle board but it was way too windy. Then, I got on a train, said bye to my friends, and headed out on my own! Went and had dinner in Calvi which is where the port is. I took an overnight ferry and decided to invest in a cabin which was the best decision. I basically got on the boat, slept in a bed, and woke up at 7 AM in Nice!

Me being exhausted after making it to
the ferry in my very denim-y outfit.

That morning was very stressful because I just spent the first like 4 hours doing nothing but lugging around my 4 months’ worth of luggage—a pretty heavy suitcase, my backpack, and a big purse. It’s not too horrible but it does suck on travel days to be carrying approximately 80 pounds of stuff. Anyways I found a bus to go to the Nice Airport where I used the wifi, paid for lockers for my stuff, and so on. It all just took forever. I went and got a Starbucks at Cap3000, a mall right by the airport, before taking a bus into Nice to spend my last day on the Côte d’Azur!

I treated myself to the best lunch: moules frites (muscles and fries) with bread and coffee. I had brought my swimsuit and despite the fact that I had a flight later I had to go for a last swim in the sea. The water was just too blue and beautiful and I’m going to miss it a lot so I put stuff in a locker, laid on the rocky beach of Nice sans towel (which I forgot of course), swam a bit, then dried off. I got sunburnt though which wasn’t too fun. Also got some gelato. Then headed back to the Nice Airport to repack my stuff for the flight.  I was only allowed 20 kg of stuff in my checked bag and I had 30… I also met some American girls on the bus who I became friends with and who were on my flight and staying in my hostel! Made it through without having to pay more for all my luggage thanks to their help, too. Then, it was au revoir to the south of France, my home <3 I cried a bit when the plane took off, not gonna lie.

Nice!

But then.. I was back to one of my favorite countries: Ireland! I spent that night in Dublin. Then woke up too early the next day for a Game of Thrones Tour which was … pretty awesome. We drove up north and got to see some of the filming locations for Winterfell and other scenes in the show.

The bus.

This guy... He's the keeper of the place.

Everyone walking in their costumes.

Winterfell archery!!! Season 1 episode 1!

Then last night I was expecting to just go get some food and have a night in to watch the most recent GoT episode, and blog, and post photos… which if you’re my friend on Facebook you can guess didn’t happen yesterday and is taking place now instead. I went to this restaurant and pub called Celt’s where I sat at the bar (being alone and all). I met this guy named Ahmad, however, who’s half American and half Saudi Arabian and who was also staying at Isaac’s Hostel! So I ate and we got into a really good conversation. Before I knew it, the was the most adorable little Irish man playing guitar and singing! So I ended up staying there pretty late meeting Irish people, dancing, singing along to the songs I (like No, Nay, Never—one of my favs—and Alive-oh!). It was a pretty perfect night and I had a blast.

Then today I had a train to Cork. I didn’t double check the time though and missed it. Then managed to lose my ticket on the way to the office to change it. So… that was just a comedy of errors and I was quite tired. But, managed to make it onto a train and now I’m in Cork! I got here and was starving. My hostel is really nice though. They get discounts at - pizza place that was right around the corner, so I put my stuff in my room, went and ate a whole pizza, and came back to shower and have my relaxing night in tonight. Then I’ll have lots of energy for a full day here tomorrow! I really like Cork so far though. I haven’t gone to the city center yet but it’s supposedly pretty small. It was only about a 10 minute walk from the train station to my hostel which was nice.

As far as the rest of my plans, I fly from Cork to Paris on Monday. Then I’m taking a train to Rouen to stay with my friend Léa which I’m actually SUPER excited about! I get to stay at her house and she said we can eat together and stuff at night, which seems like such a little thing but is going to be very fun for me to be in a really authentically French household. I’m expecting to speak a lot of French. I think it’s going to be the perfect way to round out the trip before leaving Europe! (Aw man typing that made me a bit sad.) I’ll probably take some trips during the day to explore Normandy, which I’ve just been really drawn to for a while. So, I definitely plan to go see Mont St. Michel and the beaches. Might go to Versailles just ‘cause I’ve never been. But might also just spend my days wandering and sitting in cafés and reading newspapers or journaling or whatever. We’ll see!

I do have to say, traveling alone so far is pretty great. I mean that’s the thing, I can have a plan or not have a plan and it doesn’t really matter. I can go get a pizza for myself at like 4:30 just because I’M hungry and it sounds good to me. Not that I don’t like traveling with others for that reason, but there’s just such a freedom in just getting to self-indulge a bit. To treat yourself. To decide how much you want to dish out for a nice meal or not. To rest when you want to rest. Do literally whatever you want without having to consult anyone else.

And I’ve managed to meet a lot of really awesome people! Which I considered would possibly happen, but I’ve been a little overwhelmed at just how easy it is to make friends. I think there’s also something to say for: 1. It being Ireland and everyone is so nice and I just love it here  for that reason. But 2. The people that are backpacking around Europe at my age tend to be pretty outgoing no matter what country they’re from. And there’s just an instant bond that’s created when you can talk about travel. When you meet someone else just as thirsty for the world as you. Someone who understands the huge life changing impact traveling can have, but also relates to the little struggles and the goofy things that happen when you’re doing so.

Other than that I’ve just had a lot of time to myself to listen to music or to think. I’m very thankful for that. And very thankful that I didn’t go straight home, because this travel has given me a good buffer between the culture shock of going home quite yet. I’ve gotten to drag out the goodbyes a bit and process things a bit more. I go back and forth between absolutely loving what I’m doing and then when things get difficult, starting to really want to be home. Maybe not even home home. But as incredible as this is, it’ll be nice to be in one place for a while I think. To not have to be living out of a suitcase. And dragging it around everywhere or worrying about where you’re leaving it.

Anyways. I’m very happy with how I’ve spent this time so far and looking forward to one more week, going back to France, and then meeting my mom and sister in Costa Rica on the 15^th! Crazy! And, yes, trust me, I’m aware of how crazy that sentence is to be able to say.