Friday:
Went on a wifi hunt as I needed to get the flight info downloaded for our trip to Bath today. Went to the evil Starbucks, bought a drink, filled out their intrusive online form, then discovered you have to pay seperately for it and it wasn’t working anyway and the barista was kind enough to wink and nod us into the direction of the evil McDo’s where I managed to get sorted on the iPod without a form or password or any other such nonsense. Had our last lunch with Genevieve back at her flat, thanked her profusely, then took the train to the airport. Nothing too exciting to note there except for dozens of tiny princes and princesses coming from Eurodisney which was super cute. We arrived at our hotel, Hadrian’s Lodge, in the town of Wallsend, named for it’s location at the end of the last portion of Hadrian’s wall. Nice and quiet and only a few train stops from Newcastle which we explored a little. My mom thought there were a lot of prostitutes but they weren’t prostitutes, there’s just a large percentage of young ladies here who seem to have a unique concept of fashion.

Saturday:
Boo rain, rain and more rain with a large smattering of chilly. We went to the ruins of Segudenum, one of the more important forts along the wall and was the last one built. Most of it is long gone but they were able to mark out the original layout so it was neat to get a proper perspective of size and type and use of the structures they would have had there. In the museum they had a video depicting the area timelapsed over the last 2000 years which was pretty cool, seeing it built, taken down, built again, left to crumble, at one point there was even a parking lot on top of it. The museum itself is really aimed at kids and I could only imagine how much fun my niece and nephew would have had there. After our first proper Hadrian’s wall exploration, we went into Newcastle where there was a street fair where we found a fellow selling manchego and salcicon and he even gave us his last hunk of chorizo! Went on a hunt for information on the bus that crosses the wall with stops at the major sites along it. Took forever with stops at different info booths, train station and the library (where I printed my airline tickets for India too) we finally got what we were looking for and spent the evening at the hotel planning our route and eating baguette sandwiches of manchego cheese and salcicon. Oh and funny story, the hotel had the same pamphlet we had spent the day tracking down…

Sunday:
So we spent the last night planning our path with precision, but forgot about the train that takes us to the start and being a Sunday, wasn’t runnng nearly as often enough as we had been counting on. Fortunately we had scouted out the bus stop on the previous day’s adventure and we spotted the bus as it was about to depart, I booked it and stood in front of the bus and the driver was kind enough to stop and wait a minute until my mom could catch up. There is only one bus that leaves from here and only one that will bring us back, the on/off thing wasn’t as flexible as we’d hoped so we were only able to choose 2 stops to explore that would leave us with a connection to continue. Our first stop was Homesteads Fort, the most complete one along the remains of the wall. This one housed 1000 soldiers and was much larger than Segudenum and as it was out in the countryside with no modern construction nearby, you had a much better feel of what it must have been like. I also found it interesting to recognize the difference between these ruins and ones I had seen in more established roman cities. Here things were much rougher and morter was used for the stones, this was the frontier and there were no luxurious feats of roman architecture, this was built strictly for defense. Our next stop was Carlisle, the other end of the wall, we essentially crossed the country, albeit at it’s narrowest point of about 80 miles, it’s not as big of an adventure as it sounds. On this end there was nothing left of the wall but there it was a nice town to explore and we also checked out Carlisle castle where Mary Queen of Scot’s had been stored until Queen Elizabeth I chopped off her head. This was also where the prisoners from the failed war to put Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne were hung for a couple minutes, then had their guts ripped open and burned in front of their eyes, then had their heads cut off. Lovely. We skipped the bus back and took the train which cut our return time by half and we were glad we did it the way we did instead of the original plan of a 4 day hike which would have killed the both of us, especially with the weather, we were lucky that it was decent for this one day.

Monday:
Woke up to the realization that Rasputin had been looping on my iPod the while time I was sleeping, I’m goin to boycott it for a while now. We packed up, ready for our next adventure. At breakfast we met a woman on her way to be interviewed for a story because she had been born in Queen Victoria’s bedroom and she was making the pilgrimage to her birthplace for the first time. At the train station, I got through to the airline to start the process of changing my route, I hope for confirmation later this week. My original plan was to end in Poland at a friends wedding but as I hadn’t heard a peep from the bride, I figured Amsterdam would be a better place to end my adventure so I’m trying to switch my flight and hoping it won’t cost too much more than having to fly to Poland just to catch a flight I no longer need. The train was for 5 hours today with no leg stretching stops but we arrived in Bath without dying. We made it to a lovely B&B, far from the chaos but within easy reach of everything we wanted. Prices were a little steeper here but it was the summer solstice and there were 30,000 at nearby Stonehenge that day. We walked to a great nearby pub and had a proper dose of fish & chips, as requested by my Pop. Also managed to polish off the book I started the day before. Songs For The Butcher’s Daughter, best book I’ve read on this journey so far and I highly recommend it.

Tuesday:
We were going to take the double decker tour bus today but got sick of waiting for it so instead we stuck our tongues out at it everytime we saw it in the future and took the regular public transport. We went and saw the Abbey which was stunning, as well as the 5000 hour quilting and illustration project a woman did after being inspired by the Abbey. Went to see the Roman Baths, a little disappointing as a lot of it was added on afterwards for tourists and I’ve now been spoiled by being able to see so many raw ruins in Turkey and Croatia. Still worth seeing though, a lot of history there. Then it was time for Stonehenge, it’s been on our list of things to do since forever. The last time I was in England it was still impossible to get closer than 5km so this was a treat to get within 20ft. There are ways to see inside but right now the private viewings are off the schedule until after all the solstice stuff dies down. During the solstice celebrations you can go right in but I wasn’t into squishing through that crowd with my poor mom. It was better than I imagined, the way the paths have been arranged, you can get an almost completely unobstructed 360 view. From Stonehenge, we visited the village of Lacock where some of the filming for Harry Potter took place and it’s an easy village to modify to be able to go back in time for filming. More exciting for the kids but still interesting. I should note that for anyone who thinks India is smelly, has never driven past a pig farm in the British countryside, smelliest smell I have ever smelled. Also, some of the vineyards in Bourdeaux had a pretty vile stinkyness too, Marie and I would plug our noses and I thought it smelled like blue cheese. After getting back to the hotel, my mom and I took advantage of the 300 long distance minutes I got as a bonus with my sim card and caught up with our nearest and dearest at home.

Wednesday:
My mom and I decided to start our last day with a wall to the city center along the river path. Once in town I found a couple books to take with me to India, not the ones I wanted but at least by the same author so I have high hopes. We took a public bus back to the hotel to get our luggage and took a cab to the train station. Took the train which turned out to be a total gong show. Some thieves had stolen copper from the cables wreaking havoc on the whole train system, entire quadrants of the country could not get through to London. Ours turned out to be the first one let through so we adopted passengers from the other trains that had been stopped. We decided to get off at Reading since we figures Paddington would be a nightmare by the time we got there and from Reading, took an airport bus to Heathrow where we took a hopper bus to the hotel. Were you counting? That’s 6 modes of transport in 6 hours! Back at the hotel, I passed off some stuff to my mom to take to Canada and went to sleep, I have tonsilitis at the moment and need as much sleep as I can get! I suspect my first couple days in India will be a write off. As it’s my last full day in Britain, I would like to expound on how amazing everyone was to us, random people carrying my mom’s suitcase for her, people offering to help us find something when they saw us with a map, actually walking us to where we’re looking for, printing documents for us, I was pleasantly surprised and grateful to find the stereotypes were not true at all, these were some of the most warm, helpful, and considerate strangers I’ve ever come across.

Thursday:
Woke up early to say goodbye to my momma and head to the airport. It was so fantastic to be able to travel with her like this even though I’m sure I drove her nuts half the time, we have different ways of doing things as we come from different villages :) but we managed to get to know eachother better and had a lot of fun. We managed to see everyone we’d hope to and more, gotta keep the expanding family tree connected! Got on the plane and took something to help me sleep, I completely lost about 3 hours of the 9 hour flight which was bonus. The plane was nice, my economy seat was more comfortable than the first class one on Iberia. The throat is surviving but I’m sure it will be terrible once I reach my final destination in another 6 hours. No liquids allowed in carry on at all so I had to pack my throat spray in my pack when I transfered terminals. Called my dad to let him know I had reached Bombay and he was on his way to pick up my mom in Edmonton. Next weeks blog: what to do during monsoon in Goa!

Friday:
Today my mom wasn’t feeling so hot so Marie brought out the crochet project she had started in Canada so that my mom could keep occupied while resting up. Marie and I went to Bordeaux and went down one of the busiest shopping streets and I was in heaven with all the wicked awesome hippie shops and even a shop similar to Blame Betty. I had a hard time not buying everything I saw and managed to be reasonable with a few choice purchases and a few gifts. I have decided that if I ever have need to replace my entire wardrobe, I would be able to do it on this street alone and the places I went were quite reasonable in price too. I gave in to my horrible craving for french fries so we went to McDo’s, sadly they have discontinued the Royale with Cheese that Samuel L Jackson spoke so highly of in Pulp Fiction. Also, it’s insane how much people eat here, I’ve been eating more than usual and was asked if I was on a diet. Marie and I got home and I got Nintendo thumb from playing Wii. Then we ate with the boys staring at the TV for the first world cup game then went back to playing Wii until I got tired of smashing Diddy Kong’s motorbike into walls and falling off cliffs in Mario Kart.

Saturday:
Went to the street market near the house and had the best Churro’s ever, (called Chi Chi’s in France) my mom says they’re even better than the ones in Spain. We all had lunch and said our goodbye’s and as usual, wished we had more time. Marie and Jeremy drove us to the train station, past the prostitutes which are usually out only at night but seem to be out during the day now to help with the recession. We arrived at a town near our destination where my aunt Genevieve picked us up and an hour later were at her chalet in Noirmoutier. Noirmoutier is an island or peninsula depending on the time of day due to the tides. Every 6 hours the road is either cleared or covered by the sea. The chalet is beautiful and very close to a quiet beach and I even managed to score my very own room, first time since my apartment in Seville. We had dinner at the chalet where my cousin Frederic and his sons, Paul and Thomas, joined us and were once again stuffed to the gills. The boys were near asleep during dinner and went back to their own chalet to bed and I went to bed early too (early here is before midnight) and left the grownups to stay up late chatting. It’s wierd that I feel very much like a 14 year old now that I’m traveling with my mother, maybe because I was 14 the last time. I keep having to remember that I’m 30 something with a husband, job and mortgage :)

Sunday:
Today we went to the fish market to get supplies for dinner. So shiny! Probably the fanciest one I’ve seen in all my travels and we picked up some crabs and fish for the cats. Afterwards we went to watch the tide come in and cover the road and saw all the dummies try and go when it was too late and they had to turn around. My poor momma was beside herself worried that the people walking about wouldn’t make it to safety in time but there were fortunately no fatalities today. We went home for lunch and while my mom rested, Genevieve and I went on a hunt for some kittens who were on the lam with their mother so that we could take them to the shelter to get adopted. They were pretty angry as soon as they saw me with the cat carrier and put up quite a fuss and they only managed to catch one of the kittens, I was completely useless but the two ladies managed quite well on their own. One had been abandoned earlier so it was at the neighbours house, leaving us with three kittens and the momma to catch. We put the new catch with it’s sibling and watched them explore their surroundings and play a bit before Genevieve took me and momma on a tour of our little island. It’s only 15km long and 1-7km wide and very picturesque. Went back to the house to meet Christianne who is the mother of my twin nephews who had come to pick them up from my cousin Frederic’s. We had originally counted on 7 for dinner instead of just the girls so we had a massive amount of mussels to go through which we gladly did. We caught some photos of Frederic, Christianne and the boys (16 year old giants, Paul and Thomas) before they left back home for school the next day. The day ended with all but Genevieve exhausted. I had heard rumours of her massive quantities of energy but she has to be seen to be believed. Besides today’s shopping, cooking, driving, cat hunting adventure; the day before, she had driven all over Paris and then to Noirmoutier (4-5 hours) and then to pick us up. The day before that she was jetlagged from the plane coming back from Peru after being stopped by a blockade post Machu Pichu, slept on a bus, and had to walk 10km at a high altitude to her hotel. I should also mention that she is 75.

Monday:
Went to town for more groceries and my mom wanted something for her cough, the rain almost every day that started in Bilbao was taking it’s toll on her. (she’s much better at the time of this writing). We had another fantastic lunch after which I got smacked in the head with my first full-on migraine this trip. My head has hurt a little most mornings but this was the disorienting, dizzy making, sound sensitive, bitchy making, ear ringing kind so I went straight to bed. I got woken up to help at the neighbours with their computer which was a shock to the system, 6 people talking all at once, ouch! I did my duty and went back to bed. Fortunately when I woke up the second time, it was nearly gone, my shortest one ever! After the hell I had in my head most of December and January, I was quite pleased. Also turned out that while I was sleeping there had been a big storm which was likely the trigger. For dinner we ate the giant crabs we had gotten the day before and went to bed stuffed. Seriously, it’s curious that there’s no obesity epidemic here! Every meal is huge with a minimum of 3 courses, I’m usually full after the first but I have to keep eating, first to be polite, second because everything is so good! Most of the food is really fresh with elements from their own and nearby gardens.

Tuesday:
We packed up and said goodbye to Noirmoutier. It wasn’t a terribly sad goodbye as it had been quite chilly so we weren’t going to miss out on the beach, just the beauty. It took us a while to get going because we found out the momma cat that had been taken in to be spayed had to be put down because she had aids. I didn’t even know cats could get it and the neighbour was quite upset about it. We got going and a couple hours in we stopped near Le Mans to visit my cousin Isy, painteuse extraordinaire. Last time I was here, she lived in this super modern flat in the middle of Paris, with crooked walls and doorways. Now she lives on a beautiful lot in the country with a big garden and a massive yard. We had a delicious dinner and a good session of goofing around and catching up before we hit the highway to Antony, a small city on the outskirts of Paris where my aunt Genevieve lives when she’s not at her chalet. We finally arrived just past midnight to several messages from my sister. The papers have been signed and she and the family will be moving to China the day after I arrive from Amsterdam. Also heard news that my very sick in-law is now walking a bit and will be out of ICU soon, though he still has a long road ahead to recovery.

Wednesday:
Woke up to more bad news about the cats, the kittens had aids too and had to be put down. Boo! No more kitties. I got a hold of my cousin Chris’ lady Betty and we made plans to see eachother the following evening. This cousin is from Calgary but living in Paris, no complicated family tree connections for this one, our dad’s are brothers. I saw him last in Mexico for his sister’s wedding, first time in many years. The trick to seeing this mystical cousin of mine is to be abroad. Genevieve took us on a tour of Antony, first to her favorite park, this elaborate location was built as a picnicking and hunting location for the royal family. From there, to her favorite mall where a girl that helped me when I bought a brush that wouldn’t destroy my hair spoke to us in perfect Castillian and loaded me up with samples of French perfume. Time for dinner so we went to my cousin Katrine’s (Frederic’s sister) for dinner at her lovely home with a gated entry. It was my first time meeting her and her husband and we had the privilege of spending the evening of their 31st wedding anniversary with them. As they both work for IBM, there was a laptop that we were able to use to book the next leg of our journey, next stop Newcastle! Got home to call my sister and my mom spoke to a very excited grand-daughter who was confirming her attendance to her 7th birthday party. Her next birthday in Canada might not be until she’s 12!

Thursday:
Last day in France, a great way to start it was to wake up stupid early and not be able to fall back asleep. Did my last load of laundry for a while, including my long pants and hoodie, before realizing it was going to be chilly and rainy all day, oops! Fortunately had a bit of a snooze after lunch before Genevieve took us on a whirlwind tour of Paris by car and there was some kind of protest that made the roads difficult to navigate reasonably but we still managed to drive by all the major sights and take a few token photos, like the pyramid thingy that’s just like in that movie The Davinci Code and there’s a big tall pointy thing that I saw on some t-shirts and stuff. As I’d been here before it wasn’t a big deal to see everything for the sake of seeing things but I’d like to come again and wander for a few days at my own pace in the future, hopefully with a little sunshine. Genevieve dropped us off with plenty of time to meet Chris and Betty, but not enough time to get any interwebs access which we’re starting to feel quite desperate for at this point since we need tomorrow’s flight and terminal info and we’d like to line up a place to stay in Newcastle tomorrow night. It was much easier for me to find Internet cafe’s in India, this last month has been brutal as we’ve had none where we’ve been staying and there have been no cafe’s nearby so it’s just been a couple minutes here and there at someone’s house which is kinda awkward when you’re trying to visit and isn’t really enough time to do any kind of research. Anyways, met with Chris and Betty for a lovely reunion and went for Columbian food, nearly everyone was speaking Spanish and cheering for the Mexican team that was playing France, much to the disgust of the one French couple sitting next to us. My mom and I have been speaking more Spanish in France than we did in Spain and I can tell it’s all starting to blend together for her now as I busted her translating my English into her English to my Spanish speaking French aunt, we switch back and forth without even noticing half the time. We said ‘hasta proximo’ to Chris and Betty with besos and took the train home. I prescribed her Ativan before bed as the day had been rather overwhelming, for me the traffic chaos isn’t so bad as I was in the backseat and I’ve been in India, but for her she was hitting her invisible brakes from the passenger side for a large part of the day and it’s hard work with Genevieve at the wheel :) hoping for some calm in Newcastle for her to recoup a bit before we start doing the stuff we planned.

I now have a lot of chill time in my future as my plans for Kashmir are kaput due to instability in the region so I’m just going to chill in Goa, get my yo-groove back and read some books, I’ve got a list of them to pick up once I’m in English land. Next challenge, find a hotel/hut/hostel during monsoon…

Friday:
Packed up and said our goodbye’s and it was off to Bilbao on the bus. The trip was uneventful and we went to my grandpa’s cousins house, Anna Marie’s. It’s a beautiful home near the Guggenheim that she shares with 3 of her 13 children, Justo Alberto, Juan Carlos and Borja who all take care of her as if she were a queen. Angelinas, her sister has a flat in the same building on the floor above and we found the two ladies at the church across the street. We all chatted and caught up until about 2:00 am, going to bed tired but very happy to be there. Today is also a milestone that marks the fact that I will be on my way home in exactly 2 months, I’ve been traveling for over 100 days so far!

Saturday:
Went to a proper hat shop to check out the famous berets from the region. On the way, there were several street sellers who had someone keeping an eye out for the police, once they were spotted, the signal went and all the sellers quickly grabbed their wares and ran off, tucking everything into large shopping bags to blend in with the crowds. In the hat shop, the fellow was quite entertaining, showing us the different ways of wearing them and their meanings and how to maintain them, quite an expert. His mannerisms were uncannily identical to my teacher Manuel, I was tempted to ask if they might be related but as they were from opposite sides of the country, the chances were very slim. Went back to Anna Marie’s for some excellent basque food, my cousins are quite the cooks! Took a nap before a large family dinner that included my cousin Christina. I remember playing with her at Castro Urdiales when we were younger and she’s the only one who remembered that I could understand, I just couldn’t speak, I had used my sister as a go-between for our conversations back then. Heard some interesting/exciting news from my cousin Angel in Valdemoro, he might be moving to India! He finds out soon and if so, he’ll be there when I go back in a couple weeks, definitely looking forward to updates. I finally learned where the ‘cha’ came from in Natacha, my grandfathers nickname for me. It’s the basque version of ‘ita/ito’ as in Evita, Pablito, etc. My mom explained it to me when I was wondering why my cousins all had names like Nacho (Ignacio) Merche (Mercedes) and Pache (Francisco).

Sunday:
Met Christina in the morning to check out the Guggenheim, it was crazy awesome! The main installations were enough to make you dizzy and the building itself was incredible. One of the artists featured (Kapoor) was the one that made the bean thingy I saw in Chicago a few years back. I love his work, we had the most fun with the mirrors. We stopped for tea afterwards before going to Arceniega to her family’s chalet for an even larger family gathering than the night before. They chose this place so that the little ones had room to run about and play outside. I met my cousin Manu and his girlfriend Marianne who are the only ones who have made it to Canada so far and intend to return. Back at Anna Marie’s, I got to hear a lot of stories about my grandfather when he was younger, like when he would call home to say he was stuck in the snow so he could stay there longer and how much fun he had been whenever he’d visit.

Monday:
In the morning Anna Marie was making cracks about my hair, suggesting that there were several hair dressers nearby, she’s hilarious! My cousin, Izaskun (Itha for short) came over and she, my mom and I went to the hotel where her father, Nacho, had his paintings on display. He does some great work, I took some photos that I’ll put on flickr when I get back. Itha showed us this shop that had great stuff and I was finally able to find a shirt for Max, my goal has been to find him a t-shirt in each country that isn’t touristy but you can’t get anywhere else. We had lunch and met Marianne and several others at the metro at Las Arena’s to go see Puente de Viscaya which my mom hadn’t seen in forever. This meant going up an elevator and being ridiculously high up on a bridge with gaps between the slats so you can see the water a bazillion meters below your feet and a big hanging platform that carries cars back and forth across the water. I should also mention I’m afraid of heights. I survived the walk across, just barely, then at the end we found out we had to go back the way we had come. I somehow managed to survive again which was good, although I almost tripped a few times because I was trying to look ahead and not down and the boards were uneven. We went for a walk near the beach and checked out the amazing homes in the area before going for coffee for 2 hours where I bonded with my aunt Lupe who has a daughter she says is as crazy as me. We went back home (Anna Marie’s) and had more Basque goodness for our bellies.

Tuesday:
Today I climbed a mountain. I’ve been wanting to do this particular climb since I first heard of it when I was little and first saw it when I was a teenager. At the top used to stand a tower where about 800 years ago all but one of my ancestors where slaughtered and burned alive. The one who survived grew up to have his revenge and rebuilt at the base where the manor and tower still stand and are still in the family. My aunt Anna Marie was quite concerned as I would have to go alone and the last part was quite difficult and she had memories of people who had died doing it so I promised I wouldn’t go further than I felt was safe. I’m not an experienced climber by any means but I have crawled around enough rocks to know what I can and can’t handle.

We took the bus to Castro Urdiales and found the start of the path before getting my mom settled with her cousin Angelines and her husband Pepe at thier chalet in the area. The first part of my adventure involved about 2km of walking uphill on switchbacks which started as roads before turning into muddy truck tracks from the tree harvesting machines, not too bad except the steepness was hard on the legs and there was a bit of navigational confusion as the trucks had created new roads that weren’t on google earth which I had photographed to use as a map. I got to the base of the hard part in about an hour and then crossed the field that fortunately was free of the bulls that had been hanging around the last time my cousins had gone up there. I couldn’t find a path so I winged it and started hiking and sometimes crawling around all the rocks that led up to the top and didn’t look down further than my feet to check for proper footing since it was really steep and I’m a big chicken. It wasn’t too hard though, the stuff I was crawling around in Olympus was harder. Made it to the top before I realized it and sat for a while looking over the village and the sea before making my way down again.

This time there were horses in the field below and since I haven’t been around them much and didn’t know how they would react if I got too close, I stuck as close to the trees as possible even though it made my trek a bit more difficult. The horses backed away when they sensed me and just stood staring and kept their distance. As I got further down, the tree eating machines were back at work and there was no way around that was safe from falling trees and the risk of being chewed up by heavy machinery so I stood by the edge until they saw me and stopped work and moved the beast so that I could get past. Then when I was at the old farmhouse close to where I had started a couple hours before, I got stopped by a pissed off guard dog. I’m officially afraid of dogs after Turkey, especially the angry barking kind. I wanted to run but I knew he would chase me and he wasn’t chained up. I literally froze and was minutes away from curling up in a ball and shrieking like a banshee when the lady from the farm heard the racket the dog was making and hollered at him and eventually had to come out and get him because he was so set on having me for lunch.

Got back to the main road and my uncle Pepe came to get me and brought me to the chalet and I had some lunch while the calls were made to all the family that I had come back in one piece. Apparently the crazy Canadian cousin coming to climb El Pico De La Cruz was kind of a big deal because everyone had been talking about it. We went back to Bilbao after waiting over an hour for a bus in the rain because there were two serious accidents that had shut down the highway. Back at Anna Marie’s, my cousin Elenita’s husband, Vincente, was staying upstairs at aunt Angelina’s while in town for business and he and Juan Carlos where being hilarious. These two are quite the pair and we were all laughing late into the night thanks to their combined ridiculousness. It was a good last day in Bilbao.

Wednesday:
After many goodbye’s and thank-you’s, it was time to leave our lovely hostess and hosts. I really hope to see the sisters again, they’re both incredible ladies and there’s something extra special about Anna Marie who is so bent she can hardly walk for the pain yet she always has this blissful grin on her face and is just so happy. She is to me the perfect example of the ideal Saatvik state I learned about at the Ashram.

We bussed it to what we thought was the Spanish side of the French border and it turned out it was the French side, bonjour France! We went past the ticket composting machine and got my moms suitcase full of rocks over to the platform or the train to Bourdeaux. It’s not really full of rocks but it feels like it as she was given limited edition books written about our family history that weigh a ton. Also, it wasn’t a ticket composting machine but it was where we were supposed to validate our tickets as we later discovered from the disgruntled ticket agent, oops. Our cousin Marie-Christine and her beau, Alain, came to pick us up and thankfully this station had a ramp for my mom’s suitcase. This french branch of the family is via my great grandfather’s first marriage and my grandfather is from his second marriage where the line of San Juan De Santa Cruz comes from. At the house, little Marie, who is now 22 and a University student and is just as sweet as ever, was waiting for us with her beau, Jeremy. We ate ginormous meals while conversing in the bizarre mix of French, Spanish and English which is characteristic of our gatherings. We’ll start a sentence in one language, then switch to another with a smattering of the third without realizing it, somehow it just works.

Thursday:
Marie took my mom and I to San Emilion to tour the beautiful little town and had some delicious crepes. The drive through the countryside in her old VW was my highlight though, so many beautiful vineyards! Afterwards, Marie brought out her photos from when she came to Canada to visit 8 years ago and we reminisced. When Marie Christine and Alain got home, we had another fabulous dinner (good thing I’m going back to India to lose the weight I’m putting back on) and I showed them my photos from India until everyone started falling asleep and we called it a night.