We stumbled across a huge record store. It was massive. Each floor was filled with individual music stations where you could preview a selection of CDs. The stations were equipped with nice big headphones that blocked out noise. I could listen to the CDs undistracted by the hum of the crowds around me. And when I choose a song to preview, it was not the first 30 seconds. I could listen to the entire song. I went from station to station for hours listening to music: discovering new albums, getting energized by familiar songs, and searching for the earworm song from Gandia. 🎵 Please don’t go, please don’t go, please…

I watched the changing scenery from my train window as we headed into the Alps. There was no denying the rugged mountains were stunning. We even had a great view of the snow capped peaks from our hostel. But after sunny Spain and the excitement of Barcelona, the cool weather and tranquil mountain town was an adjustment. The small town of Chamonix was pretty quiet. Many hiking trails were still closed for the season. Instead, we immersed ourselves in the majestic Alps the easy way. We crammed into a cable car with a tour group to try to get a glimpse of Mont Blanc. The blizzard at the top completely…

Picnics were commonplace for Sarah and I over the course of our travels. Bread and cheese was our sustenance. Many picnics were not ideally located, or were soggy as we sought shelter in a train station, huddled under a tree, or perched on a park bench. Most quite frankly are long forgotten. A glorious picnic is a different story. It warrants some wistful reminiscing. In Châteauneuf-du-Pape I wrote “we had a picnic the way I imagined our picnics to be”. We headed out into wine region from our base in Avignon. It was early spring, the vines were spindly and the earth dry and pebbly. There were no grapes on…

Carcassonne was our next overnight stay after our castle hangout in Marseille. We stopped at Arles on the way, travelling with Caren who we met at the hostel. Arles is where “we learned the french way to eat lunch…prolonged”. I had a delicious crêpe at a snug and relaxed crêperie tucked into a narrow street. We continued the leisurely pace stopping to watch some men play Pétanque before getting on our train to Carcassonne. The board game Carcassonne looks strikingly like the real Carcassonne Cité. Look at an arial view and the resemblance is uncanny. Carcassonne is a wonderfully preserved medieval walled city. The double set of walls, an impressive…

As a backpacker, I felt part of a family of sorts: a peripatetic family. I would meet someone in one city and then run into them in another. We were all hopscotching along, making our own route, but sometimes our squares would overlap. International Youth hostels provided a common space to meet other travellers, or have surprise repeat encounters. Our first youth hostel was a castle, the 19th century Chateau du Bois-Luzy in Marseille. The three storey stone building was at the top of a hill, a large picnic area offered great city views and the grand foyer had ornately patterned marble floor. At the hostel, we met Phil, an…

Imagine a tiny village. A jumble of crumbling stone buildings. Perched impossibly high on the hillside. Clinging to the side of the rock. Higgledy-piggledy cobblestone streets. Beautiful old plazas. Ancient water fountains. This was Peille. Peille was not on our map. Not in our guidebook. There was no train station in Peille. You needed a car to get there. It was a day we did not plan. We had a guide. We stayed with Sarah’s cousin in Monaco. She was a gracious host. She and her friend drove us to the small village of Peille, a mere 17 kms away, but another world. I remember it felt unreal, like a…

We gazed at the spread of crusty bread, two kinds of cheese, yogurt, strawberries and a bottle of Sylvaner white wine in our small budget hotel room. We made it. The tearful goodbyes from the mothers, the long overnight flight, one Bette Midler movie For the Boys, the Jelly Bellies from our friends, an unexpected stopover in London, two missed buses at the Nice Côté d’Azure airport, a closed tourist office. We were in Europe. The first day of our three and half month backpacking trip. My friend Sarah and I had been planning this trip for months. With high school done, we were ready to take on the world!…