Memories #4 (Travel)

We have been very fortunate to have travelled to a lot of great places so of course I would have some travel stories. I will start off with my most memorable/odd ones first.

-My first one starts off in Paris 2019, we went with a group of friends during Bastille Day celebrations and it was epic!!! This story though is about me and Dan and a sight seeing day. Dan wanted to see the stadium and take a tour of where Paris St Germain plays, Parc des Princes and I wanted to go to Père Lachaise Cemetery to see where a lot of the great artists were buried. They were semi close to each other and really easy to get to via the train so we decided to start off going to Parc des Princes. We get to the train station and the ones we had been to before always had an attendant but this time the box was empty where they would be, ok no biggie I was going to google where to get off then figure out how much we needed to add to a train card. A guy suddenly pops out of nowhere with a train tag on and seems legit so he asks us if we need help. I tell him where we want to go and he pushes the buttons and we add our credit card and the tickets print and I put away our credit card away and get our tickets. He then went to help another couple and we walk away as I get all my zippers closed in my purse. I should note when we travel I carry my purse with lots of zippers and put Dan’s wallet in it with our IDs, money, and credit cards. He only ever has his phone on him and I carry everything because I am way more alert and paranoid so I am basically always hugging my purse. Anyways, we go walking down to catch the train the guy had told us to go and this other guy comes and chases us then shows us a police badge. He immediately tells us the guy who helped us is a thief and a known pick pocketer so to check if we have all of our possessions. Dan checked and he still had his phone, we only wear our wedding bands when we travel and we both had those on, the guy tells us again to check if we have our money and credit cards, so I hide behind Dan and carefully open my purse and check if the wallet is there with our 2 credit cards and they are and I tell the police officer I have everything. He then asks again if I am sure I have everything and again I say yes and hug my purse tightly. He then runs around the whole train station seemingly looking for this pick pocketer and when we get on the train, me and Dan then start to question who was the real thief. They both seemed legit and were nice enough but one of them was definitely fake or were they both working together? It is like what came first the chicken or the egg story, whenever I bring it up me and Dan laugh about it and we both create different theories. In fact today, I told Dan it was the police officer, he asked me way too many times to check if I had everything and Dan still thinks it was the attendant since he just popped up out of nowhere. We will never know though, but it did leave us with a good story and thank goodness nothing of ours was taken. We enjoyed our day sight seeing and when we went back to the same train station later in the night neither one was around.

-Next one consists of our first time in Rome we went on a day trip to see Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. It is still my favorite day trip to this day and it was all thanks to our amazing tour guide, Luca. I will never forget first laying eyes on him, we had to meet in a square at like 6am, I am standing there trying to look for a sign or a group of people so I could ask if this was the correct tour, but a guy suddenly bumps into me. He apologizes and I smell him, reeks of alcohol and has a huge busted lip, I was like OMG and asked if he was ok and if he needed anything, he smiles and I see the blood and he is like no I am fine. He asks if I am looking for anything and I say the tour name and he exclaims that’s his tour! The people around us heard him and we all gather around. He tells us to get any snacks from this store in the square and to meet inside the bus that was pulling in. We get snacks and settle in, another tour guide Danielle gets on too. They take roll call and after they count us, Luca starts off by telling us what to expect and where we are going. After he finishes, he tells us to relax because our first coffee break won’t be for awhile and to just sleep. I do and I will never forget how he woke us up, a creepy “WAKEY WAKEY” (Dan wakes me up like this sometimes and it cracks us up in the morning thinking of the sheer creepiness of it because of the tone Luca used.) Anyways, we get out and it is a cute coffee shop so we all get coffees and sweet bread, use restrooms, and there are more tours there too. Luca comes in with his busted lip and sweater wrapped around him real preppy with aviators on and yells at us “ok, 5 min, meet at the bus.” I am waiting for Dan who went to use the restroom at the coffee bar, when another tour group comes in, this man was really upset and screaming in Spanish “where’s the sugar” He had the lisp like Spaniards so I think he was from Spain, but he was getting really upset and kept banging on the counter and yelling. I speak fluent Spanish so I told him “sir, the sugar is right there” He looked over, saw it, broke into a huge smile, and thanked me profusely. I was a little confused why he needed sugar so badly but happy he found it. Dan came out and was like who was that man and I was like I don’t know but he seems to love sugar as much as me so he is my friend. We had to leave so I waved good bye to my sugar friend. We get on the bus and Luca and Danielle tells us more information about Pompeii and what to expect. As we are sitting on the bus, I hear Danielle and Luca talking about the night before and from what I could make out Luca was flirting with some woman and some guy, maybe boyfriend, got mad and they had a fist fight. Apparently, the other guy looked worse with two black eyes so Luca having a busted lip was nothing. I tell Dan and we start creating a wild story about his night to keep us entertained. I can’t remember if we had lunch next or visited Pompeii but either way when we get to lunch, it is at another cute place and our lunch was very good. During lunch, Dan makes eye contact with me and points towards Luca, I follow his gaze and see Luca flirting up a storm with the waitress. Dan and I giggle knowing what happened the night before and now see Luca was a huge flirt. He had the waitress laughing in stitches and lots of touching. We leave and the waitress gives Luca her number. Again, I don’t remember the order if it was lunch first then the sites or the sites then lunch but either way our bus gets divided into 2 groups. Both groups will have their own private tour guide and Danielle would be with one and Luca in the other. I pray we get Luca and so happy we did. Leading up to our official tour guide, Luca told us wild stories of Pompeii and then of the Mafia, it was so entertaining. We get to our guide and Luca offers to the group to be our photographer! It was really nice and I thought for sure they all did that, but I found out later from the other group Danielle did not offer that and Luca took some great pictures of us. When we visited Mount Vesuvius he was again our photographer and took some amazing ones with us in the clouds and told us to pick up some rocks from the volcano since those are the best souvenirs and he was so right! I was sad when our tour ended and wish I had asked for a picture with him. He was just so entertaining, so sweet and nice and I wouldn’t learn about how bad some tour guides could be until later in life and I often think of Luca and me and Dan joke we should have named one of our sons after him because he was just that memorable. He was one of the many reasons we loved Italy and we tried looking for the exact tour to do it again this time around but Dan couldn’t find it. I am hoping I can will the world to stumble upon Luca when I am in Rome and will have my eyes peeled for him.

-Speaking of willing the world, this next adventure takes us to Mexico. I went with my best friends to the Yucatan, twice, once for my bachelorette party trip and the other for one of my best friend’s Michelle’s bachelorette trip. On my bachelorette, my friends organized an amazing tour to visit Chichén Itzá, swim in cenotes, and zip line through the jungle. This was an amazing excursion and one I tell everyone to do if they are visiting the Yucatan area. Our driver was Diego and our tour guide was Murux. Diego, was the best driver, sweet, and soft spoken. This was a private tour so it was just us girls and them and when we get together we are all loud and obnoxious so the fact they put up with us was a blessing. When they picked us up at the hotel I noticed Murux kept staring at me, I didn’t think too much of it because when we all get together people for some reason tend to stare and I have yet to figure out why but him staring wasn’t a big deal. He asks us why we are there and my friends tell him I am getting married, he congratulates me and we get into the bus. I sit in the middle and Murux sits next to me. I didn’t think too much of it because I was just going to sleep on the drive. As we first head to Chichén Itzá, he starts telling us his past love life and then looks at me and tells me I look exactly like his lost love Selmie. He couldn’t get over the uncanny resemblance and then asked if I was Mayan, I told him I was Mexican, but I didn’t know my exact ancestry. He claimed he was certain I was Mayan because of my bone structure. Anyway, he starts telling us his childhood and about his past love and I fall asleep. I wake up to him tapping my arm and telling me we are at the first coffee/snack stop. After that we head to Chichén Itzá and it was amazing!! He took a million pictures of us and told us amazing history of the area and of course of the Mayans. We then swam in the cenotes, zip lined through the jungle, and he also took us to see another Mayan ruin Ek’ Balam. Later that night, Cam was looking at the pictures and she noticed he took a bunch of just me. We all had a good laugh and couldn’t believe I looked like his past love. Anyways, fast forward a year later, Michelle decided she wanted to go to the Yucatan again for her bachelorette trip. We plan another excursion but this time we go to Tulum to see those ruins and to swim with the sea turtles. As we are in Tulum, I casually mention wouldn’t it be crazy if we saw Murux here giving a tour? I start looking around and just like magic Murux appears in front of us. We all scream his name and run towards him and our poor tour guide is like what the hell since we basically ditched him. We all hug Murux, ask how Diego is, and take pictures with him. No one could believe we saw him again and it is funny how the world works sometimes. I truly believe if you ask out loud earnestly the world will align itself to make it happen if it can. Both trips were a lot of fun and great memories with my besties.

-last one for today, this one was in Spain. I love Dali and since we were in Barcelona we looked up a tour to visit Dali’s home and studio in Figueres. Dan managed to find one and booked it. We get to the meeting place and meet our tour guide for the day, Carlos. He somewhat reminded me of Luca, but he wasn’t as nice. Anyways, our first stop was a city named Girona, it was ok and had great history but my main focus and excitement was seeing Dali stuff. Our tour guide Carlos, didn’t really care for the group so he just would drop us off and wait on the bus and then gather us and do a head count. Finally, on our way to Figueres our bus’s AC breaks! It was over 100 degrees at this point and we were all dying inside. We finally make it to the city and Carlos gets us out, points in a general direction and tells us we have 2 hours to explore the city on our own as he will go back to get the bus fixed or bring a whole new bus. We were all lost and confused but whatever, we make the best of it. Thankfully, at this point I have learned to always pack deodorant, an umbrella, snacks, and a water bottle so we were fine. We find Dali’s home and studio and it was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be!! It filled my imagination with wonder, awe, and beauty, I definitely plan to go back one day. After we finished that museum, we realized we spent all of our time there so we didn’t have a chance to go further into the city, but we sat down for a quick bite before the bus was suppose to come. We walk back to the bus meeting area and we thought we missed the bus since not a lot of people were around but there was another couple and they said they had been there for awhile and never saw Carlos, so we didn’t miss anything. Where we had to wait had no shade so thank goodness I brought my umbrella because it was nearing 120 degrees and it was a blessing to have it while we waited and waited. Another hour goes by and Carlos finally comes back with a new bus and working AC. Our group looks smaller than before and he tells us all to get in because we are late. He counts us like 10 times, mutters in Spanish we are missing 5 people and after sitting and thinking he tells the bus driver to go!!!!!! WHAT?? A lady asks him if the people missing will find a way back and he says he thinks they went on another bus, but there was no other bus!! We all waited in the same area and saw no other bus come or go. The bus pulls away and after we all nag him to make sure they got on a bus so he goes through the list and calls them. They tell him they are still in Figueres and he tells them he will send a bus to pick them up. After he hung up, he never called anyone else! Again, we asked him if he was going to send a bus and he said he will just go back after dropping us off and get them. We tell him to just turn around now because it is so hot no point in making them wait. He insists it is too late to turn around and no where to actually turn around so we head back to Barcelona. He drops us off, no good bye, just get out, and he hopefully headed back to get the missing people. We love comparing Luca and Carlos in our memories and wonder how they are both doing.

Anyways, I still have more travel stories but they are all random and will be for another day. I am getting so excited for my Rome trip! We only have 1 day trip planned this time around since we don’t want to bounce around too much with the virus still around, but I hope our tour guide will be very entertaining and memorable. It is a smaller group so hopefully no one is too boring. I think this is where me and Dan have different opinions. He loves smaller, more private and intimate tours and I love the big buses and crowds of people. There is just so many people to watch, observe, and learn about and I love talking to everyone and hearing their story and where they came from, whereas Dan likes to just sit and relax and observe. Ahhh, either way, I am counting down the days until we leave and can’t wait!