(click for big – this one I’m really proud of)

 

We’re back from our epic (to us) 21 day trip to Europe. We got home yesterday at about 4pm, suffered through 3 hours of laundry and a quick bite of neighbourhood sushi, and then were in bed at 6:45pm last night. Up at 5am today.

As you followed, the first ten days were in Italy – Tuscany, Florence, Barolo…

Then, as we arrived in Paris to begin the ten day French leg of our journey, the blog went silent. Well, I have three good reasons why:

– France and its 2,700 km adventure were work-related, and the schedule was horrendous. Up no later than 7 each day and in bed no sooner than midnight each night. Add in the travel via bus, team of 30 that travelled with me, plus meals and wine. Exhaustion reigned.

– blogging by iPad is not fun. The typing is not easy, though manageable; but add to this infrequent wi-fi connections and inopportune hours to write.

– I lost my iPhone 4S in a taxi-cab on our 2nd night in Paris. Just happened to be wearing trousers with shallow pockets (as is apparently the design these days – thanks Etro) and had a certain someone on my lap as we fit more than enough people in the vehicle… We scurried out once back at our hotel that night and away went my phone, not noticed for an hour, and by then way too late to do anything about. For two hours I called various French taxi numbers, but the receipt left no idea of what company it was, nor a contact number. So I was shooting in the dark.

Thus, with little time and no camera that could instantly upload to my photo stream, the blog concept was abandoned. I was only mad/frustrated/down for a day or two. I hate (read: HATE) losing things, since I have a streak of OCD in me. While a phone can be replaced, I think of it more as a knock against myself: my ability to control things around me and my own destiny. It drives (and indeed drove) me crazy. But I got over it.

The only other thing I lost was one of the two plug-in adaptors for Europe, which were $2.97 each, and we were able to get by with one, so no big deal really, though an expletive or two might have been aired at the time.

Otherwise France was great. I will update more soon, once the cobwebs of a full day of travel and 8 hour time difference are cleared, not to mention the mountain of “due tomorrow” work in front of me.