Day 2 (Friday)
I woke up to a sore body, all the walking, dragging of my luggage from yesterday and the reality of a back fired trip all met up in one place – my bed . Food was my temporary consolation. I didn’t even have the energy to walk outside. I decided to work on an article I had started and also finish up some other work.
Elsie called me later in the day to confirm that she couldn’t find any other flight apart from the one on Sunday morning. She unfortunately did not find her bags and had accepted her fate. This also meant I was to stay at the apartment for 2 extra nights. It was not budgeted for but what other option did I have ? Just glad I wasn’t out in the cold street.
I honestly spent the better part of the day in bed with intervals of siestas and eating. Later that evening, I went for the New Year’s Eve mass and returned to the comfort of my then couch. Proud to say I got some work done. I did a few video calls later with my family and my boyfriend called just before New Year’s so I also stayed up to wait for New Year on his side and ended up catching some sleep at 6am.
Day 3 (Saturday)
I don’t want to say I woke up psyched but then the sun was calling. So I chose to take the chance and walk outside see what the town looks like. I got to know my surrounding, walked to the beach, amusement park and in town a bit. By this time the Christmas market was not fully open aside from like 1 or 2 stands that opened for a few hours.
I got to see the port though no one was sailing at this time. By the time I was walking back to my apartment it was already dark and the night ferries were already sailing away on the Mediterranean waters. I was on time for the evening mass, I honestly liked the fact that I was like a stone throw away from the cathedral, before ordering some Spaghetti Bolognaise as take out.
I had a somewhat early night since Elsie was to be back the following morning to pick me up once she got to the island.
Day 4 (Sunday)
Once I received a call from Elsie that she had landed is when I started getting ready. I turned on the TV and found mass being live streamed. I found this rather odd considering the whole laicite rule. It was some church in the north of France that was really lively and for the first time I heard a song we sing back home at my local church ‘eeh fumue’.
It did not take me long to be done before Elsie arrived. We first went to her apartment which had almost the same architecture as the house in which Napoleon was born. The house is like a straight hallway with the kitchen and living room at the 2 far ends and rooms opposite each other on the corridors. There was of course the ancient furniture too and paintings. With all our excitement we made what looked close to ugali because we mixed Maizena and Soko Ugali – French and Kenyan maize flour respectively, as we caught up on the last 8 years of our lives apart.
Later in the afternoon Elsie showed me around town little and we ended up visiting Grotte Napoléon, found on the west side of Place d’Austerlitz which was believed to be Napoleon’s refuge place when he was little. There was also a great view of the island from the top on the statue. we walk down and ended up by the beach as we made our way back to the house. it was almost six, but we had enough time to eat and walk to the ferry which was leaving at half past seven. at least we made the ending worthwhile.
As the ferry sailed off two things really profoundly stood out at the back of my mind; it is always good to have backups aside from this I think I was strongly reminded how as man we plan and build all these castles and create our own ending but on the contrary God is the utmost planner. with that said I think I will take a long sabbatical from planning anything for new years until further notice…
