Having the Time of Our Lives

Habitat Apartments Balconies 31

Our travel day was fun and event free. We had some tight connections but managed without delays. I realized that I have come to expect airline travel to be miserable. The flights more than often are overbooked, late or cancelled. So what fun to enjoy the day. My weight loss has improved my experience. The past couple of times I have flown, I have been poured in the seat with little room to put down the meal tray. I have only lost 20-25 pounds but what a difference. Now when I drop something I can pick it up. Used to be when I dropped something in an airline seat it might as well have been a million miles away.

I am amazed at the amount of anxiety that travel represents. First you are surrounded by throngs of anxious people. Many seem worse off than us as you watch them check and recheck their boarding passes. But on the other hand, many are far cooler than us as they nonchalantly listen to an overhead page that sends Lorena and I into a scramble, “what did they say?, what did they say?”. One anxiety producer is keeping up with your belongings. I thought I had left a scarf on the plane and it felt like the end of the world. I could not get perspective, it was not my passport only a scarf that I was not sure I liked anyway. I would not let Lorena console me. I felt like it was end of the world. Only Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art” seemed to help. Of course the wild card in the anxiety bonanza is jet lag. Lorena and I both slept on the plane but the time difference still disorients and confuses.

Kitty Blogs

We have a different apartment from our previous stays. Same building but new apartment. One of the main reasons for the switch is my need for an improved kitchen. The kitchen in the old apartment was miserable and this new apartment not only has a nicer kitchen but it has the old tile floors and ceilings. But I miss the old apartment. It is fun to analyze. Is it just the change? Not wanting to cope with the unfamiliar. What exactly do I miss? The old apartment had a more open floor plan and it faced a quieter street. The tile floors give this apartment a cold feeling which I am sure is welcome in the hot weather but not in a January chill. It will be interesting to see how we feel as the week goes by.

Everything went easily getting here, though connections were tight.. We had thought we’d be able to eat before getting on the plane, and again thought we’d have breakfast in Charles de Gaulle, so we didn’t eat until about 2:00PM European time (just 8:00AM EST).

It’s probably just as well as we had the appetite our big meal demanded. It was totally satisfying. We played it easy and went to an old favorite around the corner, La Flauta II.

Kitty at La Flauta II

It draws quite the local lunch crowd. Their menú del día is 15 EUR.

Kitty had fish for first and second courses (they were both amazing).

Pescaditos Fritos

Cod with Honey Sauce

I thoroughly enjoyed my salad and “Angry Eggs” (eggs over potato and onion fries with sauce). Desert and wine. All for about $18.00.

Angry Eggs

Classic Flan

Our first priority was getting my phone card renewed. Then we shopped for basics at the grocery store in part because we had no pull cart–yet. Food basics tonight included one bottle of Cava and a liter of water along with clementines, fresh bread and butter. I took an early evening jaunt down to the Born. I saw a notice on the bus about a St. Anthony’s parade tomorrow. I vaguely remember something about a horse-drawn carriage, so my plan is to rise early and do my best to track it down.

Café American

This has been a great start. It seems to bode well. I suspect we are, as Lizzie suggested, having the time of our lives, even as we balance our exuberance with contemplations of loss.