Corsica day 1: Ferry ride, drive through the mountains

Hello everyone! We just spent a week in Corsica and didn't have easy email access in our place. I'm copying from my journal to save some time :)

I knew very little about Corsica, other than that it belonged to France (but used to be part of Italy) and that it was a large, mountainous island.

Corsica is wild and magnificent and stunning. It has a grandeur and scale rivaling, often exceeding, that of the Canadian Rockies.

So let's turn to our first day: taking the 6-hour ferry to Corsica and driving 3 hours through the mountains:

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Sunday, April 26, 2015

We packed and cleaned all day Saturday and all morning on Sunday. We got off plenty early, with time to pick up some food for the long boat ride. The kids were quite excited to go on the ferry.

I was used to the smaller ferries that run between Duluth and Madeleine Island, so this one was a surprise. I was expecting rows of benches and 5 ½ hours of bored children. Instead, there were several decks of various lounge and activity spaces, from an open-air deck with a pool (freezing cold water, though) to several restaurant/bar areas, to couches, to game rooms.

We spent almost the whole time in the family room; it had a ball pit and climbing gym. The kids played and climbed and ran for over 5 hours straight, with breaks to only eat dinner and go pee. So the ferry ride went quickly.

I was hoping they would be completely exhausted and sleep once we started driving from Bastia to Porto, but no luck. The drive took 3 hours, even longer than anticipated.

At first it was pretty quick going, even when we headed into the mountains. But after we passed Francardo and turned onto the D84, the road turned narrow and winding. We could go no faster than 30-40 kms/hr the rest of the way.

And of course, the puking started. 3 big pukes in a row, starting with Inga and then Ivy and then Zari. Ivy puked a few more times total. I think it was 5 total but I lost count.

We arrived at 10:45 pm. We’re in an apartment at the bottom floor of a hotel. We have two large terraces and a garden.

This picture was taken a different day, obviously!! 

And a magnificent view of the valley and mountains.



The sea is just a kilometer away, not quite visible from our place but visible from a higher story in the hotel.



The apartment is bare-bones: white tile floors, the cheapest, most minimal furnishings, a kitchen with mismatched glasses and plates. No chopping knives, no cutting board, lots of things missing from the appliances. There’s a food processor minus the motor part, and a mixer minus the motor part.

There are 2 bedrooms: Zari, Dio, and Inga are a the large one with a double bed and a twin bed. We put Ivy in with us. We got the kids to bed after midnight, since they had a rush of energy and decided they needed a snack. We fell into bed right around 1 am. Ivy slept until 6:30 am, and I couldn’t get her back to sleep after that.