I am tired. Not hopelessly so. This isn't your average drop-dead exhaustion, or falling asleep on my feet kind of tiredness. Just the slow sneaky kind that creeps up on you and makes you sigh and want to just stop for a little bit.
My break ended with a short trip to New Haven before I headed to Nantes, which is where I am now. Happens to be in France, as old readers of this blog might recall, because I've been here before :). But before I get too far ahead of myself, New Haven. The trip had a sense of symmetry I suppose. When I travelled to the US the first time, it had been my first destination, and now when I left, it was my last. And all of this in less than twelve months. The boat's on its way out of the Gulf and who knows when I'll be heading back. Soon, let's hope.Meeting up with old friends after a long time can get you to thinking. I think it is the snapshot-effect thing. You see them after a long time and the changes brought on by the years are more apparent, and it goes both ways. There are always changes. Which is where I start wondering.
Dinners and walks. One awesome barbecue night! A run, a proper run, up and down quiet roads on a bright Saturday morning, a first in about a year! :) Roaring conversations, quiet chats... It's comforting to know that in the midst of all these comings and goings some places will remain familiar, some faces dear.
Flying through Philly was all drama though! Weather and small airports, I was asking for some trouble I guess, but in the end it all worked out, so that was good. It just left me very very sleep deprived and exhausted when I did finally reach Nantes.
In the two years since my last visit, it would appear people in general have gotten friendlier :). Or maybe it's just the difference between the far-flung outskirts we were staying in last time, and the middle of down town, which is where we are staying this time. Good choice, definitely. I've never seen such a dense distribution of restaurants, bars, pubs, creperies, kebab shops and a zillion other forms of food sellers anywhere else!
But I find myself somewhat disinclined from being touristy right now. A few leisurely walks around the castle and the cathedral were all we bothered with. I guess the rather wild guided tour of the rum bars in town rather late into the night in the middle of the week would count as quite interesting :).
I've been slacking off with the photos. I know this, but I'm just too... I don't know. I'm sure I'll get to them at some point, it's not like they're running away. I'm actually looking forward to sort of getting to Asker and vegetating for a little bit. Which is ironic, 'cos when I think about it, there's not much else that I've done this break but vegetate :). I know what it is. It's all this arriving and leaving. Mostly the leaving. I know this of course, but true to form I will deftly tuck it under a bunch of other stuff in a small acute angled corner of my head. Like one of these French apartment buildings, you know what I'm talking about? The ones that are like a wedge of cheese. Cooped up between two streets and ending up with one wall that's shrunken down to an edge. Imagine living in a room at that end. Three walls, all acute corners, no right angles, everything altogether too sharp.
Currently: brooding in this beautiful summer weather
Listening to: Marketa Irglova - The hill
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