La Vie En Corse

You know how your family members like to corner you with hours of vacation photos? Yeah, well....I'm totally guilty of that for the past few weeks.  My apologies to those of you wanting posts about training. Let me assure you, those posts will return! But for now I'm soaking up every minute of my European Tour and want to let you all follow along for my journey. 

My current stop? Corsica. Otherwise known as Corsi-ohhmyfreakinggoodnessitisgorgeoushere-ca. I'm so incredibly fortunate because I have a friend who lives here and she invited me to come spend some time with her family. And we all know you see the real side of a country when you get to spend time with residents. And, wow. What a Corsican experience I've had. 

Yesterday we drove to the town of Bonifacio. When I was a child, I read this book series Dinotopia. It was a fantasy series about this town where humans and dinosaurs lived together. There was this amazing walled city that was just gorgeous. I remember having recurring dreams about that place when I was a child.  Yesterday, I found the city:

Bonifacio is a walled city that was originally built in the 9th Century. Yes people, that would be the 800s. But the city has been around longer than that. Bonifacio was visited by Ulysses and it was here that he wrote the giants threw stones at him.  I understand why! They wanted to keep the beauty of this place a secret! These pictures, taken with the cheapest camera I could find before I left, can't even begin to capture the beauty of this place. 

After un pain de chocolat we wandered to the city to visit a family friend. He's an artist who dives up to 300ft for this amazing red coral that grows only in this region. He harvests the coral himself and then creates one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. I have this thing with rings where I only have rings from places I've visited, and when I saw this ring I knew it would represent my European tour:

The jeweler then invited us for an aperot, which are drinks before meals. We sat at this little cafe and had a lengthy discussion about politics and life (well, they had the discussion. I listened and understood most of it but I'm still really shy about speaking French since I know it's so bad). Halfway through the aperot the second in command to the mayor came and we got to hear all the town gossip about corruption and scandal and all things fabulous.  The whole time I kept thinking: this is something most tourists never get to experience. 

     Where we got an earful of town gossip

In the afternoon we had lunch (preceded by another aperot, bien sur!) and then headed into the mountains for more Corsican beauty. In the mountains we found shepherd villages and amazing views and fountains coming right out of the mountain with some of the best tasting water I've ever experienced. 

After we got home it was time for another (surprise surprise!) aperot with some family friends at their villa. Man, I could get used to this life. We had another amazing dinner where I tried desperately to follow along to the speedy cadence of the French from the Corsicans. We had dinner with a family from the Reunion Islands and we had an amazing meal of duck followed by traditional French pastries and homemade Lychee and Orchid rum (with Lychee from their garden on Reunion and an orchid that is only grown on Reunion Island).

The next morning I went for a jog on the property and down to town. It's simply breathtaking here. The place and the people put Hawaii to shame!

Such an amazing experience here. Corsican beauty, Corsican food, Corsican life..c'est tres magnifique!

Cycling in Denmark

If you've ever been to Denmark, you are well aware of the fact that these Danes cycle everywhere. It is quite possibly the world's cycling utopia.  There are special bike lanes, special bike traffic lights, tire pumping stations, and (until very recently) you could leave your bike anywhere unlocked and not have to worry about theft. In some places there are more cyclists than motorists!

After watching all these bikes for the past two weeks, I was itching to go on a ride. Sunday morning I was blessed with the prettiest day since I arrived and a day off work! Bike ride, here I come!  The only problem? I didn't pack cycling gear. I didn't pack a helmet, and I didn't pack my bike.  So, what did I do? Running tights, jeans, and rain paints on the bottom, Brooks longsleeved shirt, Brooks quilted vest, my $12 thrift store winter parka score, a scarf, a hat, and my Brooks gloves on top (it was cold, yo!) My ride? Well, I had to borrow one of the lab's bikes:

I put the hand pump in the back (yes, I was a wee bit nervous about doing a long ride with no spare tube or cell phone), an orange, an energy bar, some water, and my trusty map in the front:

And with that, I was off on my adventure! It was amazing. The sights and sounds.  I felt like I was in a movie. Every minute I kept saying "you've got to be kidding me! Can it get any more perfect?" I had no idea where I was but was completely fine with it. Things just kept getting cuter and cuter.

In one small village, I came upon a stand of apples from the family tree.  I just had to stop and buy some.

(After this picture was taken a litter of kittens came out and rubbed against my legs. I wasn't kidding when I said things kept getting cuter and cuter). 

After I bought the apples, I had about 15 pounds of applies split between my front and back basket. I must have looked pretty ridiculous cruising down the road loaded with apples and pedaling furiously (at least for a cruiser bike) at 80 rpm.  I got some strange looks from cyclists on real road bikes, but I didn't care. I was having my Danish adventure!

In the end I rode about 40 miles, and I was exhausted! Carrying all that weight was more taxing than I thought, and it made me really miss my tri bike.  But I was in much need of a good workout, because just a few days earlier we had this for a party of 6 people:

(The sad face of a Frayed Laces who ate too much)

If you ever decide to visit Denmark and do some cycling, make sure you know the rules or you could get a $100 fine!