GR20, Corsica Part II: I Would Rather Starve

Getting to Corsica can be an adventure in itself. I was traveling from Frankfurt, Germany to Ajaccio, Corsica which I thought would be an easy trip since Frankfurt is one of the main hubs in Europe. However, any time you have to fly through Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, don't. I have no idea who created the layout for this mess of an airport, but every time I have to travel through here, I overdose on macarons since it is the only thing that keeps me sane.

Last year I had decided to visit a friend that I had met during my deployment to Afghanistan. He was a pilot in the French Army, and stationed in a remote little town in the South West of France called Pau. I will be the first to say that this is truly one of the most beautiful areas I have seen in my life. The town of Pau itself is charming, but it is the countryside around it that is spectacular. Flying into the Pau airport, you are gifted with a breathtaking view of the Pyrenees. Perfectly situated just outside the Basque Country, Pau is an hour drive to the mountains in one direction, and an hour's drive to the beaches of Biarritz in the other. If it wasn't for the pain of traveling there, I would go more often.

Charles de Gaulle is set up where no matter which terminal you fly into, you will have to take a bus for a connection. In the case of Pau, landing in 2F and needing to go to 2G sounds a lot easier than it is. 2G is, at least this is what it felt like at the time, on the completely other side of Paris (ok, it is really only about a 20 min bus ride, but I do not need to continue to explain my love of exaggeration). SO when booking my flight to Ajaccio, I didn't pay any attention to my itinerary until I was standing confused in Paris. Unbeknownst to me there are two airports in Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly which is literally an hour away by bus if there is no traffic. So, with my thousand pound backpack and a box full of Ladurée macarons, I hopped on the bus to Orly.

Although my flight to Paris was just over an hour, and the flight from Paris to Ajaccio was only 30 minutes longer, it took me 12 hours to link up with Tania in Corsica. I arrived at the Hotel Napoleon (Ajaccio is the birthplace of Napoleon, hence the name of our hotel) at 2030 that evening to find Tania passed out on the bed, drool dripping down the side of her face. She had flown all the way from Texas, so I could forgive the lack of welcome party. She woke up guns blazing, thinking I was an intruder, and I almost pissed my pants. If I haven't mentioned this before, Tania scares me. As my mother so eloquently put it when I told her I would be doing this hike with Tania, "Don't try and keep up and don't let her boss you around! We all know Tania is both physically and mentally stronger than you are."

Cowering in the corner, arms raised to protect my face to the inevitable ass kicking that is fit for an intruder, Tania realized that it was just me and relaxed her death stance. "Oh my G-d!!!" she screamed as I jumped on the bed, giving her my biggest bear hug. We spent the next hour giggling, catching up and talking about the trip. She showed me her bag, and we went over our supplies for the next 10 days.

Tania and I had talked a lot about food rations and gear, and we had decided that she would carry the tent and cooking supplies, and I would carry the food. She walked over to the closet and pulled out a box full of food. She had organized it in a way that there were three bags: breakfast, snacks and dinner. I had already contemplated pushing Tania off the side of the mountain due to my heavy bag, but as I lifted the food that I was going to be carrying, the risk to her life increased significantly. The weight of my bag has increased about 8-10 pounds (no joke- I weighed it later at the train station). This new addition has brought my bag to a whopping 40 pounds!

I put the bag on my back and pranced around the room before looking at Tania with pure hatred. "I would rather starve."

She thinks I am joking and laughs at me. All I can think is how this is going to suck...

Our bags looking innocent...looks can be deceiving