Hendaye, France

And then I was in France, a country I’ve long revered. Hendaye, to be exact.

The Eurorail pass is a strange beast.  All of the countries in Europe have their own national train company. So if you are at a train station in Country X, you can not book a follow-on train ticket that originates in Country Y until you are physically at a train station in Country Y (because then you`d be booking with a different train company).  Hence, when I was at the train station in Madrid (Spain) on April 15th, I could not book my train ticket from Hendaye to Paris until I arrived in Hendaye (France). The reason this sucks is because reservations are compulsory for many trains in Europe, and sometimes if you do not make a reservation a couple of days in advance the train is full.

Hence, upon arriving in Hendaye at 13:53 on April 16th, I was told that the train to Paris departing at 17:00 that same day was already full and that I would need to take the overnight train arriving at 7:13 on April 17th.  This ate up another “travel day” for me, and my particular Eurorail pass only allotes me 15 travel days in a two month period.  But at least I saved money on a hostel and arrived in Paris well-rested.

My first stop in Hendaye was the grocery store.  As I alluded to in a previous post, I`ve morphed into a huge cheapskate in Europe.  So now I`ve officially sworn off restaurants and buy all of my meals at grocery stores and markets.  At this grocery store, I purchased all of my food for lunch, dinner and breakfast for only six Euros.

I then hightailed it to the nearest park (I mean parc). It was picnic time.

After a most sumptous, 2 Euro meal, I decided to explore Hendaye.

It`s an industrial city.

And a port city.

Hendaye was significant for me in that I finally felt that the Army was behind me. It’s been about seven months since I left the military, and I realized that the book has closed, that I`m ready (and so very excited) to start my MFA writing program in Virginia this August.

I realized that there had been a shift in how I labeled myself.  For the first two months of this trip I would inevitably introduce myself as the “woman who’d been in the active duty Army for the last five years.” Suddenly, in Hendaye, I realized that I was introducing myself as “the woman who was traveling the world for five months and going to graduate school afterwards.” This was quite a shift for me.  It’s why I now see the value in a “Gap Year.”  It’s why if I ever have kids, I’m going to recommend that they take a “Gap Year” after highschool, college, graduate school, or another major life transition.

There’s this line from Forrest Gump that I was thinking about in Hendaye. It’s the line Forrest uses to justify his three year run across the country after Jenny leaves him: “My mama always said you have to put the past behind you before you can move on.”  The Army had been so much a part of my life and my identity for the past nine years that I think I needed this “Gap Year” to find myself again and to figure out who I really was without the Army.

Seven months later, I know who Armyless me really is.

I guess you could say I found myself again on the other side of the world.