“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson
6 h of
waiting in the emergency, until midnight – for crying out loud! That is
absolutely unbelievable; I thought that nothing can be worse than our welfare.
Here the words from the Bible became real: Some of the last will be first and
some of the first will be last. Well, it is emergency, I fully understand that
they had to prefer other patients with more serious problems, but I really felt
as if nobody gave a damn about my presence there. I was the very last person
that got to the doctor that night. At least it was worth of waiting because my
apprehensions were confirmed. The insect was still in the ear and as soon as
the doctor saw it, she took immediate action. Having called another 4 doctors,
the head physician could start with a quick operation. She explained to me that
she would pump my ear with some solution and later pump it out by air. That was
supposed to cause considerable pain. Having said “Do what you must”, I
succumbed to my fate. Interestingly, anticipated pain is less intense than
unanticipated. As always, I have an explanation for that J That is due to cortisol, a stress
hormone, that partially shuts down certain areas of your CNS, thus your body
does not feel much pain and can save your skin in dangerous situations. In the
end, the insect was successfully taken out. Just in case , I was strongly
advised to visit a specialist the next morning to check if everything is
absolutely alright. At midnight I was not left with another option than put my
tent into a small park in the immediate vicinity of the hospital. Fortunately,
seeing the doctor the next day was not so time consuming. Actually, it was the
exact opposite. I spent in his office exactly 15 seconds and then he let me go.
This little adventure was in fact not as expensive as I had expected. I paid
for both treatments only about 20 € and the bill will be footed by my insurance
company anyway. I just regret that time I spent with this incident. Having
checked my itinerary, I realized that I still had a few days as a backup and I
can afford to slow down a little. Therefore, I did not rush anywhere in the
morning, but strode into the city centre of La Rochelle and acted as a typical
tourist.
At the bay I saw a small fast food kiosk which was kind of funny
because normally you see fast food only for pizza and kebab, but this one
offered fresh seafood. Originally, I thought that the French word assiette
stands for a selection and hoped that I would get a selection of all possible
sea monsters, but it actually stand for a plate. The other words that I did not
understand stood for oysters. I begrudged paying 7 € for 9 ugly shells that I
was even supposed to eat raw. I do not get what people see in oysters: They
look disgusting and taste disgusting. I guess people are crazy about them
because of their strong aphrodisiac effects, but believe me, that is really the
last thing I need. Besides, it tastes like snot jelly beans with some meat and
lemon flavor.
In the
afternoon the road led through other rural areas which were quite a nice
change. In the evening I had another, this time a delicious food experience. I
took fromage blanc which is supposedly something between yogurt and quark and
mixed that with chocolate spread. The result was magnifique – like a match made in heaven! The 1 kg package offered
me a unique experience even though I was wondering how many calories I had
taken. Supposing that I wolfed it down with juice, coke and later ate a little
bit of Brioche and biscuits, it must have been quite a lot… .
However, my
overindulging put me quite behind my schedule because I wanted to build my tent
on the beach that night. I had to ride like furious to get to my finish point
and I arrived there in 11 pm. Eva's lumina
maxima made biking in the dark forest quite enjoyable.
Still, my
night beach experience did not live up to my expectations. At first I had to trudge
through the sand with the bike which was particularly difficult. Then I realized
that it would be impossible to build a tent on sand so I let it be and put my
sleeping bag under the night sky. I fell asleep just alright but when I got up,
I realized that I was bitten more than dozen times by mosquitoes. I do not have
the faintest idea what mosquitoes do by the sea, but I could feel their
presence early in the morning that prevented me from falling asleep again. For
this reason, I just put together my belongings and rode off. On the other hand,
I must say that the sunrise over the beach was spectacular, especially with
some nice music that I listened to.
P.S.: You might have realized that I prefer uploading pictures of food rather than photos of landspace, town, etc. I am truly sorry about, but food is really my foible as I perceive and connect every experience with food. To show you that this is not only a food diary , this time I uploaded more pictures from the journey itself.
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