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This is not the first place we have seen this…no shower curtain. There is a shower nozzle you hold while you shower but no curtain to hold the water in…needless to say, it made for a very wet morning. Downstairs, we enjoyed breakfast with Serge and Muryel, packed up and continued on to Perpignan where we would stay for the night and then take a train into Barcelona.The countryside here in southern France is just amazing….you never get tired of it. On our way, we ran right into another one of France’s “most beautiful towns” Lagrasse. We took some pictures, grabbed a ham/cheese sandwich and continued on until we saw a a family of billy goats playing on the side of the road. There were a couple babies that were too cute jumping around. We weren’t too much further when we saw what looked like a trailer truck on the side of a big warehouse building with some type of assembly line. We saw what looked like wine bottles, so pulled over to nose around and see what they were doing. Sure enough it was a few people in an assembly line bottling wine! One person places the bottles on the machine, the machine corked them, another person boxed it and then they were ready to ship. We took a video!As we approached Perpignan, we saw a sign for Salses le Chateau. We didn’t know exactly what it was but had read that it was some type of building or monument and turned directions to go check it out. As we approached, we realized it was another castle. We looked at it from the outside and took a picture by what use to be the moat. We decided not to do the tour since we had just spent hours at a castle yesterday. Going back to our car, we had to walk right past a “wine cave”. We walked in and found a super nice women who spoke good English. She had us taste numerous wines and taught us about the different processes used to create sweet wine. She even brought out some wine from 1969 to taste…which was very good. They were made from 100% grenache grapes both red and white.
After buying a couple bottles we headed to find a hotel in the big city of Perpignan. The 38 euro hotel we found was literally right next to the train station which was in a perfect spot to catch an 8AM train to Barcelona. The issue was that the hotel was not exactly a Marriott. Put it this way, the bed bug spray we got for Christmas was used for the first time. They did not even supply towels…not even a hand towel. There was no elevator and the hallways were dark. Tomorrow will be an early day.
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Published by Giff Kabat
I grew up in Ohio as a kid, so of course I went to college at “THE” Ohio State University. I graduated in 2001 with a major in business finance. A month after graduation, I moved out to California with my college girlfriend (whom I married in 2005)…and started my career in sales (industrial sales for 5 years…then moved into medical laser sales for 4 years).
In 2009 I was 31 years old. I had a great job, a new house, and a beautiful wife. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better…my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby. Everything was going according to plan…and I couldn’t have scripted a better life for myself.
Then in the same year…everything changed. My wife, Brandey, called me when I was on my way to work and told me over the phone, something I never thought could be possible in a million years. My beautiful 30-year old pregnant wife was just told that she had breast cancer. At that moment, everything stopped all at once. I immediately went to her…and learned of our new plan…which began with her needing surgery immediately…and the rest we would find out later.
The day we returned from the hospital after Brandey’s surgery…my father died. He had been battling an aggressive cancer of his own…and although he was the one person I wanted to speak with about Brandey having cancer…I never told him. My sister, Brooke, had just gotten married a few months ago, and although he was weak, he was able to walk his little girl down the aisle of her wedding. On the night before my sister’s wedding, Brandey and I told him that we were pregnant and about to make him a grandfather. It made no sense to tell him that everything had changed for us…so he died in peace knowing everything was “the way it should be” for his only 2 children.
2010 was the worst year of my life. We had lost our baby…and for 12 months I watched my wife fight cancer with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and drug therapy. It was a difficult year for us…but we made it. When you go through something like this in life, you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you. I was amazed at the strength and courage of my wife…and how many good people there are in this world. I will be forever grateful for the ones who never ceased to amaze me with their kindness during this hard time. Family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers…helped us make it through this. I am, and will always be especially grateful to my mother, who was with my dad at the very end, when I couldn’t be there, and when things were at their worst. She has been so supportive throughout all of this, and without her everything would have been so much harder for me.
It’s 2011 now…and the plan we have for our life this year…is to make it the best year of our lives. Brandey is officially in remission from breast cancer and she has a 95% chance the cancer will never come back. Besides the love that I have for my wife and family, the loves of my life are food, wine, and adventure travel. My wife and I love traveling to new places, seeing natural wonders, and meeting new people from different parts of the world. So for the next 400 days…we’ve decided to travel the world…and celebrate our lives. There are so many things I took for granted in life that I will never take for granted again. My father worked for over 30 years at the same job with the same company…rarely took time off…and died at 64 years old right after his retirement. For me, this trip is a combination of a tribute to him, along with wanting to spend the time of my life with the “love of my life.”
* The only thing I will miss while we are gone is our family and friends (who we hope will meet us somewhere throughout our trip) and especially our 3 little kitties we left with my mom in Ohio to catsit for the next 400 days. I will also miss watching “American Football” over the weekend…but I’ll do my best to check the scores in the middle of the night.
GIFF
View all posts by Giff Kabat
Spinning Around The World 