Last weekend, Ella, Victoria and I ventured up North to meet some other assistants and visit one of the main cities here in Corsica. It’s fair to say we packed a lot of stuff into our weekend!
Firstly, I had to take the bus from Sartene-Ajaccio (2 hours). Then we took the train from Ajaccio – Bastia (4 hours). After arriving late in Bastia, we decided to go for food and a few drinks with the Bastian assistants who were all very lovely!
(A picture I saw that night. It reads; Oscar Pistorius under house arrest. “Boss! I think that the electronic tag was a s**t idea”.)
The next day we strolled around the city to see what it had to offer. Bastia is very different from Ajaccio, for a start, you can only ever see the sunrise, not sunset due to its geographical position. However, on a clear day you can see Italy.
Bastia feels more like a city on the continent (mainland France) than Ajaccio does as it has a bit more of a modern feel to it. For example, the majority of restaurants etc. remain open in the winter unlike Ajaccio where a simple stroll along Rue Fesch on a Saturday night is akin to walking through a graveyard.
Bastia is divided into two parts, the new town and the old town. In the old town lies the citadel which is great for strolling around and visiting the museum. The port is also near to the citadel and along there you will find a lot of restaurants/bars.
One thing that is a must, is to take the train to Bastia. Although it is long in comparison to driving to Bastia – 4 hours by train, 2 hours by car from Ajaccio – you will be guaranteed an amazing view. As ever, people on the train are as friendly as ever and you will also meet some very interesting characters!
After being awestruck by Bastia (and secretly wishing we had all been placed there), we took the train back to Ajaccio. Once we had arrived in Ajaccio, our desires for being placed in Bastia soon disappeared. We realised that there is a great difference between the two cities as one is more metropolitan and the other is more desert like. When we stepped of the train, the weather was unusually really hot (around 20 degrees) and we soon remembered that actually we really do love Ajaccio and it does feel like home.
Ella and I made the most of the weather and visited the famous, îles sanguinares (bloody islands), to fully understand why it is called this you should watch the sunset there. Despite it only being a short 1 euro bus ride from Ajaccio, it feels so far away as you can hardly see the city from the islands and it is my new favourite place to go whilst visiting Ajaccio.
Les îles, just before sunset.
It’s easy to see why they are called les îles sanguinaires.
Next weekend will be Weekend Getaway Number 2 as we adventure to Nice and Monaco.
Navigating Napoleon's Island 