Shopping by Bus

Shopping by Bus (and train, tram, and feet!)

Earlier this week, we went to the giant commercial center near us - it's definitely set up for cars; here and there the sidewalks give out. But, we and plenty of others get there by bus and manage to take care of business. This makes it a pretty full day...

It took 2 buses and about an hour to get there (it's maybe a 20 minute drive). We had our caddy and a couple of extra bags in case. We had some pretty bulky items on our list, as well as a few things requiring time. So, our plan (which worked amazingly well!) was:

1. Swing through the supermarket, scope out fans and air mattresses - no buying yet!
2. Get to the home-depot-esque store, get an air conditioner hose, compare fans, find twine - buy what makes sense, tie it to the caddy (with the twine ;-) )
3. Split up - I go to the sports store for shoes and maybe air mattress, Rick to look for shirts
4. Meet back at the supermarket and finish off our list

Mega success! I actually found shoes - wide enough for my feet, deep enough for orthotics, and great for hiking! (Shout out to the amazing Julien at InterSport in Balaruc)

And the caddy wasn't too awkward (it didn't fall apart). We got everything we came for (and our scoping paid off - saved 10€ without wasting much time).

We bought a premade sandwich at the supermarket, and split it while waiting for our return bus and watching the kiddies have fun - not exactly haute-cuisine, but it worked :-)

And look what we came home too - several hours later :-)

Were we done? Eh, no. The very next day, we headed into Montpellier, Ikea in our sights!

This was to be a figure-it-out-buy-it-later trip (with one "small" exception. So, we made it as relaxing a day as possible. We had a leisurely morning, left the cumbersome caddy at home, caught whatever bus came along, then got our train tickets (yawn). In Montpellier, we looked for the TAM (tram) office so we could buy a multi-trip pass - it was closed for lunch, so we meandered down the road a bit to a Lebanese restaurant, where we had appetizers and wine (I did say relaxing, right?) We got back to the TAM office, took a ticket for the line (20 minute wait indicated!), and Rick tried out the ticket machine - success! We got two 10-trip tickets for 20€ (instead of 1.60€ each trip - no change given on those, by the way, so I once paid 2€).

Onward to the Odyssium! Where I promptly led us the wrong way... OK, so *now* Ikea. Our objective:

1. confirm our thoughts about a bed frame, 
2. test out mattresses, 
3. buy a mattress topper to take home and use right away. 

Well, we had good news, and we had bad news.
Bad: Our bed frame idea would simply not work. We thought through several ideas, all doomed.
Good: Amazingly (#2 if you're counting), Rick found a mattress that felt great to both of us! And I found a topper to take home.
Bad: Carrying that dratted thing all the way home gave me a crick in my neck, and the ensuing headache
Good: we found the same wine from lunch at the grocery store! And we have another idea for the bed frame (coincidence?)