Weekend in Marseille!

Annie (Sunday night) : Want to go to Marseille for the weekend?
Lauren: Sure, sounds good.

As I think I have related, I decided fairly spurr of the moment two weeks ago that after having been in Paris for just over a month it was time to travel a bit further afield in France. Result: three day trip to Marseille!

I departed on Friday morning with Annie from Adelaide Australia. We would be meeting the rest of our group of six later that night and the next day. Finally a chance to put my 3 day weekends to good use! Despite some difficulties in our 10:15 takeoff that resulted in a lot of stress not being able to print out Annie's ticket, and being forced to buy a new one 5 min before the departure, we were off! The ride down was incredible! It was a beautiful sunny day and it was my first glimpse at the French countryside. It was incredible! Rolling pastures, hills and forest, quaint country houses - it was something out of a book. I would definitely love to drive down and stop to take it all in. I was also blown away by the TGV - the high speed trains in France. It blew my mind that we could cross most of France in just over 3 hours on land, travelling at a speed of 200km/h of course. Why does Canada not have high speed trains? The whooshing sound as we passed trains going the other direction was so much fun.

Successful arrival in Marseille at 1:25pm. After a bit of wandering in search of our hostel, we
finally arrived at Vertigo just after 2. This was to be my first stay at a real hostel, so I was rather excited. According to Annie, it didn't even count, that is how nice it was. The place was large, spotless, and each room of four had its own shower and toilet. Being that we were a group of six, we got a an entire room to ourselves. At only 25euros a night, it was incredible! I have stayed at far worse hotels. As if it couldn't get any better, Vertigo was located only 3 blocks from the Vieux Port, the city center. The mood was set for an excellent weekend.

After dropping our stuff off, Annie and I headed off to check out some tourist attractions around the city. I had met Annie on my first day of the Welcome Programme when I was looking for lunch and joined a group of australian girls if I could join them. Since then, I had only seen Annie twice, so I was looking forward to spending some more time with her since she seemed really cool. We became partners in crime over the course of the weekend, and had so much fun together. After walking along the Old port, we checked out an old fort before heading up to the main attraction of the city, Notre Dame de la Garde Church. Watching over the Marseillais from the top of a hill in the middle of the city, this Notre Dame offers the most spectacular views of the Marseille, overlooking the port, the ocean, the islands and the hills that surround the city. Getting all the way up to Church by foot makes the view even better. Apparently, we chose the steepest possible street to climb up, I swear it must have a been a 45degree angle. Fortunately, a boulangerie and corner store with cheese provided excellent excuses to stop on the way up to get some lunch supplies for a picnic at the top.

The views did not disappoint. It is hard to describe how incredible it felt to look out over the Meditaranean on that beautiful sunny day and realize how lucky I was, and what a great decision it was to come to Marseille. Paris is amazing, but I had missed being by water, hills, greenery and fresh air. Pictures can't capture the vistas from the top. The church itself was spectacular, so ornate of the inside. The trademark of the church is the gold coloured statue, of Mary holding the baby Jesus in here arms, is at the peak and towers 40m in the air. Jesus' wrist has a circumfrance of a meter! Incredible. At night, spotlight shine on the church, illuminating it above the city. That visit was among the highlights of the trip.

Came back to the hostel and went for the strongest mojito I have ever had while waiting meet up with Aiden (Melbourne Australia) and Ai (Japan) before heading to dinner. We were finally able to decide on a place after an hour of wandering that looked like it met all of our qualifications: good food, not too expensive and had a 'fun factor' of at least 7. Unfortunately the appearances were deceiving and the fun factor was rated a mere 4 but that added to the enjoyment of the night. We headed back to the hostel from some drinks before heading out. While channel surfing in the lounge we had the great luck of coming across this amazing French reality show called Secret Story. Basically it is like Big Brother, but members in the house get assigned secret missions and if they are able to accomplish them, they get cash. Doesn't sound exciting, except, we were under the impression that everyone in the house was gay or a transvestite (being that the French was so fast we hardly understood anything). It didn't matter, watching the facial expressions and gestures was hilarious.

Only Annie and I headed out that night, I won't go into too many details, but it was a good night at a cool bar called Trolleybus that had 3 rooms all playing different music - top 40s, hip hop and rock. We enjoyed it. We enjoyed even more our trip to an Irish pub after a while and discovering two bottles of cider for 3.50. We enjoyed these with some nice boys from Aix-en-Provence before calling it a night, departing with me successfully using for the first time the French expression bisous ciao. (I was pretty pleased with myself - which I informed Annie loudly as we were walking away. Smooth.)

Saturday was a bit lazier. Maia, another girl whom I had had lunch with on my first day at Sc Po and had only seen once since, and her friend Hannah arrived, having taken the overnight train from Paris. After complimentary breakfast, they headed out to see Notre Dame with Aidan and Ai while Annie and I took a quick nap and showered. We reunited at 12 and began a long, but lovely walk to beach. I have never seen water so clear in my life. It was a beautiful sunny day, maybe 26 with the lightest sea breeze. You should all be jealous. We arrived at the beach at around 1:30. The other only stayed for a short while before going off to do some more exploring while Annie and I blissfully enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the beach. On our way home, we stopped at St Victor's Abbey, built in the 5th century. I think that is the oldest building I have been in to date. Pretty darn cool if the history geek in me says so myself.

Saturday night featured a delicious dinner with a fun factor of 9, a return to O'Malleys Irish pub for 2 for 1 ciders and beer. I also finally got to go on my first late night food mission. These apparently aren't common in France, and I had thoroughly missed them. The traditional French one is the kebab, a sandwhich with salty yummy mystery meet, tomatoes lettuce and french fries. Yes, the French fries are in the sandwhich. This trip was made all the more entertaining by the man serving the kebab hitting on Maia. Pick-up lines not to use: referring the girl as a "big baby" and making an analogy between gazelles and lions.

Sunday we were up in good time to pack our things for 10am checkout. We were able to leave our bags in a locker for the day though which was good so we were able to continue exploring. The group of 4 decided to head east of town to the area of Cassis to look for beaches, while Annie and I, having had our beach fun the day before, really wanted to go on a boat tour through the calanques (beautiful rocky bays around Marseille and its islands). Best call ever. The 2 1/2 hour cruise took us past the most beautiful bays and rock faces. The conditions made you feel alive - probably because we got soaked as it was rather rough on the water with strong winds. But despite our struggles and being asked more than once if we needed sick bags, Annie and I had a ball.

The Chateau d'If (famous from the Count of Monte Christo)

Annie and I all dry now, enjoying the sun on the bow

Back on land, we did a bit more touring, saw an incredible cathedral, went to a cool vintage store and ate a very delicious pizza. We ended the day with ice cream by the old port, watching the sunset. It was an actual vacation for me - something I had needed even if I hadn't fully realized it. Despite being exhausted when w got back, I was relaxed. The change from Paris made me appreciate the city when I finally got home at 2:30am, but also realize what a beautiful country that my new home is.

The Marseille Team: Aiden and his ladies Hannah, Annie, Maia, Ai and Myself