Marseilles, France

I'm sure it's happened to you before: like so many other resolutions they start out strong, consistent and you feel great about all you have accomplished. However, soon you let one thing go and another and another and you end up with a to do list as long as a roll of toilet paper. The first two months of blogging were great - I was able to get a couple in a week and knew that I would have these blogs to look back at years to come and it felt great. Unfortunately, after getting back from mid-semester break with over 900 pictures to go through and papers for each class staring at me in the face, I let it all go. Well blog, I'm back and ready to report on the past month and a half of adventures, beginning with the first stop of mid-semester break travels: Marseilles, France.

First trip to Europe, first time staying in a hostel, no "responsible adults" to smooth over and bumps in the road. I was ready for every minute of it. Our flight down on RyanAir was less than relaxing (though this is easily forgiven when we paid less than $15 round-trip). We arrived in Marseilles late Thursday night, taking a bus to the train station. We proceeded to spend the next hour trying to find our hostel (in the rain) that was supposed to be "right around the corner" from the station as the hostel info paper described. It in fact was, however, the corner we were dropped off at on the bus happened to be the opposite corner of the train station that the "right around the corner" directions were given from. Nevertheless, we found it: Vertigo. It was a very cute 70's hipster type hostel. We payed 23 euro a night for a comfortable room with two Asian guys, both named Jay, and a couple that didn't get in 'till 3 or 4 in the morning.

The steps of the train station we arrived at our first night in Marseilles

The view from the train station in Marseilles.

The door to our room was right down the steps to the right.

We woke up to beautiful 70 degree weather and ate our first croissant (so delicious!). We had booked a separate hostel in another part of the city for the next night because it was cheaper and we thought it would be good to see another area of town. So first thing that morning (which was actually more around noon) we went to the metro station to get to this other side of town and settle down in our hostel. Unfortunately, these directions to the hostel were not so clear. Even in asking multiple French police if we were heading in the right direction, we ended up walking in a full mile circle out of our way to find this place. Two hours later, we were in our own private room (because it was low-season for tourism) for 17 euro.

That afternoon we set out for Notre Dame de la Garde, a large cathedral on the top of a hill overlooking Marseilles. It was such a fantastic view more windy than you can imagine. My hair was standing straight up on end and all articles of clothing were being constantly ripped off by giant gushes at the top balcony of the cathedral. The inside was so ornate with gold EVERYWHERE.

After we got off the top of this hill, we were in the fancier part of Marseilles passing countless antique shops and art galleries. This soon ended when we got to the docks of Marseilles. I had been warned about Marseilles by many French friends at Newbold for being quite trashy and full of Arabs but had yet to actually run into any of this. This was soon amended when our self-guided city walking tour took us around the narrow streets on the other side of the harbor in Marseilles. Seeing Muslim propaganda on every door, hearing a foreign language (which was no French) and men

on scooters waving guns around was less than a comfortable experience.

The docks of Marseilles

We finally found our way out of this sketchy neighborhood to another Cathedral that was right on the water (nearly). We walked into this gigantic cathedral (bigger than any I think if seen in Europe, save for Notre Dame in Paris and perhaps Westminster Abbey in London) and heard what sounded like 16th century Gregorian chant by a men's choir. Upon rounding the corner, however, we found it was just one man in his private worship in a "sweet spot" of the church that amplified his voice through the whole cathedral - very cool to see!

The cathedral on the water

We then headed back towards the hostel where we had a dinner of bread and cheese (which we literally ate every evening) and went to bed early that night. The next morning, we headed back for the docks with the intent of seeing Château d'If. Château d'If is island covered with a fortress built for defense and for prisoners. It is also the setting of the prison in the popular story The Count of Monte Cristo. However, it happened to be closed that day so we instead headed for an early bus to Nice, France.

For more pictures, see: Facebook Album

Nice, France coming soon! I promise!