Marseille! Woo Woo

I’ve procrastinated pretty hard on writing about Marseille because, well, there isn’t much to talk about.  Everyone was tired from Morocco, since it was not a particularly relaxing place.  In Marseille, we tended to lounge around a lot, so there’s less to really talk about.  Still, Marseille was a very cool city.

The first night was something of a disaster.  I booked a different hostel from everyone else, which was a block away from the train station.  Everyone else’s hostel was quite far away from the center of Marseille.  We landed at 12:30 AM or something, so even getting to the hostels was going to be a challenge.  A bus to the train station arrived at one, but the bus driver peaced for an hour to have a drink and smoke or something.  This guy was super concerned about getting us to the train station.  Then the bus ride is delayed (or something?  I dunno what was happening) so we finally arrive at the station at 3 AM.  The bus ride itself was pretty nuts.  A trio of extremely energetic Lebanese guys made the wait for the bus extremely interesting, and they were snapping pictures with us, and giving us nicknames (I was Steve Jobs O.o) and whatnot.  There was even a guy on the bus from Newton, which was bizarre.

Anyway, we finally arrive at the train station, and I cruise off to my hostel while the rest of the group tries to get to theirs.  I don’t exactly know what happened, but apparently their hostel was super weird/sketchy, so they spent the rest of the trip in mine.  Maybe the first time I’ve ever done a good job planning stuff.  The hostel didn’t have the incredible hospitality of the one in Marrakech, but it was pretty nice, and we met a variety of travelers.

In Marseille itself, we spent our days walking to the major sites and then lounging around them.  Marseille is hillier than I expected, so walking was actually more tiring than I expected (especially the long walk up to the spectacular Notre Dame de la Garde).  My dad was concerned about my travelling to Marseille, because of its seedy reputation, but it was way safer than Marrakech.  The trip felt much more like a vacation than an adventure.  Marseille was somewhat exotic because few people spoke English.  My crappy French actually proved useful for the first time ever.

I guess the only other notable thing about Marseille was that the food was excellent.  We weren’t dining at high end restaurants of course, but every meal impressed.  One day we went for a picnic in the garden at the Palais Longchamp, and bought some random bread, wine, and cheese from a convenience store.  The food was absolutely delicious (although the meal was ruined somewhat by this random sociopath who would not go away… very annoying/creepy).

That about wraps up my vacation adventures over break, although I'll probably travel a bit more when I can.  On to another term!