Southern of France part 2: Marseille

Day 1 

Okay, actually my reason why I wanted to go to Marseille was a bit stupid. It is because of a French series I watched during my Belgium year whose scenes took place in Marseille. It was a lame TV series but I watched it almost everyday with my Belgian host family and it helped somehow my progress in French. Anyway, this plan is super last minute because I failed to enroll to Erasmus hiking day. We took a 2-hour Flix Bus departing from Sabine Montpellier to Gare St. Charles Marseille. I bought a small kind of ice-sugar-coated doughnut without hole with chocolate inside. I was imagining the one in Indonesian canteen, but no, it was so soft and fluffy.

 Here is the stairs just down the train station:

Gare St. Charles Marseille was a bit confusing and hectic, the toilet had a long queue then we walked to our hotel. We booked a 3-bed room in Premiere Hotel for 77 euros which is quiet cheap and comfy room for two days. After we checked in, we walked to the city center to ask the tourism info, a HEMA cute shop and realized that the old port was just a step away. I was so excited to finally see the Old Port (Vieux Port) from the TV series (lol). The boats are parked in a super tidy way but the sea itself was not super clean. There were people selling Marseille soap and the morning market along the port. There were seafood restaurants and interesting souvenir shops but still, we chose Burger Kingwhen suddenly, a group of police came and told us to move away from the street. I asked a lady but I was not sure on what she meant…. but, people seem dont care and even cross the police line. Insane, maybe it is a casual thing here?! No one panic was but us, I think. But 5 minutes after they took off the line and it was like nothing happened before like it was super normal. I sadly had even my own sandwich because I want to economize. 

Actually Marseille has 2 important cathedrals: La Garde and La Major. But we chose La Garde, we hiked to find Basilique Notre Dame de La Garde which is located at the top of the city with a golden statue of Mary and Baby Jesus facing the Mediterranean Sea. It took us around 45 minutes to hike. I swear this is the one of the prettiest cathedrals I have ever seen. I even prefer this one than Notre Dame Paris. I mean, they have different style, this one is more baroque with lots of gold and pattern. The unique thing is that they have little crafted wooden boats hanging from the ceiling and lots of boat pictures on the wall. I imagine how people in the past strived to hike to pray here. In the 1st level there were local people praying, this area is for real praying only, not for tourist.

From the Basilique we can see the whole city view. Mariana prayed for a while then we went to the souvenir shop and I was so happy that I finally found the bracelet that was commonly used by the St. Marie students (my senior high school in belgium) for only 3 euros. Around the basilique we can enjoy the whole city view and the blue ocean. I spent many minutes there just to enjoy the sun and inhale the sea salt air. 

After, we decided to go to Palais Longchamp by metro so we bought a 1-day pass ticket for 5.20 euros. It was not in the app and recommendation but we knew it from a postcard picture. At the beginning I thought it was only a little gate in a park, but it was beyond my expectation. It actually is a monument consists of 2 museums: Musée des Beaux Arts and Musée d’histoire Naturelle in its both stairs. We didn’t go inside because it is too late already. We found lots of brides taking photos, more than 3 in a day! I did not really read the historical part of this.

Le Panier is an artsy district of Marseille where we can find street arts and painting exhibition. I found a house that shows the paintings along the fence and the street. Maybe the painter also lives there. There were cute little shops also selling little interior things or beauty product. The houses have special color here in this district. Vielle Charité is a museum I don’t know what but it was closed already. We wanted to eat dinner around there but the cafés are too expensive. So we went back to the direction of the city. I have this feeling that the metro here is a bit creepy compared to Paris so I really prefer Montpellier tram.We had dinner in a kebab restaurant in which Olenka was not so happy with I had this kebab box with fries. We talked a lot and it was a good dinner. We went back to the hotel walking, laughing at some stuff, watched dance battle on TV and slept super well because the beds are 4x comfier than our dorms!

Day 2

The weather forecast said that it would be rainy today. To be honest, I was not so into the plan to Calanques National Park but the girls seem super interested so why not. I mean, I have more beautiful beaches in Indonesia already. I’m joking, my first reason is I simply not a big fan of any kind of sport, haha. It was raining all night long until the morning and it was super cold. We did the check out and took the tram M1 from Notre dame du Mont to Ronde du Pont to find the bus number 22. The bus was luckily there but the driver was not there. There were only couple sitting at the back, a boy came in but went out again. I had bad feeling again and did not want to wait inside because the driver was not there yet. But the girls said just and it was too cold outside so we went in. It turned out that the couple was doing something illegal I am not sure what, probably preparing weed or something. I didn’t see thay because I was focused looking at the map. Olenka saw them because she sat next to them she said they gave her a scary look but then the driver came and they finished their stuff and be regular passengers. Super weird experience. 

We went out at the last stop and walked to the Calanques national park.The staff told us there were 2 ways: 1 hour or 45 min walk to different Calanques. We chose the 45 minutes option and it was a real hiking. I felt stupid wearing dress because our friend Nadine told us it is just a road. We went to different one, I guess because It was so hike.The weather was not friendly but we met this fFench couple and they told us just follow the red sign, lucky us. There were lots and lots of worms along our hike and at the beginning I was afraid that they might be lichens and I freaked out because I only wore skirts. But then I saw they have these segments in their body, I realized it was a black Platyhelmintes. The walk was about 1 hour and finally we arrived to the beach. It was drizzling and the girls were not happy. Olenka wanted to go to the other calanque but nope, I did not want to pass another way of the rocky mountain. We met several people and decided to go back after 1 hour eating our lunch there seeing local fishermen preparing their boats. 

There will be miracle when you believe, they say. Just a few steps after we decided to come back, suddenly the sun came so beautifully. We went back and it was like a brand new other day. Insane! How drastic the changes were! We took another 30 minutes there and went back but this time taking the car route. It was longer and more hike than the mountain and even had more worms but it looked like a highway with no end, no jokes. I was worried that we would lose the bus. I asked so many people we met on our way to make sure we are going to the city. 

But then luckily I found the bus stop after aroung 1 hour of walking and we were lucky again, we just got the bus (just 4 minutes waiting). If we lost this one, we would need to wait for another 30 minutes. We took bus no 23 and went back to Ronde du Point. We were to early and decided to walk to Gallery Lafayette but yes it was closed already. Unlike in Asia, here most shops are closed faster during the weekend. However, we found out that there would be a big football match today in the stadion just next to Gallery Lafayette. I could see the light blue hooligans were heading to the stadium. There were some street foods like churros and sugarcoated apple like in Korean mukbang videos. The girls bought pizza and then we went back to the hotel, took our bags. We went back to the train station and waited there for OUIbus at 16.45.

The road was so beautiful with the sunsets, aeoliens and green field. I enjoyed it and listened to Novo Amor songs that matched perfectly. We went through Nimes and airport of Marseille. We reached Odysseum at 7.15 at night and it was freezing cold. I was deadly starving and I craved for fried chicken so I went down at Place de la Comedie to buy Popeyes, now I am eating it with rice.

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