Marseille

Today I woke up around 9:30 to meet everyone to try and go to a museum before the school trip to Marseille. I had breakfast and talked to Madame who asked if I had heard the big rain storm last night. I told her I had even though I hadn't because I'm used to it but I had noticed it had rained. I got dressed and did my thing and donned on my raincoat. Before I left though Madame told me to change my coat because it was going to get nice again. On my way to meet everyone it rained though but it was no biggie. We met at the Cézanne statue as per usual. Sophie and Lauren went to go check out the market while I waited with Julia for Kelan. I guess that we weren't going to the museum because we found out that it wasn't actually in Aix... Oops. Julia and I talked about going to Italy one weekend because she can't go during fall break when the other girls are going because she is going to meet her boyfriend in Amsterdam. I told her that I would love to go to a Italy with her some weekend so she is going to send me which weekends she is free! Yay! A travel buddy! 

Kelan never showed so we went to find Sophie and Lauren but ran into Kelan first. We eventually all met up and decided because the market wasn't as great as per the rain, that we would get lunch at a cafe before going to meet the bus. I got a Panini and a cherry coke but then ran to monoprix really fast to buy some q-tips so that I could break my other fifty bill. I got back and Claire had joined us. After lunch Sophie, Lauren,  and Claire went to find a fruit bread. Kelan, Julia, and I stopped and watched some belly dancing people dance. It was pretty cool. By that time it was about noon and time to head to the buses. We had the nice bus this time which had very nice seats.

I will be the first to admit that this day was not as fun and nice of a trip as yesterday. Not because of the location, but because my ear tricking hurt and the stupid bus guide lady kept going on and on and on and on. Not about like the places we were going but with like the most basic of French culture that any moron who has ever taken French would know. And I know you are thinking but Kacy not everyone has as much French experience as you. But this is false! We are on the advanced French bus! Which means everyone already knows that not a ton of French people dive because the piece we is expensive. We already know that French eat dinner later than Americans. We already know that Marseille is the fifth largest city in France. You really don't need to say it 6 times! And no I'm not exaggerating but I was counting!!! She yelled at us for talking within the first ten minutes because she said she was you g to talk for 20 minutes and then we would have time to talk amongst ourselves but then she never Shut Up! And she was on the overhead talking SO loudly that you could’t tune her out!!! It was ridiculous! We had to listen to her annoying voice the whole hour there and half hour in between locations and almost all of the time back! Everyone was just talking about how she needed to just shut up. She really did do a number to the experience of the trip. It would have been a lot more fun if she had talked for five minutes about where we were going and then sat down and stopped talking. That really would have taken the trip from a 6 to a solid 9. It was ridiculous. Okay end rant. But I'm still annoyed and my ear just feels word now.

When we got to Marseille the first view was to the sea where there were about 6 cruise ships docked. They looked really cool. We drove through the commerce district of the city in order to get to the centre ville. When we got there we drove around the marina in the center city to get up the hill to the Notre-Dame de la guard. It is a huge and beautiful cathedral that looks over the entire city. 

When we got off the buses we hiked up part of the hill more and everyone got out their cameras (which our lovely bus guide had told us not to take out and only to take pictures with our eyes because someone might try and steal our cameras.) to take pictures. We all ignored the bus guide just as we tried to do the way there. How could you not take pictures of this because it was so gorgeous. We walked up the hill and then up a bunch of steps to get to the entrance. It was sooooo windy! Being right on the sea and being on the hill the wind was very strong and very crazy.

 

I got some pictures and then headed into the “Crypte” It was actually really cool in there. I made an offering of a euro in order to light a candle which I can now say that I did! Though I don’t know if you are only supposed to do that if you are catholic? Oh well. But inside the little hall there was the choir practicing singing so I got a little video clip of that. I also got a bunch of pictures. Next I left the crypte and went to the main hall. It was goooorgeous. There was a big boat theme because of it being on the coast and such and it being such a large commerce town even like a really long time ago. There were lots of paintings of boats on the sea as well as boats hanging from the ceiling. The tiles as well had a lot of waves and boats. The hall was very gold and red. I think that the gold was really cool and though I didn’t really find out I think that it was real. I took a bunch of pictures there and then on my way out I noticed they were letting some people up some side stairs so I followed them and got to go up on top of the cathedral, like above the main hall where the windows were. It was really windy up there! The view was amazing though and after looking out on the city we got to go in the hall and be really close to the ceiling so we could see the work up close. It was super cool. Then it was up on the roof on the other side and then back down. As per usual it seems I bought a few post cards in the gift shop. I can’t decide if I am really going to send them or if I am just going to keep them? They are cool though, and probably the cheapest thing you can buy at the gift shops. It was a really cool experience to go to this cathedral because it was so old and decorated so nicely. It’s hard to believe that things that beautiful exist all the time and not just when we are there to see them.

When we got back on the bus (after getting yelled at by our bus guide not to walk in the road because cars might be coming after we looked and there were no cars coming) and the headed back down to the Centre ville. We got let out to do whatever for two hours. The weekend was le jour patrimoine which means from what I gathered that all the French museums and stuff are open and free across the country for just this weekend. So naturally everyone and their mom and chat are going to the museums. They told us we could and my group went and tried but it was an hour long wait just to get in so we decided not to. We walked around Fort Saint-Jean which was the area around the museum. This museum is also brand new this year which didn’t help us with the crowd control situation. Fort Saint-Jean I really don’t know much about and was going to Google but my internet is so crappy tonight there is no way. It was pretty cool looking though and very old. 

Oh also from the Cathedral you could see Chateau d’If which is where they put Edmond Dantes in the count of Mote-Cristo for all you literary folk. Kelan and I really wanted to go there by boat but we didn’t have enough time. We were sad.

After walking around the fort we decided to go get a drink at a café. We wandered around the marina until we found one and then sat down. The place was a little busy and there was only one waiter so I took a while. I ordered tea but he mixed up how many of what (because he never wrote it down) and so I ended up with hot chocolate which is fine but I really had wanted tea! Oh well another day. I took it and it was good. Apparently Kelan owed me money from last night doing the bill at dinner so I didn’t have to pay for it anyways. It is very difficult to do paying of the bills here. They don’t do split tabs so you need to have exact change all the time and every time it just becomes a big headache for everyone to figure out. And then once everyone takes care of their own money and figuring out that they did it right we have to redo it all again to make sure that we have enough total and no one did math wrong. It is a bit of a nightmare which is why Kelan bought my drink. I had forgotten so I was like oh okay whatever. 

After that the girls wanted Crepes so we went to the first crepe place and she said she was out of batter. So we went to the second which was obnoxiously expensive and then to a third where they had enough batter for three crepes but that was all. I kind of wanted one but not really so I just decided to pass. The other girls went back to the expensive crepe place and got them after we cleaned out the third. Kelan had a PB&J and I was super jealous but I hadn’t bought sandwich stuff yet because I was waiting for PB to arrive in a package from my mom that I thought was in the mail. We sat on some steps and just kind of chilled. We didn’t have a very high key day just because we all had headaches from the bus ride and all the stairs and stuff at the cathedral had kind of wore us out. Also we were pretty mentally tired from taking it all in. I would say that Marseille is nice-ish but by no means my favorite French town. The cathedral was the highlight and awesome but the city itself was one that could be missed. Nice was way nicer and fun with more things to see and was also a lot friendlier. The people in Marseille were a bit rude.

When we got back I was walking back thinking about getting a crepe when Daniel walked up behind me to walk with me. We tried to go to “crepe a gogo” but they were closed because it was a Sunday. Darn. Maybe tomorrow after sandwich stuff shopping? But I was just ready to get home considering I still had homework. I got home and started uploading pictures from the last two days but my internet started crapping out every two minutes and I gave up. Madame says that it is because of the storms in France right now. Madame bought a rotisserie chicken and olive oil and some kind of spice potatoes for dinner. It was pretty good. I like chicken. I spilled a glass of water on accident all over the floor. I was not happy about that but she said it was no big deal. I got back to homework after dinner or tried to anyways but because it was online I needed internet and whenever I had it the site would not go where it was supposed to but rather to someplace else. I got very frustrated. Luckily I have the number of a guy in the class named Patrick who I texted and he told me 1) where to go to on the site 2) how to find the answers 3) that it only takes about five minutes to do. So looks like I will just go to class early tomorrow in order to make sure I have the homework done. I think that means no Skype time though… 

But the internet thing really put me on edge. Also I found out mom hadn’t sent my package yet like I thought so I had been climbing 3 flights of stairs everyday to check my mail when there was no reason to… -.-‘ Oh well. I’m grateful she is sending one at all with how much international boxes cost. I find it ridiculous.
 

So today I have not been in the best mood but I feel like understandably so. I am really exhausted mostly and wish I had a weekend to recoup. But I don’t because that was my weekend. Oops. They made the time go fast though having the trips. I just wish I could go on a trip that didn’t feel so rushed or disorganized. Because it is one thing to not have a plan and go with the flow, but it is another thing to have a plan and then not follow it because you can’t get organized. 

Goodnight. Here’s to hoping I can even get text up on the blog tonight!