I'm so LUCKY LUCKY

First, allow me to explain the title of this entry. While traveling in Marseille, we stayed in a one star hotel that still had a TV. While we were taking turns using the world's worst shower, some of us watched this French program that was a bizarre combination of news and MTV. They'd talk about some sort of pop culture, get in a heated debate over a soccer player's abilities, and then make an abrupt pause for a music video.

Needless to say, almost every video was American or in English. One of the videos was by a group called Lucky Twice, (very telling that their one hit, "Lucky", will probably be their entire career). Anyway, the stupid song is a piece of catchy Techno trash were the lyrics are horribly trite and lame. For example, the starting lyrics are: "Laughing through the day--thinkin' you are never boring." Without reason, this horrible song has ingrained itself in my limited brain space. It's been nearly a week since I heard that song and I can't help but walk around singing it--feeling like an idiot. So, to understand where I am coming from in the past week, you must understand that I've been telling myself OVER and OVER that "I'm so lucky lucky."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoP5K-yX220

Right after I got home from Grenoble, I learned that my friend Brendan has taken a trip to Marseille by himself and was going to traveling alone. Marseille being one of the spots I really wanted to visit, I offered to come out there and split the cost of a hostel, etc. A seemingly good idea, the rest of the Grenoble travelers made plans to come down and hang out with Brendan and we formed a traveling crew.

The next day we met at the train station and, for the first time, we all made the train. It was a two hour trip because our train was going 140 mph or something like that. I wouldn't think that's cool except now I can tell people that I've gone to the bathroom while traveling 140 mph on the ground. Yeah--we all pick strange things to brag about.

Arriving in Marseille, I noticed immediately that it was significantly poorer than Lyon. Much of the city is under construction, some of it just plain falling apart. It's spread out, the transportation system is outdated and inadequate for their population, and their is no glamour or Euro-chic dressing like there is everywhere else. We took the metro to Vieux Port and took in the fish smell. Meeting Brendan, he explained how his first night he followed a Scottish band around and they helped him get into really exclusive mob-run clubs equipped with hundreds of enormous bouncers.

Finding a hotel was as simple as looking in Lonely Planet (the traveler's bible), and finding a room we could all split for 12,50 euro a piece (maybe 15 bucks). We dropped our bags off and split up for different goals. Some of us went to the Callanques--where one can see a lot of the indigenous parts of Marseille. It was really beautiful in a strange way. Below are my post card shots.

Castle in the sky...
We sail tonight for Singapore!


To get to the Callanques, we had to take the Metro as far west as we could. Then, we took a bus line to the end of it's route. Then, we had to take a shuttle (which was an unmarked van that was hollowed out for crouching) all the way to the end of it's route where it dropped us off and didn't come back for two hours. As one would imagine, the trip to a place like that is full of rocky, twisty roads. That did not keep our driver from flooring it, having us tossed from one side of the shuttle to the other. On the way back, same deal. We were kind of comforted by stores and crowds for once as the Callanques were almost too authentic of an adventure for me.

Getting back to the main beach, we indulged ourselves in a lazy afternoon at the Mediterranean. Despite the fact that September is almost over, the water was warm enough for swimming. It was beautiful in a strange way because the beaches here are mostly stone and pebble beaches. If you want sand, you have to pay for it. You think I'm kidding?

Pebbles
Mediterranean sea. Salty... bleh.

We ended our day buying lunch at the Monoprix (grocery store) and having wine in our hotel room. It was a nice end to the day and it made it a lot easier to sleep. I got 11 hours that night, the most sleep I've had since I've been in France. In the morning... well, you know.

I'M SO LUCKY LUCKY

Then we went to Chateau d'If--the location of the story the Count of Monte Cristo. This was the first moment that I thought the trip to Marseille was really worth the effort. I love boat rides and being out on the sea. We had a lot of fun getting out to the island, except we made American asses out of ourselves when I encouraged Brendan to stand at the front of the ship and do the "I'm the king of the world" thing. Yeah, we stand out a little.

Oh Brendan...

At the island, we poked our heads around a beautiful historical monument. I couldn't help but feel a little like a narrator from the history channel walking through the Chateau, as if I should be walking slowly and talking to a camera about Louis' 40 visits.

Chateau d'If

Edmund Dantes himself.

After returning form the island, the group split as one stayed behind to check out the church on the hill. The rest of us piled into a hot, crowded train to Nice. With Marseille behind us, we wondered how Nice would be considering it was incredibly close.