Get some popcorn...

Okay, now is your chance to prepare yourself for the long entry you are about to read... Before you go any further, get your favorite snack, a drink, and get your scrolling finger ready. Don't say I didn't warn you, this is going to be a lengthy one.

Here it goes. Thursday when I got back to the apartment, Lynda and Kenza were both in my room - Kenza playing and Lynda changing my sheets. I now have blue sheets with fish on them. Kenza was bugging me so I changed clothes and went for a run/walk for a little over an hour. I was running on the sidewalk and the next thing I know a BMW Z4 was coming straight for me. I had to hop over a metal fence into a dog park to avoid being mowed down by the middle-aged man who decided it was okay to drive his sports car on the sidewalk. Thursday night we ended up going to Le Couche Tard for a couple drinks, then we went home and went to bed.

Friday class was very uneventful and seemed to go on forever. Immediately after class, Libby and I got on the tram and headed for the train station. We had lunch at Quick Burger - probably the French equivalent of a Hot 'n Now, for any of you unfortunate souls who remember what Hot 'n Now was. It was awful.

We got on a bus to Valence which took an hour, and from there we got on a TGV to Marseilles. Our travel was flawless and not stressful - very nice. It was great and easy having just 2 people. It's so much harder to travel in groups. We made it to Marseilles and bought a 3-day métro pass which worked for the subway and the bus system around the city - we were good little travelers, very prudent! With a little help from a nice British man we found our hotel and settled in. The hotel room was freaking tiny with a queen-sized bed, but it didn't smell, it was clean, air-conditioned, and looked to be brand new. We lucked out.

As soon as we had settled into our room we left it again to explore the downtown area. We took the métro to the Vieux Port which is basically the center of the town. As I explained, Marseilles is the home to the Chateau d'If where the Count of Monte Cristo legend takes place. We decided to hop on an evening ferry and check out the îles off the coast. We bought our tickets and had some time to kill, so we walked around the port area and took some pictures.

We made it back to the port and got on the bateau at 19h. At this point, it's important to note that upon our arrival in Marseilles, we realized the amount of wind was excessive. It was difficult to walk upright because the gusts were so powerful. We thought it was weird that we couldn't go upstairs during the boat ride, so instead we went out onto the back deck of the boat where there was a group of French people drinking whiskey out of small plastic cups. When they offered some to us, we refused, assuming they were crazies from another country or something, and we didn't want to get involved. They kept telling us we had only a few minutes before we had to go back inside the boat. We didn't really understand why at the time, but we continued taking pictures of the Mediterranean and the port and such. Soon, we started to get sprayed lightly with the sea water from the wake of the boat. Now remember that wind I was talking about? Well as it turns out, wind tends to make the sea quite choppy. The boat was picking up speed and hitting waves, and before we knew it we were getting drenched and the crazies were ushering us inside to the protection of the glass doors that sealed behind us.

At this time we learned that the crazies weren't crazies at all, but the men running the boat having some fun on their last ferry across the sea on a Friday evening. While everyone was being tossed about inside the boat, one of the guys named Steven took Libby and I upstairs to the enclosed captain's area where there were 4 people smoking and drinking, driving the boat, and listening to French Reggae. We hung out up there for the remainder of the ride, trying to speak French with these guys above all the noise of the engine, the waves, the wind, and the reggae. It didn't work so well, but we had a blast anyway. As it turned out, the boat we got on was simply a ferry, not a tourist boat, so we came straight back to the port where we got off and went restaurant shopping.

Nine French menus later, we decided upon a cute Italian place called Chez Mario. It was perfect for our wind-blown salt-covered selves. We had a table in the corner where we could see everything going on around us, including the trio of men who walked around to different outdoor restaurants playing old Italian songs. We ordered some French table wine - code named red rubbing alcohol - and some pasta. I had something pesto and Libby had ravioli. We had lots of bread, good pasta, bad wine, and fun conversation. After dinner, we each had our own Tiramisu and I had espresso. It was a great répas. We were feeling good after our meal and wine, but we decided to go back to the hotel, watch BBC World News and get some rest so we could get up early and be tourists in the morning.

Saturday morning we were up and out of the hotel by 9h30 ready to tour the city. We went to see some gardens at the old Palais du Pharo on the coast of the port. It was georgous. We also saw the old opera house and parts of the old city. It was great. After playing tourist, we went back to the hotel, stole some towels from the housekeeping cart, changed our clothes, and headed to the beach. We took the bus which was packed. Crowded public transportation is officially my personal hell - excluding the packed 80 going up Observatory Dr. in the winter because students with backpacks, iPods and puffy coats aren't usually offensive smelling or pushy. We found a grocery store and bought some wheat bread, turkey, nectarines, string cheese and chips. We had a great picnic on the beach. The Mediterranean is truly georgous. When the sun hits it, it appears as though there are diamonds floating in the water. The sea temperature was far too cold to go swimming, but Libby and I both put our feet in and waded around a bit.

After the beach, we were wiped so we went back to the hotel, read and napped. We decided to go out for another great dinner, so after watching more BBC, we got ready, drank an entire bottle of wine, and went searching for a restaurant again. This time we ended up at a seafood place called La Daurade. We both ordered the salmon, and my God was it fabulous. Perfect, best salmon I've ever tasted by far which must mean it's good because I'm a salmon connoisseur :) We followed the fish with two scoops of ice cream - I had vanilla that tasted like pumpkin and coffee, while Libby had coffee and dark dark dark chocolate. It was great. Once again after our meal, we were tired so we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

This morning we slept in a bit. We woke up and turned on the TV to find French Sunday morning cartoons. So we watched. It was SpongeBob SquarePants, in French. Oh man, who knew? It was slightly entertaining. After SpongeBob I turned the channel and found the French coverage of Wimbledon. They were replaying the devastating women's final match from yesterday, so I caught a fair chunk of that. Poor Davenport, she should've won.

After we got moving, we checked out of the hotel and went straight to the beach. We tried to go to the market again, but it was closed so we ate leftover bread and chips from the day before. We hung out on the coast of the Mediterranean for a couple hours, then caught the bus back downtown. Our journey back to Grenoble began. We got on the subway, then on the TGV to Valence. From there we caught another train back to Grenoble, and now here I am. Quel week-end!

So, now that you've endured the longest blog entry ever, I must thank you for caring so much and bothering to read it. I will have pictures up tomorrow hopefully - I haven't got the time tonight because the Café Internet is closing soon. That's all for now, I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed experiencing it! Until tomorrow, à bientôt!