Today I managed to waste another 4 hours online, planning the next phase of my journey. While it took away from my sightseeing time here in Marseille, I'm feeling pretty good about my plan!
I'm heading to Cinque Terre (sorry, Nic) tomorrow and then * I think * Florence after that. I bought a ferry ticket from Genoa to Barcelona for Thursday. It's an overnighter! With a cabin! That I'll hopefully share with non-feetsmelly girls! We'll see.
I secured a place in Barcelona for $30 a night and then a place in Granada for $25 a night (yay to saving money without using hostels!) so I'm golden from the 28th until the 1st. I have to have my language assesment in Granada on the first and then I have a week until classes start. I'll have to delay my journey to Seville until then. With two months in Spain, I'll have plenty of time to explore, right?
My only gap is from the 25th to the 28th. Tuscany's the best option, right? I could go to Venice but that would only require a day... I keep telling myself that this isn't the ONLY time I'll be in this region and any choice I make is a good one since I'll be seeing something new and awesome and Italian. Right?
Today (when I finally left this place) I wandered down to the waterfront- or, rather, the port. There's a little bay surrounded by walkways and cut off to the sea by two forts on either end. The bay is full of boats (like a Shilshole plopped downtown) and the streets around them are full of short French men talking endlessly to each other. I met a very lovely French woman who tried her darndest to explain the light of Jehovah to me while I stared blankly back, trying to come up with the French words for "I need to go NOW." Marseille is HUGE and looking around is like a "Where's Waldo" of historic sites. They're plopped down between the "modern" buildings. (You know, modern, like, the 1800's.) There's a castle-looking thing on the hill, those forts I mentioned, lots of old churches, pieces of the old walls of the city resting in the courtyards of skyscrapers... It's pretty surreal.
I took a tour boat to the Ile D'If to see the huge chateau/prison the Counte of Monte Cristo was based around. I took some amazing pictures of the sunset over the islands with the blue Mediterranean below. You'll have to take my word for it though because I'm too lazy to go up to the stinky feet room to get my camera. Soon, soon. That AND my stories of Lyon AND the long-awaited Angkor Wat recap. I promise.
On the way back from the old port I walked through the Panier district- somewhat. It was dark. I saw lots of brick and wrought iron and prettyness. I passed a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant and suddenly had a hankering for Pho. They wanted 7 Euros for a bowl! Eff that! That's, like, 10 bucks! Sadly, I headed home empty-bellied for once and managed to get myself lost. I had one creepy dude look at me the wrong way, then took the easy way out and trammed it back to my hostel.
And here I've been on this happening Friday night. Doing my online chores and getting my train schedule squared away. I'm looking forward to my time in Cinque Terre. I'm a bit nervous everything will be closed as in Arles. All I need is some wine and a pizza or two and my book will be company enough. I'll be staying at a B&B with a view, by myself. Hopefully not contributing my own stench of loneliness. Wah-wah.
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