France never failed to impress. Thought it's gonna be another ulu city but it turned out to be pretty popular with tourists yet again. And the train station: more modern than Milan also. Weather was surprisingly cold (mostly due to the chilly wind) as we arrived in the night. Took the metro to Vieux Port thinking it's gonna be a dead town but what in the world! It's super lively! Changed to bus and alighted at the right stop but nope, finding our accommodation wasn't smooth at all! Walked into a small park where there were homeless people and drunkard arguing and looks like they are drug dealing, before we met two non-English French to asked for directions but they weren't sure as well. Guided us to a wrong direction! We went all the way to yet another sleezy alley with a pub (but it had a really nice view of some castle-ly place) and this time round met 3 young French who, once again, didn't have a very good command of English and they kindly called our host to inform her that we are lost/gonna be very late and showed us the way! (Back to the small drug-dealing garden and further up). On our way, we saw this enthusiastic lady who waved at us: that was our host and the savior for the night. Also, I had my first experience of European greetings, *muack muack*!
Went into the apartment with our (overly-) friendly host and it was a really really nice place with all the mini-lights, fairy-lamps, and an open-air garden! A narrow windy-staircase leads us to our small cozy room (like really small: once we extended the sofa bed, there was no room for walking. But it was really cozy and I loved it). Showered and rest for the night thereafter.
Night was chilly cos it rained the day before apparently and so we had a pretty good night sleep (other than the fact that Ms Blur couldn't count properly in the morning and woke up at 8.30 thinking it's 10.30). Breakfast was self-service; simple and nice. Went up to pack our bags and off we go to explore the nice city! Visited the oldest Marseille bakery and brought some biscuits before we went on to visit the Palais de Pharo which Napolesn III once stayed and it offered us a really nice view of the port and mouth of the river. Walked along Vieux Port to the other end where we visited the MuCEM which once again offered a nice(r) view of the town. Found a (cheap) place to have (the cheapest) pasta before we continued our walk. Checked out the ferry to Chateau d'If but it was cancelled for the whole day due to the wind!! This remains the greatest/only regret to the trip thus far. I couldn't step on the (fictional) island that Edmond Dante was imprisoned and Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite classic to date! And apparently there's also a hole (made up, of course) where "fiction meets reality"! Oh wells. With much disappointment, we decided to head to the Notre Dame de la Garde which is this cathedral on a really really tall hill/mountain (and the only one in the whole city) and thus presented a panorama view of the whole city (which, after some research, we realize is much smaller than Singapore). Le Corbusier was sacrificed for nua-ing time as we decided against finding the building in a far off place and headed back to the hostel for some rest. Had beer (yay!) and chips before we decided to see the port at night and headed out again. Found this secluded (read: cheap) Vietnamese place for pho!!! Then walked down the markets along the port at dawn and caught nice photos before we go back to rest for the night.
Wrap and bagel was amazing this morning! Though the macaroon that her friend suggested was closed. And now we are here at the station waiting for the train to Paris to come! Ciao!
