A whirlwind of days

Jan. 4, 2010

I woke up to Ale poking me. She was NOT feeling rested and better. Her philangee was hurting her and she could not take the pain anymore. It was time to see a French doctor. DUN DUN DUN!! We were looking through our paperwork and such to figure out her insurance and because she could not find hers, I called mine to find a doctor close to the appt and who knew how to treat the philangee. I called my insurance and explained the problem. They thought I had the philangee so they recommended me some places then we found a phone number of her insurance. We called and they gave us a doctor to go to. So we set out on a mission. The doctor they had recommended was near the Place de la Concorde and we hopped on the metro slowly but surely with Ale being crippled. Once we finally got there, the French doctor was very nice. She agreed to see her even though she had no appointment. While she was being checked I stayed outside waiting. All of a sudden I heard OUCH! That couldn’t have been good. Her philangee turned out to be a holangee nothing to do with the other. Ale had misdiagnosed herself. After seeing the doctor we were able to go to the pharmacy and buy her medication. We shared a few laughs and sighs of relief for the simple fact of knowing what the holangee was and how she was going to treat it.

Jan. 5, 2010

Ale is seriously a trooper. She was feeling better today and endured a lot. We ventured out in the cold to the Latin Quarter for my first crepe back in Paris. Yum! Oh and how I love the Latin Quarter. We walked towards the Notre Dame to eat our crepes. After, we quickly went underground to avoid the cold and headed to Cergy to pick up the rest of my luggage. Still crippled Ale taught me the ways of cheap grocery shopping at Auchan. She showed me the “poor section” and all the best low cost things to buy and see. She even made dinner that night when we went back to Paris. Tomorrow was the beginning of our next adventure, Marseille.

Jan. 6, 2010

Sitting on the train to Marseille. First of all to get here was kind of a mission. We left Olivier’s appt. @ 8h30 to get to Gare de Lyon and catch our train to Marseille. As you already know my friend Ale is crippled by causes too hilarious and too horrible to begin to describe hence the holangee. Let’s just say her crippleness made her walk slower and odd, so as you can imagine getting to the train station in time @ 9h16 could have presented a problem. Miraculously and with plenty of drugs, she woke up feeling a lot better and was even walking faster than I which helped us arrive on time. But other circumstances would make us nervous. While on the metro to Gare de Lyon, the metro began to slow down and the lights began to flicker. I joked about the metro stopping. 2 seconds later, it stopped but luckily it started in a minute or so. We arrived at the train station. We boarded and 2 minutes later I turn around and this very handsome French man boarded with a lady. Oh man ladies this is where I go on a bit of a tangent:

This man was probably in his mid-late 20’s. Tall, slender, dark short hair, light skin, beautiful face, which includes eyebrows, eyes, eyelashes, and mouth, he was perfect. Now while Ale who is obsessed with French men because of their distinctive long pointed noses, I don’t care for them much. I prefer the look of the German men. But even this French was parfait! Here comes the best part of European boys, the dress code. He was wearing fitted khaki slacks with a belt, stripped collar shirt that peeped out of his light black sweater and a stripped scarf with square dress shoes. And the best part he spoke French! Ah kill me now, he was with his g/f.

We arrived in Marseille, the south of France where it was suppose to be warmer. Not so much warmer but I’ll take what I can get. We made our way to our hostel, Hotel Vertigo. It was a quaint place with lots of people. We booked a 4-bed room and we were there first so we were kinda anxious to see who would arrive. We headed out to the old port of Marseille lots of boats but not many tourists since it was still cold. We visited the old part of Marseille that included the cathedral, le panier, and other old monuments. We found some sketchy parts of town. We had the most delicious pizza in a sketchy side street but I think it was more delicious because we were so hungry not because it was quality. Frankly I was disappointed with the city of Marseille, it was dirty and it lacked a certain charm of spectacular architecture and enchanting side streets. In my travels to European cities I have always chosen cities to visit because of recommendations, documentaries, history and pictures. I never really pictured myself in Marseille but when Ale thought it a good place to visit I went along with her. I’m always up for an adventure.

Jan. 7, 2010

It ended up being a couple that had checked into the same bedroom and checked out the following morning so again we had no roomies. We ventured out again in the morning after breakfast in the hostel. Palais Longchamp was our destination. It was a very large fountain with great statues. We headed back to the hostel to make food and rest. As we were getting up we met our new roomie Julius from South Carolina. The great thing about traveling and staying at hostels is that you get to meet other fellow travelers and right off the bat you share one common passion, the love of traveling. I have always met great people in my hostel experiences except for one…

So anyways we met Julius who tagged along with us when we left to go to an Irish pub Omalley’s. We had great conversation about history and Mexicans and governments and traveling of course. That night we all passed out.

Jan. 8, 2010

We reunited with old friends today, Olivier and Manu and headed towards the famous Calanques of Marseille. It was a crazy mission to get to the Calanques. I had no idea it would take so much effort to see this natural beauty. First of all I was totally not prepared, I wore 6 lbs shoes rainboots that wore me down as we hiked to higher altitudes. So of course I was automatically left behind…trailing. There’s something you must know about the French (European) lifestyle. In Europe the streets are very narrow and are really not made for cars therefore the government provides excellent public transportation to help its natives travel within the city and continent. Furthermore the locations of popular places around each city are not separated by massive highways but are actually rather near to each other so that people can walk to each place. It is possibly the best set-up for a city and its people. Lots of walking means less overweight people, even with all the cheese and bread they eat. So of course I was left behind…trailing in my condition having barely been in Europe for less than a week and already competing with two native French and Ale who had already accustomed to the French lifestyle of walking. Now it’s not just walking but also put with that a fast pace walk uphill, lets just say I was dying trying to keep up with these Europeans.

Nevertheless we made it to the top and it was spectacular. The view from up there was breathtaking you could see thousands of green trees that led to the coastal cliffs of white and brown rock that spilled into a turquoise sea. The calanques were rock formations clearly seen from our altitude.

This night we were scheduled to depart Marseille at 23h14 on a party train. Yes, you read right a party train. A party train that was to last 8 hours on a trip that normally only takes 4 hours. This party train was to have a DJ on board with a bar and a dance floor. Yep, in Europe you can party anywhere even in the train. So we arrived at the train station in Marseille ready to party. DELAYED! DELAYED! DELAYED! was the reading on all the train schedules. We had heard there was snow in Paris but we had no idea it had caused so many problems with the trains. We sat our cold butts down to wait. Three hours later our train arrived at 02h25. By this time we were completely exhausted and cold all we wanted was a warm bed and to arrive. It was no party train it was a regular train that made its way to Paris across the snow-covered terrain of central France.