marseille/calanques ENCORE

i forgot my camera both days so this is kinda lame :( but ill make a memory of it anyway with this blog

we were suppose to go to marseille and chateau d'if (compte de monte cristo :D) for one of the girls in caitlins program Julia's birthday. ps. Quinn from rome/loyola was in town visiting. So we went to the market for picnic supplies first. I had never been in the aix food market before! IT WAS AWESOME.. cute french farmers and tons of fresh provincial goods! We got goat cheese, chevre covered in province herbs, avacado, tomatoes, and a couple baguettes. Once we got to the gare we saw that unfortunately no one was there and after waiting decided we'd just go alone anyway.

Since quinn had obviously never been to marseille... we walked to the port, then up the mountian to the notre-dame de la garde.. the church i had pictures of the high up view from before.. i was glad to return. We had gotten a great cafe. After being so many other places in europe i realized marseille was not as dirty or dangerous as i once thought. I enjoyed it much more with a fresh look at it. We then went to the port and took a boat past chateau d'if (saw it but didnt go in) and on to another island 'frioul'. I met a guy on the boat who is working as an engineer in Toulouse but from the US, he literally is there just because he couldnt get a job in the US.. crazy??!!! The boat was fun cus it was smaller and kinda jumped over the waves! The people on the outside got a few surprise splashes :P

We got there and kinda had no idea where to go, not many people there, so we found a path and began to follow. It had a half creepy 'shutter island' feel to it. There were abandoned buildings that were blocked off by high fences and had signs saying forbidden to enter, so that was beyond strange but then the waterside was just gorgeous. a view of marseille and jetting cliffs down into crystal clear water! We picnic-ed on the side of one cliff with water splashing up high.. it was beautiful! We then continued on until we found a beach.. i kinda learned to skip stones (did it once) and otherwise just enjoyed the waves and sun. Decided to head back and tlaked about the creepiness and beauty of the island. We got talking about horror movies and turn a corned in which i jumped.. stopped in my steps and gasped... i saw a tree with a person hanging down from it.... then to realize it was a wetsuit up to dry hahahaha.. my heart had literally stopped.. thats what i get for watching too many movies :D

We took the boat back, grabbed a mcdonalds as a 'hold over' til we got back. Once in aix we couldnt actually find any snack restaurants open, only nice ones. But im glad we had gone on a hunt because i walked down so many streets i had never seen before! I never realized how many MORE adorable streets of candlelit restaurants aix had. It was really nice to see this side, we also stopped at a café on the way to get a glass of wine before coming home and crashing for our next day aux CALANQUES (my fav thing in the world)

this picture perfectly describes calanques this day! We once again went to the market before.. this time picking up a sundried tomato dip TO DIE FOR!! two baguettes, avacado, tomatoes and some compté cheese ( my fav).. we met with three friends, irish friend kevin (who i love) and vinny/katie, two other americans! It was a perfect group.. we went to marseille then to the start of the paths and began the hike! We kind booked it down to our spot and were dying of sweat when we go tthere. I was more than ready to jump in! My anxiousness ended up being my fault. Me and katy hurried to get in even though there were huge waves.. every other time the waters been still.... Once we were in we realized this was a dangerous situation as the waves could push us into the cliffside rocks.. (mom dad i know you wont like reading this) but so we tried to swim out to open water where we had more control.. but then over there the waves were so high we had to swim to stay ontop of them and to not go too much with them! The three guys on shore were about to go in after us but told us to swim to the cove.. getting a little scared for my life.. i made my way over.. katy and i came out of the water trembling and cut up from sliding into the water/stepping on stones to get out. The guys came to meet us and we relaxed over in the cove for quite a while.. kevin swam out and jumped in off the cliff. We hiked barefoot back around (as swimming was not an option) and sitting and eating was great after that unwanted adrenaline rush

eventually we realized that the waves were coming.. in waves. there would be HUGE waves, theyd calm down for maybe 30 seconds and then start again. we all wanted to go to the center island to jump but were too scared. So we decided wed wait down at the bottom til it calmed then sprint over to the island during the calm part. quinn yelling at me to hurry up as big waves were coming already right after i got in!

we enjoyed our time with the view from the island and jumping in was scarier than before. Kevin and i went in off the backside and i had to look away before jumping to calm down from the height :P We went in and my ears were a little messed up for days but it was amazing.. we swam forever too! the water is so salty that i could basically float without trying, plus there were yellow buoys out there to cling on when we wanted! it was beautiful and i didnt wanna leave but we eventually went back, layed out a while longer and hiked home. I got the worst migraine of my life that night, i had horrriblle earaches from the pressure, with that plus allergies and major dehydration.. i couldnt move for about 2-3 hours. so needless to say didnt do anything that night, still a great day all the same

the rest of the week i just toured quinn around town, had my finals and tried to hang out with caitlin as our time is lingering, we drank one night up on a hill above our house overlooking the city :) we also went to the park with a picnic and meeting up with my friends.. got crepes, went to book n bar, an american bookshop/cafe.. and cooked vero a pesto pasta dinner with greek salad for when she got home one day :) she loved it! it was a great week and it was great to have someone visit to help me see my town through new eyes and remind me of how great a place im in.. its all 'normal now' and so to have someone else pointing out new things or how great things are was a great way to reflect. Also it was fun for someone to get to meet my friends and vice versa! I also got to translate every night at dinner! I thought my head would explode but it was really good for me and my practice and i did really well i think, it was very fun to try :)

during this time, we realized we had extra train tickets.. and found super cheap hotel.. not hostel.. hotel deals in paris.. and so prepared we were!!! it was spontaneous but a great decision.. tune in next time for pics and stories of that :)