Marseille

Day 1 - my trip to marseille did not get off to a good start when I missed my train by about 5 minutes and had to pay 90 euro for a new one, this was not a fun experience for me. It did teach me to try not to get too drunk the night before going places again, it turned what could have been a great time into a really frustrating day. 

Eventually after some help from a kind American stranger I made my way to my new hostel. It had mixed reviews on tripadvisor (my new love) so I was not sure what to expect, however even during my check in I realised that this would be a negative experience for me. The staff were very rude and unhelpful, the hostel had literally no facilities apart from absolute basics and a microwave. While they may have advertised themselves as a youth hostel I think the average age of guests would have been somewhere between 30 and 40 (one guy looked about 60). Knowing my luck this old man just happened to be sleeping in the bed next to mine, snoring away, talking in his sleep and doing his best to creep me out during the day. 

Day 2 - the start to day two was not what I needed, I woke to some terrible pains in my stomach and a few other things that I won't go into. Needless to say these were all the telltale signs of gastro aka every traveler's worst nightmare! After a quick chat with mum on Facebook I made the decision to move to the good old bananas and rice diet. For me this actually wasn't too bad, I love bananas and for some reason don't have a huge problem with eating plain rice. 

Eventually I decided that sitting around feeling bad for myself was not a good way to deal with my illness so I decided to head out to check out the sights of Marseille. My first stop was Notre Dame De La Garde which is a beautiful church in a even more beautiful location on top of a hill (possibly a mountain) in the middle of Marseille, the walk up there gave my calves a hell of a workout but I think all in all it was well worth it. The views from up there have to be seen to be believed, whether it is the view of the port or the view of the rest of the city or the mountains that encircle the city what you see is simply breathtaking and I was glad that I went up there despite the pain in my legs! Plus it was a nice place to sit down, relax and enjoy the good old banana and Gatorade combo.

My next stop was a beach that was about a half hour's walk from the church thankfully most of this was downhill and the fairly cold water made the trip a solid investment. I was a bit scared to leave my things in my bag so I hid my cards/phone under my towel and kept a close eye on my things, there was probably only about 10-15 people at the beach but I don't really want to be taking chances on things like that. I probably swam for about half an hour before getting out and discovering something I had never heard of before, this beach had free wifi! Every backpacker absolutely loves finding wifi and needless to say I was pretty excited about it (I also thought about mum's reaction which I can only imagine would have been a similar if not higher level of excitement). So I chilled out at the beach for about half an hour before making the hourlong trip back to my hostel. I felt far more content with myself and the city as a whole after what turned into a pretty nice day, the hostel on the other hand was still doing its best to create terrible vibes and this was a theme that continued throughout my stay. 

Day 3 - this was another day of mainly rest as my battle with gastro raged on, one of the highlights was going down the street and doing my laundry which is always a fun task. I sat there eating a banana and listening to Arctic Monkeys' new album (AM for anyone interested, well worth a download or purchase or whatever it is that you do) as I waited for the washing to be done.

In the evening I discovered that there was a champions league football match in marseille on my last night there. I quickly hopped online to find that tickets were still available at a store that was only a 10 minute walk from my hostel. At this time there was only 25 minutes until they closed when I discovered this so I sprinted through the streets of marseille and made it with 15 minutes to spare! The ticket was somewhat pricey setting me back 40 euros however I could not have been much more happy considering the match was Marseille vs Arsenal and Arsenal had just signed Mesut Özil who is arguably the 3rd best player in the world at the moment. 

After the rush of running around to get my ticket I went down to the port and had a look around, the port is pretty beautiful and I was there around sunset which made it that little bit nicer! They also have a peculiar sunshade type thing that is completely reflective so of course being a tourist I had to take a picture of my reflection in the top of it, I think about 20 other people were doing the same thing. 

I returned to the port later in the evening to watch a few champions league games at a pub which was packed with arsenal fans due to the game the following evening. The Manchester United - Leverkusen game was being shown and I do not think I have ever heard such a big roar in a pub as when Leverkusen leveled the score at 1-1. The celebrations carried on for a good 5 minutes. Sadly Leverkusen couldn't hold on and united ended up winning 4-2. 

Day 4 

As I awoke it appeared the worst of gastro was behind me so I went out adventuring for the day and checked out an old castle that overlooks the port (I can't remember the name but I'm sure if you google castle marseille you will find it). This was another case of the views being more impressive than the actual attraction itself. I spotted a nice looking park nearby and headed over there to eat my lunch and chill out on the grass for a while before heading back to my hostel for a nap.

After awaking from my nap I went and had my now traditional bananas & rice dinner even though I thought the worst of gastro was behind me. I then headed up to the velodrome for the match, I could barely contain my excitement for this was the highest standard of football I have seen live. The match did not disappoint, Arsenal seemed a bit flat in the first half and Marseille really deserved to be in front at half time however they could not take their chances. Arsenal took it up a gear in the second half and started to take control. The match ended 2-1 for arsenal, marseille's goal coming in the last minute of added time through a penalty. The atmosphere at the ground was electric! The ground is being rebuilt for the 2016 European championships at the moment so the stadium only has 3 stands, that did not stop the marseille fans from making a deafening noise every time Arsenal had the ball for more than 2 or 3 minutes. I imagine it would have made for an intimidating atmosphere for the Arsenal players, even I was intimidated by it! 

That brings to an end my time in Marseille, it was definitely interesting. At first I hated it so much that I wanted to go home for probably the first time in my trip, however I slowly learned to love it and had a good time despite not having a conversation of more than 5 minutes for the whole time I was there and the general weirdness of my hostel!