Sunshine and trolley jumping

The next day passed fairly uneventfully. I got up and caught the train to Marseilles and arrived there about 12:00, picked up a city map, and armed with my map and backpack, managed to find our hotel a good two hours later. Though the feet were weary yet again, the school wasn’t getting in till about 7:30 for our four day trip through the south of France. So off again I went to see the city. I wandered through a cool park (which happen to be selling Otter Pops on that hot spring day, and who can say no to an Otter Pop? Especially when they’re like twice the size of the Otter Pops in the States), and at the end of the park was the beach and the Mediterranean! I stopped on the beach for a while to take pictures, blow bubbles, watch the pretty surfers, and mistake how far the tide was coming in (see pictures in previous post). I meandered back in the direction of the hotel, but still got there a bit early, so I found another park near the hotel where I blew some more bubbles, and stalked a lizard and a rooster, who was convinced it was still morning. The school finally got in, so Leah and I found some food and collapsed in our hotel bed shortly after.

The next morning we took off in the direction of Nice in the now all too familiar bus that we have spent countless hours in throughout the year. Along the way, we stopped in Cannes (the city made famous for its annual film festival), and took a boat ride (where Marvin and Stephen found it essential to do a reenactment of the famous titanic scene), and another little town called Cassis. We made it into Nice later that night to discover our lovely four star hotel rooms, complete with balcony and kitchen! Being the cheapskates that we are, Leah and I naturally decided it would be more economical and more fun to take advantage of the kitchen and cook dinner instead of going out. So we went to the nearest grocery store and got soup, baguette and corn and had a 4 Euro dinner. Not bad : ) Afterwards we were so tired (the bus just sucks all energy out of you), so we started watching a movie, only to discover we weren’t understanding it not because our French was that bad but because it was in Italian, so we then switched to France’s version of American Idol (which by the way contains very little talent, and the judges are completely crazy in their decisions).

Wednesday we got up and headed for Monaco, the little country just to the east of France, where we saw the palace and the grave of Grace Kelley. Gorgeous country, but extremely expensive. They also had a really cool aquarium, and I’m not even that into fish. On our way back from Monaco, we stopped in a couple of little towns, Eze and Biot, where we saw a glass blowing shop and a tour of a perfumery- both very cool. We got back to Nice a little early that night, so Leah, Sarah and I wandered through old town by the port and did some shopping and tried the local specialty before making our way back down the other end of the Promenade des Anglais, the famous boardwalk in Nice. It was a good 5 km, and Leah and I weren’t wearing the best shoes, so we had to stop at one point on a bench for ‘a moment of reflection’ as we liked to call it. That night, we had rice, the rest of our baguette and corn, and green beans for dinner, followed by some cartoons and Disney in French.
Thursday sadly began the last day of our trip, in which we began the trek back to good old Collonges. And let me tell you, it was a trek. Except for a three hour stop in Avignon, we were on the bus for 12 hours straight. Ridiculous I tell you. I think we all tried every position possible on that bus trying to get comfortable. At one point, a couple of guys got so stir crazy they resorted to doing some push-ups in the aisle. The stop in Avignon was really cool though, the Rhone was running right by the city, and the town was surrounded by an ancient wall. During our stay, we did a tour of the Palace of the Popes which, for those who don’t know, was where during the Great Schism of the Catholic Church there was one of the three popes who ruled at the same time. It lasted quite a while, with eight different popes residing there throughout the Schism. The palace, and the town, was really cool with little passageways and alleys just begging to be explored.

I have decided if I were ever to be arrested, what it would be for. Okay, I probably wouldn’t be arrested, but I would get a serious talking to. When I was going through the palace, there were all these little staircases and narrow passages and tiny doors leading off to no doubt interesting places, but blocked off to the public. I had to seriously restrain myself from slipping under the rope and go off exploring. Other interesting events of the day included the instance when we tried to jump on the trolley going through town. I saw the trolley and jokingly said, “Leah we should hop on!” Ever-eager Leah impulsively dashes ahead to do just that. I shouted after her that I was only kidding, but apparently she thought it was a good idea, so, not to be left behind, I jumped on the moving trolley right after her. The next thing we know it stops. We look at each other, “was that us? No…” But sure enough, the driver gets out, walks to where we are, and motions for us to get out. Leah innocently asks in French, “it’s not free?” Nope, turns out it’s a German tourist trolley.

We made it back to campus, with shouts of glee from Leah and I upon sighting the familiar Saleve, and now have the long weekend to rest and recover before ‘hitting it hard’ : ) on Monday. The last school trip and long vacation is officially and sadly over, there remains only several long weekends in which to travel (which I intend to take full advantage of, naturally), and only six and a half weeks of school and work before this surreal world comes to a crashing and tragic end. But fear not, these remaining six weeks will without a doubt be taken full advantage of and thoroughly relished. (PS- Sorry I'm feeling indecisive about picture selection, as usual. Despite my evident lack of decision making abilities, there are obviously many more pictures which I am going to try to upload to picassa if you're interested).