So, I explored the grounds a bit and then went into the building itself. Although the building exists as it did from the beginning, it now remains more as a vestige of a better time than anything else. I made my way up to the rooftop terrace, where there is a gym, pool, artist studio, and I believe a Kung Fu class, and was taken away by the great views of all of Marseille. The terrace itself was kind of like a mausoleum still looking more or less untouched by the stresses of time and history.
When my friends arrived, we went to the vieux port for to walk around and have dinner. Like most students - abroad or in the US, we chose what seemed most affordable. It was a nice café overlooking the port. But upon having been seated, the problems quickly arose. Since neither my friends nor I speak French, the language barrier was something to be reckoned with.
The menu was the first issue. What to choose? I cannot understand any of this. Okay. I'll compare the words to words in Spanish. This doesn't work. English. No luck. At last, Calamars. Calamari, right? Okay, good. I say, "Quiero Calamar." And point at the item in the menu. Good, the waitress is writing something down. My friends did the same with their items. Everything seemed to be just fine.
And then came time to eat. I received the calamars, but my friends did not receive their plates. I waited a little, ate a little and waited some more. Finally, I waved over a waiter and pointed at my friends and said, 'ensalada.' He nodded, which we all took as some sort of recognition at the issue at hand. So, we continued to wait and still nothing came. After another 5 minutes or so, it appeared that the waiter was returning to tell us something, but at the last minute he went to the table right next to us. It was at this point that my friend Katia sort of interjected herself at the table next door and tried as best as she could to tell the waiter that she was still waiting for her salad. At this point, the entire table next to us was fully immersed in trying to help us out. They were French, so they could at least speak to the waiter and get things smoothed out. Well, it appeared at first that our neighbors thought that my friend was trying to give them a recommendation for a salad rather than asking them for help in obtaining the salads for our table. This was only a minor detail as one of the women at the table spoke a broken down version of Spanish. Salvation at last! With their help, they told the waiter that we still needed the salads. But still the salads did not come. We saw numerous salads go to other tables and it was not for another 10 minutes or so that we received the food. It was great though. The people at the adjacent table were incredibly friendly and spoke to us a little. (The stereotype that the French are unfriendly is more or less wrong. I would say from my experience in Marseille, that the only rude people in France are the people working in the Tourism Offices.) When we did get the food, the managed to bring me another calamar. It was bizarre, but I welcomed the squids that had been fried to a golden-brown perfection. We did receive free coffee to go with our profiterol, so it wasn't all bad.
The next day, we woke up at 6 to catch a train to Nimes (pronounced neema) to see the Roman arena and temple. Nime was a great typically Provencial town. What was even more interesting was the influence of the Spanish culture. We arrived around 8 and there was going to be a bullfight at 11 in the Roman arena. So all of the decorations, vendors, and restaurants were peddling things like tapas, paella, Spanish-styled french souvenirs. It was in this city that my Spanish was fairly useful, more so than English.
We managed to make some more friends at the bus station. I had researched the bus schedule before hand online and there was supposed to be a bus to Nime at 11 on line 168, but when we looked at the schedule for the day line 168 did not exist. And the bus office was closed. So we searched and searched and eventually ran into a Korean or Japanese tourist that we had taken a photo of earlier. It was to our advantage that he happened to be living in France and also going to Pont du Gard. It was to our disadvantage they he did not know which bus line went going to Pont du Gard. In the process of walking up and down the bus queue, we picked up another 'friend,' a businessman from Japan. Eventually we found a bus that left at 11 with the help from a French couple.
From Nimes, we took the bus to Pont du Gard, which is probably the world's best-preserved Roman Aquaduct. We went on a hike around the aqueduct and then had lunch by the river. I had bought my sandwich and dessert at a patisserie. The sandwich was incredible. Poppyseed baguette, dried ham, tomato, onion, some French cheese, and then an olive spread. The dessert was even better. It was called a macaroon, which was like a brownie but infinitely better. Words cannot describe. Check out the website: www.paul.fr
From Nimes, we went to Avignon. If you're ever in Provence, you have to go here. A city steeped in history, it is where the Popes were exiled for a century or two. The old walls that surrounded the town still stand and still divide the history, idyllic, picturesque town from the newer construction.
We made it back to Marseille at 7 o'clock with just enough time to run over to the port and take the boat over to Ile Friol and Chateau D'If. We had dinner (curry mussels and a grand marnier crepe) there and then returned to the mainland at 10.
Waking up again early this morning, I tried to ask the man at the front desk if we needed to checkout or do anything. Of course, he didn't understand me, so I wrote Marseille down on a piece of paper and then drew and arrow down to the words Madrid. Still he didn't understand, so I just gave him the key and off we went to out final destination, the Palais du Longchamp - an incredible garden and waterworks complex.
All in all, it was amazing. I didn't get to do everything I wanted to, but that's always the way it is.
The menu was the first issue. What to choose? I cannot understand any of this. Okay. I'll compare the words to words in Spanish. This doesn't work. English. No luck. At last, Calamars. Calamari, right? Okay, good. I say, "Quiero Calamar." And point at the item in the menu. Good, the waitress is writing something down. My friends did the same with their items. Everything seemed to be just fine.
And then came time to eat. I received the calamars, but my friends did not receive their plates. I waited a little, ate a little and waited some more. Finally, I waved over a waiter and pointed at my friends and said, 'ensalada.' He nodded, which we all took as some sort of recognition at the issue at hand. So, we continued to wait and still nothing came. After another 5 minutes or so, it appeared that the waiter was returning to tell us something, but at the last minute he went to the table right next to us. It was at this point that my friend Katia sort of interjected herself at the table next door and tried as best as she could to tell the waiter that she was still waiting for her salad. At this point, the entire table next to us was fully immersed in trying to help us out. They were French, so they could at least speak to the waiter and get things smoothed out. Well, it appeared at first that our neighbors thought that my friend was trying to give them a recommendation for a salad rather than asking them for help in obtaining the salads for our table. This was only a minor detail as one of the women at the table spoke a broken down version of Spanish. Salvation at last! With their help, they told the waiter that we still needed the salads. But still the salads did not come. We saw numerous salads go to other tables and it was not for another 10 minutes or so that we received the food. It was great though. The people at the adjacent table were incredibly friendly and spoke to us a little. (The stereotype that the French are unfriendly is more or less wrong. I would say from my experience in Marseille, that the only rude people in France are the people working in the Tourism Offices.) When we did get the food, the managed to bring me another calamar. It was bizarre, but I welcomed the squids that had been fried to a golden-brown perfection. We did receive free coffee to go with our profiterol, so it wasn't all bad.
The next day, we woke up at 6 to catch a train to Nimes (pronounced neema) to see the Roman arena and temple. Nime was a great typically Provencial town. What was even more interesting was the influence of the Spanish culture. We arrived around 8 and there was going to be a bullfight at 11 in the Roman arena. So all of the decorations, vendors, and restaurants were peddling things like tapas, paella, Spanish-styled french souvenirs. It was in this city that my Spanish was fairly useful, more so than English.
We managed to make some more friends at the bus station. I had researched the bus schedule before hand online and there was supposed to be a bus to Nime at 11 on line 168, but when we looked at the schedule for the day line 168 did not exist. And the bus office was closed. So we searched and searched and eventually ran into a Korean or Japanese tourist that we had taken a photo of earlier. It was to our advantage that he happened to be living in France and also going to Pont du Gard. It was to our disadvantage they he did not know which bus line went going to Pont du Gard. In the process of walking up and down the bus queue, we picked up another 'friend,' a businessman from Japan. Eventually we found a bus that left at 11 with the help from a French couple.
From Nimes, we took the bus to Pont du Gard, which is probably the world's best-preserved Roman Aquaduct. We went on a hike around the aqueduct and then had lunch by the river. I had bought my sandwich and dessert at a patisserie. The sandwich was incredible. Poppyseed baguette, dried ham, tomato, onion, some French cheese, and then an olive spread. The dessert was even better. It was called a macaroon, which was like a brownie but infinitely better. Words cannot describe. Check out the website: www.paul.fr
From Nimes, we went to Avignon. If you're ever in Provence, you have to go here. A city steeped in history, it is where the Popes were exiled for a century or two. The old walls that surrounded the town still stand and still divide the history, idyllic, picturesque town from the newer construction.
We made it back to Marseille at 7 o'clock with just enough time to run over to the port and take the boat over to Ile Friol and Chateau D'If. We had dinner (curry mussels and a grand marnier crepe) there and then returned to the mainland at 10.
Waking up again early this morning, I tried to ask the man at the front desk if we needed to checkout or do anything. Of course, he didn't understand me, so I wrote Marseille down on a piece of paper and then drew and arrow down to the words Madrid. Still he didn't understand, so I just gave him the key and off we went to out final destination, the Palais du Longchamp - an incredible garden and waterworks complex.
All in all, it was amazing. I didn't get to do everything I wanted to, but that's always the way it is.
1 comment:
What an incredible time you are having! Seems like you are eating your way across the countries like we did in S.A. ;-)
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