Marvelous Marseille
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2007
1
104
115
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Marseille,
France
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Cow in a Car
We checked into our hostel, Vertigo, early in the afternoon and set off on our usual unguided and slightly random walk around the city. We found a great little Chinese restaurant to grab some lunch (I know, eating Chinese food in France, the culinary capital of the world, is a little blasphemous, but it's hard to go past good, cheap Chinese food!!). We wandered the busy streets, poked through a little market of books and records, and admired the architecture and cow statues everywhere.
Fortress on the Hill
We were both struck by how multicultural it is here - in one market, women in hijabs and men in ghalibeahs haggled over prayer mats and honey-soaked pastries in a side street market identical to the souks in Damascus and Istanbul, while on the street Pacific Island women with frangipani flowers in their hair walked by fashionable French girls in stilettos, and African men selling sunglasses from a table by the side of the road.
Marseille Harbour
Marseille is set around a harbour, with a huge ancient fortress on a hill above the city guarding the harbour entrance. We climbed up to the fort, with great views over the forest of masts in the harbour and steepled city, then grabbed some groceries (pate and baguettes, of course!) ad headed back to the hostel to pack and plan our next step before hitting the road again tomorrow morning.
All our best from France,
Dan and Gabes
