MARSEILLE:

I caught a 6:44AM train to Marseille from Geneva which arrived a half hour late. After getting lost finding the hostel (I had no map!) I dropped off my stuff and took a long walk around Marseille. I had lunch for only 4 euros at the Palais de Justice and then climbed a really high hill to Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde:

Afterwards I saw the Abbeye Saint-Victor, then the Parc and Chateau du Pharo, which is absolutely gorgeous! You can see the entire Vieux Port. Then I walked around the Port so I saw the Théâtre National "La Criéel", the Fort St. Nicolas, and the Fort St. Jean. From there I saw the Cathédrale Majeure, which is also amazing:

I also saw the Vieille Charité and got lost finding the Arc de Triomphe so I saw quite a bit more of Marseille than I was intending. After dinner I headed back to the hostel to meet my three male Ugandan roommates who were quite loud in the morning and one snored all night long.

On Saturday I escaped early from the hostel and took a ferry to the Château d'If to see the castle:

It was really amazing to see and totally worth the ferry ride and 15 euros. Afterwards I took a tram to the Palais des Longchamps only to discover that 2 of the 3 museums I wanted to see there are closed until 2013. I did get to see the Musée Gorbet, which is full of so much gorgeous furniture, paintings, woodwork, etc. I can't decide on just one picture to post on here, so you'll have to look at all of them on my Facebook.

There was a protest at the Palais des Longchamps so I wasn't able to take the tram back. I saw a really gorgeous church but I'm not sure of its name. Also on the way back I did some shopping and figured out my size in European numbers. I had dinner, then did a bit more shopping and finally returned to the hostel to do some homework. I discovered that I had some new roommates! Four girls from Strasbourg with whom I was able to speak French, and they were super nice. They invited me out on Sunday with them and we wandered for a bit because one was looking for a subject for her architecture project. We saw the Cathédrale Majeure again before I said goodbye to them and grabbed the metro to St. Charles train station. I caught the 1:44PM train back to Geneva and got here just in time for dinner.

And that was my weekend! It was very enjoyable and just the right amount of time. Marseille is nice for a weekend but I'm not sure I'd ever want to spend a considerable length of time there simply because it acks the charm I think a lot of other European cities have. Oh well, the historical stuff is still really pretty!