Marseille, France

French Bourse (stock exchange)
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Marseille is awesome!  I loved it as soon as I got out of the train.  Its funny, one of the best things about traveling is the newness of a town.  Every 3-5 days I enter a new city and love it!  Think of the feeling you get when you go on holiday and first see the new place you arrive at.  I have this feeling every few days and it truly leaves you feeling refreshed and also provides something to look forward to.

The port is huge and is beautiful.  I love being near water and boats - I guess it because I grew up on the water and so close to the beach.  Yes everyone, Brooklyn has water and a beach!!!  Marseille was sold out because the Rugby World Cup was playing the weekend I was there, but I was able to find a hotel room, albeit an expensive one.

At this point, I got punched!

cool building
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I walked all over Marseille, which is easy to do.  They have pretty churches all throughout the city.  I also hiked all the way up to their Notre Dame, which is quite a hike in the heat!  But it does provide beautiful vistas of the city.  All the buildings are so tall and close together that from up on the hill it looks like Marseille doesnt even have streets!

The next day I took a boat ride along the Riviera where you can see the cutest little towns that are in the alcoves near Marseille.  The water is so blue, it makes the sky look dirty.  Sometimes when I am on a long boat ride I get a little sea sick.  So I wanted to make sure I got a seat outside.  I was anxious about not getting a seat so I came to line up for the ride a half hour early.  Yet, even then the line was crazy long!  By the time I got on board it was standing room only for the 3 hr tour.  I was bummed, but I stood there as we made our way out to sea.  As soon as we left the port the waves splashed over the front of the boat and soaked everyone.  Suddenly the front of the boat was empty, except for me.  This was a good reminder of why you should not be anxious and/or bummed until you need to be.  Here, I was uncomfortable for about an hour.  And yet - had I just waitied indifferently it turns out life unfolded just how its supposed to and I wouldnt have been able to stand in the front anyway!  A lesson I will try harder to remember in the future.  If you wait to react - I firmly believe you will find yourself anxious/bummed/upset/etc much less of the time than if you anticipate what may happen and get anxious in advance of it.

They must have a lot of sex in France... these machines are everywhere!
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The next night I met Ina at a restaurant, who was here from Norway.   Ina is exactly like me but from Norway - and a girl of course!  She never makes a serious face in pics, is always up for a good time and loves to drink n party.  It felt like we've known each other for years, even though we only spent 48 hrs together.  The first night we went out to a bar for some drinks.  Which of course turned into shots (but for the first time that I can recall, it was someone else who pushed them on me!)  I think Ina liked them because they lit the shots on fire.  Check out the cool pic of them... and yes, we drank em!  And no, its not hot - any phycisists in the house want to explain how this can be?  After the shots we went over to a dance club called TrolleyBus with three different rooms of music where we danced to heavy metal!  I think it was Rage Against the Machine. We sang at the top of our lings, 'fuck you I wont do what you tell me!'and ended up out til 6am.  Im sure Ina wouldve kept on dancing, but it appears that at 38 6am is my limit!  OK, who am I kidding, 6am was my limit at 21 too.  But hey, it makes a nice story eh?

Castle at night
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The next day we laid out by the pool and tanned.  I was crazy hungover, but Ina really wanted to lay out (I guess they can only do this for a few months of the year in Norway so they want to take advantage of the times they can).  While we were laying at the pool a couple next to us start chatting with us and during the conversation said to me, 'your wife is very nice'.  At this point, I got punched!  Now Im not sure why, but this seems a normal response from women.  I was basically just sitting there, calmly, feet in the pool and someone else says something that upsets her... and I get hit!  I didnt say it, he said it!  Shouldnt he get punched!?!  I suppose after he said it Im supposed to yell out - 'that aint my wife!' and maybe I could save myself from a black n blue ;-)

Port of Marseille
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We then decided to see if we could get tickets to the Rugby World cup and as luck would have it some dude overheard us talking and said he had extra tickets!  So that night we ended up at the World Cup!  It was pretty cool, Argentina and Namibia.  Argentina won in a blowout.  It wasnt as crazy as the soccer matches you hear about on TV, but it was quite fun - even with our hangover.  On the hot, sweaty Metro ride home I was about to bail out - man I was tired - but Ina realized I was getting tired and so we quickly ran to a bar to get some drinks.  We ended up getting a buzz and once again ended up at TrolleyBus although this time I only made io to 5am ;-)  I tell ya, I think I was asleep before my head even got to the pillow.

Statue at Pharo
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Marseille was fun! Definitely worth a visit, definitely!