Wow, not having written for so long makes me forget things. So I believe I was on my way to Marseille. Our hostel in Marseille was in an area right next to the station. It was amongst the run-down backstreets and so at night – it was a bit scary. The town itself is quiet and people are generally nice. The night we turned up we had Cous Cous which was well worth it. Recommended by the hostel receptionist as a cheap eat in the area. The next day, just a whole lot of walking and exploring and found our way up to Notre-Dame de la garde.
We only stayed in Marseille for one night. We then trained it to Lyon for 2 nights. Lyon was quite different again to the other towns since it was less touristy. We walked through the old town, new town, and climbed up another huge hill to get to a Basillica – Notre-Dame de Fourviere. Gorgeous view from the top – just wish it was sunset rather than in the middle of the day. That night I had snails for the first time. It was quite nice – just tasted of garlic and butter. Also had some kind of sausage which is famous in Lyon… It didn’t taste that great… and I felt kind of sick afterwards. The town is quite lit up at night. We went back to the basillica that night, but without the camera. The town looks amazing during the night with all its lights on.
I spent quite a bit of time holding my laptop out the window of our hostel room… just because there was no connection inside the room – anywhere – but there was some signal strength when I stuck the laptop out the window. I was clearly desperate for an internet connection and didn’t want to go all the way down to the kitchen for wireless. It didn’t help on the last day when the lift broke down. We were on the second top floor…
Next morning, we headed to the French Alps. Trained it to St Gervais and then a train to Chamonix. Chamonix would be quite alive in the winter time since it was packed when we got there. People are a bit rude and unhelpful in the town. The best place to go would be the tourist information point. We were told the main cable car has a 2 hour wait, so we headed to Grands Montets instead which isn’t as high, but there was no line. A bus took us straight there. Cable car to the top – you can see Mount Blanc – which I guess is the main thing you’d want to see. There are quite a few paragliders that travel the same path and jump off the edge. I really wanted a shot of those guys up close, but couldn’t get down to where they were and we were quite short on time.
We made our connecting trains afterwards, and made it to Bern… at just past 12 am. Arrived here, no reception, panicked a bit, called the “emergency” number, which I’m sure was just the hostel owners home number, and found out they left me an envelope at the bar downstairs. It was a good thing, otherwise we would’ve slept on the floor… somewhere… Today, walked around the old town (all these towns have an old town), along the river – which we hope to swim in tomorrow morning before we leave – its quite popular to swim in it during the winter, but it is a bit cold, and it did just start raining, so we’ll see tomorrow, and saw the bear in the hole… its a bit sad seeing people throw apples and things down at the bear, it just doesn’t seem right… Back in the hostel now for a break from all the walking.
Everything here is quite expensive. I guess Maccas is the best way to deduce that. It was just under 12 Swiss-Francs for a medium Big Mac meal… and our aussie dollar is 95 Swiss-Franc cents… so yes, instead of our 6-7 dollar meal, its nearly double… we ate it anyway… On the topic of food, chocolate filled crossants are the best breakfast snacks ever.
Tomorrow – train at about 10 am – 7 hour train journey into Paris. All the TGV trains are booked (it would take about 5 hours to get into Paris via Geneve). Not looking forward to that one at all. Then Paris for 3 nights… so I’ll want to catch the attractions, go to Evry and check out the birthplace of Parkour, and check out the shops. I’ve been told shopping is quite expensive there… I’ll hopefully have internet in the room.
Written by Milton Lai