I was only able to sneak in a short 2 hour nap between saying goodbye to all of my friends and waking up to catch the train to Marseilles the next morning.
Let the crazy travel being!
That morning I crawled out of bed and rushed to the Estacio de Franca station to meet up with my next set of travel buddies, Ethan, Spencer, and Nate. They had planned out an entire day’s worth of trains (10 hours and 4 changes to be precise) to get to Marseilles without having to make any train reservations. We learned early on that even with Eurail passes, many of the trains required reservations which could cost an additional fee ranging from 3 to 30 euros depending on the destination.
Was the days’ worth of travel worth it? Well, you’ll see. It was a learning experience, to say the least
I knew right away I was out of my league with these boys… just check out these professional backpacks…
One of these things is not like the other…
Oh well!
We hopped on our first train ready to tackle the day.
Not 5 minutes later, we thought we had missed our first stop. With 4 train change layovers varying in length from 5 minutes to an hour and a half, we thought we were screwed before we had even begun. Luckily, we were wrong, and the day continued a little more smoothly, beginning with much needed naps.
We had breakfast in the second station.
Nutritious, huh?
We took pictures out of the window of totally random towns and buildings… this practice started to wane once the novelty of being on a train wore off…
We sneaked out of the Montpellier train station just to take a picture of the town, clearly to prove that we had, in fact, been there.
Then, 10 hours and 5 trains later, we arrived in Marseilles!
And wouldn’t you know it, free Ben and Jerry’s was there just to welcome us!
Not a bad way to start the day in France…at 5pm…
We ate our ice cream on the edge of the water overlooking all of the boats docked for the day.
From there, we checked into our AirBnB apartment (which was AWESOME), and decided to check out the major cathedral in town before it closed for the day. The weather wasn’t exactly going in our favor, but we braved it anyway. None of us knew how many days we would be in town, so we had to make the most of it.
After a nice long hike up the hill to the Notre Dame de la Garda…
We were rewarded with an incredibly beautiful church…
And an even more beautiful view of the entire city!
We spent a while at the church taking pictures and soaking in some of the peacefulness that surrounded the area. It was really nice to relax in such a beautiful place after such a long day of trains and stations.
After an hour or so, we decided to head down to town for dinner.
We made this decision not a moment too soon, because the minute we left, the skies opened up and we got to experience an authentic French thunderstorm. Our desperation for dryness and warmth landed us at an Italian restaurant… of all places!
No matter… the food was incredible and we were dry! Happy campers! And they had French wine… so no complaining here!
After dinner we wandered the streets of the city for a little while, taking in the city at night. We stumbled onto some sort of ceremony with people singing religious music by candlelight.
Then, of course, we got nutella crepes, cheese, and wine, and made our way back to our apartment for a relaxing night in. Before I knew it, I fell asleep, and woke up nearly 11 hours later. Wow, sleep does the body good!
Unfortunately, what sleep does not do is make travel plans for you. That’s what coffee is for.
So I woke up freaking out.
This whole ‘traveling without plans’ thing was really new to me, so I had some adjusting to do.
The boys were going to Nice that day, but I needed to make my way north. I had planned on meeting up with my friend Madison in the mountains in France, but had no plan to get there and nowhere to stay once I arrived. Plus, I had yet to travel by myself in Europe, so the thought of facing a day’s worth of trains and buses solo was definitely a daunting one.
But after some amazing pizza and a little time with wifi, I had a change of heart.
I was going to brave the trains and go north to meet Madison in Chamonix (Mont Blanc), France. And I was going to do it all by myself.
Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
So with very little time to spare, I packed up my teeny backpack, hugged the boys goodbye, and ran to the train station. I booked a reservation to Lyon, planned a train from there to St. Gervais, and was told there was a bus from the station to Chamonix. All of that left me hopeful, but utterly uncertain, as to whether or not I would make it to my friends in the mountains.
Did I make it to Chamonix? You’ll have to check back to find out… ;)
Question of the Day: What’s the biggest fear you’ve faced while traveling?
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