Marseille, France - Day 3: Au Revoir

Monday 9th September

It was again an early start to the day and it was my last day in Marseille. I was in so much pain from the sunburn anyway (started to brown now, yay, it was worth it). Packed my remaining clothes and stuff. My luggage was so light! I bought nothing during the entire weekend. But I did hint to both Mr and Mrs Travels that I needed to buy some snacks to take home (and blog about them... I think they forgot I blogged, so I didn't mention it to them... nevermind!).

Had a very light breakfast and then it was off to take the girls to school! French schools are obviously different to the English ones. Don't know how it works in England anymore, but some kids are at the schools really early as their parents go to work and so the gates are closed until the actual opening time in case a child decides to escape. So we waited until Missy I's (she's the eldest daughter by the way) school opened. She's in Year 1... and luckily she doesn't have to wear school uniform! She's a cheeky monkey, but a very intelligent cheeky monkey!! Then it was time to drop off Missy S, she's still in nursery / reception. She talks a lot more than she used to (and bullies me too :P) but she's not so good in the mornings as her sister is. Both girls take after their mother with fashion, and I have a feeling they are both going to be fashionistas in the future!

After dropping the girls off, Mrs Travels took me along the seafront near the school. The girls are really lucky, they have a place to go to after school and during their lunch break.

Near the sea

Stony beach

Small wave coming towards the shore

We went back to find Mr Travels, and then once again we went back to the seafront and did a little bit of walking... Hahahah!!

Someone walking their dog, Mr Travels took a picture of it

Mr Travels decided to take a picture of me touching the clean sea water ^_^

I took this picture... Marseille City in the distance!

Next it was time to do some supermarket shopping!! Yay!! It was a bit of a drive from the school area, but I didn't take too long to buy the things I wanted to buy. I couldn't take pictures inside, but took pictures of the outside... I spent over €40. Still like I've got loads of money in my purse... Well that's my savings / spending money for the rest of the month. ^_^

Entrance to the small shopping centre

Heading into the supermarket

Yummy cakes!!

So, lots of snacks to blog about later!! :D Yay!! (Looking forward to eating and drinking them)...

Mr and Mrs Travels dropped me off at the airport early since they had to pick up the girls for their lunch period. Again I had a few tears in my eyes... I hate saying goodbye to old friends / family... T_T 

In Marseille Provence Airport - Terminal 1

I bought a meal in Burger King (my French is bad, and I forgot a lot... I think I need to start talking more French again. Reading is not too bad. Missy I and Miss S think I don't think I know any French too... Hahahah!!). Anyway, I felt a little bad to the person serving.

My Burger King meal

After I finished eating, a woman came up to me for my receipt... Why does she want my receipt?!! What can it be used for?!!

After a bit, I went to MP2, Marseille Provence Terminal 2, where I sat and waited for check in. I was too early and I had to wait for around 1 pm. It's a bit different to London airports... At last it was check in time. I queued however there was only one person checking in passengers. How weird. The others went to lunch I guess. I think it was the wrong time to queue as I had three men in front who I think were flying for the first time as they had the wrong type of luggage and one of them had to pay for their luggage fare at another desk. ¬,¬"

Marseille Provence Airport - small Terminal 2

A small cafe in MP2

Luggage passed through. Went pass through security. Then up to the departure lounge. It's so unfortunate that there's only one small duty free area, a magazine shop and a cafe. I bought a few more sweets and chocolates, so I spent another €14 something... It was then time to board after 2 pm. The faster you get to passport control before boarding gate the faster you might get a better seat on the plane! That meant I walked as fast as I could, and thankfully I walk fast, because I got a good seat by the window, but unfortunately I had two very talkative women sit next to me... All I could hear was talking, so I stuck my earphones... They talked for 2 hours non-stop!!

Flying somewhere over South France

Fluffy clouds that look like snow

Flying over the English Channel

Flying over dull looking England

Finally we got back to Stansted Airport. Just to let you know it was a rubbish take-off, rubbish landing and that horrible welcoming message again on Ryanair. I walked as quickly as I could to passport control... It's funny how every time I come back from anywhere, they always ask me where I'm flying back from!! Am I a stowaway, a person with a fake passport or someone pretending to be British? I AM a born and bred British Citizen who happens to be Chinese, I have a birth certificate to prove it!! :P The person even checked if my passport was authentic... ¬,¬" Really? Was that necessary?!!

Anyway it was back on the train, and it was a boring trip back to London. I had to bore myself with a couple of people in front talking about relationships (I am cursed with people talking about their bad relationships on public transport)... When I got to Liverpool Street Station, it felt like I was surrounded by cattle. People were pushing and shoving. It's horrible being there during rush hour on a Monday evening... And it was raining!! :( I want to go back to sunny France!!!!!

But I got home safe and sound... Had to go to work the next day... Wished I could've stayed longer in Marseille, maybe next time!! ^_^

End of Day 3.

Next trip is in November 2013... yep I'm flying again this year. This time it's with the family...!!

Marseille, France - Day 2: Sortie en Famille

Sunday 8th September

Day 2 started a little early. I think I woke up around 8. It was a little hard to sleep because of the wind and rain, but I was alive and kicking! Breakfast consisted of a few pieces of brioche and mini dried toast with butter and jam. ^_^

Bonjour Sausset-Les-Pins

A pear tree

Pomegranate Tree

Sunday was a family day out. More of a touristy day out for me although I've been to Marseille before with Mr and Mrs Travels and their two girls two years ago. It was a longer visit last time, and I got to see more of the city centre, the train station and other bits and pieces... I will post some pictures from back then at the end of this post...

This time, since on Sunday, shops and places close early, we went to a market. We were originally going to go to one nearby but because of the rain the night before it was cancelled. :( The market they wanted to go to is like a boot sale, but the one we went to had a few market stalls selling fruits, veg, clothes etc., etc. I would say it's like a very tiny version of East Street Market... I didn't buy anything there... And neither did my second family...

A market in Marseille

Loads of garlic and tomatoes!!

Mr Travels and I were observing the rotating chicken, heheh

So much fruit and veg!!

Massive watermelons!

So many different types of figs

Tiny aubergines

A street in France

So off we went to to a popular site for people who view airplanes at a nearby airport. Not sure which airport we were looking at. Some people were already there looking at planes, and since it was lunchtime, I had a feeling there were some delayed flights... We waited and waited, and we saw a couple of planes land and about 3 take off!! It's so fun watching them...

Watching planes fly

Then it was off to the beach again. The same one. La Couronne. This time we spent a bit longer at the beach (and unfortunately I got sunburnt, didn't realise the sun would be so strong that day... still feeling the pain!!).

My feet

Geek dans la France... Geek in France!!

And this time I caught my first jellyfish!! Woohoo!! So proud of myself, heheh. It felt like I was a zoologist examining life objects (wanted to be one when I was quite young, but failed my dream when I did bad in my Biology A-Level, so I did more computing instead - happy I did!) . ^_^

I caught this jellyfish! :D

Everyone had a good time. And I was very happy as it already felt I had been there for a long time... a real summer holiday feeling!

It was again time to go back for dinner as it was school for the girls the next day... Missy I and Missy S have grown up so quick, and they've become really cheeky! Did I tell you they speak French, English and some Mandarin. Missy I is the eldest and better at languages. We got back and we played for an extra hour or less in the swimming pool... I was being the funny auntie in the pool by using two floats as Mrs Travels wanted her girls to wear their arm floats as they hate them, so I did a funny act... I got my confidence back in swimming after not having swam for a very long time!! (Almost drowned in the deep end one time in England, hahahah... never again I thought!)...

Mr Travels was taking pictures of us and even took a picture of the family cat, Princess. She is so beautiful! I want that cat. :D

Princess The Cat

I took this picture... she is gorgeous!

This is a fig Mr Travels picked from someone's garden... heheh, I ate it before dinner time and it tasted good!!

Tasty fig

Mrs Travels was cooking that night. And she wanted to cook soup, a pasta soup which her mother-in-law makes from time to time. It was good. Don't often have this for dinner... Plus we had some leftover pizza from the night before...

Pasta soup

Dinner finished, and I could see the sun about to set, so I said I'm just going upstairs to take a picture of the sunset. My sunset radar works in every country I go to! ^_^

Sunset in Sausset-Les-Pins

The girls had their dessert and went off to sleep. Mrs Travels suggested we go for a walk... and so we walked around Sausset... It was unfortunate my flip flops were making a squeaky sound otherwise we would have walked a bit further...

A small rocky beach in Sausset

Nice lamps

People swimming in the evening sea

Beautiful skyline! - I love this pic!! <3

So many boats in Sausset

It was a beautiful evening and the day went really fast. Unfortunately I had a hard nights sleep with my sunburn... really painful!! :(

End of Day 2.

Here's a few pictures of Marseille - the city part from my last visit two years ago...

In the centre of Marseille in 2011

Love the street art :)

Typical French housing... Mr and Mrs Travels back in 2011

St Charles Station in 2011

Marseille, France - Day 1: Bonjour

Saturday 7th September 

One main reason I started blogging was because of my friends and "second family" Mr and Mrs Travels and their two daughters Missy I and Missy S... They moved all the way to China and I wanted to show them what I was up to. But below and behold, China blocks blogging sites like mine, unless people can use another way of using the Internet like using VPN... But nevermind, I still kept blogging for the fun of it, and just in case when or if they came back to the UK or Europe they could finally read all my adventures! :D

After two-ish years, I finally met up with Mrs Travels who is my "sister" and my other best friend from my old university days...We've known each other for more than 10 years!! And I've known Mr Travels ever since they first started dating. ^_^ They returned to Europe!! But moved to Marseille and not London. Mr Travels is French and Mrs Travels is Chinese!

I booked a flight using edreams.com (I seem to be going through various booking sites... edreams.com has probably been the easiest to use so far!). But I hate the way Ryanair and other flying companies keep changing prices every few minutes... It's quite annoying. It's like saying if you don't book it now, we'll increase it the next time you visit in a few minutes time. ¬,¬" Ryanair have charged for nearly everything and I'm travelling alone this time to Stansted Airport... My first time!!

Travelling to Stansted Airport wasn't that hard. I had to get a bus to Liverpool Street Station, and then get a train to the airport. It takes less than an hour to get there (47 minutes and something seconds to be exact). Not Bad!! It was as easy as getting to Gatwick. I think I was blessed to get the 8.12 am train as it was empty, peaceful and quiet... ^_^

Platform 5 on a Saturday morning... so peaceful...

When I arrived I checked in, and I was crossing my fingers that I didn't go over my 15 kg allowance. Thankfully it was only over 12 kg! Phew! Had so many presents for Mr and Mrs Travels and the girls. I passed through security, and there were no problems there. I have travelled so many times within the pass few years, it feels like a drill to me. Take off belt. Take out netbook. Remove bag of liquids. Thankfully I didn't have to take off my shoes like I had to in Houston, Texas!

Heading into Stansted Departure Lounge

Ryanair Planes... yep, was flying with Ryanair

I had a long 2 hour wait, and I knew I would be hungry when I get onto the plane. Flying with low cost airlines means eat before you go aboard as you will need to pay for anything they serve you on the plane. So I ate at Yo! Sushi... Yeah, sushi again... The other places weren't interesting enough for me.

Had a few plates of sushi :)

One thing I must say, Stansted Airport provides free Wi-Fi! Awesome!



Boarding time... I was grateful for leaving rainy London, but I wasn't grateful for queuing in the wrong queue. I was at Gate 43 instead of Gate 42. Seriously, who would want to go all the way to the front to find out if they're in the right Gate... (I tried to, I saw the 4 and the top of the 3 thinking it was a 2)... Stansted or Ryanair need to change their TV screens to show the gate number. Marseille was in small writing and the Ryanair logo was massive and bright. That's stupid. Anybody could have missed their flight with their gate number not being clear, and with everyone standing in front of the window where it shows the number doesn't help either!!!!! I'm sorry to the gentleman who asked me if I was queuing at Gate 42... Whoops!

Rainy London... Bye bye...

Flight wasn't bad. I sat in the aisle. However there are three things that Ryanair need to improve on. 1. Take off (it was rubbish - too much acceleration). 2. Landing (it was rubbish - breaking was so bad, I had to hold onto the seat in front). 3. Welcoming message (pee off! Who cares if you land on time and are better than other airlines, we want better service, like free food and not having to pay to reserve seats! That goes the same with other low cost airlines).

Finally landed, got my luggage and ran out of the exit! I saw my second family waiting for me, but I didn't see them as I was waiting for my luggage... I did a funny exit as the doors closed on me! :D It was then big hugs to everyone, I had missed them so much...

Marseille Provence Airport Control station

Waiting for my luggage and taking pictures of the map of Marseille

My second family first they took me straight into town where they were celebrating their history (I think)... But anyway, I took a few pictures. :D

I think that's the mayor

People dressed up

A memorial for the poet Frederic Mistral

Men on horseback

Great shot? Yeah I think it is too!

They have massive donkeys in France! I though donkeys were supposed to be small!!

Massive donkey!!!

Some sort of bowling game invented in France... very popular over there...

Next we hit the beach in La Couronne (The Crown). Wow. I only just landed and I've already started my actual holiday!!

The beach in La Couronne

I changed into a swimsuit, I bought one to show less of my tummy... But I think the French don't really care too much. I saw old ladies in bikinis, some were quite fit for their age, and some weren't ¬,¬"" heheh. And the same went with some of the men, heheh.

The sea was quite warm, but unfortunately it wasn't that safe to swim in there, as there were a lot of jellyfish in the sea... Mr Travels joked that I brought the British weather with me (as it wasn't cloudy for over a month) and I brought the jellyfish over too!! Hahahahah!!!

Caught lots of jellyfish!!

It was time to go back to their place in Sausset-Les-Pins which is a small town outside of the city centre of Marseille... And I did more swimming in their swimming pool when we got there! Missy I and Missy S are so active. They just love swimming and diving!!

An ant nest near the beach

Finally it was time to eat. Mr Travels' eldest brother made a lot of homemade pizzas!! Miss I and Missy S as well as their two other cousins got involved in making them! :D I think my favourite pizzas were the seafood one and the egg one!! :D

Cheese and Mushroom pizza

Seafood pizza

Egg pizza... the eggs were cooked

A mixture of everything leftover pizza with creme on top!! ^_^ Cool!!

After the kids went to sleep it was catch up time with Mr and Mrs Travels... I think I have missed out on a lot when they were away!

It was then time to go to sleep, and I had the sofa bed in the family's gigantic, marble-floored living room! It was very windy and it rained that night too... A first in a long time for Marseille!

End of Day 1.