Marseille day 3

Heading out in the opposite direct down every narrow stairway, lane, alley and dead end street and taking numerous photos I headed back at about 3.00 pm to clean out my camera again and have my own siesta. Unfortunately the staff wanted to clean room 8 after I had only a 30 minute snooze.

With that plan ruined I headed west along the beach. The west of Marseille along the beach is the most magnificent visual I could have imagined. Every corner produced more incentive to keep walking and to keep taking pictures. I was very happy that the cleaning staff woke me up, without that I would not have made my way along this stretch of coast line. If anyone only had one day in Marseille, then this would be the place to see.

Back at the hostel Camille was very happy with he way her interview went and was given sufficient indication that she was succesful to allow herself to be congratulated and to celebrate. Joining us was Ehouarn, Flossy, Camille of course as the guest of honour, Nejhma and Samuel. We also had a brief visit from Fatiha and Fidy of whom I knew nothing about. Nejhma was working in Marseille although I never did find out what she did besides look good and laugh a lot. Ehouarn was also working in Marselle and was also not too bad in the kitchen. Accompanied by Wine (lots), cheese, bread, salad we settled in for the long haul. Conversation was mainly in French so Camille, Flossy and Samuel translated for me. Ehouarn had some basic English skills as well so whilst I did not understand entirely what was going on, for the most part I was kept informed.

Samuel is an interesting character, he spoke French, English and Spanish , he also managed to sleep through the Spanish party the previous evening so he wondered what all the fuss was about. The only disaster was Nejhma attempting English with a mouth full of lettuce.

Camille, Nejhma and Flossy were admitted to the Royal Order of the Koala.

It was a humbling experience to have a table full of people write you a farewell message in your notepad.

Some wrote in French and some in English.

Nejhma: Philippe un Australian parmis les Francais venant d' un peu pas partout, meia de ne pas demander ou

Camille: Just one stuff (thing), keep a room free for me! See you in Melbourne

Ehouarn: Bonsoir Philippe. Bienvenue en FRANCE, on ne t'aura pas connu longtemp. Mais tu nous fait rever avec ton voyage en Europe. Merci encor pour ta benne humeur et tes grand geux ouvert sur le monde

Translating their handwriting to type this was very difficult, they did have a lot to drink and that probably made their writing worse. I have the lovely Patricia Lopez to thank for helping me whilst we sat next to each other on the train between Figueres Vilifant and Barcelona Sants. Patricia is from Barcelona but works in France, she can speak Spanish, French, English and Catalan. She also wrote me a message:

Pues te vos a dour una buena vuelsta a Europe en 60 dias! increible y sobretodfo, sin sin panar! Buen Corage.

PD: Tu hija es muy guapa

I'm sure my daughter will be happy about the last line.

From this day forward she is now to be known as Patricia Lopez ROK.

Samuel learned that going for a cigarette was going outside for a fag and that it was grouse, so I wasn't the only one learning.