Marseille!

So my friend Stephanie is doing the same internship as me this summer, but she is stationed (what is this, the army? I can't think of a different word, though, so that's what you get) in Marseille. Now, Marseille may be the 2nd largest city in France, and it's the biggest one I'VE ever  been to, but apparently, it's no Paris (haha, quite an understatement, I believe). Basically, it's as my friend Nathan told me before I left, it's kind of trashy. It is, however, freaking old, which is wonderful for seeing old buildings, old churches, old harbors, etc. Jacqueline and I took the train over (about an hour-long train ride), and waited for Stephanie at the train station. We had quite the bout of technical difficulties, which made it so that we were waiting for her to text us, which she was, but we weren't receiving any of them. We eventually met up, though, and all was well once again. The train station in Marseille is beautiful, and are its surrounding neighborhoods. Besides all the trash, that is. 

 A view of Notre Dame de la Garde--that church on the top of the hill.

La gare:

 After waiting for a while, we couldn't stand our hunger. We saw this girl eating some fries from McDonalds, and we were reading in our travel guide book about how if you go down the street, turn right at the McDo, etc... And we stopped reading, and started walking. On the way, we passed this beautiful old church.

McDo is still just as good, no matter what country you're in!

We finally met up with Stephanie, and then we took the metro over to the church building where the YSAs were having une soiree de film (the top floor of the church is the institute/YSA center). Guess what movie they were watching? Lord of the Rings (the first one), extended version. We were glad that we arrived 2 hours late, because we still got in a good hour and a half of the movie. I just love Lord of the Rings. And taco-seasoned popcorn. And syrop. Overall I'd say it was a great night.