First, before everyone panics – it wasn’t my wallet…

It was Hannah’s – a girl I had met at the hostel in Nice.   We both made our way to Marseille today taking different trains and booking different hostels.

But we’ll get into the whole wallet thing in a bit…

The day started with breakfast and as I was finishing up I was happy to see the three Manchester girls Laura, Lucy, and Sam as I didn’t see them all day yesterday.   We had our goodbye hugs and I look forward to seeing them again when I hit the UK in a couple of months from now.   That, by far, has to be the coolest thing with this trip – meeting people and then reconnecting with them down the road.

I left on a 10am train for Marseille and got there just under 3 hours later.   My hostel, although highly recommended leaves alot to be desired.   There’s only a handful of people here and there’s only one toilet – down the hall.   But, I only have a day and a half here, so, whatever…

The nice thing about this hostel, though, is that it is only a couple blocks away from the Vieux Port – the main tourist stretch here in Marseille along the water.   After getting settled in I headed for a walk around the area for awhile just to see where everything was.

I stopped in this little cafe run by this middle aged lady.   She was super friendly and she was so proud of her fresh made food.   Her special menu seemed too good to be true – choice of warm sandwich, homemade potato chips, a glass of wine and dessert for only 7.20 euro.

That seemed insane to me as I had been having meals here in France where that price wouldn’t even cover the glass of wine.   The food was great and I let her know I would tell people about her place and would return.

When I returned to the hostel around 4pm there was a message from Hannah waiting for me – she had lost (or more likely had been pickpocketed) her wallet en route from Nice and was in dire straits.   Now I being Canadian and all had to help of course so we found a landmark to meet at.

The landmark?   Well, er, it was McDonalds – but c’mon – when you’ve just come into a new city there’s not many identifiable things you can relate to one another.   To our credit, we did meet outside and didn’t go in.

I gave her 50 euros to cover the next couple of days til she gets a new credit card.   And of course she got the added benefit of my company tonight and tomorrow…

Tonight we walked around the old town and since she’s on a budget that’s even tighter now, my original plan for a 3 course meal changed to hotdogs, coleslaw and pop down the street.   Hey, you know what?   There will be plenty of other three course meals down the road but having a hotdog on a patio overlooking the water – priceless!

Tomorrow we’re going to explore The Calanques and then come back into town and explore another part of the city.   I’m actually kind of excited for the exploring but also for what we come up for lunch and dinner…