I returned last night/this morning from a trip with my uni housemates to the south of France to visit Ilda (our french flatmate from last year). It was so lovely, refreshing and fun! Particularly amazing to get away from Reading for a few days, this town is driving me insane as well as some of the people in it. We only went from wednesday - saturday but it felt like an age and was such a nice break, and a great chance to visit somewhere I hadn't been before.
On wednesday me and laura flew out (with Ryanair - we were worried but actually we ended up landing early so pretty perfect really) and met Sarah (who had flown out earlier that evening from Stansted) and Ilda! We threw our stuff into Ilda's little green frog car and went to see Aix-en-Provence at night. It was such a beautiful city, very historic and VERY french, with lots of apartments with balconies and peeling shutters. It was good that it didn't feel very touristy at all really. We went and had a drink in a little outside bar in the town square and talked for hours about all sorts (NHS, uni lol). Then we went back to Ilda's flat and ate Brie and bread at 2am :)
We got up the next morning to fresh croissants and coffee (lovely!) and then lounged around smoking until lunchtime, when Ilda's mum made the most amazing amount of tasty food (meats, olives, bread, cheeses, gratin, goats cheese, salad) and then we went to a massive mall to do a spot of shopping. I didn't buy anything other than a drink when we went to the bar, oh and some very tasty chocolates that contained apple and one that was shaped like an owl.
After another amazing & large dinner, including the best mushrooms i have ever tasted, we headed to the airport to pick Abi up. Whilst we were waiting, Sarah terrorised me and stole my shoes. I was walking around the airport for about half an hour with one shoe, i definitely looked like a 'security risk' and would not have got away with it in Gatwick!! Then we grabbed Abi and headed to Aix-en-Provence again for a drink. We took lots of pictures, my shoes got stolen again by the whole gang, and then Laura pulled my top down during a photo to reveal full nipple action. I did consider calling Samaritans for counselling!!
On the friday we headed first into Gardanne to see the amazing market, where some of the girls purchased tasty caked from the bakery and I purchased a ring shaped like a lizard which we named 'Laurent'. Then we got the train into Marseilles in the baking heat and arrived to the most grand train station I have ever seen!! took some lovely pictures and walked down to the port. The pharmacy said it was 37C so its a good thing we were wearing tiny shorts, but seriously about 100 old men/tramps stopped and stared at me, making me feel qutie self conscious - one literally stopped in front of me and told me he loved me , and another said I was like 'cleopatra'. Sarah and Abi found this highly amusing of course!! We then went for a massive lunch where i accidently ordered prawns for both starter and main, but it tasted divine so it didnt matter. Then we did a little shopping and headed back through Marseille to catch the train. We had steak for dinner, courtesy of Ilda's mum and had an early night because we were shattered (we watched Anastacia first though).
Then on saturday we headed back in to Aix to see the city during the daytime, had a lovely drink and walked around to see all of the beautiful buildings. We saw a wedding taking place in the city hall and I was very jealous of them being able to get married in such a nice building. I then bought some crushed olives and headed to the airport with Laura. On the flight home we met a man who had literally run away a year ago to join the French Foreign Legion and had just quit the day before. He was a very intriguing person, and was on his way home for the first time in over a year, having had no contact with his family.
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