La cigale et la fourmi

I just came back from a very tiring but awesome trip. I attended my friend's wedding in Venice and it was so cool. We went by private boat from the island of Lido (where I stayed) to the Venice town hall. I was with Kevin, a friend of mine, who was in the same boat as the groom and his parents. My friend insisted he wanted a civil wedding and not in a church, which was very interesting considering the strong influence of catholicism in Italy, at least symbolically and culturally. Well, anyway, this friend of mine is a fine breed. He studied in the University of Venice. He did Persian literature and the Islamic world. It seems that Italians there seem to come out having such an admiration of the religion. They were taught to look at Islam from a very different angle. My friend speaks Persian and Arabic fluently. Anyway, the ceremony was not that long. After the thing, we were supposed to throw rice and lentils to the newly-weds. It was fun! Then, we returned to Lido and had a smashing party which started at 6pm and ended way past midnight. They served traditional venetian food which consists of all kinds of seafood, raw, grilled and whatever. It was really delicious. There were cocktails and food all night long. That same night, though, we had to leave for Florence (Firenze) at 3am. So we went back and packed, and shoot off to train station. We slept in the train and arrived at Florence at about 7am. Spend a whole day there, just to kill time because we had a bus to catch to Marseille at 10.45pm the same day. Personally, I didn't enjoy Florence eventhough it was my third time. It was boring, only with massive domes and churces, and naked statues. Probably art-lovers would enjoy the city.

Anyway, off to Marseille. Arrived at Marseille around 9am. Surprisingly, they didn't check our passports at the border. I guess the controls are not that strict on the road. We checked in La cigale et la fourmi ( a really cool backpacker's inn which was about 15 euros) and had a great time. Marseille in itself, is really boring if you were to ask me. The city is big, it's really an immigrant city which a huge migrant population consisting of North Africans and Senegalese. Apart from the port (and some nice Marseillian delicacies such as bouillabaise and moules et frites) there was nothing much to see. But Marseille has one of the most beautiful natural resource - Les calanques. Basically, the calanques are a series of mountain fjords. To access the calanques, you have to climb the limestone mountain but once you reach the calanques, you will have the time of your life. It is so beautiful, paradise for mountain climbers, nudist, cliff divers, scuba divers, and good for snorkelling too. Well, we did a bit of climbing and snorkelling, which was not too bad. But it was scorching hot in Marseille at this time of the year. I was completely tanned. After 3 nights, we went to Nimes to catch a Ryanair flight back to London. But before leaving, we had to do one last crazy thing. We actually walked from the train station in Nimes to the airport. We started walking at 11pm and reached the airport at around 7am! But we rested infront of a small shop and slept for about 2 hours before moving on. There was one time along a very dark road, we heard a very loud bark. It seems like a very big fierce dog, and the shittiest thing was, we didn't know where it came from because it was pitch dark. So we ended up standing there for a few good minutes because I told my friend that if we were to run, it is more than likely than it will run after us. After some time staring at nothing, and completely helpless, we slowly moved away from where the sound was. Pheew! We were that close to making the Marseillian headlines (foreigners bitten to death near highway)! But we survived somehow and London felt so good! I was so happy to read English again, and even Chavs and drunk brits seem like brothers. So there was, a trip of a lifetime. Would do more soon.