alskjfia!!!! sfjkdsldkfjs? pwkdnfs.

...and THAT is what french sounds like to me.

Honestly, this first day in France has been a little bit overwhelming. You ask why? Let me tell you why.

1) I can't understand ANYTHING anybody says. Katelyn has been trying to teach me some French phrases (and what a patient soul she is), but I can't pronounce them nor remember them for the life of me. I kind of felt like a dumb American tourist stumbling through the streets, mostly because I was. Thank goodness Katelyn can speak some French, or I would have felt like holing up in a bakery somewhere, eating pastry after pastry after pastry. 

2) Katelyn and I went to bed at three last night. Meaning, I was kind of tired today. Tiredness does not help one feel either alert or intelligent. Plus, Katelyn woke up to find bugs in her bed, which, honestly, folks, is a little gross.

3) We took the bus for 40 minutes, trying to find a place where we could take a boat to see Les Calanques (beautiful huge limestone cliffs off the coast), and we didn't find it. We tried to find it but ended up wandering down a road, rather clueless. I felt like a hitchhiker. So we decided to call it a bad job, found another bus stop, and rode for another 40 minutes back to the hostel. What a waste of 3 euros.

4) The first half of the day was cloudy and kind of gloomy.

5) We misunderstood a pamphlet and the ticket seller (french french french blah blah blah--yeah, I had no idea) and so we booked two tours at overlapping times. We had to choose one, and just skip the other. Good-bye, ten more euros. 

Truthfully, it was not the greatest start to our day. But then, we started to get the hang of things and life started to get radically better.

1) Our hostel is actually really really nice for a hostel and the staff was incredibly concerned. They started fixing the problem asap and were ever so apologetic. They also did our dirty laundry for free. :)

2) Starting at around 2:30, everything just started working out and we had lots of fun. :)

We did go on a boat tour to see Les Calanques--best decision ever. And even better, the sun came out just as we were leaving and it felt oh so good. I've never seen prettier, bluer water. It. Was. Beautiful.

beautiful.

me trying to control my hair. and in the background?
that's Chateau d'If.
ONLY from my favorite movie and one of my favorite books ever...
The Count of Monte Cristo.

more beautiful-ness.
just LOOK at how blue the sky and water are.
and those cliffs!

i love boats.

We came back to the hostel for a bit. Washed the salt off our arms and brushed the snarls out of our hair. Then we headed back out to see Notre Dame de la Garde. Hello beautiful building and beautiful view.

outside of the basilica.
it's on top of a mountain...
we climbed a very long ways to get to this point. :)

inside the basilica.

candles.

one of the many many views from the mountain.

katelyn and i :)

We returned to the hotel again for a little bit, and then left to eat dinner. We paid 15 euros (ridiculous anywhere else but France, because France is always super expensive) for a three-course dinner. 

Guess who'll be eating nothing but bread and cheese for the next week? Me. 

Appetizer, main course, dessert.

Tasty food. Rude waiter.