We arrived late last night in Marseille. We decided to stay in Marseille for a few reasons. 1- we were on our way to Nice, and if we left the time we did we would have a 4 hour layover at that station from midnight to 4AM in the train station and staying in the train station wouldn't be safe, and 2- because a friend of Megan's has been there and said it's just lovely and they're great cliff jumping and it's just beautiful, so we decide to stay a night. Well, we arrive at 10-ish PM. We had read online that apparently the city is very seedy and young girls that speak English stick out to gang bangers - how terrifying! So although our hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the train station we weren't going to make it at night, speaking in English and being young and carrying these huge packs! Heck no! So we decided to take a taxi. Well, the driver totally screwed us, knew we spoke no French and could totally take advantage of us, but being more concerned about our safety than the cost we let it happen anyway. The meter on the taxi said €7, and he said because there were two people and bags, it was €20!! We tried arguing with him but he just harassed us so we ended up paying it. What a joke!! We got to the hotel and checked in, and went to our rooms and began making our next arrangements. Once we did that and got settled, it was about midnight. We had heard about this awesome nightlife in Marseille and we were right on the Port, so we decide to go explore. Well, I don't know what night life we were reading about, but it wasn't in Marseille. We wandered for about 20 minutes before we found bars and people, it was a temple bar across from an Irish pub and the people were all mixed in between. We got a drink and attempted to mingle, but literally everyone spoke French. It was not poppin for us. I'm not sure why, but we felt compelled to do one more walk though of the temple bar before we left, and as we did we managed two find two girls from Sweden who spoke perfect English! And we chatted for quite a while! Very interesting girls and we had quite a talk, but then it was going on 1:15 and we were tired (I'm not sure why, we haven't done anything all day but sit on trains, but who knows) so we exchanged info with the girls then headed back to our hotel. We woke up fairly early to go back to the train station and make reservations for the next few trains we need to catch. The woman working was sooo sweet and patient with us. We unfortunately couldn't get on the train to Nice today that we wanted, because there were no reservations left, so we had to go on the free one earlier in the day. This saves us money, but we didn't get a chance to go see the best thing Marseille has to offer: the cliffs. But that's okay, we were only there for safety anyways, it's an excuse to go back to France! There were later trains, but we managed to get rooms (yes rooms, we booked too late to stay in the same one) at the best hostel in Nice, hostel world doesn't usually put their opinions on the site they just give you all the information, and they made a special note that this is a hostel they recommend, it has tons of cool social events and transport and things to do etc. but check in ends at 8pm so our train had to get us to Nice before then, and it's a 2 1/2 hour ride. We were also able to sort out our ride from Nice to Switzerland, we are taking a night train and I think that will be pretty cool. After all that we only had about two hours to wander before getting to the train station for our 2:31 train to Nice. We explored the old fort area then grabbed lunch, wandered around to shops and the market. We went into a candy store and got to sample yummy French candies, they were advertising their newest flavor: banana split. Dad, I had to get you one. We also found this cute little shop that makes their own soaps, as we wandered more we found this is kind of Marseille's thing, there was soap everywhere! The market was neat full of people selling different interesting trinkets like blown glass and plants. There was a macaroon stand and we had to get a few! Megan had her first macaroon and they were awesome! Lunch was kind of interesting, the people working didn't speak any English, and the menu didn't help. We kind of just pointed and ordered and hoped for the best. I think mine was a sea food pasta, though I'm not too sure. I didn't die though so clearly it was okay. When our time was up, we got our bags, and headed to the train station. We are now en route to Nice and are very excited to see what it has to offer!