May 6

That car ride to Marseille went well. I made it to the city at dusk and easily found my hostel near the port. At the hostel, I met a Christian British girl. We discussed Christianity in Europe and how the faith has dwindled here. She said that any Brit who claims to be Christian most likely is one, because, unlike Texas, it's not smart to assume that everyone is Christian. She was Protestant as well, and I'm realizing just how few of us there are. The next morning, I reserved a seat on a train leaving for Toulouse at 13:24 (1:24 PM). This left me the rest of the morning to explore the city before I left. So I walked to Notre Dame de la Garde that overlooks the city (and didn't like how instead of a cross or crucifix, they had the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus) and another big church, then ended it with the fort that overlooks the port. As I walked back to the hostel to get my things, I realized that I had half an hour to get everything from the hostel three stories up and make it to the train station that was 25 minutes away, uphill. Very uphill. So I ended up running through the hot Marseille sun, up the vast train station staircase, making it to the train with a minute or two to spare and a sheen of sweat upon my body.

The reservation itself cost €30 even with the Eurail pass, which is €10 more than the most expensive one I've paid for (Paris to Vienna). The train ride was pleasant and uncrowded. And because it was what is called an "Intercity" train, it only made one stop on the way, at Montpellier. So I at least got to see the city for a few minutes. Then I switched from the train to the underground metro in Toulouse and went to the stop where my CouchSurfing host family had directed me. It was at this point that I realized I had put her number into my phone wrong, so I would have been stuck, exceeeeepppptttt..... AMERICAN CAPITALISM! There was a KFC next to the metro, so I used their Internet to message the family and they picked me up 20 minutes later.

Before dinner, they invited me to join them for aperitif, a pre-dinner drink (with some crackers). For dinner, we had a few things. Nuvee or something to that effect, which they told me was like mashed potatoes, but the consistency was more like custard. Then we had radishes, bread, and pork sausage from the local market. This was followed by bread and cheese (one semi-smelly cheap one that I've been feeding on that starts with a "c") and cannelés, which were tiny pastry things made from something like pancake batter but with more sugar, and vanilla in the middle. We finished it all off with some pudding cups (though some were more of an apple sauce but with a fruit other than apple). 

Today, I was planning on going into town to make reservations for a train to Barcelona, but then I remembered blablacar.com and checked the listings. I have officially reserved a spot in a car leaving for Barcelona at 10 AM (or maybe 9; the text was confusing) on Thursday.

The daughter of the CouchSurfing family I'm with had an appointment to interview to shadow a psychologist in Albi, which is about 40 miles away from Toulouse. I went with them to Albi rather than going into Toulouse and I am so glad that I did. Like the rest of the region, Albi is decorated in a rose-colored brick. It has a church, but the inside was built over such a long period of time that its styles reflect different artistic periods. The bridges and the river and everything were so perfect to look at, I wish I could have stayed there to explore for a couple days.