“Bonne Chance” the naughty leader said “Good Luck” to me in French as she dropped me off at the bus station at 8:45 in the morning on Thursday. All I knew was that I needed to get to Marseille St. Charles train station. So, I looked on the bus route map at the bus station. Seconds later, two high school students arrived, and I asked them in French what was the best way to get to the train station. They explained to me clearly in French that I need to take a bus to Aix-en-Provence and then, change a bus there to Marseilles. Both of them were heading to Aix-en-Provence too, and so, they were so nice that they asked me to sit with them. As soon as I arrived to Aix-en-Provence within 45 minutes, one of them assisted me to the bus that I needed to take in order to get to Marseilles.

As soon as I arrived in Marseilles, I asked the bus driver in French how to get to the train station, and she explained to me. With my backpack on my back, my duffel bag carried around my shoulder, and my suitcase on wheels, I trekked a good couple blocks up the hill from the bus station to the train station. As soon as I got to the train station, I took a big deep breath and immediately look for a ticket counter. The minute I got to the ticket counter, I told the agent that I just needed to get to Bayonne. I didn’t care about how many stops I had to make or how late I was going to get to Bayonne, I just needed to get there by that night! “Here’s your ticket!” the agent handed me the train ticket. To my astonishment, the price of the train ticket for last minute reservation was unbelievable cheap – 78 euros! If I had brought an airfare at the last minute, it would have cost me at least 600 bucks! I had to wait at least two hours to catch the first train, and then I was going to stop in Toulouse to change trains.