3 Hour Tour...

We had great roommates last night (from Canada!) who went to bed early with us and left quietly in the morning. This allowed us to get a great night's rest and sleep in :). Our first activity of the morning was to visit Starbucks and find some breakfast. One of the things we miss about home, is that no matter what time you get up, there will always be a breakfast place open. Europeans don't seem to care for breakfast so even during breakfast hours, we are often hard pressed to find a proper breakfast. But never fear, for the Johns will find a way!
Yesterday, while Stephen and I had been searching for Starbucks, I had seen and made a point to remember where a grocery store was located. Remembering this, I led him back to this location after we'd gotten our coffees and we bought Muesli, milk, and aluminum tins (to act as cereal bowls). While there we also bought bread, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and apples for lunch. So cheap!
We had an hour before a boat tour of the Calanques Islands was to leave, and since our hostel is near the harbor, we walked back to our hostel, ate our cereal, made our sandwiches, and grabbed our jackets. The weather had been so hot yesterday that I'd assumed it would be hot today too. We soon experienced a different weather phenomenon of gusting winds. I was never cold, but not hot either and since we were going on a boat, I thought we should be prepared for even more winds!
Our boat left at 1:30 for a 3 hour tour of the Calanques. Steve and I chose a scenic view from the top deck and as soon as we'd sat down, he started singing "...a three hour tour, a three hour tour" (the theme song from Gilligan's Island. lol) Little did we realize, how true to reality it would become. No, we didn't crash on an island...but we did experience tumultuous waves that tossed us about and sprayed us until we were almost soaking wet. Fortunately, this didn't last the entire time, but the first half an hour was much more exciting than we'd anticipated!
The boat took us past the Chateu D'if, other barren islands, small fishing villages, and into bays with beautiful, clear, turquoise water. Although the Med is very salty, the water looked so inviting and refreshing! Unfortunately the tour didn't include swimming, but by the time we got back, it looked as if we had. When the water had dried, it had also left salty spots and designs on our skin and belongings.
As soon as we returned, we sat on the harbor to eat lunch. This also happened to be the moment that a large French Navy Ship was trying to dock. I'm sure there was a good reason for them to be taking so long, but Steve and I decided that they simply couldn't figure out how to get closer. It made for a comedic routine in our heads.
We discovered yesterday that the dinner culture here doesn't begin until 7 so we continued walking. We visited a regal Byzantine style Cathedral and then stumbled onto a simple church. A pleasant surprise awaited us inside the church in the form of musicians practicing for a concert that night. There was only three of them playing the organ, recorder, and a ukulele-type instrument. The organist also became the percussion section when he pulled out a drum. We enjoyed the music then headed back to our hostel to clean up.
On the way to our hostel, I had noticed several restaurants along the harbor, so once we were clean of salt, we returned to the restaurants and found a nice table by the boats. Our meals were delicious! I ordered a yummy salad while Stephen showed off with a large pot of mussels. The restaurant should've given us a discount because of all the customers we brought them. Every time someone walked by, they would see our table of food, decide to look at the menu (some who had walked on decided to come back and look!), and some would then decide to eat there! Good advertising strategy!
While walking back to our hostel we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. My favorite! :)