Arles is a pretty small town, but apparently it is the city where Vincent van Gogh was his most productive; he produced over 300 paintings and illustrations during his year in Arles, although none remain in the town. It is also known for the roman amphitheater that still remains as the spotlight attraction. Of course, the three of us toured the amphitheater and took a heck of a lot of photos there, which I absolutely loved. It is still used occasionally; we saw posters everywhere detailing the yearly bull wrangling in the arena during Easter weekend.
After a good hour in the amphitheater, I followed Kat and Malou to the ancient roman theater only a few steps away, but the three of us became a little sidetracked in a local stall selling clothing. A few minutes after realizing the prices were too expensive, we wandered off again, but I lagged slightly behind the other two. As I started to catch up, I happened to glance back to the arena...
...and in a large tour group of students, I recognized Julianne. I stopped dead-still in the street in disbelief and yelled half to myself, "Julianne? It's Julianne!!"
She didn't look up at my cry, but it was definitely her. All I could think is that she's meant to be in Dijon -- a city hours away -- and that I had somehow mistaken someone else for her, but I yelled out anyway to my two oblivious companions, "KAT! Where are you going, JULIANNE is over there!!" Kat turned around, confused, and then after a few seconds her eyes lit up in shock and she ran over to the unaware Julianne. I turned back around and found Christian running up out of nowhere to me to give me a hug, and then we joined Kat and Julianne, who were both hugging and tearing up. The four of us -- reunited so suddenly and unexpectedly in the tiny town of Arles -- started hugging and shouting and blabbering on in excited surprise. We hadn't seen each other since our trip to Ireland back in October, and it had been too long.
It turns out that their university in Dijon was hosting a class trip to Arles and Avignon that weekend, the same weekend as our trip to Provence. One of their fellow students left their group to take pictures of the four of us in front of the arena -- all four of us reunited -- and I heard someone else murmur jealously, "I want to meet my friends by surprise somewhere in Europe!" The four of us talked excitedly for a while until Malou and their professor pulled us our separate ways. I didn't take any pictures of the meeting, sadly, but Kat took this candid gem right before the four of us parted.
I was deliriously happy at unexpectedly meeting Christian and Julianne: it was certainly the highlight of my weekend, half due to the fact that I was so shocked that it actually occurred! I'm so happy it did, but to think that if I hadn't noticed Julianne in that glance, or if Malou, Kat, and I had ignored the clothes shop and headed straight to the roman theater -- we never would have crossed paths in Arles! The "what if" questions are endless, but it all worked out in our favor. What a small world! I'm still amazed....
Soon after the meeting, Malou took Kat and I to the roman theater for a few minutes before we bought lunch and hopped on our train to Marseille.
Now, Marseille gets a bad rep (dirty, lots of drug deals and violence) but from what I saw in my four-hour visit of the city, it was pretty nice! Of course, I really only saw the port area, which is one of the nicest neighborhoods... Anyway, the three of us arrived in Marseille and were welcomed by huge crowds -- apparently, it was Marseille's Carnival celebration (which included a lot of paper streamers raining down on the people). We walked around the port for a bit -- soaking in all the Carnival celebrations -- before heading to the huge new Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations that lies at the mouth of the harbor.
Well, the museum was probably really cool, but we didn't see too much of it. Instead, I dragged Malou and Kat up to the rooftop(s) of the museum, which featured colorful gardens of flowers overlooking the port, the shimmering Mediterranean Sea, and the city itself. Since the museum is actually three giant buildings with sky sidewalks connecting all the rooftop gardens, I had a great time hopping from roof to roof with camera in hand, admiring the views and the sea breezes. I know I say this for nearly everything, but it was truly absolutely lovely.
After about an hour on the rooftop gardens, we had ten minutes to explore one of the museum's galleries (at least entrance was free for students!) before heading back through Marseille's streets and up to the train station. Honestly, it wasn't enough time in Marseille in my opinion, but I'm glad I got to see it all the same. The fourth and final stop of the day was in Aix en Provence, but I'll leave that for another day.
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