54
Diana Kot's travel journal. Some pictures www.instagram.com/catidiana Articles www.facebook.com/catidiana Videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHI8QPW7XQDwz4hwN2B7z-A
The mistral is a strong, cold, northwesterly wind that blows from southern France in the northern Mediterranean.
Mistral is blowing near Marseille quite strongly and it's killing me! I got sick again.
But somehow my sore throat improved my French accent. On other days, my communication with French looks like this:
https://youtu.be/naL2hN46uZA?si=6YCTglFgAlPh6_Bl
France is home to a range of beautiful 19th century door knockers. One of the most popular designs is called 'Hand of Fatima' and supposedly derives from Islamic symbolism and suppose to protect owners from evil.
Читать полностью…
Interesting development of the situation. But at least it's not cancelled 🙃
Читать полностью…
It's amazing how small design solutions can brighten up your life. Look at the design of the Montpellier ticket. The ticket tells us that a new tram line #5 will be opened in 2025 and shows its future design. I googled a photo of how it will be implemented.
Each tram line in Montpellier has its own theme. I was going to the center on the orange tram #2 and its theme was flowers. This is what the trams look like, but decor inside is actually very calm.
Last night I received a message that the train I planned to take to Montpellier this morning was cancelled. More precisely like that. The train was not cancelled, it has simply changed its route and does not stop in Marseille or anywhere nearby.
And for some reason there was no refund or anything. Probably because I didn't select option "insure my trip for 3 extra euros" when I was buying the ticket. So, the options was: partial refund or reschedule trip for 20 extra euros.
I don’t know why my trip to France didn’t work out so well. As a result, I go on Flixbus. 3 hours on the bus instead of 1.5 hours on the train. At least the weather is good.
What do you think about electric scooters? French government is trying gradually to get rid of them. And in Marseille, locals actively “help” by participating in the folk game “ride and throw scooter into the sea.” Of course, all this has a very negative impact on the environment. Here is an unusual “monument” to this problem - on the embankment of Marseille there are dozens of scooters raised from the bottom of the sea.
Читать полностью…
I was today years old when I found out what the “nutri-score” marking means on products. I simply ignored it all this time and didn’t pay attention. This marking was invented in European countries to help consumers choose healthier products. Protein, fiber, fruits, vegetables are the highest grade A, but the more calories, saturated fat, sugar, salt and preservatives a product contains, the lower the grade.
So, in my refrigerator, vegetables, eggs, baby food and cereals had a score of A. Greek yogurt and canned tuna had a score of B. Hummus and almost all cheeses had a score of C. But the worst of all was feta with score of D.
Markings are not legally required, but in France and Spain they are highly recommended by the government, so they are on almost all products - but not all. But for example Italian government is against this scale, so I didn't find “nutri-score” on the box of my Italian pasta.
I'm still sick and spent my entire day in bed so there's not much to entertain you with. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my career decisions and where I should go next. I always wanted to do something meaningful, but as soon as study turned into real work, I was disappointed.
Читать полностью…
Anxiety - when you should get up somewhere very early and as a result not able to sleep at all. What do you do in such situations?
Читать полностью…
Wild French tech: tickets machine in Marseille metro.
Читать полностью…
4 days of daily posts and we are already losing people on this channel 😑. In the end, the best and the most patient will remain.
Читать полностью…
Navettes are dry biscuits shaped as small boats, popular traditional cookies in Provence region, especially in Marseille.
At first I wanted to buy them at a bakery, but the bakery near me ran out of them. In the city center I came across a huge store of French sweets, and there these cookies lay in such huge mountains. Many types: vanilla, almond, orange...
But in the end I regret that I bought something from them. The price is simply huge: 5 euros per 100 grams, and the cookies are heavy. In Spain I bought polvoron for 5 euros per kilo!!
Apparently it’s better to look for fresh ones in bakeries; navette turned out to be very dry and I didn’t feel any difference between the different types.
Continuing the theme with Spanish polvoron, in France their variety is called mantecaos. But for some reason they are also drier and less tasty. In general, Spain wins in all aspects so far :)
Can someone explain me why on Earth I just passed passport control in Marseille airport after the flight from Spain? The most ridiculous way to waste 45 minutes of my life.
Another mystery: why the main airport of the south of France is so ugly.
And this is how I found my luggage. WTF????
My stereotype about French people is that they are rude and arrogant. I'm going to France in a week. I will be in Marseille for 1.5 months and a month in the suburbs of Paris.
I wonder if you would like more messages in this channel: what do I do, how do I eat, where do I go? We can organize a French marathon. Vote in the poll about what you think.
I stayed at a very strange hotel today. The bathroom is shared between two rooms. That is, the entrance to it is from mine and from the opposite room. I don't know who my neighbor is. But after him/her, the bathroom is littered with a lot of dark short hair. It's like someone washed the dog. Apparently a very interesting man, should I knock the door?
Читать полностью…
When you book a hotel that has a name smth like "Youth hotel" be sure to check hotels policies.
Once I booked a hotel room on Mallorca and then read in policies that it's only for young adults, that is, 18 - 33 y.o. And I'm 34. Already too old.
This place has a bit different policies. You are old after 35. And old person can still book a private room.
In Nimes, I met a very cool coffee shop owner, who told me a lot of interesting things about coffee, and moreover, he solved one of the biggest problems of me as a coffee addict.
Have you ever been in the situation when you come to a new European city and want to drink delicious coffee, but don’t know where to go? Problem solved! It turns out there is a very cool website with coffee guides for all European cities:
https://europeancoffeetrip.com/city-guides/
And one more site that specializes exclusively on French coffee places:
https://www.cafemag.fr/la-carte-du-cafe-de-specialite/
At the moment, sites work on an application basis, that is, the owner of a coffee shop must submit an application on the site in order to be included in the coffee guide for the city. Therefore, there are not many, say, Ukrainian places - probably owner didn't submit an application.
Let's normalize sleeping with strangers. Or why I still stay in hostels.
Basically, the reasons are purely financial - a hostel is often much cheaper. I stayed in a hostel in Southeast Asia for 3 euros, and in hostels in Western Asia for 5. For the pleasure of sleeping with 5-7 strangers in Italy I paid 40 euros, and the same in France. Of course, at my age I already want some kind of reasonable comfort and privacy. But in essence, if you spend the whole day exploring the city, and only come to the hotel to sleep, does it really matter in what conditions?
Attaching hostel's common area pictures and videos I filmed when checked-in.
What I like about bus trips is these random stops when a driver says something in foreign language and everyone is leaving the bus, only you don't understand what's going on.
Then someone explains you in broken English that we have a stop at this gas station for 30 minutes and all of the sudden you drink lungo with your very first madeleine and it's perfect.
I've been living in an apartment with Netflix for 2 weeks now. As it turned out, I have cheap tariff and it constantly shows me advertisements.
Overall the experience was rather negative. Netflix is a time sucker. I thought it would be cool to watch it in the background while I work, but I end up constantly getting distracted. So no Netflix, no TikTok, it would be good to remove all social networks and streaming services from life.
How do you limit yourself?
When I was little, I thought that the price of a train ticket depended only on the distance of the trip. Then high-speed trains appeared, and of course they are more expensive than regular trains at the same distances. In some European countries there are several carriers and the price is determined by competition. Once I even traveled for 1 euro on FlixTrain.
Everything is complicated in France. Private companies compete with regional, government-subsidized company. You can go for 13 euros at 7 am, or you can go for 21 euros at 9 am with Intercity (with wi-fi, places for bikes and option to buy a snack) . You can also travel for 30 euros on a regional train (30 minutes longer btw:).
Just an hour's drive from Marseille is Calanque Park. This is a very beautiful park, a combination of rocks and sea with a lot of walking routes.
It also has very developed bus transport, you can get to different villages and hike from different points. The perfect escape from Marseille to explore and hike. Buses run frequently and the entire park area is included in the 24/72 hour ticket from the instruction video.
I wanted to go to 2 places, but my battery died on the beginning of the first one. I was only able to walk 16k steps and briefly see a small part of the coastal walk.
Also, on the recommendation from Anya, I tried torsade au chocolat. I bought it at the grocery store for 1 euro. In general, store-bought pastries are much worse than those from a bakery, but I still really liked the torsade au chocolat. So, waiting for more recommendations:)
This weekend there is a series of events from couchsurfing "couchcrush" in Marseille and I was really looking forward to it. But unfortunately, due to the weather, many events were canceled.
We planned a hike on Sunday, but the forecast is a rain all day. As it turned out, during this week of wind and rain in Marseille, I also managed to get sick. Yesterday I took sick leave, but the plan to recover in 1 day, unfortunately, did not work. As a result, today I only had enough energy to visit the farmers market and bakery cafe.
The choice is quite small - what they bake is what you eat. I took Pain Suisse because it just came out of the oven. How it differs from Pain au Chocolat is a mystery - I read that the only difference is in the chocolate and glaze on the surface. For the price - one Pain Suisse plus cappuccino cost me 6.30 euros.... So the rarity of our tests is not only due to the high calorie of pastries, but also to the prices.
I'm still looking for cheap places to buy groceries. Today I tested a very cozy fruiteria. Until I saw the check.
Yellow cauliflower costs 6 euros PER PIECE. I bought a regular white one and it cost 4 euros. A PIECE. If I knew that the price was not per kilogram, I would not have chosen the smallest one.
Netflix is insane. I'm watching the film adaptation of the book "The Three Body Problem".
The fact that the main white male character was replaced by 2 women and one black man, adding a love drama, is acceptable, I guess.
But what really struck me: one of the characters speaks russian. Also subtitles: “speaks Belarusian.”
France is famous for its bakeries and pastries. Send me a list of your favorite French pastries (and don't forget the croissant) and I'll test everything and find the best!!! However, tests will be done 1-2 times a week because I am already the sweetest bun.
Читать полностью…
Since no one objected, today we begin our French marathon! Have no idea how I'm going to entertain you in the next 2.5 months but we will figure out something.
Today I used the express baggage check-in service for the first time from Ryanair. Oddly enough, the automatic check-in area is huge, but there are almost no people in it. And for a reason. Everything is very confusing.
Employees walk around the area and instruct everyone. First you scan the scale code. You should also connect your app with scales via Bluetooth. You weigh your luggage. For the first time in my life, I was overweight and had to put things into hand luggage. Then the scale prints out a luggage sticker for you. And you go to the baggage check-in line.
There you scan the line code and the printed sticker code 2 more times. Briefly speaking. I didn't learn how to do it. And I would expect to see functionality for tracking my luggage in the application. But there's nothing there!
Yesterday I was walking down the street and saw a 30-meter line for ice cream. This morning I returned and there were only 2 customers in front of me.
This is a very famous ice cream shop that has been working in Granada since 1936. Their signature dessert is called "cassata".
Is it worth standing in such a huge line for it? Definitely not. Reminds me of the "lakomka" variety, if you know what I mean.
I feel that I need to start Spanish trash salon reviews because it's total bulshit. And it has 4.8 reviews score on Google map.
I want to go home. I want normal manicure. I want massage and lashes for decent price.