Transit Thoughts and Getting from La Ciotat to Athens

 Our travel days are often long and tiring, but also they tend to give us a chance to see many other people and explore new places.

We knew when we booked our time in "La Ciotat" that transit to and from would be a bit of a challenge. Most people would likely have rented a car for a vacation in the area, but we have time on our side and chose not to rent a car.

When we looked at booking flights to Athens, I had a difficult time coming up with a simple and inexpensive way to do it. We had to travel to Marseille, the fly from Marseille to Athens early in the morning via Munich. Not ideal, but other itineraries and locations didn't look too much more appealing.

Another thing that has been fascinating on this trip: all the different ways we can pay for the bus and the train. Many cities have a transit app and/or a particular transit card that you can buy and load with money, and then swipe the card for the metro or bus or train. As we hop from city to city, you can imagine the number of apps and the different cards that we have had to sort through. Many cards cannot be loaded away from a major transit hub. And in France, we often have received different information from the bus driver than we find online or at the information center.

For example, when we arrived in La Ciotat, we arrived via train to Marseille, train to Aubagne, and then bus to La Ciotat. There was a little informtation booth at the bus terminal, so we went in and asked for bus tickets to La Ciotat. We were sold a card with 10 rides on it and told it would take 8 'rides' for the 4 of us to go through 2 zones each in order to reach La Ciotat. But then the bus driver took 2 rides for one adult and said we couldn't share that card amongst all of us, and we had to pay for individual cards on the bus for the remaining three of us. Annoying and confusing, perhaps a language issue, but in the end we could pay on the bus so we did and on we went.

Leaving La Ciotat: we checked out of our place in La Ciotat after an early lunch, finishing up any food we could from our kitchen and fridge there. We caught a bus (coach bus, about 45min) to Marseille. We weren't able to use the 10 rides card at all on this bus and had to pay for 4 individual cards for each of us to ride. We then transfered to the metro and paid for 1 family card (4 fares) to ride 2 stops to get to the main train station in Marseille. We read on the website that metro tickets include bus and metro in the city. So we went to the airport coach bus and tried to board the bus using the metro ticket, but we were declined. The driver made us feel stupid for trying to use a metro card on the bus and waved us away to go buy a bus ticket inside the train station. While we tried to buy those tickets, the bus left without us. But another one came along shortly and we were on our way. Once at the airport, we called for our hotel shuttle (included in our stay), to come pick us up at the airport and bring us to the airport hotel for the night. These trips: bus, metro, bus, shuttle were long and tiring, but we also accumulated 9 different cards and 9 different fares. Thank goodness for Google Maps, helping us sort it all out!

Our airport hotel in Marseille, by the way, was nice enough. If I was to do it again, I would consider staying at the Ibis budget hotel right at the airport. Ibis hotels are everywhere in France and seem to be in great locations, but I don't think they come up on booking.com sites or other search enginges, so we never stayed in any. We had a cute little neighbourhood to walk around in and find dinner, as well as an aviation museum that displayed 3 planes outside that were cool. Jason and I both had to work that night, which took some problem solving as our hotel room was cozy and we both needed wifi for video calls.

The next day, our plane departed at 6:30am. The airport information online suggested being at the airport 2.5 hours prior to our departure. It also said that surgical or N95 masks were mandatory at the airport, and that cloth masks were not acceptable. Our hotel offered airport shuttles starting at 5:30am. The front desk staff said that we should leave the hotel at 4:30am because going any early would be a waste of time, but we had to call a taxi. The taxi to the airport cost 25 euro at that time of day. There were no mask requirements at the airort or on the plane. 

We flew to Munich on Lufthansa, and everything on the flight was pleasant. We had a tight connection in Munich. Most passengers walked off the plane to the tarmac and boarded a shuttle bus to get into the terminal. But passengers for Athens were given 'direct transport' in 2 little vans that drove us a different way, close to our gate and inside the terminal. Along the way, we had a nice connection with a expecting couple as we navigated the scenario together. Our flight to Athens was pleasant.

Arriving at the Athens airport was easy - the airport is lovely and clean and has ammenities. We walked to the trains area, but got a bit confused as to whether we wanted to catch the train or the metro. As I'm running the Athens Marathon, I got a train discount, so we decided to catch the train. We had to wait for about 35 minutes before the train came. But then the train wasn't working, and a new train arrived, and everyone switched to this new train. Unfortunately this train didn't go where we wanted to go, so we ended up on the metro eventually working our way toward our AirBnB. 

Along the way, though, we ended up stopping at a beautiful square and sat for a rest, listening to a group of men play traditional music and seeing the Hadrian Library and Monastiraki square. That was really cool.

Eventually we made it to our Air Bnb and checked in, exhausted, but excited to be in Athens.