XIII - Gare Saint-Charles

On the night train to Marseille Leonardo thought about Chloe and how she must have felt when he left. Now he was getting some of his own medicine and he fully deserved it. All things considered, although he was in pain, even he was finding it hard to feel sorry for himself. He had a great girl, who was crazy about him back in England and he had left her only to chase another girl in another country that didn’t give a shit about him. What a moron he was.

            So that was it for Paris. Hopefully, Marseille would be better, he thought at the time. Fortunately, it did turn out to be a much better experience than the one he had in Paris.

            The train arrived at Marseille at early dawn, too early to venture out into the city, especially considering that Marseille has a reputation for its high crime rate. So he decided to wait for the sun to rise before leaving the train station, which is called Gare Saint-Charles.

            That’s where he met the boys. Actually, they had taken the same train together, although they only saw each other for the first time when they were already in Marseille.

            Even though it seemed slightly better than venturing out practically in the middle of the night (the clock indicated it was still 4.30 in the morning) the train station in Marseille wasn’t exactly the most welcoming of places. It was dark and dirty and semi-deserted at that hour. Only a few people could be seen in the ample space. About half of them, five or six people, were fellow passengers, either waiting at the station for their early trains or, like Leonardo, finding shelter indoors before venturing into the big city. The other half consisted of shady characters: homeless, drunk or ill-intentioned individuals walking around the place. Safety threatened, and unwilling to plunge himself into the urban night just yet, Leonardo glanced at the other stranded passengers looking for convenient company.

            Closest to him was a dark haired guy, with a big beard and hippie-looking clothes. He must have been in his late thirties or even early forties. ‘I don’t think so’, Leonardo thought to himself. Then he spotted three young men, sporting big traveller backpacks just like his, their faces clean-shaved. They were wearing T-Shirts and snickers and they appeared to be in their early to mid twenties. ‘That’s better.’

            ‘Hey guys, do you mind if I seat here with you? The thing is, I don’t really wanna sit by myself here with these shady people walking back and forth this place. Do you mind? My name is Leonardo, and I just got here from Paris.’

            They looked at each other first, seeking mutual confirmation. When none of them seemed to object, one of them, a blonde guy with long hair said: ‘Go ahead man. I I were alone in this place I wouldn’t wanna sit by myself either.’

            ‘Thanks guys’, Leonardo mumbled, taking a seat next to them.

            ‘No problem.’ Said the blond guy. ‘These are Sven and Klaus. I’m Lars. We’re from Berlin.’ Sven had dark hair and blue eyes. Klaus had light brown hair and seemed pretty tall, even sitting down. He was also the most muscular of all three of them.

            ‘Berlin? That’s cool. What are you guys doing in Marseille?’

            ‘We decided to travel around Europe this summer. We had been talking about making this trip for at least two years now, so it was about time for us to finally set sail, if you know what I mean. What about you?’ Asked Lars.

            ‘It’s a long story, but I’m travelling around Europe too. I came on the night train from Paris.’

            ‘We were on the same train dude!’ Said Lars.

            ‘So where are you from?’ Asked Sven, the one with dark hair. His accent was a lot more pronounced than Lars’, who sounded very American. Leonardo guessed that he too had grown up watching American movies and TV shows.

            ‘I’m from Lisbon’, Leonardo said after a slight hesitation, ‘although I haven’t been home in quite some time. I was studying Politics in England until recently. I graduated less than a month ago you see. Now I’m not sure what I am… I’m just travelling for the time being…’

            ‘Do you know where you’re heading next?’ This time it was Klaus who talked.

            ‘To be honest I’m not sure. What about you guys?’

            ‘We’re going to Spain next, but we wanna check out the south of France first.  We’re staying around here at least a few days. Then we will be heading towards Barcelona.’

            ‘Do you guys have a place to stay in Marseille?’

            ‘Nah… we’re gonna look for a cheap hostel this morning. Hopefully we can find something decent. You’re welcome to join us if you don’t have a place to stay either.’

            ‘Thanks Lars, I appreciate that. I’ll be happy to come along.’

            That was how Leonardo met Lars, Sven and Klaus and how he joined their party. They waited a coupe of hours and then they venture into the city. By then, the city was already dimly lit by the morning sun, which shed some light into its narrow, mysterious streets.

            After leaving the Gare Saint-Charles, they contemplated the beautiful urban landscape set before their eyes from the top of its majestic stairways.  Afterwards they went down the steps and began their descent through the steep streets that led to the vieux port.

            As they reached it, they stopped for a moment and laid down their backpacks. Sven and Klaus sat down near the water while Lars and Leonardo preferred to stay on our feet. Yet all four of them alike chose to respect the imposing silence, at least for a couple more minutes.

            At early dawn the city was just waking up. Its streets and its port were almost deserted. In a few hours, there would be no more of that precious silence at least until two or three in the morning when the bars started to close. Now, however, it was hard to even imagine the noise that was sure to replace comforting silence. No tourists were around yet. It was also still too early for the local crowd, and only the earliest of workers had already made an appearance: fishermen for the most part. The only sounds breaking the silence in the port came from the seagulls, flying across the blue sky and hunting for fish in the port’s green water.

            So they just stayed there for a while, admiring the landscape, glancing at the Mediterranean that lay ahead of us, silent, quiet and beautiful, as was the port built around it, as was the city built around the port.