Hostel Review: London Connection, Marseille

We are using Marseille as sort of our home base for the first leg of our journey, Nice being the second half. It’s a pretty central area with lots of the common Provencal villages just a quick bus or train ride away. The hostel is just a 5 minute walk from the train station and a 5 minute walk from the main street for the city. It’s tuck away up a rambling street that looks just like every other street with no indication of arrival other than a small tab next to the buzzer reading “London Connection.” Located on the second floor, up a very narrow, windy staircase (try that with a big suitcase) it feels somewhat like your sneaking off to Anne Frank’s annex or something. The hostel is more like a modified apartment, with a long narrow hallway that connects bunker rooms on either end, with the manager’s office, kitchen, and bathroom in the middle. It’s really quite nice having a kitchen, Sandra and I are both starting to feel tight for money so it makes it easy to run to the market and cook dinner and keep the leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow. The bathroom has pretty big main area with mirrored wall, a sink (with hand soap!), two shower stalls, and two toilette rooms. It’s a bit awkward opening the door to go in and wash your hands because you are never quite sure if someone is going to be changing in the middle of the room, but no close encounters so far. The two owners are very personable and interesting characters, they both love to talk for hours about every little inch of everything to see and do in Marseille, how much it costs and how to get there. They also know the surrounding area really well and are great for random secrets of things for exploring Provence.