bonjour a nice

(6/22/07 - 11:00 - Train to Paris)




Well, it's sufficient to say that Nice, was nice. Let's start from the beginning. While we were on a train to Nice, or so we thought, from Genova, the conductor came by to check tickets and said "oh, by the way, this train is not going to Nice - there is a french rail strike going on now. You have to get off and go to another train to get to Nice." umm.... ok? Sure - so we did that, and finally got there. Simple enough? I'll skip to the end, where we had to buy 1st class tickets on the TGV to Paris, in which we don't have seats, so at the moment, we're sitting in the car, hoping that nobody comes to sit down in our seats. Oh well - it's part of the adventure!




When we got to Nice, it was late, so we grabbed some dinner - chinese food from the place next door. We used an internet cafe for a bit, then headed back to the hostel. We met the aussie (we never did remember his name - we simply referred to him as "our aussie friend") who was our roommate then, and got some sleep. The next morning, we decided to go to the beach, and he followed us there - for the entire time we were in Nice, we were with this aussie guy, who was really cool, but it was a bit strange that he just kinda decided to tag along. It worked out really well though cause he was a nice guy, and gosh darnit, people liked him. So, to the beach, simon got burned, I listened to a lot of podcasts, and we just enjoyed the sun and the water. The blue water was beautiful, that's for sure. We headed back after the sun to grab a little nap, and I went to go upload some pictures to the internet of Florence (they're up now if you didn't notice before). We decided to check out if there were some bars around, and we did find a cool english pub in Old Nice where there was a cover band from Norway called "The Nobodies" who played some classic rock - you know, AC/DC and Kiss - that kind of stuff. They were a little on the strange side, but that's ok, their music was good.




The next day (yesterday), we decided to check out Monte Carlo - We showed up at the train station (across the street from our hostel), at 11:30 or so, expecting to hop right on a local train. Simon and I filled out our eurail passes, and our aussie friend bought a ticket from the machine. We went to hop on, and they said "oh, I'm sorry, but there's only one train going there, and that's at 2:30, there's a strike going on you know." So the strike, um, struck again. We got some lunch and headed back around 2 or so and got on the very crowded train (the only one running) to Monacco and Monte Carlo. We saw the sights there - the Prince's palace and the old prince's car collection and the giant yachts all in a line for some sort of "really big, expensive boat convention." Unfortunately, because of the strike, simon and I were not able to go have dinner at the restaurant my Mom wanted us to - there just simply wasn't a way for us to get there and have dinner, and be able to get home. I did see a sign for the hotel, so I took a picture of that though - Someday I'll get there, someday :-\. Sorry mom! We did however see the extravagant casino, although we didn't go inside as A) we weren't dressed properly, and B) there was a cover of 15 Euros just to get in! So, instead, we decided to stay out and bet that we wouldn't be making our 15 euro back at the tables.




That afternoon, we finally got a train back to Nice, grabbed some beers and sat on the beach and watch silly high school band kids fall into the water with their street clothes on (did I mention that the beach is made out of stones? I'll tell you, if there wasn't such a reputation for the stoney beaches, and I was in charge of Nice, I'd grind those suckers up - it's uncomfortable!)




Yesterday was, and pardon my french, the Fete de la Musique - Basically a music festival all over france - so Nice was no exception. We walked around Old Nice which was a happening place, with people everywhere listening to bands of every variety - jazz, hard rock, reggae - you name it, it was there. We listened for a bit, but then realizing we had to get up early, walked back home and went to bed.




We're on the train to Paris now - I apologize for such long entries, but sometimes I just get carried away with the details. Hopefully this one was a bit more manageable and won't take you 20 minutes to read. Thanks for reading, by the way, I hope you've enjoyed them so far. We have roughly 7 days in europe left - Some parts flew by, some parts dragged, but so far, we have had one excellent trip - I'm very happy that I came, it's been a very fun and exciting few weeks, although I am homesick and do want to see everyone again very badly.




Well, strike be damned, we're going to get to Paris sometime today - I think we're going to hit up the Louvre for starters - See you all soon!




From a TGV (not going very GV at the moment - GV = High Speed) to Paris,

Matt