when i last left you, we were about to leave for nice, a popular tourist spot in southern france--very close to italy. we got up early on the 28th, grabbed some baguettes (remember the baguettes, they come up again later), and arrived in nice in the early afternoon. the last hour or so of the train ride was completely gorgeous, gliding along the crystal coast and through (what i thought were) mustard fields. france is full of these long patches of stunningly yellow flowers. i assumed it was mustard, because of "french's" back home, but helen contended that they were wildflowers. after days of debate, we finally looked it up...and we were both wrong! they're canola plants, for canola oil. who'da thunk it?
getting into the train station, we had to find the "tram" that would take us near our hostel. for some reason, i imagined that it would be like the open-car-trams in disneyland parking lots (i dunno why i kept associating european transportation with disneyland, but there you go), but instead we were met wtih a futuristic-looking, silver bullet of a tram on tracks that ran throughout the city. we made it to our hostel, the "world-famous," award-winning villa saint-exupery. it was indeed a great hostel, but we couldn't muck about for too long. we dropped our bags and went out to explore!
on our hour-walk down to town/the beach (everything is on a downward slope in nice), we passed tons of people, all speaking french or italian. didn't seem like there were too many english speakers around, but that made it all the more authentic.
nice itself was very beautiful, with some funkadelic stuff mixed in with good old euro vibes (lots of outdoor eating, bakeries, outdoor markets, etc). we made it into "downtown" nice, which was a short walk from the beach, and soaked up the sun and the sights.
statues on poles
nice street
big plaza; fountain
the azure coast! the water was pristine
because the water was so incredibly blue, it looked awfully inviting. we noticed that no one was swimming, though oodles of people were sunning themselves on the rock beach (nice is way too cool for sand). helen couldn't resist sticking in her pigs, though...so we watched and laughed as she screamed in pain upon touching the apparently ice-cold water. silly girl!
anywho, after stepping painfully on some rocks, we decided to walk along the boardwalk and into the little squares that dotted nice. the other girls got gelato, which was everywhere (undoubtedly due to the proximity to italy), and we sat on the steps of a governmenty-looking-building to bask in the sun and people-watch.
there were some boys having a kickabout, and were joined by a kind of homeless-looking man. they were kicking the ball way too hard and fast, and it kept flying into the people eating in the restaurant next to them. after being yelled at multiple times, they continued a little farther down, until the ball flew at full speed into some girl's head, making her cry. good work, frenchies!
after getting up and walking a bit more, we were quite ready for dinner, so we found a place on the boardwalk that served "nice" specialties. helen and i shared a tasting plate of ratatouille, beignets, stuffed peppers, and other tasty, unidentifiable bites. full of french noms, we headed to "wayne's," a bar that many english-speakers go to, to have some happy hour cocktails. i tried a long island iced tea for the first time, despite all the warnings my mother has given me about them...and it didn't do a thing! i think they made them pretty weaksauce, though.
a football match was on (chelsea v. barcelona), and the bar was getting really crowded, so our waiter basically hustled us our of our table. "luke," his alleged name, sparked much debate among us girls--did he look more like johnny depp, or orlando bloom? we argued at length, then finally agreed that he was some sort of hot mutant hybrid of the two.
anyways, all that ogling got us plum tuckered out. we trammed back to our hostel, and as i was checking my email, i got a hot tip from the girl next to me. very friendly and chatty, she glibly informed me that the breakfast cereal smorgasbord included...NUTELLA CEREAL. i practically squealed when she told me, and dreamt all that night of the promise of my favorite spread, wonderfully stuffed inside chocolate squares.
and the next day, villa saint-exupery DELIVERED! the nutella cereal was so rich, and so good. i felt a bit sick after eating it, but it didn't matter. it was fuel for the day!
and what a day we had ahead of us. we wanted to check out monaco, so we caught a crowded bus from nice to get there. we made a pitstop at a beautiful hilltop community, called "eze," which has incredible views of the coast. the hills are lined with pretty boutiques and restaurants, so we did some shopping (window, for me), and checked out the lovely views.
i was just trying to air out my pits. jokes!
france has supermarkets called "casino," and the little ones are "petit casino," which is the name of a great french bakery by my house. now we know where they ripped off that name!after seeing all of eze, we caught another bus going onward to monaco. although the weather was beautiful, and the "country" was clean, i didn't especially like it, to be honest. everyone there was clearly disgustingly rich, and there didn't seem to be a lot of fun things to do if you didn't have gobs of moolah. it was good to check it out, though. here are some pics...
monte carlo, the famous casino. it cost 10 euro to get past the lobby, so we just looked around in there, used their bathroom (haha, suckers), and peaced out.
yachts
the pauper of monaco
mercedes, lamborghinis, and porsches were everywhere. gross
they were setting up for the grand prix (aka the love of christopher's life), so i had to take a picturehaving had enough of monaco, we jumped back on a bus, and scouted for "plage mala," a reportedly half-hidden gem of a beach. we finally found it, and spent an hour lazing about among the multiple topless old ladies. i wanted to get out of the sun, so i searched for shade like an animal, and was glad to rest my feet while the others tanned.
a lot of southern france and monaco reminded me of home. at plage mala, there were houses built right into the cliffs, and it instantly reminded me of palos verdes. the weather was similar, too, and the beachy vibes made me a little homesick.
the cliff-bound homesafter awhile, we decided it would be prudent to catch the bus back to nice for the night, so we hiked back up to the main road and waited for the bus....for forty minutes. oh, europe!
it was standing room only in the packed bus, and clouds of hot B.O. hung heavy in the air during the forty minute ride. sweating and dirty, we girls could only laugh and chalk it up to being an authentic traveling experience.
once back in nice, we wanted to climb a giant cliff path that seemed to lead to a look-out park. we did so, making that our umpteenth trek up ridiculous amounts of stairs. it was good for my nutella-cereal-fueled legs, though!
view from the topthat night, we were all exhausted from the day's activiites, so we decided to chill in the hopping lounge of the villa. we suspiciously bought some of their "world-famous brownies," anticipating some sort of "special" ingredients in them, if you know what i mean. the night before, fragrant wafts of mary jane could be whiffed all over the hostel. to our small surprsie, the brownies weren't tainted, just really gigantic and delicious. we coupled them with the bottle of white wine helen had bought back in paris (haha, i can hear my dad vomiting from here), and had a really good last night with lauren and jen, who would be leaving the next day.
and so ends the tale of nice and monaco. as one last hurrah, i'll tell you a story about the winning young men you can find in southern france.
our group could deal with the unwavering stares, yelling, and whistling, but when guys approached we all tensed up. one special incident was on the tram, when a young french man leaned into jen's face and said "tres tres tres tres tres tres tres charmand" in a slimy whisper, then jumped off laughing with his friend. i tried to conceal my jealousy. hahahaha
anyways, prepare yourself for more creepster stories, because they'll be abounding in the next post. for now, i'm off to see some more of london!
with a kiss and a creepy stare,
lilly
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