Nice, Eze Village, and Monaco, OH MY!

Bonjour Family and Friends!
I am currently in Rome, but I figured I'd fill you in on what happened in Nice since I'm so behind on my blogging. I've been so busy that I haven't really had the time to sit down and write, so here goes:

My English friend Claire and I took a ferry from England to France on the night of March 31st. That was interesting. We walked onto the boat, which was decorated very nicely, and both immediately thought of the Titanic, but quickly knocked on wood so we wouldn't jinx ourselves. The ferry left at 11:00 pm and got into France at 8:00 am, so we took the opportunity to sleep... or at least attempt to sleep... We had to wedge ourselves onto two chairs and attempt to lay down comfortably, all while freezing under an air conditioning vent, and listening to a group of old people next to us talk quite loudly (I'm assuming none of them had their hearing aids in) until about 3 am. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep, and we got off the boat groggy and with a long day ahead of us.

We took a bus to the train station and spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain (in broken French) what ticket we wanted to the guy behind the counter. I'm pretty sure he just refused to speak English with us because he wanted to watch us squirm, but we eventually made it, and got on the train without too much fuss. When we got on our second train, however, things got interesting.  Claire and I got on the train and sat down in some random seats, the way we had done on the previous train, and put our bags on the seats next to us. We were surprised when an old man came over and asked to sit in the seat next to me. I thought this was pretty rude, considering that there was an entire row of empty seats right across the aisle from us, but I moved my bag and he sat down. A couple of minutes later, another old man came up and asked if he could sit in my seat. I was thoroughly confused, and a little put off, before the man showed me his ticket. It was only then that we realized that there were assigned seats on the train! Oops. Embarrassed, we quickly grabbed all of our stuff and got off the train, looking for our real seats. A conductor pointed us in the right direction, and we found our real seats without too much difficulty. About halfway through the 6 hour train ride, we realized that the first seats were only about 2 rows behind where our real seats were! How embarrassing.

We got to Nice and took the local tram to a grocery store, where a shuttle from our hostel picked us up. Our hostel was fantastic! We had signed up for a 10 person dorm, but when we got there, we were informed that they had upgraded us to a private room for free! We had our own bathroom, and bunk beds! We were happy. That night, we went into the hostel bar for dinner and a drink and met two girls from Texas named Shimara and Leslie. We started talking about our plans for the next day, and they told us they were planning on going to Monaco, so we decided to tag along.

The next morning, we woke up, had some free breakfast (always a plus!) and headed out for Monaco. We took a bus up into the mountains and stopped in a little town called Eze Village, which had a beautiful castle that is now used as a hotel. We got to walk through the castle and took some amazing pictures. It was absolutely beautiful. The buses only come to Eze village once every two hours, so we made sure to be at the bus stop on time. Unfortunately, the bus decided not to extend us the same courtesy. It just didn't come at all. So, the four of us were stuck in Eze for an extra two hours, which seriously cut into our Monaco time. By the time we got to Monaco, it was about 2 pm.

Monaco is home to the Monte Carlo Casino, and is also the smallest country in the world. It's right on the beach, perfect temperature, and really beautiful. The four of us walked around the city for the afternoon, stopping at the beach to dip our toes in the Mediterranean Sea! It was such a nice day, and although nothing too exciting happened, it was a perfect way to spend our first non-travel day in France!

The next day, Claire and I walked around Nice. We found a bunch of little markets, which were really fun to look around! My favourite part of the day, though, was when we went to a lookout point where we could see the whole city! We had to take an elevator up an old well shaft to get to the top of a castle-looking structure that overlooked the city. At the top were a park, a cafe, and an amazing view!

Our time in Nice was really nice and relaxing, and before we knew it, it was time to say Au Revoir to France, and Ciao to Italy!

Two different passports, ONE FERRY TICKET!

The inside of our ferry. We slept on two of those blue chairs all night.

The path outside our room at the hostel

Claire and I in Eze Village

Leslie, Claire, and Shimara in Eze Village

Inside the castle

The bus stop we sat at for 2 hours!

Fountains in Monaco

The beach in Monaco

Downtown Nice

The lookout point in Nice

The view from the lookout point

Me at the lookout point

Things I’m Loving: The SUN, the beach, Hostels, meeting new friends, unexpected upgrades.

Things I’m Not Loving So Much: How unhelpful the French can be, pangs of homesickness, sunburns.

Things I’m Learning: Random phrases in French, how to navigate the train system, how much I love Mexican food, that I do fairly well under pressure, that traveling this much makes me appreciate home more.

I’ll hopefully be posting about Rome very soon, so keep an eye out! I love and miss you all!

Au Revoir,

Jenn