Thus, myself, Megan, Mitch, Jack and Jordan booked a hostel (praying it would look better in person than it did in the online pictures) Thursday and boarded our train early Friday morning. We took a series of trains and were greeted with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean sea and sunshine only 8 hours later. We found our hostel pretty quickly and were pleasantly surprised when it looked more like a nice hotel than a scummy place for backpackers to sleep (prayers answered!!).
We were anxious to see this beach in person, so we dropped our things, grabbed a quick bite and headed to the beach. The sun put us in a great mood and we spontaneously decided to grab a couple of bottles of wine while passing a supermarket. The store owner was really nice and told us all about the organic wine, and we listened politely until he realized that we were only interested in the cheapest bottles. He opened them for us and waved us goodbye, promising he would come to America one day.
When we got to the beach, we found a nice spot to sit and sat back and relaxed, grateful for the chance to smell the sea and listen to the waves for the first time in a while. We watched as tourists seized photo opportunities, sometimes assisting them in doing so, and as little children approached the ocean and then ran from the waves screaming, only to courageously repeat the process. We sat there and perfected our rock-skipping techniques until the sun set and then we headed back to shower and figure out plans for dinner. We spent a lot of time hanging out in our hostel and then wandered out in search of a cheap and easy option for dinner. After walking a few blocks without luck, our frustration and hunger took over and led us to KFC where I ate fried chicken! America!
After dinner, we took off in search for Wayne's Bar-- a place that that everyone who had already been to Nice said we absolutely couldn't miss. We found it eventually and hung out by the bar where I made friends with a newly engaged couple from Georgia. She proudly showed off their professional photos from the Eiffel Tower proposal and I attempted to find mutual friends by listing about everyone I knew who goes or graduated from UGA. We talked about life and she told me everything she wished she had known when she was 21 8 years earlier (the standard "live it up!" and "don't waste time on stupid boys!" speech). A couple of drinks later, we headed home, exhausted from our long day.
The next day, we woke up late and the front desk man recommended a place called Wally's for lunch. It had the feel of an Applebee's, with random objects from American culture stung on the walls, but with a bit of a diner feel. The place was packed and despite the crowds, the staff still managed great friendly service. We ordered the burgers and couldn't believe it when they were some of the best we had ever had. They even had little baby american flags stuck in them! Look how cute they were! Overall, a successful lunch!
From there, we went to the station and took a 30 minute train ride to Monaco. When we got there, we followed signs to Monte Carlo and walked around the gardens in front of the casino. Then we ventured into the casino itself, hoping that our attire would be nice enough to get us in. Nobody seemed to mind our jeans and we walked in, intimidated by the luxury that surrounded us in every direction. That's when I heard my dad's voice in my head ("Why are you nervous? Walk in like you own the place!") so I rolled back my shoulders, picked up my chin and strut into the casino confidently. Hey, I was a princess for all they knew! Megan and Mitch played the slots.. lost immediately.. and then Jack and I tried our luck at the roulette table. He made me go first so that if I embarrassed myself he could learn from my mistake. I put 5 euro on the table, the dealer handed me a single chip and I place it on my lucky number 16! 18 seconds later, I was 5 euros poorer. That's when Jack put his on 11 and I reminded him that 11 was the one that was just called. "What?! It was?! I should have played when you did! I would've won!" He spent of the rest of the day beating himself up for making me go first and dreaming of what could have been.
We walked around Monaco for the rest of the afternoon, checking out the extravagant hotels, cars and yachts. My favorite part was walking along the marina and inspecting the insane number of megayachts that were squeezed in side by side. When we were done planning out our dream boats and imagining what we would do with so much money, we grabbed gelato and walked back to the train station.
When we got back to Nice, it was raining so we lounged around the hotel and then went to dinner. We were determined to actually get a good meal, so we walked to the Old Town (The Colley Ave. of Nice, except times like 20) and settled on one when we found a menu that we liked. Our three course meals consisted of delicious Caesar salads, various seafood and steak dishes (paired with their corresponding recommended glass of wine.. only the best for us wine connoisseurs) and ice cream desserts! I ordered an amazing and shared with Megan, who got linguine with salmon. YUM!
After dinner, we went out to a massive club that was another "can't-miss"on the list of things to do. That's when Mitch bought two rum and cokes, not realizing it that they would cost 15 dollars each (we could not stop laughing) and I made friends with a 30 year old woman who had an entire VIP section to herself and her 4 friends. She thought I was funny because I responded with "comme ci, comme ca"when she asked me how I was. I still don't get why that was so funny, it just means "so-so", but whatever, it got me into VIP! We were really confused when it was suddenly much later than we thought and then we realized that the EU daylight savings time occurred. Time travel!! Weeee!! Back to being 6 hours behind the US. We walked home, of course not before Jordan jumped down onto the beach and and insisted on feeling the water, and our doorman (man, this hostel is NICE! ..get it??) greeted us.
The next morning we woke up, checked out, and spent our last few hours in Nice back at our favorite spot at the beach, this time without all of the wine. Around 2, we walked to the train station and headed home. Our trip home was much smoother with less connections and we got home much faster, arriving in Lugano around 8. The presence of a ginormous hunk of chocolate also aided in the quality of this train ride. Happy Easter to us!
Next weekend starts our final 10 day break: Amalfi Coast and Greece! Until then!
linds
LIndsay, you are amazing! I wish I had the energy to keep up with classes, plan trips and be gone every weekend. What an experience! It's good that you have this blog so that years in the future you can remember what you did and saw in each place and it won't be a big blur.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy yourself to the fullest! I have been to a few of the places that you went and would like to go to them all. I would love to go to the Amalfi coast. In Greece, I spent one day in Athens, 1 1/2 in Mykonos- took a ferry to Delos, 3 days in Santorini, Greece has so many islands.. Warning -sometimes the Greek ferries don't keep to the schedule - sea too rough for example.