The French Riviera

This weekend was the perfect weekend for all of us to relax- it was so different than the traveling I had been doing. I always feel like I need to see everything in a given city. So it's hard when you only have a few days and I end up rushing around and exhausting myself. The good thing about Nice, Cannes and Monaco was that there wasn't a ton of sightseeing to do, so I didn't feel guilty lying on the beach for most of the time. 

So the only drawback (which was semi-major) was that we all spent SO MUCH money on food and drinks. France is so expensive. And all I could think of was that Josh said that he found Nice less expensive than Paris...eek.

We weren't able to have a meal that cost less than 20 euros as a general rule. But the beach there was gorgeous. The first day was a little bit windy, so we only laid out for a couple of hours, which was enough for me and Kel to get sunburned and Alli to turn black.

That night we went to Monaco to see the Monte Carlo Casino etc. It was pretty much the most gorgeous place ever (I feel like I say that a lot...but I have seen some pretty amazing places). The architecture was so ornate and intricate. Most of the buildings were white or pink and when set against the blue sky they looked spectacular. The casino was beautiful inside. I was surprised that we were allowed to go in because we certainly aren't high rollers. We were allowed to go into the first part of the casino but if you wanted to go in to where people actually gamble, it cost 10 euros, so we just used their bathroom and left. We ended up going back to Nice for dinner because Monaco was insanely expensive (obv.)

We ate at a place called Pelican something and then Alli, Kel and I went to Thor's Pub and had some drinks. It was nice to sit and chat with them about how we were feeling about the end of study abroad and how it is coming up so soon. It was sad to talk about that, I can't believe that the program ends in 13 days- we have to start packing soon and that really freaks me out. I feel like I just went to Rome yesterday and that was my second weekend here.

The day after that we spent the day in Nice and we had dinner at a Tapas Bar and then we went to Wayne's which was the place that Alli and Josh went to in Senior year where people dance on tables. I have to say I was a little disappointed because, A, it was too crowded to dance on the table and B. the drinks were very expensive glasses of sugar water...I don't know, I guess I just had more fun the night before at Thor's. 

Anyway, the next day Betty, Alli, Kel and I had a plan to go to Eze to the perfume factory and then to Cannes to lay on the beach. The problem is that the train station in Nice was terrible! The ticket machines only take special French credit cards with chips in them and they don't take cash, only change and there are no change machines. So the only thing to do is to wait on line to go to a ticket window. There were only three people working in the whole train station so the line was so long that we almost missed our train to Eze. When we got there we couldn't even go to the perfumerie because you had to take a 25 minute bus and it was already so late in the day and we wanted to go to Cannes. We went to the beach in Cannes for the day and I bought really expensive sunscreen because nothing is cheap in France. I think I spent 12 euros in the sunscreen, which is roughly 18 US dollars :( But the funny thing is I didn't get burned at all! And in the US I always get burned, even when I wear a high SPF and re-apply. So, once again, the Farmacias (Farmacie in this case) in Europe are great and sell products that actually work. 

Another dramatic train situation happened when we were coming back from Cannes to Nice and we had to catch our night train. 

The train to Nice was 35 minutes late! That never happens in Italy...the latest a train will be is 10 minutes and that is a rare occurrence, so we were so nervous that we were going to miss our night train and have to stay over again in Nice which would have been incredibly expensive.

We ended up making in by like 1 second and only because Betty's cousins were able to get all of our bags onto the platform for us (thank you so much!). 

Kel, Alli and I watched some Friends and then slept for about 4 hours.

It was a great weekend because when we weren't dealing with the train system, it was very relaxing. 

The beaches were absolutely amazing.

-One strange note- I don't think we were on a nude beach but there were a few women with no tops on. I found it very strange to see a mother playing with her child in the sand with her boobs hanging in the kid's face- not so good.

But I guess it's just different from what I am used to seeing at the Jersey Shore...

So, overall, great weekend because I was with my best friends here and we always have fun no matter what, and I'm not spending a cent for the next two weeks (I wish).

<3