After the tiring week in Italy long train ride into Nice, we were more than excited to just relax and do nothing for the next few days. We were staying in Nice with Sebastian, a friend of mine who I met while working at Bob's Juice Bar in Paris! He met us at the train station and took us the short walk to his house and we were quite impressed upon walking into the door. A spacious one bedroom apartment, top floor, great views, clean, nicely decorated bachelor pad. And the best thing was, he just ordered a big new pullout couch, and it was so comfy! We immediately dropped our bags and went to buy groceries in an effort to save money and not eat out that week. Unfortunately when we returned, Sebastian asked if we wanted to go for dinner and drinks at the Irish pub down the street in the port…who are we to turn down an invite! The food and company were well worth the cost and it was great catching up after so long! We called it an early night, as we were tired and Sebastian had to get up early for work.
Friday we had the intention of going back to the beach again, but were side tracked by the giant hill in the middle of the city that supposedly houses the castle. We decided to take a detour and hike to the top of the hill to see the city, and what an amazing view it was. One side was a huge waterfall and views of the beaches and the city of Nice, the other side were views of the breath taking port and all the mega-expensive boats parked in it. Finally we were just too hot to stand it and we retreated to the beach for a little cool-off. Randomly enough, we just so happened to sit right next to 3 recent grads from Loyola Marymont, hailing from Denver, Colorado, LA, and Chico! First Californians I've met on the trip! After a long tan and chat with them, it was back to the house to shower again. We ended up meeting up with those guys later that night for a few drinks at our go-to Irish Pub.
Jaim and I planned on taking a couple day trips while in Nice, mainly because we had so much time to kill there. In the end, we only managed to fit one in, but I guess in hindsight it's the only important one-Monte Carlo and Monaco! The Californians happened to be going on Saturday as well, so we met up with them at the train station to do a bit of sightseeing. We started in the old town with gorgeous views of the port and the city of Monaco. We visited the palace, saw some expensive cars, took a walk through the garden, and witnessed an intense boat race in the sea. We then made our way over to Monte Carlo to check out the inside of the casino and maybe try our hand at a few games of Blackjack. Unfortunately it cost 10euros just to get into the casino, so we decided to pass and settle for some pictures of the outside. After realizing that we had pretty much done all there was to do in the city, we hopped back on the train to head to the beach. We had heard about a really nice sandy beach in between Monaco and Nice, so we hopped off the train at Villefranche to sunbathe on the beach there for the afternoon. The beach was nicer than the ones in Nice, but far too crowded and absolutely smothering hot. So, after just a couple hours, we were up and headed home. That night Sebastian had planned a big night out for us with some of his friends, so after our showers and quick naps, he brought his friend over to enjoy some beer, card games, and get-to-know-you's. We ordered pizza for dinner and then set out to the clubs. Mind you we were hanging out with an older crowd, all with steady careers, so these were not the typical clubs we're used to. It seemed like VIP treatment the way we were let in and escorted to a table, with immediate bottle service headed our way. Not too bad! It was a fun night of socializing and dancing that didn't end until nearly 5am!
The next day we woke up with one intention for the day: beach. After hearing so many good things about the beaches in the south of France, we were quite excited to see them for ourselves! Just a short walk away, we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful beaches, and beautiful people, everywhere we looked! Thrown into the mix were the occasional topless, shrivelled up, beef jerky looking women who have seen far too much sun in their day, but hey, you win some you lose some, right? Little did we know that after just a couple hours of the most intense sunlight we've ever experienced, we would be ready to go. We decided to wander the beach a bit and ran into some friends we met at our hostel in Cinque Terre and planned to meet up with them that night. We took a stroll through the Old Town and by 5pm decided to make our way home. We relaxed a bit and showered, and then went to the Irish Pub again to enjoy a beer for happy hour. That night we had offered to make Sebastian dinner, so we came home and got our Betty Crocker on with some beef and pepper stir fry. After dinner we readied ourselves to go meet these Aussies, but ran into a little speed bump and decided to stay in for the night. When we got downstairs to the main door of the apartment building, we found the glass of the door shattered and blood everywhere. A bit creeped out, we decided to head back up the stairs to inform Sebastian, but ran into even more blood on the 5th floor. Most likely nothing, but it had us creeped, so in we stayed.
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| Beef Jerky. |
Friday we had the intention of going back to the beach again, but were side tracked by the giant hill in the middle of the city that supposedly houses the castle. We decided to take a detour and hike to the top of the hill to see the city, and what an amazing view it was. One side was a huge waterfall and views of the beaches and the city of Nice, the other side were views of the breath taking port and all the mega-expensive boats parked in it. Finally we were just too hot to stand it and we retreated to the beach for a little cool-off. Randomly enough, we just so happened to sit right next to 3 recent grads from Loyola Marymont, hailing from Denver, Colorado, LA, and Chico! First Californians I've met on the trip! After a long tan and chat with them, it was back to the house to shower again. We ended up meeting up with those guys later that night for a few drinks at our go-to Irish Pub.
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| View of the harbor |
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| Cor, Al, and Jaim <3 |
Jaim and I planned on taking a couple day trips while in Nice, mainly because we had so much time to kill there. In the end, we only managed to fit one in, but I guess in hindsight it's the only important one-Monte Carlo and Monaco! The Californians happened to be going on Saturday as well, so we met up with them at the train station to do a bit of sightseeing. We started in the old town with gorgeous views of the port and the city of Monaco. We visited the palace, saw some expensive cars, took a walk through the garden, and witnessed an intense boat race in the sea. We then made our way over to Monte Carlo to check out the inside of the casino and maybe try our hand at a few games of Blackjack. Unfortunately it cost 10euros just to get into the casino, so we decided to pass and settle for some pictures of the outside. After realizing that we had pretty much done all there was to do in the city, we hopped back on the train to head to the beach. We had heard about a really nice sandy beach in between Monaco and Nice, so we hopped off the train at Villefranche to sunbathe on the beach there for the afternoon. The beach was nicer than the ones in Nice, but far too crowded and absolutely smothering hot. So, after just a couple hours, we were up and headed home. That night Sebastian had planned a big night out for us with some of his friends, so after our showers and quick naps, he brought his friend over to enjoy some beer, card games, and get-to-know-you's. We ordered pizza for dinner and then set out to the clubs. Mind you we were hanging out with an older crowd, all with steady careers, so these were not the typical clubs we're used to. It seemed like VIP treatment the way we were let in and escorted to a table, with immediate bottle service headed our way. Not too bad! It was a fun night of socializing and dancing that didn't end until nearly 5am!
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| Port of Monaco |
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| Palace |
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| Niiiiiiice car |
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| Monte Carlo Casino! |
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| With Sebastian! |
Unfortunately getting home at 5am and maybe possibly drinking a litttttle bit too much the night before, Sunday was pure death. Sunday consisted of sleeping in, Jaimie making a nice breakfast, a shower, and then back to bed. That night we mustered the strength to meet the Californians at the Irish Pub to catch France wipe out Canada in the rugby world series, however the pub wouldn't play the game, so we had burgers and beer and chatted instead. The day was a write-off, but at least we got out of the house for a bit! We had an early night and a late sleep in the next day, but I have no idea how we were still able to sleep so much! We had a lazy morning packing up and getting ready to catch our 1pm train. With plenty of time ahead, we took our sweet little time cleaning up the apartment and packing our things, when next thing we know we have 10 minutes to get to the train station that is a 15 minute walk away. A brisk run with 14kg bags on our backs surely set the tone for the next 24 hours we were about to endure...
Alright! 24 hour endurance traveling? I'm looking forward to this!
ReplyDeleteAnd the nice car is an Aston Martin DB9 or Vanquish... or a Jaguar. Can't tell by the angle.