4 Countries in 36 hours!

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Swiss, Lake Como, Monaco, Nice, Avignon

Leaving Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland was an adventure in itself as the lack of sleep and extremely windy roads did not mix well and I was most seriously queesy for most of the first 2-3 hours. I moved myself to the front of the bus to avert being sick.

Our next country was Italy! Only for a couple of hours, but we srove to Lake Como to drop off a few busabouters and pick up some more. We had only 20 mins in town to have a quick look at the shoreline and grab a sneaky first gelato before getting back on the bus to head to Nice.

Before we arrived in Nice qe had to pass through Monaco, which is still its own country while there is still an heir to the throne. At present the current prince is approaching 50 and only recently married (it was on the news a while ago where there were atories that the very pretty young bride who was the lady who kept trying to run away before the wedding, because he was apparently not too fussed on monogomay). If he doesn't produce and heir Monaco will cease to be its own country and will return to being part of France. Our guide also said that it is cheaper to get a helicopter for four people from Monaco to Nice than it is to get a taxi!! Amazing!

I had only one night in Nice as I wanted to get to Barcelona as quickly as possible. So I had a cheap 2 euro dinner at the hostel and headed off by myself to check out the beach. This was my first mistake. Nice is not nice at night, especially for a single female on her own. It was a very dirty city with seedy "old mate's" around every corner. "Old mate" is busabout's term for someone who is of questionable character and is inclind to steal anything and everything. I eventually got to the beach on dusk and dipped my feet in the water after walking across the beach of stones and pebbles which was also a new experience! It was at this point "old mate" decided to follow me down to the water....so I walked off, only to be followed again and this time he started yelling out to me in French, so I changed direction to go walk near a canoodling couple on the beach. He then keft me alone.

I walked along the espanade for a while but about half a dozen "old mate's" repeated the above procedure and I was feeling most uncomfotable. One guy snuck up behind me and was literally breathing down my neck with a hand near my bag before I turned around and gave him my most evil look and pretended I spoke neither French or English...I had enough so I followed a couple who looked like they had been jogging up a street which looked well lit and would lead me back to the hostel. Luckily following them got me one block from the hostel. I went to bed early and decided Nice would be better as a day trip with other friends.

Next morning we were off to Barcelona, via Avignon. Avignon was a quick stop, too quick to see much but it was very pretty, lots of great markets, a very old bridge and home to the old Pope's residence. At one point in history there were once 3 Pope's as none wanted to step down! I would definately love to come back to the south of France to explore more someday.

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