Well, had an interesting day. Got the train to Monaco, then spent over a hour trying to get to the ticket office, then the 'Rocher' area, which is the only 'non grandstand' viewing area at the race. Itwas pretty much a disgrace, with the only viewing being on top of some duck boards running up the side of the hill near the palace. The closest place to the track (which had people there who had been camped there for ages) was still about 100m from the track, with no screen to see the rest of the action. Bit of a waste [View Full Entry]

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This was probably one of the coolest days of my life up to this point. I laid on a beautiful beach, went to a place where the rich and powerful hang out, walked around the most famous formula 1 circuit while the teams unloaded their equipment for the race, and hung out with some movie stars. Let's begin. It was sunny! And hot! And we went to the beach! It was a pretty start to the day. We sunscreened up and just laid on the beach for a few hours.... Finally! It would have been pretty sad if Oosduinkerke was our [View Full Entry]

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Thursday morning was the hangover from our disastrous train experience the night before; we had to get up at 5:00 to make it to our 6:30 train, which of course was 30 minutes late. What luck! It was all worth it though when we got into Nice. Our hostel was only a few minutes from the train station, which is always nice when you have a 50 pound pack on your back! We stayed at Hotel Baccarat and it was such and awesome place! The staff was super friendly, and when we got there they bumped us up from a 10 [View Full Entry]

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Have you ever sat in your car in your driveway and thought "Hmm, I hope there aren't any sharp objects that could puncture my tyres around here"? No? Me neither. No, my brain likes to throw me that question just as I'm hurtling around a bend on the Italian highway at 130kph, with mountains on one side and a sheer drop into nothingness on the other. And then your mind's eye plays a little movie just to show you what might happen. It doesn't inspire confidence. Anyway, Jesi and Ancona. Tiffany and her cousin Margaret were terrific hosts, telling me about [View Full Entry]

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Okay well we woke up around 9.30/10am...painfully After getting ready and dropping off our bags with luggage storage we had an hour before we were meeting up with one of ang's friends of a friend that lives in Nice. We went to a local cafe and I had the best late I have EVER had...we also did alittle shopping where I found this really cute pinky ring that I could not resist buying. At 12.30 we met up with Stephan....his first language def was not english but he showed us around parts of nice we probably would not have seen without [View Full Entry]

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Yes I went to Monaco, the place where the enviable Princess Grace dwelled and reigned. What a lucky woman! It was here that we actually went to the beach. Allow me to relate that tale briefly. We woke up in Nice and ate a 6 euro breakfast (we were tricked) and then hopped on a train to our final destination. One problem...there were no seats. Natalie, Monica and I stood the whole way, which was only about twenty minutes, but still. We had our backpacks with us too which made it even worse. O well. Once we arrived we reserved our [View Full Entry]

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The college had an excursion to Monaco on Saturday! It was very nice! It took only an hour and a half or so to get there by bus, so its pretty close! First we stopped at the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino, we didnt go in but it was cool just to look at, everything is really clean and nice and there were a lot of expensive stores around. i guess the police are also really strict because we had to hurry getting on and off the bus, it was probably illegal i guess. After we took some pictures of Monaco [View Full Entry]

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Monaco is the second smallest independent country in the world, and is only around two square kilometres in length. Famous as a tax haven for the super rich, this little jewel on the mediterranean coast is only sixteen kilometres from Nice on the French Riviera, and the trip takes a little over twenty minutes as the train hugs the coast offering spectacular views along the way. It is a great country to explore for a day, and the home of the annual Monaco Grand Prix still feels very much like a part of France. The last journal left off in Bern, [View Full Entry]

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A spectacular day in Monaco. I walked about 4 miles along the beach path, then met up with Thad for our first brunch picnic which consisted of bread, cheese, guacamole, olive paste, carrots, and bulgur salad. Beautiful picnic!! We then picked up our new French rental car, "The Coupe" as Thad likes to call it which was a Peugeot coupe that Thad LOVED! We left Monaco and drove to Marseilles, took a look around and decided not to stay there but to go to Arles where we found a great hotel to stay in. Had dinner at a great little place, [View Full Entry]

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Nov 1: I took advantage of the fitness center again to spend an hour on the elliptical… I've missed working out so much!! We had a fantastic picnic on the wall by the ocean and also near the helicopter pad which is how people fly in. Our picnic consisted of salad, mascarpone & gorgonzola cheese, guacamole (I'd been craving it since we left!), a warm baguette, and beer. We walked around town which was completely dead… everything was closed. We found out later it was for Day of the Dead! There was a fair going on that we walked through and [View Full Entry]

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