Day 14: Nice

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And this is the point when I say, "Holy crap, there are so few days left...I'm not ready for it to be over!"

I woke up this morning pretty early, all things considered, and because of my lack of sleep, felt a tad crappy. I pulled some clothes on and went down for breakfast. I didn't hear or see any of the group, and, being me, I didn't go exploring, so I picked up a croissant and went back out to the lobby. I sat myself down and waited to see if anyone was up and about. Dan came down on his own and asked if I wanted to join him for a walk. It was a beautiful, sunny day and so I said "sure", and off we went. We walked all along the beachfront, and I swear, I've never seen water so blue. the sun was hot but there was a lovely cool breeze coming off the water. I felt somehow at home by the water. I'm a Maritime girl, what can I say? We walked and walked for a long time, and it was nice - we talked, but I wasn't feeling overly chatty, and the silence wasn't awkward. It was kind of perfect. Our walk was long, but we didn't notice. There was so much to look at - so much to take in. There was a funny mix of seemingly Floridian condos and very typically French looking buildings, topless sunbathers ad fancy cars.

As I reached into my bag to get new batteries for my camera so that Dan could take my picture, I felt something kind of slimey. The batteries slipped out of my hands and down my dress and I saw that my hands were covered in brown goo. Nothing to fear - for some strange reason I had a Nutella packet in my bag, and it had exploded all over my batteries. Ugh. Dan laughed at me as I ran down to the water to stick my hand in so I could rinse my dress off, but I wasn't really paying attention as a wave washed right over my socked and sneakered feet. A second "ugh" for the day. We decided to sit on a bench and just soak in the atmosphere, which was fine by me. As we soaked in the gorgeous atmosphere, I took off my soggy socks and shoes and tried to let them air dry for a while. I couldn't stop gushing "I don't think it gets any better than this" and "How am I ever going to go back to real life after this?"

It was still fairly early in the day, but Dan was getting hungry, so we decided to split up and go our seperate ways. I had my map. I was set. I had every intention of just wandering the streets looking around and then going back to the hotel, but then I saw a set of stairs leading up the hill of Le Chateau. Never one to want to miss out on something cool, I started climbing the stairs. There were SO MANY, but I took my time. I was in no rush. I walked partway up, stopping at one point to sit in the shade under a tree on a bench and re-apply some sunscreen, relax and write a bit. When I got bored there, I kept walking up, exploring lots of nooks and crannies and enjoying being away from the crowds. I let myself get completely lost in the park, just walking around getting pictures from the various lookouts. As
I climbed higher and higher above the city the lovelier became. It took a long time, but I eventually made it to the top, and the panoramic views unbelievable. At home I spend a lot of time by myself, and I think I needed a day like this, to have a little bit of Allison time. I wandered around, got hit on by a little French teenager, who I told to bugger off, then sat down and just people watched for a while. I pulled out the journal again at one point and wrote "How crazy that I'm writing in my journal HERE, overlooking the French Riviera?" Not the most eloquent thing I've ever written, but the sentiment was clear.

I spent well over two hours exploring the park. It was beautiful. I felt a great sense of calm, and I was very happy to be on my own, though thinking back on it now, I'm surprised I didn't feel more lonely and depressed about being single, because I think about how nice it would be to share that kind of thing with someone...oh well. Maybe someday. Anyway, that was a temporary bout of self-pity brought to you by the letter A. So I'm at the top of Le Chateau and I'm looking around and can't quite find the right way to get back down to street level. Staircases galore, but, not all roads lead to Rome...I finally found one that looked promising, and sure enough, it took me in the general direction of the hotel. I had to giggle as I saw signs pointing to Place Garibaldi...Babylon 5 anyone? No? No one's as big a geek as me? Alright. So I stopped in at a little crêperie, got some food and walked back to the hotel. I have to say, it was really nice being in a place where I sort of spoke the language. I could understand what people were saying, anyway. My vocabulary is very limited after not using my French in years, but my comprehension is still pretty damn good.

When I went up to the hotel room, I could feel the skin on the tops of my arms burning - uh oh...but I had reapplied my sunscreen partway through the afternoon. I was confused. I hopped in the shower, chilled out and enjoyed some nap time before Rachel came back to get ready for our dinner/casino adventure that night. I hung my dress up in the bathroom during my shower, trying to smooth out the wrinkles, which thankfully worked. I had started putting my makeup on when Rachel came in and started getting ready. She told me that everyone had been down on the beach, and looking at my already-sunburned-from-just-being-outside-for-a-short-time arms, I was glad I'd decided to skip on the roast-fest at the beach. We got ourselves ready and went downstairs to meet everyone in the lobby. I would just like to say that we all looked very "peow peow" in our fancy outfits (I was wearing a dress I'd made, and it looked very nice, thank you very much!), and we piled back on the coach. I was told I looked "foxy". Sweet! I know it sounds incredibly juvenile and dorky, but as everyone passed by me on the coach and no one sat next to me, I felt a little dejected. Comes with the territory of being an independent, I suppose. The ride was fairly uneventful until we made a very sharp, quick turn on a cliff. The jerky motion scared the crap out of me, and I white knuckled the seat in front of me for another few minutes afterward. I tried to calm down and enjoy the theme music (Big Spender, anyone?)

When we were dropped off, the movement of the group seemed a little slower as all of the girls were in heels and were taking their merry time (myself included). We walked up a hill, passing the church were Grace Kelly was married, to our restaurant. We split up between a few tables and we had lots of laughs. We started off with a cocktail and then ordered our food. The food turned out to be alright - not the best on the trip, but it was convenient and filled me up, and the company at the table was fabulous. There was wine at the table as well, but no one drank much of it. We were all sunburned and dehydrated and in the mood to fill up on water. After an asparagus-filled pastry, salmon and dessert, Pom Pom told us it was time to get going to the casino. Oh Monaco...I went in and was actually surprised to see how small it actually was. Very opulently decorated though. I didn't gamble at all, but had a good time watching everyone else. We stayed for about an hour and a half, but that was all I needed. We stayed long enough to see some very rich people throw down major money like it was nothing. There was so much wealth in that building alone, it was kind of sick. In any case, by 10:45 we had to be back on the coach, and this time frame was pretty strict as we were cutting it close to the wire with Damian's time limits for the day. Of course, we hit a roadblock and had to back up and take a detour.

We ended up having to walk from the coach park to the hotel. It was only about a 5 minute walk, but my feet were hurting and I was tired, but being the obsessive journaler that I am, I grabbed my book and went down to the lobby to write for a while. Sara and Jon came in and chattd for a few minute, then Matt came down looking for an extra towel, but no dice for him, so he sat down and we had a long talk about travel and how it affects you and he told me how ballsy he though I was for coming on the tour on my own. I never thought of it as a big deal, but I guess in a way it could be. So...go me. After a while, Matt left and the receptionist came over to me and asked if I'd like to go to the other room to have more light so I could write. I stayed up, my pen and paper getting a workout and my mind lost in the magic of the past few days, until a little after 2am. I was burning the candle on both ends, but whatever. I fell asleep quickly, and bed was kind of the greatest thing ever.

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Photos

So blue
On the way to the beach

Nice
Dan on the beach

Gorgeous
Me pre-Nutella incident

View from Le Chateau
Does it get any better than this?

Aww
Postcard? I think so

Peaceful
Me hanging out on Le Chateau

Yachts
The sixth one from the left of the right is mine. Honest.

So nice in Nice
Looking out over town

Peow Peow
Our table looking snazzy.
Amy, Jess, Deloris, Ang, Shannon and me

The minute you walked in the joint...
Me in front of the Grand Casino in Monaco

More casino
Fancy schmancy