Where my beaches at?

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Alright. By now, we are used to the rain whenever we go somewhere that it's not supposed to rain, such as a beach. So it was no surprise that it was cloudy and threatening rain when we arrived. I was more surprised by the rail strike.

And it's not even that I was surprised by the fact that the strike happened, because I've read and been told that rail strikes are quite common, and was willing to deal with that. I guess I was surprised by the ease with which you can travel by train during the strike. There seemed to be lot's of trains, and there were some seats left on our TGV to Nice. I guess strikes are just different here. Maybe they weren't that serious about it? Maybe they just wanted another foosball table in the break room? I don't know. But we still felt relieved to have grabbed a train to Nice since we did have reservations... and we were done with Avignon, so I don't know what we would have done with one more day there.

The other thing that has now happened a couple of times is some kind of march/demonstration in the streets of the town we're visiting. The day we went to Nimes, there was a demonstration in Avignon. It was very organized, and peaceful, and definitely planned because the police had blocked off the road for them. Then, in Nimes, the same protest showed up and circulated around the arena! So they must have got on buses or something. In Nice, I also saw one, but it was a different one. So at least I know that the group we saw before wasn't following us and protesting our presence... but this march was a bit more lively, with chants and flares. Still, it stayed peaceful, but I kept my distance anyways.

The first thing we did was walk down to the beach. It had stopped threating rain, and was just a cloudy/hazy. It's a rockier beach than Oostduinkerke. Neil dominated the distance portion of the rock throwing competition, beating me consistently by five to ten feet. But I owned him at the rock skipping contest. And the water's pretty warm, if anyone was wondering.

We walked up a nearby hill for a great view of the city, the beach, and the sea before heading back to our hostel to make a large meal from items purchased at the local grocery store. There were tons of Canadians in the hostel, and all around Nice. I think there might be more Canadians here than French people!

Actually, there were a few younger Canadians in our hostel that had probably just finished high school. They were dumb. But we got some good laughs at the dialogue we could overhear because they were so loud. And dumb. A British backpacker, probably closer to our age, had befriended them for the evening (probably before we got there, otherwise we would have rescued him) and was being given some advice about his planned trip to Canada later in the year. The conversation went something like this (notice how little the British guy speaks.... i.e. not at all):

IDIOT #1: Oh man, Kenora is amazing!
IDIOT #2: Oh yeah, the lakes are amazing! I work at a kids summer camp there and it's so much fun.
IDIOT #3: Oh! And you should probably go to Winnipeg for like about a week.
IDIOT #1: Yeah, the forks is such a nice park.

I wanted to save him. I really did. I made eye contact with him a few times but didn't know where to go from there. I really hope he doesn't go to Winnipeg or Kenora. But that wasn't even the best part of the evening. They started talking about beer. And man, they are dumb:

IDIOT #1: I hear Belgian has good beer. Like I love Stella Artois, and I hear it's not even the best beer!
IDIOT #2: Let's go to Belgian!

I mean, come on. And it gets better. I'm not even sure that this moment will translate well into writing, but you'll have to imagine a conversation between 5 or 6 guys/girls between the ages of 16-18. So pretty dumb then. And loud. And fast. Please try to keep track of the characters that are speaking, because it will be important. The subject changes to the Cannes film festival, and movie stars. Yay:

IDIOT BOY #1: So like, who do you guys think is the best looking movie star?
IDIOT GIRL #1: I like Brad Pitt.
IDIOT BOY #1: You know, that's funny, because I look like Brad Pitt!

He was serious too. So it's kind of odd that he would identify his own likeness, rather than waiting for someone to point it out... probably because he does not look like Brad Pitt. At all. But he pressed on.

IDIOT BOY #1: Yeah I've been told that by so many people that I look like Brad Pitt. Like I was at a grocery store and these two girls were whispering and pointing at me and I think they were talking about how I look like Brad Pitt.
IDIOT BOY #2: No way. You totally made that story up right now.
IDIOT BOY #1: No it's true, I swear. And another time I was at a florist before grad and the florist told me that I kind of looked like Brad Pitt and I was like, "yeah I know".

So there. it was brutal. But funny. Unfortunately, we didn't feel like we could openly laugh at them. Next time for sure...

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Photos

Russian Orthodox Cathedral
Yep, in France. This country's got it all.