Viva La France!!

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So we had to rearrange our schedule a tiny bit because of a booking problem. The overnight train from Paris to Nice was booked solid, so we ended up having to leave a day early on an afternoon train. Which means we arrived a day early in Nice with no place to stay ahh!! The train ride through France was beautiful as usual, much of it was countryside and we finalle started to see some mountains. We arrived in Nice to some pretty beautiful weather. Since we were a day early, we had no place reserved and everything seemed to be booked. We had to go to the internet and search for a hostel and once we found a place with rooms, we booked right there. We walked across the street to the hostel and asked the guy if he had any rooms available and he was like "Sorry all full!" So that's when we were like "Ha ha!! We have a reservation number!" and he had to let us in. Silly frenchman... After putting our stuff down, we were on a mission.... food.... then beach. It was only about a ten minute walk (ok so 15-20 min the speed I walk) to the beach where we found.... what else..... a McDonalds.... so I had to stop. And by the way, even though it says Big Mac on the menu, doesn't mean that's what its called.... apparently. I ordered with a lot of pointing and oiu's and no's. After feeling refreshed, we went to the beach and sat there for a bit before coming back to the hostel. I have to say this town is much like Cancun on Spring break. There are Americans our age EVERYWHERE, and the locals can get a bit impatient at times, but I can totally see why. After returning to our hostel, we decided to socialize a bit in the lounge area and ended up meeting a really great group of people. We hung out at the hostel for a long time with them and then went out that night with them to a bar by the beach. On our way there was an awesome fireworks show.. not quite sure why. We had to check out of that hostel and check into our new one Saturday morning, but our new one was not very social so we ended up hanging out at our old hostel the rest of the time. Heidi and I met two girls that we hung out with for the rest of the trip, one from Australia and one from Canada, who met in Ireland and had been travelling together for a few months. Saturday we met them for breakfast, and walked along the strip to do some window shopping, stopped at a cafe for some lunch, went to the beach and laid out. The water here is freezing by the way!! Almost colder than the Pacific, I never would have thought that! But dang it we went swimming anyway. And the water is the most beautiful color of blue... when the sun is out anyway... which wasnt very often between clouds and downpouring rain. Then we went back to the hostel after dinner and played cards and watched the USA vs. Italy World Cup game on the tv. A bunch of us went to really cool pub by the beach to watch the last half of the game, and there was a live band playing American music... pretty cool. I have to say Nice has completely surpassed my expectations.... all because of the people we met. I realize now that is what is really going to make our trip is meeting people along the way, hearing there stories and getting some good tips. So many of the people we met started out travelling alone and just met people along the way and have been travelling with them as a collective group for weeks now. Everynight, you meet people in the hostel, form a little group, hang out, then the next night, thos people will have met new people and then we join into an even bigger group, and I love it!! Sad part is having to say good bye to them so soon, but then its on to the next one! Well that's all from Nice.... more later!

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Photos

Waiting for the train
Our last day in Paris, waiting to go to Nice

The coast of Nice
The little bit of sun we had!!

Our new friends
On our way to a pub by the beach

Breakfast!
French yogurt with strawberries and a french donut... mmm mmm!!!

Our new hats
New friends... new hats :)