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highs
swam in the mediterranean sea
rode on a bus around the monaco grand prix hairpin
ate some great gelati (with much more to come no doubt)
lows
meeting people that i get along really well with, but then either me or them are leaving for the opposite direction in the next day or two
people i've met
2 canadian brothers, chris and paul, who have been travelling around the world for 2-3 months (including a stint in australia!), and their mum denise and chris's girlfriend chelsea who flew in a couple of days before to meet up with the guys
andy from adelaide, sander from holland, a really cool couple from canada (don't remember their names though)
4 guys from san diego, steve, richard (aka hegger), ali, and sean
8 girls from texas - too many names to remember, as well as 4 aussies from melbourne
3 more roomies from canada, sean, grant, and jeanette
Sorry it's been a while, free internet is great, if you can get near a computer that is. I also had heaps to write and was putting off updating my blog, but that has severely backfired as i've since seen and done heaps more stuff, and hence have tons more to say.
I had a much better time in Nice than I did in Paris, if for one thing it only rained once! But I also met some cool people and the attitude in the south is heaps more relaxed than Paris, but you get that in any big city.
Nice itself isn't that nice (pardon my pun), mainly because they're installing a tram right through the middle of the city and as a result the whole place is one big construction zone. Apparently they've been building it for something like 2 years now and they don't seem to be getting anywhere cause the workers ae very keen on their afternoon siestas.
The hostel I stayed in turned out to be pretty good. It was up on the hill behind Nice but it had a great over the city and down to the beach, and the buses are really easy to catch and not too expensive. I only stayed in 13 bed girls dorm for one night, and then I was moved to a 12 bed mixed dorm, and pretty much everyone in that room was really friendly.
The wierdest part about the hostel was all the Aussies and Kiwis that worked there, but it was so great to hear so many accents from home, especially when it seemed like half the hostel was taken up by Americans and the rest was mostly Canadians.
I headed down to check out Nice on my first full day and was hoping to go for my first swim in the Mediterranean Sea, but I soon found out that their version of a beach is a pile of rocks the size of golf balls, and add to that a raging wind that had picked up when I got down there, and that put an end to my plans. So I walked back into town and checked out the 'Old Part', which is where they have all the street stalls with fresh food etc, along with some little restaurants and the usual tourist trap trinket shops.
The day was still young and considering the sun doesn't set until about 10pm here, I decided to catch a bus and check out another smaller beach that the staff at the hostel had raved about. The beach turned out to be down a big hill and then down about a hundred steps, which I dreaded walking back up with each step down I took, and I also had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to be terribly disappointed when I got there after I saw the beach in Nice, but I thought that the Aussies at the hostel would know what a real beach was and surely they wouldn't recommend a crap one.
Anyway I finally got to the bottom and discovered a small little cove with a 'sandy' beach ('sandy' because at least it wasn't golf balls, but still not sand in my book). I contemplated having a swim but the sun kept going behind the clouds and when I put my feet in the water it was downright freezing, and decided to just sit and relax for a bit before attempting the uphill climb.
I hung around for a while but was starting to get very hungry so I psyched myself up for the walk back and headed back up towards the bus stop. Once I got the top of the stairs I saw a sign for the train station and in keeping with my tradition of taking the path of least resistance, I walked down the road towards it. When I got there I found the station deserted and I had the funny feeling that the trains were few and far between at that station, so I walked back out the front cursing myself for being so lazy and found a tiny little local bus waiting to pull out of the station to head up the hill.
I flagged him before he pulled out and hopped on, I asked if the bus went up to the top but the bus driver didn't understand english so one of the ladies already on the bus answered me 'yes'. I was so happy with my good fortune of getting the bus back up the hill instead of walking that I didn't realise that we were near where the bus stop for the bus back to Nice and we sailed right past it and kept going up the hill. I must've moved or something cause the bus driver looked at me in his mirror and said something to the lady to translate, and as it turns out the bus stop on the main road of the town is only half way up the hill and when I aksed if the bus went to the top they all thought I meant the vey top.
I could've hopped off then and walked back but the driver told the lady to tell me that he would take me back down once he dropped the ladies at the top, so I sat back and enjoyed the view as we climbed to the top. I finally got dropped back down on the main road and must've just missed a bus, cause I sat and waited for about 45mins for another one which was totally packed with people coming back from Monaco and I had to stand for the whole 45mins it took to get back to Nice.
Once back in Nice I caught the bus back up the hill to the hostel and lucked out again when I saw people with backpacks waiting for the shuttle bus to pick them up, and avoided the short but steep walk from the bus stop to the hostel; which you have to do if you're not arriving or leaving as the shuttle bus is only for people with luggage, but you can scam a ride if they're already picking someone up, and so I soon became the welcome wagon for all the people waiting at the bus stop with backpacks and managed to scam heaps of free rides up the killer hill to the hostel.
My first full day trip was to Cannes, but i'd missed the Film Festival by a day or two and Brangelina (Brad & Angelina) were long gone by the time I got there. But Film Festival or not, I love Cannes! It may have something to do with the fact that the beach actually resembles sand, and wouldn't you know it, I had decided against wearing my cossie thinking that the beach in Cannes would be just as bad as Nice. All I had to do was put my feet in the water and my disappointment subsided cause the water was still bloody cold.
The next day I decided to head out to a little fishing village i'd heard about not far from Nice. Once I got to the bus station I changed my mind and decided to go all the way to Monaco instead. The staff at the hostel had also raved about a little Medieval town up in the hills called Eze that was on one of the bus routes to Monaco so I took a little detour there first, and this time the hostel guys were spot on. Eze was lovely and the view of the Riviera from the very top of the hill was amazing. But I really wanted to get to Monaco, so I walked around the little town for a bit and got back down to the bus stop in time for the next bus to Monaco, and 20 mins later I was there.
If it was possible, and it was, I actually liked Monaco more than Cannes and spent the afternoon window shopping all of the big name brands. I also caught a bus down to their beach and again no sand, but at least it was small pebbles instead of golf balls. The pebbles really hurt to walk on, but my feet got the exfoliation that they desperatley needed, so that cloud had a silver lining.
I avoided the casino and hopped on a bus to check out the palace, and had my favourite Monaco experience - cruising around the Grand Prix track, which had been held there a week earlier and the barriers etc were still being taken down. I passed on paying the entrance fee to look inside the palace and just enjoyed the view from the top of the hill overlooking the city instead. Last on my to do list was to visit the rose garden that Prince Rainer created to honour Princess Grace, which was truly beautiful.
By that time I was sure that i'd missed the last bus back to Nice, so I hopped another bus to the train station and made it back to Nice in about 25mins, which was great because I didn't fancy having to stand again for the hour long trip back on the bus. I had another quiet night at the hostel, but I think the pepperoni pizza that I had for dinner was a bit suspect cause I really didn't feel well not to long after, so bed was actually a good idea.
Next day I thought i'd go all the way to Menton, which is another beach town past Monaco and just before the Italian border, but it was raining when I got up so that instantly put a stop to my swimming plans (again) so I decided to go anyway just for something to do. It turned out to be a big waste of time cause the town doesn't really have any other claim to fame other then their beach, which was also again just small pebbles and kind of dirty, but it was good to get some fresh air in me after the pizza episode the night before.
When I got back to the hostel I headed to the common room/dining room/bar/computer room and scoffed down the delicious (and non food poison inducing) dinner they were cooking that night. I was about to be a total loser and head back upstairs for another early night until I spied the 4 American guys who had moved into my room the day before and thought that listening to them chatting up the girls they were with would be a good laugh; and to cut a long story short, it turned out to be a very late night (well by my standards anyway).
The next day was my last full day in Nice, and I decided that I was going to go for a swim before I left, no matter how cold it was. The American guys checked out that day and they'd invited me to spend the day with them before they caught their overnight train to Paris, but I wanted to sleep in so I passed. When I finally got up I decided to head to Monaco for my swim and as I walked down and around the boardwalk to the beach I literally bumped into the guys. I finally got to go for my very cold and very short swim, and then I headed back to Nice with the guys and had dinner with them before they caught their train.
The next day it was my turn to leave and I headed of to Cinque Terre for 3 nights/2 days. I made it to the train station in the town I was staying in ok, but didn't know where to catch the shuttle bus from that was to take me to the caravan park that I called home for the next 3 nights. I was about to call them when some American girls walked past me and I asked them if they knew the deal. Turns out that they were staying at the same place as me and I they were studing in Tuscany for a month over their summer holidays and had come to the Cinque Terre for a weekend away.
The shuttle finally came to collect us and I left the girls at the check-in booth at the park. I was all set to head up to one of the permanent 2-person tents that the girls were staying in when the lady took me up to an onsite caravan with a wooden annexe attached and a stove and fridge inside. She said that I was there by myself for one night and then some other people were staying with me the following 2 nights.
I claimed the double bed in the caravan and had a little siesta while I waited for the shuttle bus driver to finish his siesta and start his rounds again so I could head into town for some food for dinner. The girls I met earlier had the same idea and were already at the bus stop when I got there so they showed me around town for a bit before they headed down to the beach and I headed off to the supermarket. I didn't see them again on my way back to the caravan park, so I sat in my little van and munched on the food i'd bought.
After about 30 mins I couldn't stand the silence anymore and I decided to take the girls up on their invitation to hang out with them, so I went off to find their tent (and I also wanted to see what the tents were like since I didn't end up staying in one).
The tents were literally 2 beds and that's about it, so I invited the girls to come down to my pad where there was room for all of us to sit around and play cards, and they jumped at the chance. On our way back to my van we met up with 4 Aussies that they'd met the day before who were also staying in the tents and I invited them to join us. Everyone was really impressed with my humble abode, and pretty soon we were all talking and laughing so loudly that I was getting a bit worried that all the old fogies in the park would start complaining, but I was just so happy to have people around me again that I soon forgot about all that. We wrapped up at about 11.30 cause everyone was due to leave the next day, and I headed straight to bed.
The next day was a what i've been calling a 'life day' where I do all the necessary stuff like my washing, and then I caught a train to the station to go to the main town and find out more about the Cinque Terre area and what I should do on the following day. I bought myself a one day card which included park entry, shuttle bus and train travel between the 5 towns and headed back to the caravan park.
I noticed 2 guys and a girl with backpacks waiting for the shuttle when I arrived back at the train station in my town, and I instantly knew that they were the ones that were in my van so I went over to chat to them. The shuttle came and I left them at the booth to check-in while I made sure that I hadn't left any mess in the van. That night was pretty uneventful and basically consisted of them talking about their college and people they knew and me just heading down for a shower and then making some polite conversation before I went to bed early ready for my big day walking around the Cinque Terre.
I was realistic about my hiking abilities and only walked between the first 3 towns, which is where the track is fairly level and it's only 20mins between the first two, and then about an hour between the second and third town. I didn't even consider the 4 hour walk over a hill to get to the fourth town and I caught the train instead, and skipped the even steeper walk between the fourth and fifth towns but decided to catch a ferry instead to get a different view of the area.
After my long day 'hiking' 😊 I caught the train and shuttle bus back to the caravan park and had yet another quiet night in, then I caught the train to Florence and managed to find my hostel without too much trouble. The lady that runs this place seems a bit quirky, but she gave me a map and pointed out the stuff that's worth seeing while i'm here, so that was really nice of her.
I'm planning on going to see David in all his glory while i'm here, and I also want to see 'The Birth of Venus' by Botticelli at the Uffizi, but other then that I think i'll be getting all 'churched out' while i'm here from the look of the map i've got, and i'm also looking forward to having a bit of down time where I just do nothing or just wander around and soak it all up.
Until next time...
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Rebecca
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Wish I was there...
Hey Lyndal, So glad your enjoying your trip!! I loved Nice, Cannes and Monaco soooo much as well. Would have loved to spend more time there. Sounds like you're meeting some interesting characters on your travels. Keep having the time of your life!!! p.s. Where are the drinking stories????