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Published: April 20th 2007
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Walking tour
A Drake shot in from of the Eiffel Tower I will start this blog with my only complaint! I knew that this semester in Europe would be expensive, but I did not expect to spend as much money as I did while spending two weeks in France...but then again it is just money! (right mom?)
haha...These past few weeks are some of the greatest since getting here. Everywhere I go, and all the people I meet, make this experience sooo worth it. Given, I think I ran into and spoke French with every crazy person in France and Italy, I wouldn't trade it for anything....and our trip begins!
For starters, we got on the longest possible train from our city to Vienna. We have really learned to be patient travelers, and since we tend to spend the least amount of money on our transportation, we tend to fly in and out of difficult places. We knew that our final destination for the first leg of the trip was Paris, France...but we didn’t have to be there until that Sunday, when we were meeting up with friends. So, given this, we booked a very cheap flight, (20 euros) from Bratislava, which is just over the border from Austria
Bike tour Of Versailles
Before we rented bikes to ride around the Palace of Versailles and just about an hours train ride away. We "thought" that we were going to Milan, Italy...but it just happens that Milan was the biggest metro area to the airport. We actually landed in a town called Bergamo, which is an hour’s drive away. Since we got in quite late, and everything was closed, we took a bus to the city center and met person after person which finally led us to a hostel. That hostel was full, but the manager sealed us a deal with a hotel on the other side of town, and they came and picked us up! We enjoyed conversations with the owner and his daughter drove us into town the next day, where we walked around until taking the bus back to the airport to fly out to Paris.
The Paris flight was a mere 20 euro also, but placed us at an airport called Beauvais, which is also about an hour and fifteen minutes from Paris. We met a nice girl who had been living in Canada, and we found the hostel in Paris with her. Peter and I were a little surprised when we walked into our tiny room at 2:30 am,
Versailles
Green grass finally only to find two other girls asleep...no complaints, accept that when they awoke and found that we were Americans they were more than happy to be rooming with us for the next three days. They eventually lightened up, and we had a nice time with them. The weather in Paris was great and sunny everyday. We walked around the whole town, and got full tours of Paris, where we learned a lot of the history. We also spent one night around the Eiffel tower which was great when the flashing lights went off. Paris is a great city and has lots going on at all times of the day...
Our flight left from Charles De Gaulle airport at 7:30 am, and we were told that there was no way that we would be able to make it to our flight and would have to sleep in the airport. We the hostel told us that they would not refund us for a lost night; we stayed there and took the first train out in the morning. It helped to have a background in French, as we found out we were standing at the wrong side of the tracks, and that
View of Ocean
My view from bed! train would not be here for another hour (we would have really missed our flight then) Some how the stars always aligned and we got lucky on everything. It was always a struggle to get where we were going, but we never missed a flight.
This was an easy jet flight, which took us directly to Nice, on the Cote d’Azur, Frances beautiful southern coast. The water was as blue as Cancun, even though it was still cold, and the palms trees and weather was fabulous. With its high rocky cliffs, and topless beaches we figured that we had chosen the right place. Until we found out that the only ones that like to go topless were the old ladies who needed to keep their shirts on...nonetheless we enjoyed the views of the water. Most of our time was spent between the towns of Nice, Cannes, Monaco, St. Paul de Vence, and Menton. The hostel we stayed at was one of the most amazing places I have ever stayed. The staff was soo helpful, and they did anything and everything for you, including cheap pizza, drinks, desserts, free rides, and an ocean view from our window.
Monaco- This
Sea Front
Wow....need a tan town is a little unbelievable. It is the world’s richest town per capita, and it was very obvious. Yachts bigger than some peoples houses, elegant buildings, an amazing casino, and beautiful green gardens. Great town to visit....very expensive otherwise
Cannes- This is the town where the famous Cannes film festival takes place. It is the only place around Nice that has sandy beaches. It is beautiful, and a great place to spend the day soaking up the sun
Cap D'ail- This was our favorite beach. It had high cliffs that you could dive off, and almost nobody was there...my favorite beach yet.
Ok, so we did manage to blow lots of cash! But the fun we all had together will never be forgotten!!
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