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Nice
The rocky beach...We had a really relaxing 2 days in Nice checking out the town a bit but spending most of the time on the beach. The beach was great, however unlike Australian beaches, it was filled with quite large smooth rocks. They were ok to lie on if you had a towel but to run or even walk it was quite painfull so the normal beach activities like classic catches and football had to take a sideline. We did however find a beach volleyball court with sand so spent an hour or so playing there. Other than that we didnt do too much. We went out the second night we were there and ended up spending most of the night with a group of language students who were studying in Nice for 2 weeks. They were a lot of fun and they showed us around, taking us to the cheapest and best places so that was great!
Monaco We only spent 6 hours or so in Monaco, as we had to catch a train in the afternoon to Milan, but we got to see the main sights. We first went to the main harbour and checked out all of the
Nice (2)
We had a really nice view from our Hostel but it was quite far out of the city and meant we couldnt really go out on the first night. really expensive yachts and ships. Just walking through the streets you see a Ferrari or Maserati every few minutes! Then it was on to the Montel Carlo Casino to try our luck at roulette. I only put down one bet, and lost, but Baz did pretty well winning 15 euros! :P Justin and I also walked up to the Castle/Palace on the top of the hill and had a quick look around enjoying the views back into the harbour. All in all it was a cool experience to see this small country (1.95 square kilometers) but it wasnt really the place for me.
We caught our train on to Milan and discovered once we had arrived that our stopover was a lot longer that we had expected. Something to do with bad communication between the French and Italian rail services. The train station in Milan was pretty dodgy so we didnt get too much sleep during our 8 hours there. We met up with some other backpackers so all sat together taking it in turns to watch and then sleep. I went out at about 3am to try find a 24 hour Maccas but didnt have any luck. There
Nice (3)
A park in the centre of the town. were a lot of strange people out including a homeless guy who was bleeding quite badly from his head, but there were cops there so I moved on. As I was walking across a large square I saw a guy padding down two guys who were sleeping on the grass. He obviously found something because he sat down next to them and started to try and get it out. I walked across quickly and clapped my hands loudly telling him to nick off. He was startled at first and moved off quickly but then he started shouting and me in Italian. It took me quite a while to wake the first guy up (I think passed out would be a better description than sleeping...) and when I finally had him awake I tried to explain through sign language that he had almost been robbed. However my acting skills were obvioulsy not up to par, because he started shouting at me and was quite pissed off. Not wanting any trouble I left and went back to the train station. Finally at 7.10am we caught the first train to Locarno and arrived very tired...
Locarno Locarno is in southern Switzerland and
Language Students
The girl in the middle was actually quite insane but was a lot of fun to hang out with! :P we took a side trip there for one purpose really, to do the 007 Goldeneye Bungy Jump off Verzasca Dam. The jump is the same one that James Bond does at the beginning of the film Goldeneye and it is actually the highest bungy jump in the world at 220m. As Justin and I played rock/paper/scissors for the honour to jump first, Barry the official photographer got snapping. I won 2-1 and started to get kitted out by the girl there. There was quite a bit of training as they have to winch you back up to the dam after your jump. After that we had to wait a while as they changed the bungy cord but this only served to highten our anticipation and made us really excited. Finally I was up to jump and I inched my way towards the edge. Looking down was quite amazing and I could feel myself breaking into a huge grin! I asked the guy there for a countdown and then dived out into open space! The feeling of freefalling down the side of a concrete dam a few meters away was amazing! Definitely more of a rush then skydiving as everything is
Monte Carlo Casino
The sculpture in the foreground is by Dali. so close and you can see the ground very clearly! As it is such a high bungy jump you get to freefall for quite a long time and get up to a decent speed. Even though it was quite expensive I think that it was definitely worth it and am very glad that we made the side trip to Switzerland to do it! When a bit more money comes my way Im pretty sure B.A.S.E. jumping will be on the agenda!
That night we walked around the town for a while looking for somewhere cheap to eat, finally settling on a nice outdoor restaurant. We had excellent pasta and lasagna as we listened to Roger Waters play The Dark Side of the Moon (There was a big rock concert on in the middle of the town about 100m away). Then back to our hostel for a really well deserved sleep. In the morning JC and Baz left early for Florence and an hour or so later I left for Trento. I had 4 free days and had read in my Lonely Planet the day before that there was some great hikking in the Dolomites there so thought why not.
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Dad
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What rush will you do next?!
Joel, I got scared just looking at your photos!!! Thanks for the phone call after the event. We could hear the excitement in your voice - your heart rate must have gone off the scale! Keep the blogs coming. Blessings