After a 5 hour train ride (most of it was city hopping along the coast), we arrived in Nice, France- capital of the French Riviera. Immediately, our Frenchman went to work. Felix, a friend of mine that I met at a club, grew up in Lyon. Although he attends an English university and is working in Milan, he was almost giddish to be back in France and speak French. Felix quickly helped us figure out where we were and where we needed to go.
In Nice, we immediately walked down the hill towards the beach. We went through the beautiful Place de Massena (full of break dancers wearing Lakers jerseys). We stumbled upon another "place" with a Garibaldi statue. We didn't expect Garibaldi, a hero of the Italian unification, to be honored in France. It turns out Nice used to be a part of the unified territories. Throughout our visit we'd see small, odd Italian influences in the city. Crazy. We continued walking along the boardwalk, through the old town, and then up the cliffs to the ruins of the castle. There really wasn't much of the castle left, but there was an awesome urban park. From the park, there were great views of the beach and the marina. I think we saw at least 5 wedding taking place in the park. Here's a photo of the gang in Nice-
After exploring the city, we finally checked in at our hostel. The hostel, Villa Saint Exupery, was awesome! It definitely lived up to its "best in France" billing on hostelworld.com. Our room had a beautiful view down the mountains toward the city and ocean. The hostel also had a great common area with a restaurant. That's where we spent most of the night. Ironically, we ran into a couple from Iowa- with whom I talked at great length about the Midwest :)."Early" the next morning we got up, had an amazing breakfast (nutella filled cereal), and took the bus east towards Monaco. Because the bus ride took FOREVER, we had over an hour to talk to this nice Aussie couple that were wedged between us on the standing room only bus. We'd eventually meet them again in the marina (the world keeps getting smaller...). In Monaco, we stepped off the bus into Riviera paradise. The grass really was "manicured." Our first stop was the Monte Carlo casino-
Although we couldn't get into the casino (strict dress code), we took, solace in the fact that locals can't get in too! They actually ask for your passport to verify you're foreign! Known as a tax-haven, the second smallest country in the world is very wealthy. The clues (especially cars) were everywhere. After Monte Carlo, we walked a portion of the famous F1 raceway that winds through actual streets in Monaco. Anybody remember the "tunnel" portion from a video game? I was there. Eventually, we made our way up to the castle and the old town. The Castle and square had the best location in the city atop a hill overlooking the two marinas. Of course, here by the palace, we saw a ton of Princess Grace (Kelly) information. I guess the Monacans loved her (and seeing Monaco, I bet she loved them too!).After walking in the narrow streets of the old town, we took a bus out of Monaco and to a little French town called Cap d'Ail. After descending a couple of hundred meters, we were met by an amazing little cove- the best swimming area on this stretch of the French Riviera.
Trying to find a good spot on the beach, we spotted an open area behind this gigantic boulder splitting the beach. Turns out this was the "nude" portion of the beach. After a couple good laughs, we kept our spot and went swimming. After all, not everyone on this side was naked and we were just "dumb" Americans anyway. The beach and water, while not of the best quality, were compensated by the amazing views. Swimming and cliff jumping from the side of the cove, we were looking straight up the cliffs for hundreds of meters.Unfortunately, we had a train to catch. After an exhausting walk back up the hill, we took the bus back to Monaco. There, we entered their train station (which was spectacularly built into the mountain) and caught the train back to Milan.
Our trip, however, was not yet complete. In true Italian style, our carriage "10" was not attached to the train. Yep, the train ended at carriage "9." After finally finding available seats in a different carriage, Alex and I fell asleep.
Next Destination: Espana
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