Thursday, November 02, 2006

French Riviera (October 31 - November 2, 2006)


After three solid weeks in Spain, I finally moved on to the French Riviera in southern France. The idea was to break up the trip between Barcelona and Venice (my next stop). My train trip Monday took a particularly grueling 10 hours with several quick changes and three hours on something that looked more like a D.C. metro car than a real train. But I miraculously (seriously, there were several points throughout the day that I never thought I'd make all my connections) arrived in Nice, France, around 8pm and quickly found my hostel (although I had forgotten to write down the directions to it, so I had to make a stop in an internet cafe). The only other girl sharing my 4-person room with me is a chef in D.C. (what a coincidence!); we spent Monday evening talking and hung out the next two days together before she left on Thursday morning.

Nice, a beautiful seaside (Medditeranean Sea) town, is beautiful and surprisingly reasonable despite the French Riviera being known for its luxurious beachside towns, one of which, Monaco, we visited Wednesday. Haleigh and I spent Tuesday exploring Nice (and even helped some guys move a couch) and as said, Wednesday took a day trip to nearby Monaco, its own principality.

There are a surprising number of foreigners in Nice, and Tuesday night we celebrated Halloween by going to Wayne's, a British bar, and listening to a British coverband (the guitarist was one of the guys we had helped move the couch earlier in the day). After Haleigh left on Thursday, I spent the day walking around Nice's old town (another example of winding, narrow streets) and catching up on emails. Thursday evening, I dragged my new Italian roomie to Wayne's to hear the band play again.

On Friday, taking the train to Venice, Italy.

For the complete photo journal for Nice and Monaco, visit http://www.AndreasOdyssey.shutterfly.com.

1 comment:

k & m said...

I am so jealous. Venice is the place in the world I would most like to visit. I am sure you are going to have a wonderful time. Your travels are sounding so fun.

I miss you. I am currently listening to one of the Michael Minor CDs that we bought last year in Lancaster. I wish you were here so we could have another little getaway. I enjoyed that so much.

So, are you going to be a bigtime DC Chef when you get back? It sounds like God certainly is putting the right people in your path to help you along your journey. I wish you the very best.

Travel safely. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I love you. -marian