Nice is NICE

We changed trains in Ventimiglia and WOW what a difference. We were now on a French train and it was SO much nicer. We were worried we weren't in second class! It was clean and modern and airconditioned and smooth and roomy. The only drawback was one smelly man. But you can't win them all. The train was nearly empty untill we got to the Monaco stop, where it promptly became packed. It only took us about a half an hour or forty five minutes total from the border to Nice. It was a little nerve-racking to leave Italy, since we had been there for two weeks and were just getting comfortable with the language and everything. I was really really excited to go to France though. I wanted to try to use what little French I knew and I was ready to be done with Italy.

We arrived in Nice in the evening and left the train station trying to get our bearings. About a block into our journey, we ran into these two guys we had met in the Colloseum in Rome, then over at our tour of the Forum and Palatine Hill, then we walked by them one morning at Bar Centrale in Riomaggiore! It seemed we were a day or so behind them. SUCH a small world. They told us to come out the Wayne's Bar that night, and then teased us about how we never go out. We told them we'd meet up with them later. We found our hostel, Backpacker's Chez Patrick, pretty easily from the directions given on the website. It was really centrally located and close to the train. It was really nice, which was great since the reviews were hit or miss. We got ourselves organized, I did laundry, and headed out to Wayne's. It was late by then. We stopped on the way at a restaurant and had pizza. We ordered a bottle of water (a splurge for us but we were dying and hadnt brought bottles to go out) and then discovered that they serve tap water in France!!!! This is earth shattering news and puts France way ahead of Italy for the moment. In Italy, you have to pay for water, and they wont give you tap. The water is as much as a soda (which is a lot) and sometimes not much less than a beer or glass of wine. If you know how much water we drink, particularly me and particularly in restaurants, you can imagine what a problem this has been. So we were very happy about the new development.

We headed down to Old Nice, where the bar was (I googled it at dinner). Jane had found a flier in our room that said they had a pub crawl there every Thursday at 9. We got there at about ten and there was clearly no pub crawl. We checked out the bar and didnt see our friends and decided to wander around the area. There were lots of restaurants and bars and we did a loop and came back to Wayne's. Nice is supposed to have great night life and we were excited to do something at night. Wayne's is an English speaking bar that caters to young English, American, and Aussie tourists. The beers were expensive, but they had a live cover band that started shortly after we got situated. The long tables in the back room where they were filled the space, and they were packed with people. I didn't think this was a particularly good set up, but when everyone stood on the tables and benches it all became clear. We danced but it was so crowded that people were really annoying me. We met some nice Australians outside during the set break. They were on a tour called bus about, which they highly recommend. They were loud and did a crazy Aussie chant all the time that we enjoyed. We hung out with one of them during the second set, he was really nice and saved me from a creepy guy. On the way out we ran into the three guys from our hostel in Cinque Terre! Nick, Mike, and Dave. It was nuts. They were supposed to be in Paris, but had a snafu with a delayed train and missing a connection, so they bagged it and came to nice for a night on the way to Barcelona. We chilled with them for the rest of the night, and walked most of the way back with them. Its a really small world for us back packers. When we got back at 3 in the morning, our roommates still werent there. Woo! We had put out our pjs and tooth brushes as not to wake them, but we didnt have to worry. Jane even showered!

The next day, we got up a little late, about 9 something, and went to the grocery store to get food. We were locked out of our hostel from 11 to 2 so we wanted to get back and eat and then go out for the day. The girls in our room were going to go shopping and come back at 2 to eat lunch and then go to the beach. That sounded like a good plan. We went to the store and got milk and cereal for the first time, since we had fridge access (yay) and a ton of yogurt and tuna and cold cuts. We ate breakfast and set out. We wandered down to the water front and walked the Promenade d'Anglais. We had packed our suits, but figured we'd swim later. We got REALLY hot and cranky and wandered around. We decided it was too hot to see the city, and to head back to the internet cafe next to the hostel to blog and wait for 2 and lunch. In hindsight, we should have gone swimming and done the beach thing, we dont really know what happened there. The internet cafe sucked, and I was on 5 computers in an hour and a half because nothing worked. SO frustrating. We finally went up to the hostel and made yummy sandwiches. The other girls got back and decided to take naps (they were hungover and got in at 4). We took a clue from them and did the same. It was great. We got up at 5 something and got ready for the beach.

We stopped on the street at a crepe stand. Apparently Jane had never seen a crepe. She stopped and said WHAT is that thing! and then OH look they are putting NUTELLA on it! I was a little shocked (we had a great crepe restaurant in Saratoga) and told her to try one. We ordered it and then realized that we had left all our valuables at the hostel so that we wouldnt have to worry about them on the beach (theft is an issue). We had planned on bringing a little cash in case we needed a snack but Jane forgot it. So I literally dropped everything and RAN all the way back to the hostel in my flip flops, dodging pedestrians and weaving in and out of the street, while the crepe woman made Jane's crepe. It was a lot farther than we thought, more than a half a mile each way, and I ran and ran the whole way there and back. I got back and Jane was working on her crepe, and had conveyed to the woman that we forgot our money and that I would be back. I clearly needed an ice cream cone (mint chocolate chip gelato), and paid the woman for both and continued on to the beach.

By the time we got there, the sun wasnt high and it wasnt hot anymore. Woops. We met a Senegalese guy and his friend, a french woman who seemed a little older who spoke very good english (she lived in England). Trying to communicate with Makda was very hard, but he wanted us to come dancing that night and meet him there at 11. We were hesitant at first, but then his friend Sharif came, and he was really cool, and we talked more to them and the woman and decided it was safe. They couldn't swim very well and Sarif wanted me to teach him but it was too late for me to go back in the sea. They went back in with out us after repeatedly saying "nager nager" which means "swim swim". They also sang a song and we thought it was some African song, but it turned out to be Akon. They played some Akon for us on an iPhone and told us that he is from Senegal too and what his real name is. So after exchanging emails (even though we couldnt really write to one another), we went back to the hostel and showered and got ready to go out!  (ps its not a short walk to the hostel from the beach and we did it many many times a day).

We put the dresses back on and headed down to la plage (beach). We walked up and down the promenade and didnt see our friends. We bailed on them after a while and decided to try to walk the part of the promenade we kept not making it to. We were hit on by a lot of guys. When I say hit on, I mean approached and pestered in a ridiculous fashion. It was gross and annoying. We walked and walked and walked and when through old Nice and through the flower market. Every day till noon there is a huge market of produce and flowers and spices and other stuff. That night, it was art and touristy things. We enjoyed the excitement of the square and bought a few little paintings. We were exhausted from the heat and all the walking and decided to head back home. We got back at a reasonable hour (12 or 1) and went to bed.

The girls woke us up really badly in the morning when they left, and there was no going back to sleep. We decided to do this day better and packed for the beach. We made tuna sandwiches with hard boiled eggs like we had in sorrento. I looked up cooking techniques for hard boiling eggs and decided to use the hot pot and not the microwave. I hope no one saw me cooking eggs in the tea kettle! I thought I was very creative. We went to the flower market and saw the frenzy. It smelled like ripe fruit and lavender. It was awesome, but we had groceries. We crossed the street and hit the beach. The rocks really aren't very comfortable. It was FREAKING hot. We laid out for as long as we could stand after eating our sandwiches and swimming. We decided to go find a cold something and go to further down the beach to put our stuff in lockers, as theft is a problem while you swim. We got a cold treat (Jane got a ice cream pop and i got a frozen peach iced tea) and cooled off in the shade in a park. Then we went and locked up our things and got ready to swim. It was much cooler now and we didn't swim a ton, but it was still interesting to people watch. Nice is the French Riviera at its finest, and people are so tan its nauseating. One woman had the difference of night and day under her butt cheek. A good portion of the women went topless, and I was fascinated by how weird and unattractive it looked. We left the beach and went through some tourist shoppes, and saw a bride celebrating in the street with lots of rose pedals. On the way home we did a little shopping, but I didn't get anything. Jane got a cute bag. We went home to shower up and then go out to a real niciose meal. We went to old nice and found an inexpensive place Rick Steves recommended. It was pretty late when we got there, and they didnt have a lot of the stuff we wanted, so we just got whatever they recommended. We were happy to get a spot outside away from the broiling kitchen! Our meal consisted of fried eggplant, spaghetti carbonara, and eggplant parm. They gave us free glasses of wine too! There was a nice couple next to us from California, and we had a really nice time chatting them about traveling. They seemed to be having a good time, but seemed weary. We shared bread with them and talked for a while. The restaurant also gave all four of us free Lemoncello, so we had a little toast. They shot theirs, but we knew from Marco's mom to sip it. :) Also, Makda had emailed me that day in French apologizing about being a no show and saying he fell asleep but we could go dancing tonight. No thanks. I didn't write back :)

The next morning, we didn't get up so early, but packed up and headed to the train station to get a train to Avignon. We weren't worried about it because it wasn't very far, but we had just missed the last train in the morning and had to wait for one at about 1:30 or so. We had about three hours to kill, and so we wandered around looking for internet that was functional. We had seen a few places in our travels so we went back to what seemed to be a middle eastern community of sorts (they seem to run all the internet places) and found an AWESOME one. It was big and clean and had really good computers for a low price. We stayed there for a while and I blogged while Jane worked on her journal. I finished up when we were low on time and we headed back to the train station, stopping at a Chinese fast food place to get lunch to go. We had made a reservation (it cost three euro each) and this time we found the right car and seats without help or sitting in the wrong place. I LOVED the train. It was like a plane, we each had our own table (which comes in very handy when you have Chinese food) and it was really nice. The train ride was about three hours and when we got off, we were in Avignon!