Guess where I went last weekend?? I went to Nice and Monaco in the French Riviera! OMG! How beautiful! On Friday, after Italian class, Stephanie, Victoria, Chris, Sadie and I took a very long train ride to Ventimiglia, Italy, and then another train from Ventimiglia to Cannes. We reserved an apartment in Cannes. The apartment was a bit smaller than we expected, but it was beautiful and in a great location. We got to Cannes late that evening, grabbed some yummy food at the small grill next door to the apartment. Funniest thing happened- we wanted to buy a bottle of wine, but we didn't know where a local supermarket was. We asked the lady at the grill where a supermarket was, and she responded by asking what we needed. We responded saying we wanted to buy a bottle of wine; she says hold on, gets her keys and says follow us. We follow her to the shop next to the grill that was closed; she opens it up and lets us buy a bottle of wine from her store. She was so nice! Also, this was the best bottle of wine we've like ever had. It was like grapefruit flavored white wine! Yum! In any case, we had a nice night overlooking the beautiful French Riviera!
The next morning, we took a train into Nice. We wandered around looking for crepes. The city was just beautiful- all the buildings were bright and decorative. We finally made it to the Promenade- just breathtaking. We stumbled upon the Cours Saleya flower and food market. The smells were overwhelming... the flowers, the fruit, the herbs. I smelled strawberries so sweet and tasteful- it was amazing. We got crepes at a small restaurant overlooking the water! Nutella and banana crepe... could it get any better! OMG. We went out onto the beach... which I wouldn't really call a beach. It was a rock beach- with these huge stones. Was not comfortable to walk on and definitely didn't look comfortable to lay on. Regardless, Chris, Victoria and Stephanie decided to lay out and soak up the sun. Sadie and I decided to ride bikes along the Colonnade. Took us a while to figure out how to rent the bikes, but once we managed to figure it out, it was so worth it. Just a side note, being where everyone was speaking French- it was HARD! Harder than getting around Italy- I didn't understand anything. Well, we rode our bikes along the Colonnade. It was so much fun- the weather was beautiful! The sun was shining and the wind blowing in our hair. We were so nervous- hadn't written bikes in so long- and there were pedestrians, other bikers, and cars everywhere. It was really scary, but we managed to get the hang of it. The sun was hot and strong! When we got back to the beach, everyone, particularly Chris, was so BURNT- so red! Poor things. Turns out actually, we all got really burnt- it didn't even feel that hot out; the sun was just so strong! We were so tired out from the sun and hurting a lot, so we took the train back to Cannes. Oh god, this story is so sad. So- so far no one had checked our train tickets, and they were starting to add up and get a bit expensive. Sadie and I decided to buy the tickets anyway. But of course, one of the few times that the others didn't buy a ticket, the man came and checked our tickets. Poor things had to pay 35 euros, even though the ticket only costed like 6 euros. When we got back to the apartment, we made a big pot of pasta for dinner and fell asleep nice and early.
On Sunday morning, we woke up nice and early, burnt and in pain and looking absolutely ridiculous! We headed to Monte-Carlo, Monaco. EEEK! We made it to Monaco, with all of our bags and to our surprise, there was no bag check, so we had to schlep our bags around the city all day. It was rough! In any case, we started walking around Monte-Carlo, heading to the Prince's castle first. We had to walk up this really big hill to get to the Prince's Palace. We were definitely on the struggle-bus- but we made it! We had a beautiful view overlooking the harbor. We saw the Monaco guards outside the palace- they wouldn't let me take a picture with them. The little streets outside off the square outside the palace was so cute. The buildings were colorful and bright. There were so many vendors selling Monaco souvenirs. I ended up falling in love and buying a polo shirt that says Monaco polo team- its so cute and perfect for me!! The man was so nice at the store- he also gave me a Monaco poker chip for free because he saw me eying it! We walked back down the hill and headed to the Monte-Carlo casino. It was a rough walk because we were schlepping our baggage up and down hills and it started to rain on us! Of course it was raining- it always rains on us! We got to the casino ... I have never seen so many fancy cars in one place in my life! I saw: ferraris, bentleys, a rolls royce, a Lamborghini, Porsches! Of all colors- yellow, cherry red, etc! OMGGG! Everyone around us was well dressed and beautiful! We saw the Hotel de Paris by the Casino. We were not allowed to bring our baggage into the casino, so Sadie waited outside with the bags as we went into the Casino. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! I guess it looks like how all the movies portray it, but it was still so cool! I watched some people loose lots of money playing blackjack and watch Chris and Victoria play some of electronic slot machines. SOO COOL! I left shortly after to relieve Sadie of bag watching duty, while she went inside to look. Everything in Monaco was so expensive- we went to look for gelato and would have had to pay like 3 euros for 1 scoop of gelato.. NO NO NO! OMG! Because of the rain, our sunburn, our bags, we decided to take an early train from Monaco to Ventimiglia and waited in the Ventimiglia train station for a short time before our next train to Milan.
Overall it was a fabulous weekend in an amazing, beautiful place. I definitely want to come back to this area and explore more of the towns- I really would have liked to see Cannes, and to see Antibes, etc. This was my last trip of the semester with my IES people! :( so sad. So many great memories and adventures in the past semester with these people.
Well, now I am back to homework and exam crunch time. BOO! I am getting so sad- last week to be with these IES people. So much to do- so much work to do, so much still left to see in Milan, so much food to still each, and so much fun to still have with my friends.
Wish me "in boca al lupo" (good luck- literally from in the wolf's mouth- kind of like our break a leg) on my exams. and I will respond "creppi" :) My Italian teach, Renata would be so proud :)
Ciao for now. xoxo,
~E
No comments:
Post a Comment