Day 56

Today was one the boring traveling days we just had to get through, making our way from Lyon to Nice. Waking up early this morning to check out was not fun but considering that last night was quite a quiet one it wasn't particularly difficult.

We packed up our stuff and headed straight out, down the giant hill for the last time and on to the bus to the train station. Thinking getting to the station would take a lot longer and unable to have any breakfast before catching the bus we decided to kill some time with a lavish lunch.

On to train one we went, a lovely 5 hour ride taking us halfway, to Marseilles. Whilst people everywhere squashed up in their seats we spread out on two next to each other and pretended to sleep so no one would ask us to move. The time just flew by as everyone had something to do to kill time. Me write a blog, Gav read his soccer mags, Aid finish his book, Zac draw some sketches and Wazzy just catch up on more sleep.

A quick stop over in Marseilles featured the most expensive Maccas meal I have ever had. It was then it on to train 2 for a supposed 3 hour trip. In true Eurotrip style train carriages we managed to make some friends, one from Aussie and the other Germany. We had good fun with them almost all the way to nice, however upon reaching Cannes, we ran into a bit of trouble.

A 15 minute delay due to track work turned very quicky into 2 hours, with no explanation, well, English explanation being offered. However have no fear, entertainment was provided in the form of a drunken homeless man who stumbled onto the train. For the last hour as well as the rest of the journey this man ran up and down the train yelling at people and speaking in a language of his own (it wasn't French, we asked).

We arrived in Nice at about 11pm, farewelled our friends and then came to realize that we had no accomodation for the night. After initial plans of emailing several places and looking for replies upon arrival fell through, we walked out the train station with no idea what to do.

Finding a flyer of a nearby hostel we made our way towards it hoping they had some availability. Upon arriving an elderly woman came out and offered us a room. Not sure if it was the right place or if we could find a better place we were very hesitant about going inside. However after spending so much time on a train and it being very late at night we just decided we would go with it.

This place was one of the weirdest I have ever been. She led us down some dark streets away from her place and into a big apartment building. There we climbed two levels of stairs in the dark to a room that was ridiculously tiny. Inside there were two beds (for 5 of us) one of which a ladder was required to get to it. Despite us being disgustingly dirty after the train ride the bathroom was bearly used as we believed one would walk out dirtier than when you walked in. The only plus of the apartment was that she seemed to undercharge us, so it cost us only 16 euro for the night.

After a quick trip out to grab something to eat, we came back and went straight to sleep. By then we just wanted the night to end and be able to leave this "hostel" for somewhere better.