Our time in Nice was so wonderful!! We arrived at about 5:00 pm on the 12th and headed straight for our hostel, which was conveniently right across the street from the train station. When we had signed up for our beds, they only had separate beds in two different rooms, but because people said such good things about the hostel we knew we had to stay there anyway. But when we checked in, it turned out they had a different size room (less people) with two beds so they put us both in there. That was nice, a free upgrade for no cost. Since our hotel in Marseille didn't have a shower, we were beyond ready to bathe when we arrived. We cleaned up, and had just started unpacking when our roommates came home. They're two really sweet girls from Georgia Tech. They invited us to go out to a champagne bar with them later that night, and we were really excited to meet new people, so of course we agreed. Remember how I said the hostel hosted a lot of social events? Well when we arrived, it was pasta and champagne night, so for only €3 we had unlimited pasta, wine, and popcorn, which was so much better than French food (French food is pretty gross). Once we were cleaned up we went down to dinner where a solid 50-75 other people were also dining. We sat with two girls from England and we chatted away all night. We invited them too to come to this champagne bar with us. When we went back up to our room to meet our roommates, though, they had researched this marvelous champagne bar and found that it was sooo expensive! It was like €10 for 15ml. 15 ML OF CHAMPAGNE! How ridiculous is that?? So we decided instead to go to the super market around the corner, just get a bottle of wine, and go down to the beach. What a great alternative, right? Wrong, because they stop selling alcohol at 10 PM and it was 10:15. Of course it was. So as we wander back towards the hostel there is a little.. Convenience store... Type shop who is still open so we grab one from there and head down to the beach. It's only maybe a 15 minute walk, but a very interesting walk at that. We pass beautiful churches, weird sculptures, shopping malls, street performers, you name it, we pass it. The best was a guy on roller blades doing all sorts of weird tricks, it looked as if there were no way there were bones in his body! The beach was very different, no sand whatsoever, just pebbles and stones. It wasn't the most comfortable, but the waves crashing and company of our new friends was great nonetheless. We chatted forever then realized we should probably get heading back.
That next morning our roommates were leaving, which was sad because we got along so well. Their check out was at 10, so me and Megan slept in and started to get ready once they left and we had more room. We decided to go explore Monaco and Monte Carlo, which was only about a 20 minute train ride away. To say it was beautiful is a total understatement. The water is bluer than blue, the cars are super fancy, the yachts are huge, paradise. We find a super market shortly upon arrival and pick up some lunch that we have no idea what it is. It looked like a pizza slice but all the stuff was inside, mine had lots of different vegetables and rice (interesting?) and I still don't know what Megan's was, artichoke maybe? Anyway those were interesting, especially because they were served cold. While we ate we wandered the pier which we later learned was the the pit for the races that had just ended the day before our arrival. It was full of food booths and carnival games etc. we wandered to the end where we spotted a set of stairs leading up to an old looking building, so we decided to investigate. It turned out to be the Prince's Castle. On our way up we met a nice family from Britain and we chatted a bit. At the top the castle was beautiful and the panoramic views were to die for. We didn't go on a tour of the castle because it was expensive and we aren't into that sort of thing but if the inside is anything like the outside, I bet it's great. Just down the path was an awesomely beautiful cathedral and also the Monaco Aquarium which is apparently a huge attraction. We didn't have enough time to go in but we wandered the premises and it seemed quite extensive. On our way down we met a couple from the Netherlands and chatted with them a bit about our trip, and they gave us tips and tricks when it came to that area of Europe. We went our separate ways, and we headed down the mountain. At the start of the pit was a thing called the Fish Spa XPerience, where little fish from Turkey eat all the dead skin off your feet. In America the treatment is like $150, and this booth had it for €10, so we had to do it. It felt like putting your feet in bubbling soda, and they came out softer than any normal pedicure I've had! I recommend the fish to anyone. By that time it was time for a crepe, because how can you come to France and not eat a crepe? So we got one with Nutella and cut up a banana from the super market to put on and it was wonderful by that time it was starting to get deep into the afternoon so we began to make our way to Monte Carlo, which I guess you could say is a region of Monaco? And oh my goodness when I say it's like day and night that doesn't do it any justice. There were nice things where we were in Monaco but nothing like Monte Carlo. The cars, hotels, yacht club, casino, the people, the shops, everything, was so fancy! We were definitely out of place. But that's okay we wandered around and looked at everything, ventured through the Princess's Garden which was cool, strolled past the casino and rich district then headed back to catch a train back to Nice. We decided to go to the beach for the late afternoon, so we went to the super market to grab some Brie and crackers, went back and changed and grabbed our left over wine, then headed to the beach. We grabbed some real dinner on the way, some take away Croque Monsieur (I know I had to have spelled that wrong) and ate down on the beach. We had a great afternoon in the sun with out wine and cheese until the sun began to go down, then we went back to the hotel. We needed to get ahead again on our next few bookings of cities, so we spent a few hours looking at flights home, our next few places to stay, etc. while doing so our new roommate came home, there was only one girl so we had an empty bed. She was interesting. She didn't want the air conditioning on, she kept saying our stuff was in her way (when it totally wasn't) and was just honestly kind of annoying. We did laundry because there was a washer and drier (hallelujah) then went to bed. Not all our stuff dried in the drier though (in fact most didn't) so we had to lay it all out over night. This is why we wanted the air on the circulate so our things would dry but our roommate was annoying so we couldn't.
The roommate was up and out early because she was auditioning for an orchestra in Monaco all day, so we packed in peace after she left. We had to be out of the room by 10 but we weren't leaving until 7pm so the hostel had a luggage storage where we could keep our things. We spent the day wandering Nice and seeing everything it has to offer. We found our way to the world-famous Nice Flower Market, where I'm sad to say we didn't see any flowers. It was a great open-air market, nonetheless, and I found lots of cool gifts for everyone there. We then sat down for some lunch in a cute little cafe by the market, and I got really excited because they had a salmon sandwich on the menu, which is such a change from bland gross French food. Well, let me just tell you how disappointed I was. Apparently a smoked salmon and avocado sandwich means gross avocado-flavored spread on toast with raw salmon slices on it. RAW. SALMON. SLICES. You all know how I am about raw meat, needless to say I couldn't eat it. I even gave it a real effort too but one bite in I just couldn't. I took all the salmon off but the spread wasn't very good either so I basically resorted to eating the bread and jam that was on the table. I'll never make that mistake again. We then hiked up the mountain in Nice and saw some awesome panoramic views, a beautiful waterfall, and a nice park. We headed back down the mountain to the city because it was going to storm, so we headed back to our hostel to get ahead on some more bookings. We started to get hungry so we wandered for food, but because it was Bastille Day everything was closed. Or open and way too expensive. So we settled on a French fast food place called Quick, where we had chicken sandwiches (most flavorful thing I ate while there) and some Brie bites, imagine mozzarella sticks but with Brie. Very yummy. We headed back to the hostel, changed, grabbed our bags, and headed to the train station for our next adventure. We took a 12 hour train from Nice to Mulhouse, then a 20 minute train to Bazel and are now on an hour train to Lucerne (or Luzern to the locals), Switzerland! I am so excited for this, I've heard it's so beautiful and the things we have passed on the train so far are so pretty, and I am very excited to hike the Alps. We should be arriving very shortly, I can't wait!