Nice, France

19th - 20th July

Nice top tip: No shop is legally aloud to sell alcohol after 10pm in the city of Nice, not even 24hr shops. So if you want to buy some alcohol for the night ahead get it early.

So Nice was another short one, just one night again. The journey to Nice however was awesome. We decided not to stay long in Florence or Nice simply because of how expensive it was to stay in even the cheapest hostels.
We instantly wished we had stayed longer in Nice although we didn't see a great deal we loved it. Once we had dropped our stuff in the hostel we grabbed our towels and headed straight for the beach,which we had been told was lovely!
The beach wasn't far from the hotel just a short 15 minute walk down the main high street. Anti-climax springs to mind, it was very very crowded even at 6pm, it was stoney which normally isnt a problem as Portsmouth beach is a shingle beach, but the stones on this beach were small boulders, walking on them was fine but you didnt stand a chance of getting remotely comfy if you wanted to sit or laydown. The worst bit of the beach was getting out of the sea, right by the waters edge the small boulders turn to tiny bits of stone, the one's that stick to your feet.... now these are fine to walk on untill you step onto the small boulders, the comfy little stones then turn into razor blades and hurt like hell when your walking back up the beach to your stuff! So the beach isn't much cop but Nice is still a beautiful place and we shall be going back.

So after showering and getting changed it came that time again to try and find some cheap food. We didnt have to look far as the hotel put on what they liked to call a spaghetti party, this is run every other night and involved all you can eat spaghetti, popcorn and free wine! The best bit about it all is that it only cost 2 euro each, this was a crazy price we couldn't turn down. So after alot of yummy spaghetti a little bit of popcorn and the cheapest red wine you would ever find we felt a couple of drinks with the folks we met at the dinner table where in order. The hostel not having a bar and us all being poor travelers, we head next door to the supermarket. We found the cheapest desparados we have ever seen, two bottles costing just over five euro (oh they were 70cl bottles) foolishly we only bought one bottle each, so as you can guess we quiclky ran out and went back for more. This is then where we learnt that it is against the law in Nice for any shop to sell booze after 10pm (this we found out at ten past ten when they refused to sell it to us) =( . So now in the mood for a drink and to poor to go to a bar we asked the hotel owner for help. Luckly he had the answer, he sent us in the direction of a friend who owned a shop at the end of the road, and told us to take a backpack and tell the shopkeeper that Gilale sent us over and he would give us some booze. So we head over to the shop with a backpack in hand and spoke to the shopkeeper who said nothing... we thought this was really odd and were just about to leave when he asked us what we wanted to drink (he was waiting for the man in the shop to leave first) so after telling him what we wanted he shoved the bottles in our bag took our money and told us to leave right away! This made you feel like a drug dealer or something rather than a couple of travelers after something to drink. So after plenty of laughs a horrible 12% amsterdam beer and some more wine later it was definatly time for bed.

Feeling worst for wear we head down stairs for our 8am coach back accross the bourder to italy on route to Milan.