French Riviera

After a few trains and a long day of travel with upset bellies we finally arrived in the playground for the rich and famous...Cote d’Azur or as we know it the French Riviera. We based ourselves in Nice and blended in with copious amounts of sun-seeking tourists hoping to get a glimpse of the life some only dream about.

Our first night in Nice was fairly uneventful, after an awful Chinese meal we ventured through the main square and made it to the famous beach front promenade des Anglais. We sat uncomfortably on the pebbled beach sucking down a slurpy and entertained ourselves with our favourite activity..people watching. After a long day of travel we called it a night and headed back to our hostel which was full of our most disliked people in the world, busabout, loud, obnoxious Australian’s. We had the best kind in our room two Aussie girls that didn’t mind sharing their dorm bed with a few different fellas and making sure the whole room knew about it.

After interrupted sleep we decided to head to the beach. We asked the hostel guy if there were any beaches with sand nearby or did they all have pebbles the size of soccer balls? His reply was “yes, very beautiful beach with lovely sand” and pointed to it on the map. We arrived at the beach after a short train ride and was excited to see at a distance that the beach was covered in sand. As we got closer we realised that the sand was actually tiny pebbles that didn’t resemble sand in the least.

The following day we decided it was our time to rub shoulders with the rich famous and headed to Monaco. When we arrived we were greeted by a marina full of boats that one would only dream of owning. Nick decided that just this once it would be okay if I seduce an owner of one of boats just for a look on one of them. He was actually encouraging it. After being mesmerised by these boats each one just as grand as the next, we headed up the hill to see the longest running Monarchy. Beautiful grounds and beautiful scenery. We met Tom and Tim for a quick bite to eat as they were passing through with their Contiki group. Afterwards Nick and I decided to check out the Monte Carlo Casino. It was like we just stepped into Hollywood, we people watched for a good hour or two. The people that arrived were so stereotypical it was laughable. 70 year old men turned up in their Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Bentley’s and Rolls Royce (just to name a few) with their plastic 23 year old girlfriends next to them. The older women that did turn up usually were alone and were covered in diamonds and plastic surgery. We felt a little out of place with our beach clothes and thongs on.

After another painful sleep we awoke the next morning to a great surprise. As we sat down to breakfast deprived of sleep and ready to commit murder, we saw a familiar face walk by and it was our American mate Tim (Omit). After three months apart we had loads to catch up on. Another day was spent on the pebbly beach but a few beers helped ease the pain. That night we once again went out to hit up Monte Carlo and show Tim the sights. It’s been Tim’s dream to head into the Monte Carlo Casino and play roulette so we dressed up in our finest and accompanied him. The building itself was grand, the casino itself was fairly unexciting. Nick decided to play the pokies and after his first hit and 20 euro down the drain he decided that was enough. We watched Tim lose 100 euro and decided to get the hell out of there and go somewhere where we felt comfortable...the pub.

The next morning we said good bye to Tim over lunch, made plans to meet up again soon and headed to the train station. Next stop Rome.