Nice

I'm in Nice. I had to take five trains to get here from Venice and I was a bit nervous because the last time I had to change trains several times I got stuck overnight in the middle of nowhere, but this time I managed it perfectly. There was almost a snag because I was supposed to leave Milan fifteen minutes after getting there, and the train from Venice to Milan was a few minutes late. The train started moving before I found my seat, but I did make it, and all the rest.

My hostel in Nice is great. Free internet, free towels, and even free wine. Red wine, so not my favorite, but maybe in France I'll develope more of a taste for it. Heh. Maybe.

I got here at about five, so the first thing I did, after dropping off my stuff, was to go looking for a swim suit. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of clothes stores in France, but none of them had a big selection of swim suits, much less ones I liked in my size. There was a mall, but none of the stores there were any better. It was getting late and I wasn't sure how late shops were open here, so I was afraid I might have to leave my swim suit for the next day, but finally I found something most like a department store at home, with an actual swim suit section, so I finally found something. It also had a grocery section, so I got enough food to last all my meals here but one, and for less than twenty euro.

I met some people in the kitchen/lounge area while making my dinner and talked to them for awhile, and a few hours later they invited me to go to the beach with them. It was after midnight, and I'd been up since before seven that morning, but I agreed, very glad that I did find a suit that day. So now I've been swimming in the Mediterranean after midnight, when the water was cool but not as cold as the Pacific, and I very much enjoyed it. The beaches in Nice are all rocks, not sand, so I did not enjoy that part, but I still had a great time.

I'd been basically intending to spend my days in Nice at the beach, but some of the people from the midnight swim invited me to go to Monaco with them the next day, and I agreed. How many chances am I gonna get to go to the second smallest country in the world, second only to Vatican City? We took a bus there, which was only one euro and half an hour each way. First we went to the Monte Carlo Casino, but there was a ten euro entrance fee for the casino proper and none of us wanted to pay that when we weren't going to gamble a lot. There was a smaller building off to the side with only slots and video roulette. The others gambled a bit, but I sat at a table near the bar and watched tennis on TV. I might have also gambled a bit if there had been tables and blackjack, but I had no interest in slots or roulette. I also really don't want to lose what money I have left. I've gambled in Vegas, and now I've been in the casino at Monte Carlo, and that's enough for me.

After that we really just wandered around. We tried for awhile to find the aquarium, but it was proving elusive, and eventually we just decided that it was getting late enough that we wouldn't have enough time there to be worth spending the money to go in. So mostly we just walked around the harbor and looked at the fancy yachts, and the fancy cars (one of the people there was a big car buff and he kept exclaiming at how amazing these cars were, and how one or two weren't technically even available for sale yet, which I guess says something about how stinking rich the people in Monaco are), and also the amazing scenery, because wow, the French Riviera is gorgeous. I knew it would be, but still, wow.

When we got back to Nice I went to the train station to try and make a reservation for the night train today, but the ticket machines were all in French and the ticket counters were only for trains for the day. That seemed weird to me, but I figured I'd just get my reservation today. Hah. I tried to do that this morning, and the night train tonight is all full. I had to make a reservation for an earlier train that gets into Paris late tonight, but I emailed the friend in Paris I'm going to stay with and she said it's all right if I get there early.

This did mean that I had less time for the beach than I'd wanted, so I went back to the hostel and packed myself lunch, and finally went to the beach. That was nice, once I found some fairly comfortable positions on the rocks. I spent several hours there, and I think I managed to avoid getting sunburned.

My train leaves in about an hour, and then tonight I'll be in Paris, my final stop!