So it's been a few days. Filled with many things. I am now in Italy, on the train to Genova. Trains are very useful for updating things. And for finishing books.
I spent the last 3 days in Nice. And yes, it was nice. Got there somewhat late on Friday. Just hung out in the common area chatting with the other people staying there. Next day I explored the city. The Vieux Nice (old twisty lane part of the city), the site of the old chateau (no castle there now but good views, some ruins and a waterfall), the beach and the modern art museum in the morning and in the afternoon I walked out to the Matisse museum and the ruins of an arena which are quite a way from the centre of town. It's a lovely city. In my wanders I passed a restaurant called Le Maori which was playing the rugby world cup the next morning but it was bit out of my price range. Instead I went to the Irish bar to watch the game. I thought it was more likely to have a more pro New Zealand atmosphere than the sports bar around the corner from my hostel. It was not very pro NZ. And it was packed. I there 40 min before kickoff and had to wait 25 to get in. It was quite a game. And somewhat painful to watch at times surrounded by very loud and exuberant french supporters. But we won, and I was there to see it.
After the game i headed back to the hostel (via ice cream) and took my time over lunch. In the afternoon I grabbed a train to Monaco. I had been warned that it wasn't worth a lot of time but it's super easy and pretty cheap to get there from Nice so I went anyway. I only ended up spending about half an hour there. It is pretty place with the mountains and the water and in between the forest of pines and palms and luxury apartments. But mostly it just makes it abundantly clear that you will never be that rich. I walked past a real estate office at one point and if my french is right you could get a 50 sq.m one room apartment for just 2.85 million euro.
The main sight in Monte Carlo is the casino so I found that. It wasn't really very awe inspiring. So I headed back to the train station instead of lingering. On the way back I stopped at a couple of towns that I'd heard good things about. Eze has some good walks. I climbed half way up the hill but found a sign saying the short walk was 40 min from there and the long one was about 3 hours. So I went back down and sat on the beach for a bit instead. Then I got the train onwards, this time stopping at Villefranche sur mer. It's a colourful little town with streets from about 13th century. Unlike Monaco the harbour was filed with little boats of all different colours and people fishing instead of row upon row of white luxury yachts. I liked that better. Spent about an hour wandering the town, enjoying the views and sitting on the beach before I got back on the train to return to Nice. All in all it was a really lovely laid back sort of day.
Yesterday I took the day off from being a tourist. Mostly. I slept in a bit, lingered over breakfast, talked to mum on skype and didn't leave until after noon. Went to the train station to buy my tickets for today, wandered back past the market. Went back to the hostel for lunch and chatted with Catie on skype. Booked lots of stuff for Italy. In the afternoon I went on a grocery store hunt. And bought some macarons on the way back. They were pretty good. The pistachio one was amazing. Managed to read my book for a bit. Spent the evening staying in with some of the other guests and went to bed fairly early.
And then this morning. Up early, breakfast, trek through the rain to the train station to catch a train to Ventimiglia and from there to Genova. Will post this when I get to internet.
I spent the last 3 days in Nice. And yes, it was nice. Got there somewhat late on Friday. Just hung out in the common area chatting with the other people staying there. Next day I explored the city. The Vieux Nice (old twisty lane part of the city), the site of the old chateau (no castle there now but good views, some ruins and a waterfall), the beach and the modern art museum in the morning and in the afternoon I walked out to the Matisse museum and the ruins of an arena which are quite a way from the centre of town. It's a lovely city. In my wanders I passed a restaurant called Le Maori which was playing the rugby world cup the next morning but it was bit out of my price range. Instead I went to the Irish bar to watch the game. I thought it was more likely to have a more pro New Zealand atmosphere than the sports bar around the corner from my hostel. It was not very pro NZ. And it was packed. I there 40 min before kickoff and had to wait 25 to get in. It was quite a game. And somewhat painful to watch at times surrounded by very loud and exuberant french supporters. But we won, and I was there to see it.
After the game i headed back to the hostel (via ice cream) and took my time over lunch. In the afternoon I grabbed a train to Monaco. I had been warned that it wasn't worth a lot of time but it's super easy and pretty cheap to get there from Nice so I went anyway. I only ended up spending about half an hour there. It is pretty place with the mountains and the water and in between the forest of pines and palms and luxury apartments. But mostly it just makes it abundantly clear that you will never be that rich. I walked past a real estate office at one point and if my french is right you could get a 50 sq.m one room apartment for just 2.85 million euro.
The main sight in Monte Carlo is the casino so I found that. It wasn't really very awe inspiring. So I headed back to the train station instead of lingering. On the way back I stopped at a couple of towns that I'd heard good things about. Eze has some good walks. I climbed half way up the hill but found a sign saying the short walk was 40 min from there and the long one was about 3 hours. So I went back down and sat on the beach for a bit instead. Then I got the train onwards, this time stopping at Villefranche sur mer. It's a colourful little town with streets from about 13th century. Unlike Monaco the harbour was filed with little boats of all different colours and people fishing instead of row upon row of white luxury yachts. I liked that better. Spent about an hour wandering the town, enjoying the views and sitting on the beach before I got back on the train to return to Nice. All in all it was a really lovely laid back sort of day.
Yesterday I took the day off from being a tourist. Mostly. I slept in a bit, lingered over breakfast, talked to mum on skype and didn't leave until after noon. Went to the train station to buy my tickets for today, wandered back past the market. Went back to the hostel for lunch and chatted with Catie on skype. Booked lots of stuff for Italy. In the afternoon I went on a grocery store hunt. And bought some macarons on the way back. They were pretty good. The pistachio one was amazing. Managed to read my book for a bit. Spent the evening staying in with some of the other guests and went to bed fairly early.
And then this morning. Up early, breakfast, trek through the rain to the train station to catch a train to Ventimiglia and from there to Genova. Will post this when I get to internet.
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