French Riviera

The French Riviera wasn't on my original list on must go-to's in Europe, but I can without a doubt say that I'm so happy I went. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in the world. We left early Friday morning to catch a 7:30am train to Nice. We got to our hostel around 2pm, which was this really pretty quaintly-built hostel. It had an outdoor terrace and was on the top of this really big hill, so luckily the hostel provided a free shuttle service from the bottom to the top. The only minor problem was that it was a little far from the city center so we just had to take a tram that was 4 euro for a daily pass to get to places. All in all it ended up working really well since we walked around for the most part but just needed to take the tram in the morning and at night. When we first got there, we explored the city a little bit, went to the beach, and got dinner. The beaches there are made out of small rocks though instead of sand, so we didn't stay too long since it was overcast. We had a good Italian dinner and then went back to our hostel to get ready to go out. It was one of my favorite nights out because we went to Wayne's Bar which ended up having a live band that played a lot of old school songs. We got to dance on the tables and sing along to all the music. 

We had to go back fairly early because the tram stopped running at 2am, well I guess that's early in European time because we're now used to staying out until the way hours in the morning. We woke up early, got our free breakfast from the hostel, and then took a tram to the bus we needed to catch to go to Monaco. Monaco is the second smallest country behind Vatican City, and houses the famous town Monte Carlo where all the celebrities flock and your walk past Maserati's parked on the streets. The bus ride even though it was terrible for anyone with the least bit of motion sickness was absolutely gorgeous. We drove along the coast up cliffs with spectacular views.

We got off a couple stops from Monte Carlo in a beautiful town called Cap-d'Ail, which is also part of the french Riviera. This was my favorite town. We got of and immediately walked down this cliff to the water. Where we ended was this incredible beach with water more blue than I've ever seen. 

I could not get over how beautiful everything was. We spent a good thirty minutes just soaking it all in. Mike ended up jumping in which was quite bold considering it was only like 60 degrees out. It was a perfect day, but not warm enough to go swimming. He didn't seem to mind though. Mike is actually a friend of a friend from home who is studying abroad this semester a couple hours north of us in St, Gallen, Switzerland. He ended up coming to the French Riviera with us this weekend to tag along which is funny because my two really good friends (Dave and Sydney) who are also abroad I most likely won't be able to meet up with them. Plans kinda fell through with Sydney because I'll be in Kenya and Dave is studying abroad in Athens which is really hard to get in and out of with cheap flights for us to pick a destination to meet. I've also already been to a lot of the places that they want to go. Another reason why this is one of the greatest programs anyone could think of going to. With Switzerland's central location and with us purchasing our eurorail we've been able to go to so many places for a relatively inexpensive price. The other day I counted and so far I've been to 19 cities and 12 countries which is unbelievable! So to get back to the Riviera. We spent some more time on the beach and then hiked back up the cliff and instead of getting on the bus again we just decided to walk to Monte Carlo. It was a breathtaking walk, and we decided to stop for lunch along the way since we were all pretty hungry. We stopped at this place along the water which was a little pricey but we thought we'd get a good lunch and then do something smaller for dinner. I got this amazing dish, which was sort of similar to the American dish bouillabaisse. It was to die for!! It had fish, mussels, shrimp, and potatoes in it so I was in heaven.

 While we were eating there was another family that was eating a couple tables over from us with this four year old boy. He would get up from dinner and ride his spider man bike and pretend like he was shooting webs. He was adorable. His bike pedal ended up coming off during dinner and I got up to help him fix it. His mom got up thanking me and asked if I was American. She said she knew I was because no one else would do a thing like that. The family was so nice, and talked with us for like thirty minutes just about our travels and what we're studying and all sorts of other things. They were actually originally from D.C., and moved there for the husband's job. She came over a couple times just to talk, and I had to help him fix his bike a couple times because the pedal kept coming off. She then told us not to worry about our bill, because our meal was on them. We were all in shock. There was ten of us, and our meals were on average about 15 euro each. They then bought us four desserts for the table, so our total bill was probably around 200 euro and we paid nothing. We tried not to accept but they insisted. It was just so nice to meet people that were welcoming and just outright really nice people. Max was also the cutest boy ever and we ended up playing with him for a while. 

I could easily say that was my best meal in Europe. We continued our incredible walk to Monte Carlo with even prettier views, if you can believe. 

I would literally stop and tell one of my friends to hit me because there is no way that this was real life. I felt like I was in a dream. We finally got to Monte Carlo where everything was extravagant. I felt like I had to watch where I walked because I might scratch a million dollar car. Monte Carlo is known for its famous casino. We just went inside to take a quick look because there was no way we've even been allowed to pay to go in one of the gambling rooms because we were way under dressed.

It was about 4pm when we were done with everything so we decided to catch the bus back to our hostel and get ready to go out for St. Patrick's day. They don't quite celebrate it as heavily as we do in America, and you can definitely tell that the people dressed all out in green are Americans. The next morning we got up early, checked out, and went to the market. The city of Nice was filled with tons of markets selling fresh produce, flowers, and other homemade goods. We then got lunch at Wayne's Bar and headed to the train station to go home. We got back to Lugano around 8:30pm and it was raining for the first time since we've been here. It rained for a good portion of yesterday, but it's cleared up and now beautiful again. I was able to run for an hour yesterday which makes me so happy because it was killing me to be bed-ridden. My ankle's doing so much better, of course it's not 100% and it's gonna take me a little while before I'm playing floorball again but I'm just thankful I can run. Another girl on the trip who went to the Amalfi Coast actually came back on crutches because she sprained her ankle really bad. So at least I'm not the only one but her's seems like it might be a lot worse. I think this weekend coming up I might just stay in Lugano and do some hiking and excursions around here. Everyone else is either going to Paris, Prague, or Belgium. I've been to Prague, have already x-ed out Paris from my list expense wise (it's just not going to fit in my budget--> flights and hostels are ridiculously expensive), and I just wasn't feeling Belgium. We'd have to take such a long train to only be there for one full day. I think some other people might be staying as well so I won't be a loner by myself.