Flyday June 11th

Tuesday June 11 Day 12

Flight day!  Hauke grabbed some baguette from a local shop and we finished off our fridge food.  A quick stroll on the beach and local market.  We caught our bus and noticed a huge line.  We checked in as our line was very short.  We realized after going through customs that the line was for customer service.  A list of flights and gates showed 9 cancelled flights and 6-7 delayed.  Apparently a strike was holding everything back.  I am currently sitting at the terminal with Nita on my itouch and Wakana/Hauke on their kindles.  Our flight was set to leave at 2pm and it is currently 3pm

Nice food!
I just ate a super delicious and filling baguette dog smothered in cheese.  Nap time?

Monaco and Chandeliers

A mad rush to the bus as we saw it pulling into the stop a couple of blocks ahead of us.  We managed to snag seats out to Monaco.

The view on the way was gorgeous.  The coastal route hugged the cliffside and displayed the view of beach view houses and parts.  A mix of vivid green trees speckled with red and orange rooftops followed us the whole route.  The bright day highlighted the deep blue waters and lit up the rocky grey cliffs.  We arrived in Monaco by the casino.  After snapping pics at the surrounding gardens and parks we decided to just stroll around the area.  The Chanel store set the mood.  We walked in on my insistence so that Nita could see her favorite shop in the high end category.

We uncomfortably did a quick circle around as we were outrageously out of place as simple commoners.  This feeling lasted long after as we realized that the whole area is made of solid diamonds value-wise.  We took in the gorgeous view of port Hercule and I very luckily put my hand in bird poo.  After that we sauntered through a rich mall and were stunned by the high class/price window items.  Giant glass chandeliers and ornate spiral staircases decorated the fancy pants mall.

We decided since we were in the richest place we've ever been, we'd celebrate with McD's.  We hunted past all the overpriced cafes filled with middle aged upper crust and dodged Lamborginis and Ferraris past Mercedes and Bentley stores.  Ditching the ladies, Hauke and I continued on foot with a vague memory of the McD directions.  We finally found it, hidden in a non-descript white building.  The fast-food joint overlooked the Monaco ocean and we ordered a Royal with cheese (for Quentin) and a chicken mythic.  We trekked to the girls at long-leg speed.  We met and ate McD's in the park in front of the rich casino... on a bench.  To the crowd there, we might as well have been homeless.  A quick bus back and we rested back at our place.  After filming some great buskers we headed out to see the new Nice nightlife.  We saw an incredible spray paint artist and walked the beach at night.  We packed up and hit the bed/couch.

Son of the Beach

Monday June 10th Day 11

This is why there are private jets parked by the airport

A pretty quiet night by the time we went to bed.  I woke up a couple times, but that is better than the night before.  Wakana and Hauke left early and came back just in time as we were just about to leave.  They were godsends as they brought a baguette with cold cuts and hotdogs.  We ate an appreciated lunch.

We split up again, I went to do some shopping and laundry.  Wakana and Hauke trekked up castle hill again minus the cop.  Uneventful morning of perusing old town, but a welcome pace.  We met with our companions and headed to the beach to lounge.  The beach here is not sand, but instead ocean polished pebbles and rocks.  Smooth grey rocks stretched the coast of Nice and we laid down onto it with hesitation.  I was surprised to find it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as I anticipated.  I watched Nita almost get swept out to sea and we spent about an hour being lulled by the hot sun and the sound of waves crashing and rearranging the smooth rocks.  We left and took a short browse of the local flea market shucking mostly old antiques, silverware, posters and other goods for antique prices.  We have just finished a late lunch of fresh-made pasta purchased from a local pasta maker.  Cooked to perfection by Hauke, we are now resting before leaving Nice again to... Monaco!

Nice to know!
The laundry is pretty expensive here.  3€ for wash and 0.50€ every 6 mins but another place was 4€ wash and 0.80€ for 5 mins dry... no thanks.

Not so Nice
I was awoken last night by drunken travellers singing bohemian rhapsody very poorly.

The photo-less night!

Nita had a craving for broth and we decided to walk out for a quick onion soup.  Within 10 minutes in the night life of old Nice, we had seen:

- A flair bartender
- An open invite to a pub crawl which we are too old and lame for
- A man dressed in a parrot costume

(Also, we ran into two girls from Ottawa that just happened to be looking for a late night snack too.)

Sufficet to say I was very sad that I didn't bring my camera.  We could not find a restaurant still serving food after 10:30pm on a sunday night...

Until...

After intensive searching we rounded towards our apartment and found the one and only restaurant (it seems) serving onion soup.  We sat down and looked at the menu realizing quickly that we were definitely going to pay for it.

12€ for the soup and 7€ for my creme brulee.  We ate it, though the soup was a scalding lava-like temperature.  We knocked the 2 items off of our must-try-in-France list, all the while listening to rich travellers attempting to seem humble yet still not understanding reality for most... In the end, the soup was good and so was the dessert, so no real complaints.

I'm very tired.  This trip is wonderful but I am thinking more and more of our much less exhausting life back home.  Laundry tomorrow, hopefully.

St. Paul de VenceAl

Sunday June 9th Day 10

Woke up at around 9am to leave for 10.  Missed the mark by only about 15 mins.  All 4 of us went to a nearby boulanger and Nita ordered a super greasy sausage roll.  Hauke and Wakana shared a baguette sandwich and we headed to the book festival.  We pored over more bandes dessiner and I bought a post card for my artist extraordinaire Chris.  We walked the path to the bus stop and fought to the front of the line to get a seat.  We left to St. Paul de Vence, about an hour bus.  The weather was cloudy, so it was better we avoided the Nice beaches.

We arrived at St. Paul de Vence and were taken aback by the beauty.  A tourist destination, it is a growing secret that is not yet saturated by tourists.  The old city sits in the mountainous countryside and overlooks a huge valley that spans out to rolling mountains.  Despite being overcast, the day was bright.  We stopped at a local joint and had quiches, ravioli and pate.  This was our fist pate as Nita wasn't allowed to eat it as of late.  We wandered the gorgeous old streets and shops snapping pictures often of the 360 degrees panoramic view surrounding the city walls.

Scenic and gorgeous turned quickly to a dark thunderous rain as we ran into a small cafe.  Hauke ordered a crepe and we had coffee and hot chocolate to wait for the weather to die down.  Afterwards, it was still raining but not as hard.  We walked through the dreary and drizzly weather to the bus stop to find a group of travellers. We were lucky as the bus was late and we didn't have to wait for the next one.  Me and Hauke talked games, and arrived to a post rain Nice.  We ordered a Nice style pizza of too-salty anchovies and olives as well as a hawaiin.

After our early dinner we headed up a pathway to castle hill.  We arrived at 7:30pm and it closed at 8pm.  Wakana and Hauke headed up first to snap shots.  Nita and I walked a slower pace behind.  The view of Nice was untouched by heavy clouds as the now sunny day poured over the city.  We took advantage by snapping photos overlooking the mountain ranges.  At 8pm a motorcycle cop whistled out and ushered people out.  We headed down slowly... really slowly.  We snapped pictures on the way down, taking a different route down.  We heard the cop trailing behind, yelling for people to head down.  At the bottom the bike cop was waiting (or his friend, we couldn't tell) and lectured us (though he looked at me) in a firm voice.  This was of course lost on me as I don't speak french.  Oh well.

Aloe mate

We walked to a panoramic view at the base of castle hill and sat watching the sun set behind the city.  We came back and broke open Myron's gift that I bought in Amsterdam, a pack of naughty playing cards, and played big 2.  After a shower we rested and I started writing...

Until...