There , you can access previous posts and comment on posts. I will post a link to the blog at the top of each entry, but if you recieve the blog by email, the bottom of the e-mail says:
Second of all, just to clear up any possible confusion, Nice is a city in France pronounced "Nees". The difference between nice and Nice is the capital 'N'.
And it will take you to the same page. Now to the good stuff.
After writing the previous entry, we left Montreux and took a relatively short train to Geneva. From the Geneva Airport, we took a delayed plane to Nice, France on the Cote d'Azur. The plane ride was only 30 minutes, but easyJet, the airline, complicated the system so much, that it took over an hour to get everyone on the plane, by busing us to a new building, checking our passports 3 times, and waiting at 2 gates. After taking a bus from Nice Airport to our hotel, we settled and took a short stroll around the city. It turns out the French eat out at midnight in the middle of the week. Anyways, we took a dip in the Meditteranean Sea, and it was very nice as the water was warm and very easy to get used to. Since it was a rock beach, we didn't to worry about getting sand all over ourselves, and we got a free foot massage as we walked.
The next morning we first had breakfast at the hotel, then went to Gare Routiere, a multi-platform bus station. First of all, the place was dirty, with trash everywhere, lights flickering and neon signs buzzing. Second of all, the signs of the bus schedules looked like they were put up in the 60s, and there were no people to give information or sell tickets. We were lucky to find the bus that went to Monaco, and for only 1€($1.5). The bus ride wasn't that bad, and it was scenic too. We arrived in Monaco after about 30 minutes on the bus.
The fisrt thing we did in Monaco was just stroll around. We saw the casino, the port filled with boats of billionares, and the hotels that drain your life earnings in a night. Next, we took a walk to the Aquarium. The aquarium is situated on the Rock of Monaco. The city of Monaco is just the Rock, which contains the Old Town, The Palace, and the Museum. The rest of the city is Monte-Carlo, which is technically another city. Anyways, the aquarium was very interesting, it had all the fish you could imagine, and the roof had a panoramic view of the city. After that, we started on our way to Jardin Exotique, or Exotic Garden. On our way, we stopped by Monaco's Cathedral, Monaco's Palace (Monaco is a modern monarchy), and learned Monaco's elevator network. Basically, Monaco was built on the side of a mountain, and people don't like climbing up and down stairs. So, they built a network of elevators all around the city to get up and down without climbing. After about an hour and 4 elevator rides, we reached Jardin Exotique. First of all, there was a cactus garden, it was interesting, but the main attraction was panoramic view of Monaco. From there, we finally understood that Monaco and Monte-Carlo were seperate cities. After the garden, we stopped by Monaco's train station to buy tickets for our trip back, as we weren't going to be able to take a bus back very late. The station is built in the mountain, and there are about 4 access points in the city that lead to walkways to the station, the main one being in Monte-Carlo. After buying tickets, we found a very nice, relatively cheap, pizzeria. The pizza was some of the best I've ever had and the people there, although not very good in English, they were extremely nice.
For dessert, I got some ice cream, and I was lucky. I wanted mint ice-cream, but they put it away before I got there. I decided to practice some of my French at the store. Because I asked in French, they went to the fridge, managed to open the locked commercial refridgerator, and got me the ice cream. If I were to ask in English, they would've probably said "It's no more". After dessert, we went back to Monte-Carlo (via 3 elevators), and sat on the park roof of a luxury hotel, waiting for a firework contest. At 10PM, the fireworks started, and they were probably the most amazing fireworks I've seen. There was one part where they accidentally launched some fireworks into the water, and they exploded underwater creating huge, bright, colorful, splashes. After 20 minutes of fireworks, we went back to the train station, caught a train to Nice, and settled once again. It was a great day.
The next day, today, we woke up, had breakfast, and prepared to go to Cannes, supposedly a beautiful resort city with amazing beaches, clean streets and an endless list of things to do. We once again went to the crummy bus station, and took bus 200 to Cannes. One tip for travelling on the Cote d'Azur. NEVER take bus 200. Although it was 1€, it took 2 hot hours in a crowded bus with countless stops and jams to get to Cannes. They dropped us off at the train station. We immediately bought train tickets back for only 5€ more, so we wouldn't have to take bus 200 again.
The first thing we did in Cannes was walk the boulevard by the beach. It was really nothing special, and the street was pretty dirty. After that, we took a walk to the old town where there was a primitve art museum and a tower with a panoramic view of the city. The view was actually very nice and made Cannes look nicer, but it wasn't much. After the tower, we walked down to the beach, passing the walk of fame where famous actors had handprints. The only problem was they were all French and we could only recognize 1 or 2 names. Then, there was the beach. You always imagine Cannes as the beautiful city with the nice warm beaches. The beach was COLD, you couldn't get used to the water, and after 10 feet into the water, it becomes rocky and uncomfortable to swim in. After the beach, we walked down to the train station and took a train back to Nice. The train was much better than bus 200, ohh much better. The train took 30 minutes, bus 200 120 minutes. The train was air-conditioned, bus 200 wasn't. Lastly, the train was spacious and erm... bus 200 wasn't... Overall, Cannes wasn't BAD, but it only took 3 hours to see everything that needed to be seen, and it was way too overrated. I'm sure the city is a lot nicer during the film festival, and if we visited Montreux when it wasn't the jazz festival, we'd have the same opinion as Cannes.
After Cannes, we went to a beach in Nice. The waves were very rough, but the water was nice. We probably spent an hour, and then went to the hotel to prepare for dinner. For dinner, we ate at an authentic Nice restaurant. It was very good and after that, we took a stroll through the center of the town to see the action at night, and then returned to the hotel. I'm now sitting here, writing this massive blog entry and posting pictures. Tomorrow, I'll be spending the day in Nice, the day after tomorrow I'll be riding a train all day to Barcelona, and the rest of the days, I'll be in Barcelona before taking a plane home.
I do not have time to upload pictures today, but I will try to have them ready tomorrow, so I will link to them in another entry.
1 comment:
Adam, excellent summary! Can't wait for the pics, especially those from elevators. PS I'm glad I wasn't with you guys on bus 200...sounds like hell
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