Nice, Antibes and Cannes...

From Italy I decided to head to the South of France to take a mini break from all the hustle and bustle of traveling. It was starting to get to me if you couldn't tell from what occured in Rome and Pisa. It was a long train journey, stopping in Genoa for a few hours. I wish I had been able to go somewhere in Northern Italy now that I think about it. It was beautiful up there, all covered in green lush mountains and the architecture was wonderful too. However, alas, I was on my way to France. I had booked a hostel in Nice for I think six or so days. When I arrived in Nice, again, I saw someone I know. She had been in one of my classes in the Fall Semester this past year and it was totally strange. We said hi to each other, talked for a bit in the train station then parted ways. Side-note, when I got back into Ann Arbor, I saw her walking down the street, and I think that this was stranger than seeing her in Nice. I don't know why, maybe it's because I realized how weird it was to see her in Nice. Back to France. I got to the Hostel which was kind of a ways out of the city center and on a huge hill over looking the city and the Mediterranean. It was actually pretty nice. They had dinner every night, really good meals too. There were a lot of people there, the place was huge. It also used to be a monastary so the place where the bar was, of course, used to be the chapel, and it still held that name. I thought it was a bit of an oxymoron. That night I just kind of hung out around, the air was cool, but warm and it was calm. Good place for me to be at the time. The room that I had to sleep in was with 12 other people, but luckily I was so tired it didn't even matter.


View from my room in the hostel.

The next day I had decided was a day to myself. I did this a lot when I was at this hostel. I didn't do much when I was there, mostly because it wasn't that interesting to me. That day I read Treasure Island, random I know, but hey, I've always wanted to read it. I took naps, just relaxed, and did what I wanted to do. There were barely any people in the place during the day so it was even more peaceful. It was actually reasonably cheap for how resort-like it was. I hadn't done my laundry since I was in Athens so I had to get that done. This place though, won't actually let you do your own laundry, they do it for you. I didn't complain. However, they did lose one of my sock, but that's kind of cool, my sock's still in France. Over all I had a relaxing day. I met these two girls that night from Ottowa, Ontario (they spoke French, it made it easier for me) and they told me they were planning on going to the beach the next day, and invited me along. So the following day I left with them to Antibes on the train. Now Antibes has a wonderful vibe, it was so great. We walked along the water, past the port, past the mideival part of the city, past the crystal blue water, and onto the beach. This is where I went swimming in the Mediterranean. It was warm and so clear. I haven't really seen water so blue in my life, there was a full spectrum of blue. It was amazing. The beach was wonderfully sandy too. The day was great, but again, I did get a sunburn...the whole time I did not have any sun screen. After this time I decided to get some for myself. Luckily the hostel sold it for cheap comparativly. Everywhere there sun screen is unreasonably expensive. Something that would cost like maybe $3 here, costs about 13 euro there. It's insane. I don't really get it, but at the hostel it was only 5 euro. It was the one thing that I didn't really pack when I was coming to Ireland because, well firstly it was winter, not summer and it was Ireland, not the place you think you need sun screen for.


Beach in Antibes, yes that's where I swam.


You can see the French Alps in the background, really far off, do you see them?

Anyways, I again took a day off and did absoposolutly nothing. The next day I went to Cannes with a girl that had just studied in Spain and her mother. The world famous Cannes Film Festival was going on at the time, and I do admit the only reason I really went was to try and see someone famous. What I discovered was a truly expensive resort town, filled with people that had the same intentions as I and that it wasn't as interesting as I had hoped. I did see some famous people though, so the trip was worth it. I saw Diane Lane, Bai Ling, and Norah Jones. There were others but mostly they were French and I had no idea who they were. Anywho, 'nough said about Cannes, I would suggest going during the film fest just to say you've been there, or if you become a millionaire, then it's the place for you.


Red carpet at the film festival.

Pretty much the rest of my time in Nice was me just hanging out. I didn't do much. Now I wish I had only spent a few days there and gone on to Spain instead, but alas, I was not being smart. This would have been much better in my opinion, but at least I got to relax and regain my senses before heading back into the mindset of traveling. Miranda and Switzerland are where my next adventures took me.

*A few things I will miss about the South of France: The weather, the blue blue water, the buildings, and the relaxing time I had.