Nice is Nice

Could I really title this any other way? We all know how much I love bad jokes.
This morning I slept in after that lengthy journey along the Mediterranean, and tried to say hello to my bunkmates only to discover Barcelona has stolen my voice.
Port of Nice
I took advantage of the free breakfast (seriously I need to stop writing about this, it's just a given at this point), got going early afternoon and headed down to the port. I saw more yachts than minivans in a Walmart parking lot. Got offered no less than 3 jobs aboard. The offers were definitely too good to be true--I suspect the uniform is a bikini and sunglasses. At most. Thanks, Octopussy, but I'm going to have to pass. (Really, that's the name of his boat. Parked right next to "Just For You, Love Douglas." Classy.) Really tempted to ask them what they do in order to have a yacht; I figure there's three possibilities: something risky, something illegal, or both. Either way is fascinating, but I don't fancy involuntarily becoming a part of a drug cartel's harem. Saw a wedding--everyone in attendance was good looking. Confirmed my suspicions about the French Riviera being a magical place that I need to live in. I found Narnia! Just kidding. But seriously.

Nice is a cool town because it has both the sophistication and culture I love about a lot of cities, yet it has that laid-back vibe that you need once in a while. Looking into cooking schools here immediately--if they have a good one, I'm sold. Met up with the Aussies from Darwin at my hostel for happy hour (dolla beers!) Then went downtown to Wayne's, the most popular bar in Nice. Full of foreigners (and Snoop Dogg, who apparently has partied at Wayne's too) including a Contiki tour group. I'm so glad I decided not to do one of those--apparently you spend all your time traveling and only stop at sights for like 5 minutes before you're herded back on the bus. Can you imagine being stuck on a bus with a group of people you hate, going all over Europe? They did look like they were having a good time, though; there was a lot of dancing on tables. After establishing that Sarah Palin is not the only one with geographical troubles (Apparently there are some Aussies who think Alaska is part of Canada), we split from Wayne's and walked along the coast to Ma Nolan's to check out the Irish offerings in France. It was very chill--they played some great Kings of Leon tracks. I had to leave at 1:30 to make the last tram home. So glad to be back on a normal night schedule, you have no idea--maybe my voice will come back now.

The Art of Macarons

French cooking class in the morning--learned how to make macarons! Not to be confused with macarOOns, these pastries are light, fluffy, and delicious--they'd better be, considering they consist of butter, sugar, and egg whites. Yum. I definitely don't like the precision required to bake things though--I'll be sticking to savoury cooking back at home. But when in France...
The chef walked us step-by-step through the process, although it was more of a demonstration than a hands on experience, since there were so many people in the class. I did get to pipe a few macarons onto the baking tray, however! And we got to keep some of the finished product at the end, which, let's be real, is obviously the most important thing anyway.

Went into town in the afternoon to try and deal with my Paris plans--apparently it's super expensive there so I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for that. Every hostel seems to be booked, even though it's the middle of the week--I don't get it! And the highest rated one that is showing up in my searches is 66%. Yuck. Looks like I may have to spring for a hotel...in one of the priciest cities in the world. Lucky me. Note to future travelers: do not put western Europe at the END of your trip when you are running out of money! Do it first! (and save in India--it's what I should have done. Boo.)

I also tried salad Nicoise at the hostel--I am in Nice, after all! It was SO delicious I forgot to take a photo. I will definitely be incorporating it into my rotation at home! That's about it--I'm exhausted from trying to figure out what I want to do about Paris. Definitely not designed for backpackers I think. Not ones who have seen Sex and the City, anyway.

Mediterranean, You're Kind Of Big

Sept 16:I'm going to refrain from the joke here; it's too obvious....thatswhatshesaid. Okay! Moving on. Today was a travel day to Nice. I left at 8 am after not going to bed the night before, so sick, and had to change trains every couple of hrs so couldn't sleep at all. Got to Montpellier and had to buy new reservation for train from there to Nice, since they wouldn't do it for me in Spain. Of course, the train I need is full, so I have to wait two hours til the next (non-reserved) train departs. I met two Aussies from Darwin who were doing the same thing, so we navigated the rest of the trip together.

The last train from Marseilles was really sketchy--no light, so were just sitting in the pitch black with strangers going through tunnels. Brought back memories of my favorite travel movie, Eurotrip. Mi scusi! We finally arrive in Nice at about 10:30 pm, only for me to realize my pouch containing my sunglasses and phone is missing. Shit. Back to the train I go! I couldn't remember exactly where we were sitting since it was no reservation, so I searched. Every. Single. Compartment. Hoping the train wouldn't start moving while I was still on board. At last, I found it! Fallen between two seats. Mon Dieu!

I called the hostel which told me to take the tram to a certain stop, where their shuttle would pick me up. I finally arrived and collapsed into bed--folks, the med is a lot bigger than you may realize if traveling by train! 15 hrs is not fun, especially on zero hours of sleep.