Nice

(Apologies for the lack of photos. I literally didn't think WiFi could function if the upload speed was this slow. Oh well, I didn't come to Cinque Terre for the internet. I'll upload some when I get to Florence, hopefully.)

Nice is very much a beach town, so we kinda followed a beachy schedule the entire time we were there.

Day 1, we got in mid-afternoon, and it was surprisingly cool, since it had just finished raining, so we just went and chilled at the beach. We walked down the Riviera, wandered a ways down the Promenade Anglais, found a good-looking bar on the beach, grabbed a beer, and sat looking at the water for a while. An excellent day, even if we had to pay 8 euro a pop for the beers. Was also funny to sit there and watch the police driving the lifeguard boat show off to impress the girls on the beach, almost grounding the blade on the motor in the process.

The next day, we did some more exploring, this time along a guided walk in Rick Steve’s guide to the Riviera. We got started at the Hotel Negresco, which can be summed up quite aptly as “old money.” Big, fancy place, covered in portraits, paintings, marble, mahogany, and crystal. The chandelier, by the way, was actually designed and built for the czar of Russia, but he couldn’t take delivery when it was completed, seeing as he was, you know, dead. So, the hotel bought it at a discount. It was funny going in; we weren’t sure if they’d let tourists go wandering around, so we just tried to look fancy enough that we could conceivably be staying there. We figured they wouldn’t turn people away unless they obviously were tourists, in case they were staying there. Turns out that was a good idea, as they had a guy in a suit in the lobby who looked like he was profiling people as they came in.

When we left, there was a team of people getting two girls ready to go parasailing, so we stopped to see how it worked, since neither of us had actually seen parasailers get up in the air. Turns out, they just hook you up to the boat, start driving, and tell you to run. Was fun to watch, especially since we’d occasionally hear one of the girls squeal when they drivers would take a corner. (Keep in mind, they were NOT driving close to the beach, so they had a set of lungs on them).

The next day, we were in Monaco, which will be its own post, but the next day was just kind of a chore day. We hauled our stuff to the laundromat to get some clean clothes, and I ran to the post office to get rid of some souvenirs. Oh, and ship my mom her (very belated) mother’s day gift. The post office was funny; apparently the French dislike for receipts extends to their shipping philosophy. I expedited two packages to the states, dropped them in the box, and left. About a block away, I had the realization that I’d just handed the French postal system around 200 euro of souvenirs, and didn’t even get a receipt, let alone a tracking number. I ran back, and the guy said it was 5 euro extra per package. C’est la vie.

Anyway, after that, I pretty much just wandered Nice on my own for a bit. Wandered around a few shops, through the touristy old city, through the actual old city, and back up the Riviera. Actually saw something in one of the shops that even I wouldn’t eat (yes, Ponnie, it does exist). They took a suckling pig, stuffed it full of scrapple (ears, snouts, tails, etc.), roasted it, then chilled it so the scrapple would recongeal. They sold it by the slice. Also passed a store that sold different kinds of salt, which was actually pretty cool. They had black volcanic salt from Hawaii, blue salt from the Mediterranean, red salt from the atlantic, and a few others.