Nice, France

Nice (July 14-15)

Day 1: This morning was an early start to a long travel day. Literally spent 10 hours on the bus due to the high volume of traffic. Holidays tend to drive people to the highways which made our journey significantly longer than it needed to be. I really hate long bus rides. 

I slept most of the afternoon as I was so bored of staring at sunflower and jasmine fields. It is very beautiful countryside but I had better things to do with my life. I am most of the way through the first Game of Thrones book. I highly recommend it. The entire Fifty Shades of Grey series is risky but so damn addictive.  

A quick stop was done at a French perfumery. It is interesting to hear about how each scent is made. There are people who go to "nose" school for 10 years to create new scents. They get paid on average 700,000 euro a year. I wish I had that sense of smell and artistic ability to do that. I guess France is known for their flowers and thus perfumes. It was neat to see the people hand creating each scent. 

Dinner was frog legs, turkey steak, corn, and green beans. I surprisingly enjoyed the turkey steak. Frog legs did not pass my lips. That one is just too hard to swallow. After dinner we adventured down the road to a carnival with rides and games. It was like the Stampede but French. I had a lot of fun with a couple of the girls. 

Day 2: We took the train from Antibes into Nice. A couple of Americans and myself paid 14€ for a private beach chair. It was about 30 C and glorious. I set foot into the Mediterranean sea but did not swim. The beach was a pebble beach. Different and not quite the same experience as sand. Many French women were topless and hairy. Not a good combination in my mind. I suntanned like the French to avoid tan lines and to do as the Romans do. The day was very relaxed and simple.

The girls and myself had lunch at the beach chairs. I ordered a prawn salad which was delicious. When we decided to go back home and pay our bill, we discovered that a gentleman had paid our entire bill of drinks and lunch. It pays to be young and beautiful sometimes.

Upon showering I discovered I had been attacked by either bed bugs or a spider. Thus, I had to change rooms and freeze everything I owned. Everything sat in the freezer for twelve hours. I am not enjoying the people or the places we are staying. I really would like to just come home but I will stick it out for the next week. 

After getting all dolled up back at the campsite, the crew headed to Monaco. Monaco is the third smallest country in the world. The two smaller are Vatican and Black Island just off the coast of Western Australia. Monaco is the home of the rich and famous as people don't pay income tax and businesses only pay 1%. You have to apply to be a citizen of the country. Elton John got denied to be a citizen. Grace Kelly was a princess of this country. The current prince is a price of work who essentially is holding a former German Olympiad prisoner until she gives him a heir. 

In Monaco I visited the castle which had spectacular views of the bay and wealth of the country. Monte Carlo was the major city we visited. The grand casino was neat to go see and gamble at. Bids started at 100€ for blackjack and poker. I played some of the slot machines just to say I did. I ended up winning 98.76€ which isn't too bad. I walked around in six inch heels and my feet just killed the next day. 

The ride back home was quiet as dope actually fell asleep for once. The night was quite quiet. 

AFN