Bonjour!

So I'm in France now. Which is quite different from Spain, but amazing still. It has been a transition to go from a country where I speak and understand the language (for the most part) to a country where I do not speak the language. But I love Nice.

Last time I left off I was headed off to our farewell dinner, which was of course amazing. Its nice to go to a restaurant and not have to pay. While this limits our choices, not paying is wonderful. The first course was a collection of tapas: some sort of eggplant and roasted red pepper conglomeration, raw salmon with olive oil, cheese pizza (this was especially good after eating Spanish food for so long), pan con tomate, croquettes, and tortilla espanola. All of these were excellent and we got pretty full eating them, but we still had an entree and dessert. For our second course, they had said we would be getting filet mignon, which turned out to be pork tenderloin (I don't know what we were thinking, we were in Spain expecting beef...ridiculous) wrapped in bacon with a mustard sauce and white rice. Some people complained because they thought they were getting beef and didn't; but I have the eat everything they put in front of me policy and I found it delicious. Craig had fish and it was really good, but somewhat bony. For dessert we had a choice between crema catalunya (creme brulee) or tiramisu. I had tiramisu and it was the best I've ever had. Craig has crema catalunya and it was pretty amazing also.

After dinner and one billion pictures, a handful of us, including John C. Wilcox, Marianna, Jordi, and Silvia headed to a bar that Jordi and Silvia recommended, La Fira. It was early so it wasn't super busy when we first got there, but it was really awesome. The owner had bought all of the decor from a theme park at the top of the mountain when it closed and made a bar out of it. So there's all this circus, theme park stuff everywhere. Pretty sweet. And, I drank Johnnie Walker Red with John C. Wilcox. I wanted to pay for it for the sake of saying I bought JCW a scotch, but he wouldn't let me. Definitely highlight of the trip. It was mostly a hang out bar, and we stayed awhile but left relatively early to prepare for traveling the next day. Craig and Sylvia were going back to the states and had early flights out and Analise, Holly and I had train reservations at 8:45 in the morning. And I still hadn't packed.

Once I got home, I didn't want to pack even more, especially since I was sporting a minor scotch buzz. So I passed out instead, silly me. However, I managed to set my alarm for 6A and frantically pack to leave senora's apartment at the time I was supposed to. I took a taxi to the station, since I have infinity luggage, and thought I made it in time to take my train from Estacion de Sants to Estacion de Francia, on the other side of the city. I made it downstairs to the platform and there was a train sitting there that said aeropuerto (airport) and I was too busy not understanding Spanish to know that this was the train I was supposed to get on and it left without me. So I hauled my luggage back upstairs to find another taxi. This time, I went out the wrong door where taxis are not allowed to pick people up and had to go to the other side of the station. I had only slept like 3 hours and was not impressed with myself or the situation. I found a cab, and the driver was really nice, and I made it with time to spare before our train for France left. But it was a little stressful there for like an hour.

The train left and we were chatting and realized the 3 people next to us spoke English, which seemed rare so we started talking to them. Two were a lesbian couple from Florida who were backpacking through Europe and on their way to Nice as well. They are 25, recently graduated, and overall awesome girls. The other was a women with a 6 month old baby (precious) who has lived all over the world working for Unicef and the UN. Awesome. It was really cool to meet people on the train and have intelligent conversations, and tell them our hilarious stories. They especially liked the one about the time the dog rubbed her popa (poop) all over my bed. This made the first leg of our trip go by really quickly, even though we spent 4 hours on the train.

We had to get other reservations and change over in Montpelier but the train straight to Nice was full so we had to make an extra change in Marseilles. Whatever. We hung out at the train station with the cool lesbians. I had to pee so badly so I went down to the bathroom. I went to go in and the woman said something in French that I didn't understand except for the .50 euro part. So I paid to pee, for the first time since I've been in Europe. I flushed twice to get my money's worth. To the restroom's credit, it was super nice, but I'm not sure I enjoyed paying to relieve myself. After paying to pee, I went and hung out with the cool lesbians some more, they are fascinating. I inhaled a sandwich that I somehow procured through a French-English language barrier and a delicious brownie. However, I was exhausted and passed out on the cold, marble floor of the train station, apparently with my eyes open, they woke me up laughing about it. Eventually, they got on their train to Nice and we got on ours to Marseilles. The trains are nice. The seats recline and are spacious, nothing like an airplane. And nothing like the Amtrak. Much much nicer and frequented by much more normal people. No one asked me where the snack car is.

The view from the train, since it ran along the coast, was breathtaking. The French Riviera is absolutely incredible. Totally worth the time you spend to take the train instead of flying. We got to Marseilles after another 2 hours and transferred to our final train to Nice. We all passed out on the train, periodically waking up to check out the Riviera some more. Its seriously like straight out of a guide book. We finally got to Nice and were all tired, hungry, and ready to be done traveling with the luggage I had. Since I haven't been home yet, I had 2 heavy suitcases and a backpack. I was constantly needing help hauling it up and down the train stairs, into the luggage compartment. I'm surprise Analise and Holly didn't ditch me. I guess I'll keep them around.

Once we got to Nice we had no idea where to go to get to our Hostel. So we kind of started walking in the general direction of who knows where. As we were crossing the tram tracks where there were about 4,000 serious, French people waiting for the tram, I went to go drag my luggage up the surprisingly high curb and just completely ate it. Like face to the ground, driving my knee into the concrete, all the French people staring at me fall. And, on top of the fact that I screamed as I did it, I landed on the sidewalk but left my luggage in the pathway of the tram as it was coming, and I was still laying on the ground recovering. Luckily, Holly and Analise pulled my luggage out of the way of the tram and I lived. Barely.

We decided hailing a taxi would be a better decision, even though it cost money. We finally found a cab, which was a Mercedes, and got to our Hostel: Hotel Meyerbeer. Holly had read some sketch reviews but that was after it had been booked so we went anyways. It is so adorable! While there are 3 of us sharing one double bed and about 6 square feet of floor, its really nice and clean for the price. And we have our own bathroom. AND they come and clean and make the bed and change out the towels everyday. AND its only 146 euros for all 3 nights, for all 3 of us. AND BEST OF ALL we have the internet. No breakfast, but whatever.

After we arranged our stuff, we headed out to the kebab place that the desk worker recommended to us. It was a giant tortilla filled with a ton of chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, and a yogurt sauce. It was perfect after a long day of traveling. We also got fries and a soda for 6.50 euros. Not bad. We took it to the beach and sat and ate. It was incredible, the Mediterranean Sea is so peaceful and amazing. We were sitting there, in Nice, eating amazing, cheap food, watching the jellyfish swim around the ocean. After eating and sitting there taking it in for about an hour and a half, we walked back to our room and passed out, with me sleeping on the floor and Analise and Holly in the bed.

At some point in the middle of the night, I had some sort of dream (some might call it a night terror), that there were people in robes like monks in our room going to kills us or take our stuff or something. So I started screaming in my sleep. I was saying things like "Guys there is someone in here" and, to the imaginary intruders, "Can I help you?" over and over, loudly. They turned on the lights and I realized there was no one in there and passed back out. They woke up when I was doing it, but didn't really say anything until we woke up this morning. As I write this, they are rolling around laughing about it. I forgot to warn them I have this problem. It might happen again, who knows.

After we woke up and got ready, we headed to the supermarket to get our provisions for our trip. We bought peaches, tomatoes, bananas (ick), lots of cheese, baguette, cookies, chocolate, chips, water, juice, croissants with chocolate in the middle, and ham for less than 40 euros. And, except for the fact that we've eaten 2 giant baguettes, it should last us while we're here in Nice and some left for the train. After we came back, the maids were in our room so we tried to plan some more of our trip, and put the groceries in our mini fridge. I made sandwiches and we headed out to the beach. We laid on the beach, alternating between being in the water and tanning. And, since we were in Nice, I may have spent a portion of my time there topless. When in Rome, right? We got super dark sitting out there for 5.5 hours. We came back and have just been munching on cheese and bread and drinking cava and watching French TV. Tonight we're planning on going out, but we haven't made any motion towards showering or anything. But I'm going to shower because I smell super Euro especially since I haven't bathed since crossing borders. Tuesday we're going to Paris, so I might not be able to write again until Thursday, but I'll have lots to write about when I do!