Nice Was Nice, But Paris is Better

So now I'm in Paris. The city of love. Which is true. I've seen more people makeout here than I would ever see in the US. But last time I left off I was still in Nice, so I'll start there.

Sunday night we did not go out. We crumbed up the bed with baguette, did not bathe, and talked to some people in the lobby. And drank a lot of free juice that they had in the lobby of the hotel. Since we were still recovering from Barcelona, we went to bed early, and slept a night terror free night.

We woke up in the morning we woke up late and headed straight for the beach. On our way down the stairs we met a group of guys from Houston (Rice Village area) which was cool. We never spoke to them again, though. Upon arrival, we noticed a homeless man on the beach who had the worst skid marks on his whitie tighties (which served as his swimming trunks because he was washing and drying the rest of his clothes in the shower heads provided. Naturally, I captured him on camera and he has been dubbed 'Streaks'. We saw him later when we were out, once again passed out.

We laid on the beach for about 6 hours, getting surprisingly not burnt; rather brown like a pack of Mexicans. We finally showered (we hadn't done so since crossing the border, and maybe a couple days before that) and decided to head to old Nice to find dinner and something to do. First of all, Nice is purely tourist. And by tourists I mean old, rich, gay men. Its nice for a couple relaxing days at the beach, and the views are stunning. However, it is not in fact known for its nightlife. As we discovered. We went to a bar that we had gotten a flier for (amazing how publicity works) that advertised happy hour. Happy hour doesn't really exist in Europe to our knowledge, so we ran to Ma Nolans as fast as we could. They had some sort of beer on special and cocktails. I had a gin and tonic and a cosmopolitan. But it was not the cosmo I'm used to. It was more like a fruity, delicious girl drink. I loved it. While we waited for a table outside, we got to watch the France-Romania game in a French bar. Pretty awesome. European soccer fans put American football fans to shame. Then we got a table and had good, old-fashioned (although somewhat flame kissed) burgers and fries. After eating bread and cheese for pretty much 2 days, they were delish.

Afterwards, we went in and watched the Netherlands crush Italy, which was funny since Italy won the World Cup 2 years ago. And Analise is Italian and probably the only supporter of Italy in that place. There were some awesome dutch fans, all decked out in orange with funny hats. We decided (and by we I mean Analise because she was embarrassed to be supporting Italy) to try and find a different bar. Nice did not produce. We only found more restaurants. When we finally found a bar, the game was in the last few minutes, drinks were expensive, and we were exhausted from spending so much time in the sun. So we went home and passed out since we were supposed to catch the 9:45 train to Paris.

We got up extra early, packed, and took a cab (for 15 euros...thieves) to the train station. We got in line for tickets and realized that there is currently a train strike going on in France. When we finally got to the ticket desk, the man said that we wouldn't be able to get out of Nice until 5:30 that evening. I mean, at least we could get out the same day, but still. And we had already checked out of our hotel and had all our luggage with us. Awesome. So we paid 8.50 euro (around $13 american) to store it in a locker until we were to get on the train. Only the big pieces fit though, so I was stuck with my backpack and for some reason wore a long sleeve shirt. I boiled all day long. We walked around, shopped some, at cheap pizza, nothing too exciting. While we were eating, however, we were approached by gypsies for the first time. There were beggars in Barcelona, but nothing like this. These parents wanted us to give our pizza to their son. We said no at first, because it was going to be our only meal of the day. We did have a lot so Holly and Analise gave what they had leftover to the child. I didn't have any leftovers so I did not (judge me all you want). Then, the mother and father got in a fight in Italian and he stormed off. And the mother ate our pizza. And then she asked us for something to drink for the boy. What? I think no. Then, the father came back with sacks filled with groceries, which the child ate. Feeling like we'd been tricked, we left to look around Nice some more.

After an epic walk around Nice (okay, Nice is not epic, not even a little bit), we went back to the train station because I was boiling and we were out of things to do. And we sat. In the train station. For 3 hours on the floor. At least the floor was cold, I would not, however, make the mistake of calling it clean. We finally got on our train at 5:30 and were scheduled to be in Paris at 11:15 which for some reason I thought was only 4 hours in transit until we were on the train for 4 hours and realized that math should not be my major. On the train, we sat next to some really cool Australian guys who were traveling for a month...or maybe 2 weeks. I think a month. We had a good time drinking wine that we brought and Zoco (licorice flavored liquor...not bad with apple juice and water) that they brought and sharing stories about traveling in unknown places.

We finally got to Paris and got a cab to our hotel. It is especially bad that we don't speak French because I think we might have jipped some man out of like 2 euros since his job is to call cabs or something. I'm not really sure what happened because he was yelling at us in French. I told him we don't speak French and he just threw up his hands and huffed off. The cab driver was somewhat of an asshole. When he dropped us off at our hotel he was like 'You are staying here??'. Yes, we are, so what. The place is 25 euros a night per person, we can't afford much more. Since it was almost midnight, it was pretty dark and quiet out, making our hotel look extra sketch. The guy at the front desk didn't help all that much either, since I'm pretty sure he was high as a kite. We were situated on the 5th floor, which is actually the 6th floor since the ground floor doesn't count. Fortunately (I think) we met some guy who has been traveling alone who arrogantly whipped out his map to show us everywhere to go. He also helped me get my stuff up the stairs. Which is the only reason I shamelessly flirted with him. After we thought we got rid of him, we checked out our room which looked like a mental hospital with a bathroom lock on the door. I did not care. I was so tired and boiling again from dragging my stuff up the 6 flights on stairs that I stripped of my clothes and got into bed. The place was clean and we had our own bathroom, but modernity clearly happened in the 18th century.

While Holly and Analise were getting ready for bed, we heard a knock on the door. When we asked who it was, a voice said 'Uhhh, the guy from the stairs'. Of course I was pretty much naked in bed and I informed Holly and Analise that I would not be putting clothes on so hopefully he wouldn't be coming in. He asked us if we had a shower because he was supposed to and after several awkward pauses, was on his way. We passed out and woke up early since we were going to try and see as much of Paris in a day.

We woke up early the next morning to get a head start on conquering Paris. After a breakfast of croissant, baguette, and cafe au lait (pretty much just straight carbs and dairy), we went to the train station to get our reservations for the next leg of our trip, having learned from trying to get out of Nice. Thankfully, we made reservations with much trouble and took the metro to the center of the city. Somehow, on the metro, we were like 20,000 leagues underground because we had to climb lots of stairs for fresh air.

Once we found our way outside, we pretty much just started walking, trying to find the Louvre. After turning around a few times, we found it and it was amazing. It covers like several city blocks and at one time was a palace, which is incredible considering how big it is. It looks so French, too, with all the stone architecture and ornate decor on the outside. Then we walked through the garden in the middle, with the giant glass triangles that serve as the entrance and the amazing fountains. Had the fountains been in Barcelona, there would be no water in them due to the drought that is still a problem there. However, in Paris, water is abundant and the fountains are full and gorgeous.

We just walked around, drinking the Louvre in for awhile, and walked on to the Arc de Triomphe which rounds it out. We kept on walking towards the second Arc de Triomphe, which is at the end of the Champs Elysees. Between the Arc and the second Arc, we ran into the giant phallic symbol that France stole from Egypt. That's how the guy from the stairs described it, and I really don't know the actual name, but it was cool to see. It was huge and covered in hieroglyphics. The Champs Elysees is a really famous street in Paris that has a lot of designer stores, restaurants, etc. It was nice to walk on and see but we didn't really go in anywhere except the Quick Hamburger for lunch. The Quick Hamburger is like a nicer French Burger King. We were trying to eat cheaply, so it worked for that. And the fries were really good. But not really noteworthy and definitely not distinctly French.

After eating, we kept walking around the Champs Elysees, stopping to look at the second Arc de Triomphe and making our way down the other side of the Champ Elysees. We decided to try and find Notre Dame, since you have to see that if you go to Paris. However, Holly (who has been to Paris) saw some spires and so we headed that way. We got to the origin of the spires and started wondering where the tourists were, thinking we were at Notre Dame. Guess what, it was not Notre Dame. Cool architecture, but still not Notre Dame. So we decided to just follow the river until we found it. We got to walk through some cool neighborhoods, look into shops, and passed a bar that advertised specials during the soccer game that was happening later.

It wasn't too much further to Notre Dame and we made it in time to watch part of mass. I'm not religious but how many people can say they've been to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral? I can! There was a huge number of tourists, gypsies, and a couple nuns; all of which I ignored. We didn't stay too long, mostly because it was in French and after walking all day we all needed a drink. So we walked back to the pub we had seen the specials for to watch the Eurocup game and have cheap drinks.

The pub was a small dive bar, but I have a cheap mojito and beer was on special so we sat there and watched the game. Its really awesome to be in Europe while the Eurocup is going on because people here are crazy about soccer. Like nuts. The game with Portugal against Czech Republic. Portugal pounded Czech Republic. After the game we decided to find some dinner. We had seen a bunch of Moroccan restaurants and Analise wanted to try it so we found one that was close by and had a pretty cheap menu du jour, which is the same as the menu of the day that I enjoyed in Barcelona.

Moroccan food was amazing. I had a salad with goat cheese on crostini and walnuts and lamb skewers served with vegetables. Holly and Analise had tagine which is like stew with chicken and potato and lemon, also delicious. For dessert I had creme brulee, which was homemade and wonderful. I guess that's the only French thing I ate while in France. After we stuffed ourselves silly, we headed to the metro stop and the Eiffel Tower. By now, the sun had gone down so it was dark outside.

We got to the Eiffel Tower and walked towards the glowing building, since it was all light up it was really easy to spot. I took about 2 million pictures, most of them look the same, and we sat down on a footpath and waited for it to light up. From far away, we could see the top when we were walking around earlier in the day and I wasn't that impressed. But close up, I was blown away. It is bigger than I imagined, and with the night lights and people milling around speaking French, it was such an experience. I could stare it at for hours. Okay, I don't really have that kind of attention span, but I did give it a solid 30 minutes which is pretty good for a stationary object.

Eventually, 10:50 rolled around and it light up all crazy. Unfortunately, while we were sitting there we kept getting approached by street vendors wanting us to buy wine or souvenirs. I informed them that they were ruining my Eiffel Tower experience and to go away. Who knows when the next time I'll be in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower at night, so I decided being blunt would be more worthwhile. While we were sitting there, this rat came out of nowhere and ran between Holly and Analise, causing mild hysterics for a couple minutes. Everyone survived and I am pleased to report that no diseases were caused by the invasion. After the Eiffel Tower, we finally headed to our hotel and bed after a long day of trekking Paris.

In the morning, we were supposed to get up relatively early to trek some more, but we all over slept and didn't make it out until around 11. We also all needed to shower (second time since being in France) and managed to clog up the shower drain. Awesome. We decided to try a museum but missed breakfast so we got some crepes (with ham and cheese...amazing) from a street vendor and headed to the Pompidou which holds one of the largest modern art museums in the world (this could be completely false but the building is huge so it make sense). We got poured on and went the wrong direction so it took us awhile to get there, but we made it and it was amazing.

There are all kinds of famous, modern artists like Jackson Pollack (although the few pieces they have of him do not seem very Pollack-y), Picasso, Dali, and a whole bunch more that are super famous that I had never heard of. I feel more cultured for having seen so much art, though. Some of it was a little strange and included noises, but overall it was awesome. After the museum we did a little shopping. Analise finally bought some Euro pants from a store that burns incense (she drags us into these places all the time and almost never buys anything). We ate some cheap Lebanese street food (falafel) and walked some more then headed back to our hotel to collect our things and go our separate ways, me to Madrid to meet up with Isabelle and them on the rest of their Euro journey.

I liked Paris a lot, but my heart is still in Barcelona. It is a totally different experience when you know the language and feel comfortable. Granted, we were only in Paris for 2 days, and I fell absolutely in love with it, but I like not feeling like a tourist and knowing stuff about the city, like how to get around. And I don't speak French.

I took a cab across town (for almost 16 euros...grrr) and waited in the train station for an hour before boarding my sleeper car to Madrid. I figured I would probably only be willing to take an overnight train once in my life, right? It was pretty awesome. There are rules about men and women sleeping together, so all the men go in one cabin and all the women go in a different one. Not all together, like 4 per cabin. The grandma in my cabin was traveling with her (hot) grandson who I spoke to, in my broken Spanish, for awhile. He was nice and helped me with my luggage at the insistence of his abuela. Eventually, they came around and let the beds down and I knocked out. I slept, the train moved. By the time I woke up again, we were in Madrid. Awesome.

I found Isabelle and her abuela and her tio and we had some coffee in the station and then boarded several trains and one bus to get back to Las Rozas, where her aunt lives. It is actually a suburb of Madrid, but it really isn't that far. Well, we haven't ventured into Madrid yet so I could be totally wrong about that. I do know that the train station is on the opposite side of the city, so downtown is somewhere in the middle. After getting to her aunts house, we dragged my stuff up the stairs, hung out in our room and chatted, ate lunch, took a 3 hour nap (she's still super jet lagged and I am happy to nap anytime). After our nap we made some plans for tomorrow, which aren't really plans but more intentions, and now we're on our computers since it is afternoon in the States and we can reach our American friends. I'm about to try and call my momma, since I haven't talked to her in like 10 days, hopefully she answers! For the next 2 weeks I'll be here, and then back to the States! I haven't been home since March, so the anticipation is killing me, I miss my sweet sweet Bartimus. But I can't wait to see Madrid and improve my Spanish some more. Isabelle's grandma doesn't speak English, except for 'Oh My God' and a couple holiday greetings (none of which are useful right now) and her uncle understands English but doesn't speak fluently. And her aunt wants me to learn more Spanish. So I should be great by the time I leave in two weeks, hopefully. It is almost midnight here and I understand there will be some sort of breakfast around 9 (juevos con jamon?), so I should go to sleep and call my momma.

¡Felíz viernes trece!

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!