From the big city to a little bed

It's finally my turn to give this blogging a try so bare with me if its not the greatest you have ever read.

We wrapped up our tour of Paris on a rather dull note. It poured rain most of the morning however we decided to go out and check out one more site, the cemetery of Pere Lachaise. Wow! Not the cemetery we were expecting at all, massive head plates and family tombs lined the seemingly endless rows and streets used the navigate the huge lot. We found the graves of both Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison which was the goal of the outing. With a few hours left until we boarded our train to Nice, we relaxed and rested our feet after 2 and a half days of furious walking.

The overnight train to Nice was an exciting thought for all of us as we had never taken a couchette car overnight before. Our excitement quickly faded once we saw we would be spending 10 hours in a "room" about 6'x6' and about 10 feet high with three other people. It really was a move from the big city to a little room especially for me who managed to be booked into the top bunk about 2 feet from the ceiling! This wouldn't have been so bad if my legs were fully extended. Rob also had it bad being on the middle bunk and having no place for his bag he too enjoyed the fetal position. The sleep however was very relaxing, and getting to Nice was a great relief.

We however did not outrun the rain as it was still coming down quite hard when we arrived. We found our new hostel, Chez Patrick, on a small side street and having B&B feel rather than the dorm we had left in Paris.

The next 6 hours were spent walking the winding streets of Nice trying to take in the beauty. The main strip (leading to the beach) lined with boutiques reminded me how much fun having a job prior to this trip would have been. At the bottom of the street a larger square takes you on the beach. The Stone beach itself was great to walk on and allowed Rob and Kristen to collect enough beached glass to make Ikea jealous. Dinner by the beach capped off our first day in Nice.

We woke at about 4am to our roommate (roughly45 yrs. old) snoring so loud our bunks were shaking. Finally that stopped and we were able to catch a couple more hours before heading off to Monaco for a day trip. We grabbed a train which took about 25 min to get there. Again, a gorgeous place. The Casino was the highlight as it looked like we were back in the Louvre with the interior decore, bronze statues and ceiling murals it put what we knew to be casinos to shame. Adding to the beauty was the 37 euros I won on the slots. In addition to the Casino we had lunch at a cafe by the marina, and walked the city including parts of the grand prix track. All this walking was in an effort to find the beach which we did 20 min before out train back, soo much for that! Our consolation was the car gazing we were able to do as we walked the streets, Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls with a sprinkling of Lambos was quite the cite. You know you have it made with your city's taxi of choice is a C class Benz.

Well that about wraps of the last 2 and a half days. A big dinner awaits at Buffalo Grill, really French I know but after 6 days of baguettes, bring on the steak!