Nice/Monaco!

Ciao Everybody!

So this weekend turned out to be quite possibly one of the best weekends ever. It's crazy because I originally had nothing planned this weekend until Friday afternoon when someone suggested Nice, France. I remember just sitting in the student lounge when Nice was suddenly suggested, and since it's been a place I've really wanted to go, I figured, why not? So we looked up some trains and ended up catching a train Saturday morning to start our trip. the train ride was about 4 and a half hours to Nice and back which wasn't too bad. It was a very scenic train ride and the first stop we made was in Ventimiglia, Italy to transfer trains.

The beach of Nice, France

Ventimiglia is a city right on the Mediterranean coast near the border of France and Italy. This place was so beautiful that we had to stay for an hour and a half instead of just catching the next train to Nice. We had a nice meal in Ventimiglia, took in the view, and made our way back to the train station to catch the last train to Nice. The train ride from Ventimiglia to Nice was quite possibly the most amazing and scenic train ride ever. I took a lot of really amazing photos of the landscape on the way to Nice and it was definitely a memorable ride. The towns on the way were pretty much constructed on the side of the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, which made for a really incredible sight. When we got to Nice, we made our way to the hostel which was about a 10 minute walk to the beach. We dropped our things off at the hostel and then made our way to the beach. The beach was pretty incredible, although there wasn't sand but mostly small rocks, however, the view definitely made up for it. A couple of the guys in our group ended up swimming in the ocean which was still cold despite the warm weather. It was hard to leave the beach, but when we did we walked a little more around the center of the city, where there was a neat ferris wheel and a place that sold crepes where I had one of the best food items I have ever had: an authentic Nutella Crepe. This thing was amazing and definitely one of my favorite foods of all time. After exploring a little more of the city, we ended up going to the "Old Town" of Nice, where most of the nightlife is.

The Monte Carlo

We had dinner at a nice restaurant where I had an amazing Beef Fillet with some tasty Gelato and we then made our way to a nearby bar. This bar was pretty cool because they had some live music playing and they would also serve "Meters" of shots, where they would have a meter-long holder lined up with shots, that we split as a group which was really fun. We also met some local French people from Nice there and one of them offered to show us around Monaco the next day which was really cool. From that bar we continued to another one called "Le Ghost" which was neat as well. After that we got some amazing Kebab and then headed back to the hostel, where we barely woke up for some breakfast the next morning. After breakfast, we headed to the train station and met up with our French friend, Olivier, and headed to the second smallest country in the world (next to the Vatican), Monaco. We went back onto the scenic train for about 20min and arrived in Monaco. Monaco is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been to. A soon as we arrived we made our way to the famous Monte Carlo casino and on the way there I couldn't help but notice how clean and nice the overall area was. There are even security cameras all over the country to prevent criminal activities on the streets.

A view of the Monaco port

When we got to the area of where the Monte Carlo was I was blown away. This place was an extremely rich area and I saw more expensive and luxurious cars then you would even find at a car show. There were cars made by Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Maserati, Porche, Mercedes, and even more. They were all congested in this one area and I couldn't believe it. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside the Monte Carlo because you need to be wearing at least a suit, but it looked amazing from the outside. So we got cigars at a shop nearby and walked behind the Monte Carlo where we got a beautiful view of the ocean. From there we walked down into the port of Monaco and had lunch at a really good restaurant with a view of the port from where we were sitting. We had our cigars shortly after and I must admit, I definitely felt like a celebrity there. I could not believe how beautiful and luxurious this place was and it is definitely one of my favorite places I have ever been to. After lunch, we headed back to the train station and went back to Nice, got our belongings at the hostel, and caught a train back to Torino. I cannot believe we did so much in only two days! It was a really incredible trip and there is so much to see there. I really didn't want to leave but I am that much more excited to travel now and I hope I can go back there again before I head back to the states. It truly was an incredible place. I have many pictures of Nice and Monaco on Facebook and I encourage everyone to take a look! I am really glad that a potentially dull weekend turned out to be one of the best weekends ever and I'm looking forward to the future! I can't believe that I have been here for 1 month so far. It's been a pretty amazing month and I'm looking forward to the next 3!

Ciao!