Nice was Nice

Bonjour! I'm going to finally try and get up to date before we leave again this weekend. Hopefully you enjoyed the Barcelona post as much as I did writing it. I found myself laughing out loud as I tried to retell the stories of our Spanish adventure. Last weekend we traveled to the French Riviera, or Cote d'Azur. Our homebase: Nice, France, a touristy town lined with rocky beaches and bright blue waters. 

Friday, June 8: 

After we finished up a rigorous week of classes, homeworks, and tests in true Georgia Tech fashion, we packed our bags and made haste to the train station. We composted our tickets, boarded the train, and found our couchettes in car number 27. The sun finally went down and Jeff and I, tucked away in our top bunks, got a long night's sleep. 

Saturday, June 9:

We were awoken in the morning by fussy children, as the little family staying in our room prepared to get off. Jeff and I packed up our stuff and peered out of the train window as we cruised along the French coastline lit by a bright sunny sky. We arrived in Nice at about 9 a.m. and gathered with the rest of our group at the platform. The Sigma Chi group along with two other girls, Jen and Lindsey, were travelling with us again, only this time we were all staying together. We made our way to the hostel, which was located a stones throw away from the beach. We climbed the stairs and were greeted by the friendly young girl at the front desk. We paid for the night, tossed our bags in the luggage locker, and set out for the town until our room was ready. We walked along a road parallel with the coast, through a book fair, town squares, an art fair, and a flower market, accompanied by the sweet smell of the sea. After taking in all in, we finally crossed through the line of buildings onto the ocean front. 

(Flower market, smelled amazing.)

(Danal, Hayden, and Jeff making their way to the beach front.)

We cruised along the beach, taking in the hustle and bustle of the French beach vacationers. Bikes whizzed by us as we stared out at the blue water. We then returned to the hostel around 12:30 to claim our room and get ready to head to the beach. Once we had loaded our lockers with valuable and changed into our suits, we grabbed towels from the front desk and headed to the beach. We stopped along the way at a convenience store to get some cheap wine, of course. We set up camp on the pebbly beach and commenced in drinking and conversation. 

After a while, Jeff, Hayden and I decided to walk down the beach where there was, what looked like, a place to rent kayaks. We forked over 6 euro a piece, and waited on the shore for another group to come back in with the boats. While we waited, we kicked around a soccer ball with a little Australian boy and his dad, who were waiting to go para sailing. Once the kayaks came back, we loaded up and paddled furiously to break out of the surf into the calm blue waters of the Mediterranean. We pushed our boats against the current, parallel with shoreline, back to where we had set up our beach camp. We waved at our friends as they looked on in jealously. We took Jeff's water proof camera and took a ton of pictures of us paddling and swimming with the beautiful French coast in the background. However, you will not be able to see any of these pictures... In events that would soon follow that night, Jeff's camera, phone, and wallet were stolen. Nothing irreplaceable (passport etc.) was stolen except for our awesome photos. Oh well... We paddled back in after our 45 minutes was up. Hayden came in on a wave a little sideways and flipped his kayak, dumping out onto the rocky shore. Couldn't have felt good. But his misfortune was trumped by a girl we saw earlier that day, who got drug down the rocky beach on her knees after tripping on her para sail ascent. It looked so painful. We thanked the guys at the rental place and shuffled back down along the boardwalk to rejoin our friends. We sat for a little bit longer and enjoyed the sunshine and good company, but eventually dinner was calling. We picked up our trash, shook the sand out of our towels and headed back towards the hostel. Jen, Lindsey, Jeff, and Mike split off to go parasailing, while the rest of us took a rest in the lounge at the hostel, where we played FIFA and I finally got my hands on a guitar. Once the adventurers made it back, (now with no pictures), we all showered (not at the same time) and got dressed to head out for the night. Danal insisted that all the guys go get 2 for 1 margaritas at the Mexican place down the street before dinner, so while we had delicious and way out of context margaritas, the girls got ready and met up with us afterwards.

(Gleber had a little too much wine on the beach.)

As we had been walking around, the signs for "All you can eat mussels and fries!" had caught our eye. On a mission for seafood, Jeff, Danal, Hayden, Andrew, and I set out to find the mythical unlimited dinner. I've never even had mussels, oysters, or really any slimy little shell guys. But, I figured I'd had enough to drink that if they were unlimited, I could probably stuff my fat face. We wandered down the main road, and got stopped by a really funny, what I like to call, restaurant recruiter. Jeff and Chris Travel Tip #21: "Steer clear of restaurants with recruiters. If they're food was that good, they wouldn't need to pull you in off the street." But he was good at recruiting, and they had the deal we were looking for so we went for the bait. The recruiter kept calling Jeff, "the Boss", which pumped his chest full of pride. When we sat down the recruiter yelled, "Garcon! A round of champagne for the Boss and his friends!" 

I was hesitant, but it did in fact end up being free. Our waitress came quickly, and offered us menus, which we rejected. Our destiny was clear. ALL YOU CAN EAT MUSSELS AND FRIES. We communicated that to her somewhat effectively and she proceeded to offer us various sauces. Sauces? Sweet! About an hour and 4 buckets per person of those little chewy bastards later, there were shells everywhere and we had sampled all the flavors. Mission Success. As the sun started to set, our stomachs were full and we decided we'd head back to the hostel to watch the Portugal vs. Germany soccer game. We rejoined the rest of our group, and all nine of us piled on the couch and watched the Germans take down Portugal 1-0. After the game, we set out for the town yet again, this time in search of some Nice nightlife. Danal had done some research and wanted us to check some bar on the North side of town. When we got there, they were over capacity and wouldn't let us come in. So we walked next door, where there was a band playing, got a round of beers and grabbed a table. We sat for a while, clanked our glasses a few times, and listened to the band play Franz Ferdinand songs in half English, half French. We stayed there all night and socialized in the bar, with what I remember being quite a multicultural group: a Spanish bachelorette party, a group of Australian guys and Swedish girls, and quite a few sunburned Frenchmen. The party moved onto the streets later in the night,  we all got beers to go, and joined the crowd mingling on the Riviera boulevard. We went from group to group, captured in the conversations of what felt like a UN summit. Once we broke through the mass of people filling the streets, Gleber and I went in search of a McDonalds. We had no luck, and went to bed. Jeff's evening ended with a late night swim, where his shorts, containing the camera, iPhone, and wallet, were lifted from the beach as he looked on helplessly from the breaking surf.

Sunday, June 10:

We all woke up just in time to have breakfast at the hostel and make our 10 o' clock train. The 8 hour ride was easy. I had some new music to listen to and Jeff shared his Kindle with me while he took a nap. We changed trains in Paris, to board another TGV, non-stop to Metz. I played some iPod solitaire and reflected on the relaxing and eventful weekend in Nice.

We've got another busy school week coming up, but we've got a nice break in the middle for a school field trip to the Maginot Line. I'll post some pictures from that sometime tomorrow. Bon Nuit!