Nice? Niiiiiiice.

After Jannah's cozy night in the Paris Airport, we woke up to catch our early morning flight to Nice, France. I had heard some really nice things about the city! (Yeah, I know. The joke is probably wayyy overdone, but I like it.)

When booking the hostel for this trip, we were running low on funds so we went with the cheapest one we could find and paid absolutely no attention to the ratings. As as we walked into the "lobby" it became evident as to why this was true. Allow me to set the scene:

A "pink lady" dressed head to toe in various shades of pink, the smell of my grandma's basement, a yippy old dog tied to the leg of a table growling at us, a woman sitting at said table eating shrimp (with eyeballs in tact), and another old lady with a hunchback who delivered the food (because this little slice of heaven also served as a restaurant!)
Due to her frail state, she is only able to carry one plate at a time, and Throughout our stay, I found myself feeling sorry for her and helped carry out the food to cut down on her trips.

Well we paid our money, and the "Pink Lady" stuck the cash in the "waitress's" apron pocket and guided us to our room. On our ride up the elevator, it started sparking and Jannah had a minor panic attack while the "Pink Lady" proceeded to bang on it and curse in French. This totally helped settle our minds...We set our stuff in our room, and decided to head out to explore the nice city. (baha)

While walking through the streets, Hannah and I were venting on the previous half hour of our hostel experience and how amazingly creepy this place really was, when Hannah pointed out the fact that up ahead there was a man who literally had a grown cat perched on his shoulder. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen...well, next to the terrifying doll collection that the "Pink Lady" proudly displayed in the window of her restaurant.

From that point, Nice was 0-2, like Shaquille O'Neal at the free-throw line.

After our first day of exploring, we headed back to the hostel and ran into some guys that were staying in the room next to ours. They were from Texas and Georgia! Finally, some normal people! We all went out that night to a pub and polished off some liter beer, it was a good time. On the way back, I somehow got on one of my favorite topics of conversation, Chipotle, with the kid from Georgia, Daniel.
We went on and on about how "it's not just a burrito." Obviously, we were all hungry so we stopped into a late night sandwich shop and we all got something to eat. Upon finishing his food, Daniel made a drunken confession:

Daniel: "Ya know what Jane?" The whole time I was eating my sandwich, I actually was pretending that it was a steak burrito from Chipotle. Now, I don't miss it as much. You should try it.

Daniel's drunken honesty was probably the highlight of my night. (And no, it didn't work. In no way is a ham baguette even remotely comparable to Chipotle goodness.)

On Friday, Hannah and I went out again to walk around the city and see the [nude] beach. Us Kansas girls, get pretty damn excited about beach, even if 1/6 of the visitors were the last people you would ever want to see nakey. The beach was beautiful! Even though the water was cold, I wasted no time in getting in.
After our brief walk around, we headed to the train station to check out some other possible destinations and decided on Monaco, one of the smallest and the most rich country in the world.

Monaco was absolutely amazing! I have never seen so many yachts in a single harbor. They were everywhere. While walking around we spent a lot of time in front of Monte Carlo Casino which was surrounded by the absolute nicest cars, a BMW looked out of place in the valet parking lot. There was a beautiful garden out front equipped with the prettiest tulips of every color. Naturally, next door was a ridiculously priced restaurant, a Rolex store where

Jannah picked out our souvenirs and an gilato shop which was DELICIOUS.

On Saturday, we met up with Dan and Tim, a couple of our American friends from Uni, on their way through Nice. We took them to the beach and hung out for a couple hours before they had to catch their train. It was a nice relaxing day to soak up some Nice sun.

That night, Jannah went out and got a couple bottles of wine to enjoy while watching the waves crash on the shore. I guess we caught the attention of a few locals and they came over and started talking to us. They gave us a couple beers and we all just hung out for about an hour. One of the guys spoke quality English, and was convinced that we should date and that I should be his girlfriend haha I was not as keen to this idea and neither was Hannah. We decided it was time for us to go. We said our goodbye's and headed off towards our hostel.

However, when realizing that my NOT boyfriend was following us, we veered an opposite direction and into a hotel that was not ours. We walked through the lobby and towards the elevators, he also came in behind us. I assume he saw what button we pushed, because upon our elevator reaching the 4th floor of the hotel, he is standing on the 4th floor in front of the stair well.

Creepy English-speaking French guy: "Ha! I found you!"
Jannah: "AaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

We then took off running as fast as we could down the opposite hall. He didn't get the hint and he began to follow us laughing and giggling. We went to the front desk and explained our awkwardly horrifying experience to the woman at the front desk and she allowed us to hide out in the girl's bathroom. Problem solved. After those shenanigans, we decided to head back to the hostel for the night.

Sunday, we spent our last day relaxing. Hannah had another awesome encounter with the "Pink Lady" when she was in the shower. I guess Hannah thought she was me when the lady knocked on the door, and she gave her the "okay" to come in. The "Pink Lady" walks on in with the plumber on her heels. Hannah was in shock and I guess the "Pink Lady" could tell so she kindly offered Hannah an old shabby bed sheet to cover up with. Hannah awkwardly turned it down and came back into the room soaking wet with shampoo dripping down her face, she looked like a kitty that just got outta the shower. It was hilarious (for me, not so much her.)

Later on that night we met a guy from Colorado, Ben, who was just returning from a Kayaking trip and a nomad from Anywhere, America. He has been to over 70 countries and spends all his time traveling. We played cards and shared stories for about 4 hours straight. It was so much fun to hear about other people's adventures and share some of our own.

That is probably one of my favorite things about traveling, is the people that you meet. Even though you may have nothing in common, for those few hours it is as though you have been good friends for years. We spent the entire night making jokes at each other's expense and just being goofy. It was a great way to spend our last night in France.

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed for the airport where we would spend the night before our flight to Rome in the morning. I am convinced that they had the air conditioners on full blast and left the doors open. I have never been so cold whilst indoors in my life. Hannah and I were wearing almost every article of clothing in our back packs. I had on 1 pair of tights, 2 pairs of leggings, a skirt, tank top, long sleeve shirt, tshirt, and used 2 dresses as blankets. I skoped out a nice little doorway about 2 am that had a bit of wind blockage where Jannah set up camp. Finally, about 2:45 am after situating our sleeping situation (there may have been spooning involved and I might've been big spoon, SCORE!!!), we caught some sleep. We survived the night and woke up about 9:30 am to a line of about 5 people waiting at the ATM just staring at us. I half expected someone to throw some change our way.

"For just 80 cents a day, you could sponsor this child so that she doesn't have to spend the night in a damn airport."

It was miserable, but all we could do was laugh (and shiver).

ON TO ITALIA!!!

bon jour!

jane