A Nice Time in Nice (& Monte-Carlo!)

*from April 16 & April 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm currently on the train to Milan. When we arrived in Ventimiglia on Friday, we didn't know what platform to go to to catch the train to Nice. The train we came on was a little late. We searched for a departure board, but they didn't have anything listed... We found someone who works at the station and he said all the trains were done for the day. (I think we actually walked by the train we were supposed to be on.) Not exactly the news we were hoping for. The next train would leave at 6:00am...We were in Ventimiglia around 9:30pm. He suggested that we take a taxi to Menton (8 km away), then from there take the bus to Nice. That sounded like our best option...basically since no more trains were leaving that night. We got a taxi and the driver took us to Menton. He&  didn't always stay in his lane, seemed to be speeding, & would pass cars going over solid lines...apparently those have a different definition in Italy (?). Our crazy ride was getting pretty expensive...good thing we'd split it between 3 people though. We got to the Menton bus station...which was closed. Awesome. But not really. We asked the taxi driver if he could drive us to Nice & how much it would be. He said yes & it would be 100 euro (we didn't have to also pay the 30+ euro from Ventimiglia-->Menton). So we decided to have him drive us to Nice--much better than trying to figure out what else to do since we definitely did not have very many back up options. Ventimiglia-->Nice took about 1 hour.

During our drive, we got to see the gorgeous coast at night with all the building lights. We got to Nice & had him drop us off at the front entrance of the train station. He was really nice & we're thankful he was able to drive us that far! We asked at the information desk if they knew where our hotel was. Turns out it's very close to the station. We headed to the hotel (at this point it was around 10:30pm & we were hungry!--Schoko Balls + chips can only sustain you for so long). We got to the hotel & tried to open the door. Seeing & perhaps hearing our struggle, a lady came out of no where. She was the owner of the hotel. She was surprised we were so early because they weren't expecting us until 12:30am. We checked in & she was happy she got to leave work early. Out first impression of her is that she's really nice! :)

Since all of us were hungry, we went out to find somewhere to eat. We went to Woody's, which seemed like an American bar/restaurant. I don't usually eat burgers, but I ordered one since I thought it'd be more filling than pizza. I went with the Delux Burger and it came with coleslaw and fries. We all enjoyed our burgers & they were quite satisfying.We left Woody's to go back to the hotel for sleep!

Delux Burger

Saturday: We got ready & had breakfast at the hotel: croissant, baguette, butter, jam (strawberry, cherry, apricot), tea. The bread was delicious. We went to the train station to get a train to Monte-Carlo. We arrived at the Monaco Monte-Carlo station and got timetables. My friends were going to spend the day walking the race track route. I was going to watch the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament. I had to wait for the train, so in the meantime, I looked at souvenirs & ate a ham & cheese panini. The train came, and it was about a 6 minute ride to the Monte-Carlo Country Club.

Breakfast in Nice

I bought a ticket for Center Court. I went to go find it, and after roaming & trying to get directions, someone told me it was closed, but that I could go to Court 2 (only covered court) to watch. After waiting (they only let people in during breaks), I finally got in--third row near the baseline. It was awesome to see the clay court! I came during a match in 1st set progress: Mayer vs. Delbonis. Apparently Mayer's coach was sitting in the general area that I was in because he kept yelling/looking over when things weren't going right for him. 2nd set: Mayer messed up his ankle, but got it taped up and he continued playing. Delbonis won: 7-6, 6-4. The next match was Couillard vs. Ungur. Ungur won 6-4, 6-2. Third match I watched (it rained all day): Robert (French) vs. Bachinger (German). Bachinger won 6-1, 6-3. I got up & walked around. I bought a MCCC 2012 hat, saw Center Court, and bought a Nutella crepe. I walked around more & looked at the shops/stands.

Ungur

Nadal Poster

Center Court

Nadal Poster

Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 2012

The closest I came to seeing Nadal was on a poster.

I went back to the covered court and got in the front row near the other baseline. I saw Rosol vs. Rufin and left at 6-7, 7-6 because I had to catch the 6:29pm train back to the Monaco Monte-Carlo station to meet up with my friends. We went back to Nice/the hotel to decide where to go for dinner.

ATP World Tour

At the Train Station

We went to Old Nice in search of somewhere to eat. The hotel owner suggested Gesu & 2 other restaurants with local Nice food. We walked to the old part of town in search of a restaurant. We found the church, there were blue lights about part of a street, and we saw color-lighted people above part of the square. We kept walking, and it was semi-sketchy because of all the narrow alleyways that branched off the streets we were on. We found some restaurants and decided on Gesu. The place was pretty packed. The host put us at a table for 6 that already had 2 people sitting/eating at it--kinda awkward. It took quite a while for him to take our order--I got Cannelloni & wine. Our food was pretty quick to come. I tried some of my friend's tomato/mozzarella/bread After dinner, we went back to the hotel.

Notre Dame in Nice

Lights above the Street

Conversation a Nice

Cannelloni

Sunday: We all got ready & then had breakfast at the hotel. We went to Mass at Notre Dame in Nice. The Mass was in French. [During our walk to the church or at some point in the weekend, one of my friends asked why I knew some French ("chaud"=hot) that our other friend didn't know--he took French for 3 years. My French knowledge is 99% credited to my brother, who has been learning French since his grade school days. I guess all his talking to me in French & my "ignoring" it helped/soaked in lol. I also think it's kinda weird that I can sometimes read French.] The French Mass did have some differences--not too sure what prayer they were saying. The French Mass also made me realize that I don't know the Mass extremely well. For example, I couldn't remember all the words for the Nicene Creed. When Mass is in English, it's like you kind of follow along with everyone else--but with the French one, I was solo. I feel like I need to go to an English Mass very soon! And when I'm back in the USA, I'm going to work on really understanding the meanings of what we say during Mass. After Mass, I walked around the church--it was beautiful.

Notre Dame in Nice

We walked to the old part of town. We went to a really cool store (Pylones) with a bunch of random, bright colored things. It was pretty sweet. I thought about buying many things, including a rubber duckie shower radio :P but resisted. 

Pylones

The sun was out and the weather was really nice, except for the huge grey clouds that seemed to be coming, so we decided to hit up the beach first so we can get pictures. On the way we went to a couple souvenir shops. 

Finally made it to the water! BEAUTIFUL! The water was so blue & the rocks/pebbles were cool. I took my shoes & socks off & put my feet in the (cold) water of the Mediterranean.  :)

Nice, France on the Mediterranean

Beautiful Shore

[By the way, currently on a train to Salzburg, Austria!--next stop for me for a train change is in Ulm. I'm so excited to see the "The Sound of Music" stuff! I wish I had my guitar with me lol. Also, there is currently a nun sitting to my left across the aisle...how fitting :) ]


Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR