Andy in The Netherlands: Day 143 - 146

From Barcelona Adrian and I jet-set to some of the world's glitziest vacation property, the French Riviera!

Day 143 - Barcelona to Nice

After a truly terrible hostel breakfast and wasting a few hours in the air conditioned hostel lounge, Adrian and I set off to El Prat airport for our flight to Nice. The airport was really, really nice and appears to be brand-new, complete with a really nice airport open-air park in the middle. The legroom on our Spanair flight was laughably bad - the worst I've ever experienced, but thankfully it was a really short flight into Nice. We took a bus to the train station, and from there a short walk to our wonderful hostel, Hotel Pastoral. It's housed on the second floor of an apartment building, run by a really sweet young family, and I couldn't recommend it enough to anybody traveling to Nice on a budget.

Adrian and I strolled down the main drag and into the Old Town, which was really picturesque. Even more beautiful was the coast, which was hard to believe was real. We walked along the coast for a bit, down to the harbor full of multi-million dollar yachts registered in the Cayman Islands, and eventually got dinner at a fast food Indian place that was pretty decent for the price. Figuring it was the appropriate thing to do, we found some bottles of wine and headed back to the hostel, where we sat on the terrace with a group of Americans, Canadians, and Aussies and had a great time chatting into the night. This was just scratching the surface of how great the terrace would be, though.

Day 144 - Nice

We woke up kind of late and hung out on the terrace into the early afternoon with two really cool but star-crossed Australian brothers endeavoring to take scooters along the coast of France to Italy but succumbing to engine troubles almost immediately into their journey. We eventually went to the stony beach in Nice, worked on our horrific tans, and tried not to get sunburned (I still managed to miss a few spots). The water was gloriously warm and a blast to swim in, and we both made headway on the new book we were sharing, Emergency Sex (misleading title!), about UN workers' lives in the 90s.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way back and picked up fresh baguettes, croissants, meats, cheeses, and wine, and had a thoroughly French (and cheap!) meal on the terrace. We spent hours out there with a whole big group of Australians, a couple Chicagoans, and two Canadian girls who found everything I said to be uproariously funny, much to Adrian's displeasure. After some truly great conversation we rolled out as a giant group to a couple of the popular Nice bars. We first went to some Irish place with a terrible cover band and absurdly priced drinks, and eventually next door to the most popular place in town, a horrible place called Wayne's. Adrian and I were initially denied entry because of course we were, but we were alas too pathetic to not let in, standing outside while all of our other friends got inside. Once inside the first song played was "Reptilia," which was a good sign, and after some Katy Perry nonsense, "Seven Nation Army" got a rousing sing/dancealong. The night ended with "Song 2" to the delight of everyone inside. The whole crew eventually made it back to the hostel, and we exchanged some goodbyes with some of the Aussies who would be leaving early the next morning for Paris. It was another memorable night, and a lot of fun, despite the absurd dent in our wallets.

Day 145 - Monte Carlo

As always, the day started on the terrace. It seriously might be my favorite place I've been in all of Europe, that little cramped terrace, with so many interesting and funny people from all over the world. Adrian has a picture of it I'll have to find, but it won't do it justice. We took a train to Monaco to visit the fabled Monte Carlo, and the views of Villefranche and Cap D'Ail along the way were breathtaking.

It turns out, unsurprisingly, that there isn't a lot to do in Monte Carlo if you aren't fabulously wealthy. There's something very uncomfortable about knowing that you're probably the poorest person in the entire country, and overall I didn't like the feel of the place at all. Nevertheless, the displays of wealth were impressive and astounding, as a near constant parade of Rolls Royces and Bentleys in front of Le Casino attested to. We wandered around, found a full service Haagen-Dazs where I got an terrific iced coffee (with coffee ice cream!), and we ended up sitting in a park Googling billionaires and trying to determine if Cory's dad was on the Forbes list or not (he's not, haha). Adrian had a particularly "Adrian" monologue in which he proclaimed that everyone in the world is essentially working for one guy, and it was depressing and basically true and fit the character of Adrian that would appear in a movie about our lives really well. There were a couple instances this trip of Adrian saying things that were so perfectly "Adrian" that they didn't sound like they were coming from him at all, but rather from the character of Adrian in some indie movie, and it was hilarious every time.

Back in Nice we made a very fruitful H&M run, where I got the pair of pants I have been searching for for years, and a very nice button down shirt with the buttoned down corners of the collar that I'm so fond of. We grabbed more baguettes, olive oil, goat cheese, and wine (when in France!) for yet another delicious, simple, and cheap meal. There were new arrivals on the terrace, where we were institutions now, including a guy from Montreal who had a friend in Sammy at Michigan and had visited before, which was cool. There were also some wonderful girls in from Vermont that were nice to talk to, and once again the conversation drifted late into the night until we were ushered off the terrace. The south of France is tremendous. Most people in stores speak English, but I was able to use a fair bit of French with people to buy food and whatnot, which was cool.

Day 146 - Nice II

After another late start and regrettably terrible Chinese fast food, we attempted to catch a train to Cannes. Unfortunately, the ticket machines in Nice do not take American credit cards or cash, and with only one ticket window open, I couldn't justify waiting a half hour to spend my money to go to a beach when Nice was beckoning for free, so we bailed on Cannes. After changing in our hostel we bumped into two Michigan grads also staying there, which was funny, and we got the great story of how they previously stayed with an OSU grad who hadn't heard the news about the crumbling of Columbus - and had to hear about everything from two gloating Michigan kids!

We spent another 4-5 hours at the beach in Nice, with the added wrinkle of having the approach runway at the Nice airport switched such that planes were landing in front of us all day, which was fun. There was free gazpacho that we lost our minds for (free anything in Europe!), and there might not be a nicer activity than reading on the beach. We once again ate a dinner of baguettes and cheese, and spent what must have amounted to five hours talking with the girls from Vermont, a couple from New Zealand, our Aussie bros, and two newcomers from New Orleans, a pair of nice guys. I just cannot stress what a pleasant time we'd have on this terrace with a breeze rolling in as night fell, wine in our glasses and good conversation in every direction.

At some point we decided that going for a swim would be a great idea. Adrian and I accompanied our trio of Catamounts, Hank from New Orleans, and the couple from New Zealand down to the beach and we all rushed into the rolling waves. It was really, really special. The moon was almost full, and there were incredible views of villas all along the coast lit up at night. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments, and I'm so grateful for that night. After walking back we talked in the kitchen as long as it was tolerated, and begrudgingly went to bed, but not before giving all the contact information to Heidi - who still hasn't gotten in contact with us! Haha, I'll give it some more time, I suppose.

Go to Nice.

Here are some pictures.