Nice, France

Once I finally arrived in Nice around 11:30 pm I just wanted to get to my hostel!  I stayed at the Hostel Meyerbeer Beach.  It was both within walking distance from the train station as well as just a block from the beach and the fabulous emerald waters of the Mediterranean Sea!  Since it was obviously dark at 11:30 pm and I didn't know the exact location of the hostel, I decided to take a cab.  I didn't think it would be too safe to wander the streets by myself although Nice isn't know for it's crime.  Typically I wouldn't mind walking and getting lost but it was too late for that and I was pooped.  So the first mistake I made was even getting a cab!  This fool got lost and it was only like a 10 minute walk from the train station, much less in a car!  Then when we finally find the place he charged me 15 Euro!  He totally ripped me off.  I'm still a bit bitter about the situation to be honest!  Oh well you learn from your mistakes.  I got into the hostel just fine and there was a Russian girl in the room who was one of my roommates, her name was Maria.  I had no more than put my stuff on the bed and she asked me if I would like to go walk around.  As it's easy for me to cave to peer pressure, I agreed.  We just walked down to the water front and walked along the long promenade.  Had a couple local young boys try and hassle us but we just ignored them and kept walking.  I would say we walked around for about 45 minutes before we headed back to the hostel.  As we were getting ready for bed our other roommate came in who was a 20 year old Aussie.  We chatted for a bit then it was lights out.

My first full day in Nice involved a lot of walking around.  For the most part the weather was really nice, but still a little chilly to get into any bathing suit or get into the water for that matter.  My first plan of action was to walk back to the train station and get my ticket sorted out to get to Milan the next day.  I was only going to spend 2 nights in Nice as there isn't a whole lot of things to do outside of the beach. I figured out the train I needed to catch to Milan which had a stop over in a little Italian city called Ventimiglia.  Afterwards I bought a few postcards and rang my Aussie roommate to go meet him for lunch.  We decided on Kebab across from the hostel and it was delicious.  We then walked over to the old town area.

This was a neat little area in the old town of Nice that had musicians playing and this hilarious fat guy that was dancing around!  From here we saw a lookout point from a nearby hill so we decided to climb up and get a view of the city from there. It was well worth it!

I also walked around a bit more on the beach and snapped a few more pics of the stunning water.  One thing to note is that Nice does not have a sandy beach, instead it's a rocky one!  I found that to be surprising!

After roaming around awhile, I decided to go back to the hostel and figure out where I would stay in Milan and some of the other places that I was heading too.  That turned out to be quite a nightmare.  Some places were already booked, others weren't close to the train station etc.  I finally ended up booking a place that my "Rough Guide to Italy" book recommended.  It was called La Cordata, was reasonably priced and it was easily found from the train station.  But more on that later.  That evening the Aussie roommate and I had planned on catching a football match he wanted to see.  Soccer (football) doesn't really interest me much but it was something to do and get out for a bit.  Munich was playing Manchester United.  We had some food at the bar while we watched the game.  It was bar food so I don't remember it being anything spectacular. After the game, (Man U won by the way) I believe we just went back to the hostel.  Our Russian roommate had checked out earlier that day so it was just him and I which was cool cause I knew he didn't snore, haha!  That's my biggest problem with hostel dwelling is that you never know who you're gonna end up with and if they are gonna be snorers or not!  Next Stop...Milan!