Nice, France
All good things come to those who have a horrible commute to get there. When I committed to go to Nice I forgot how big France was. Three of my students are abroad in Milan this semester and I agreed to meet them in Nice for the weekend. Train tickets were extremely expensive, so I decided to do a 10-hour overnight FlixBus to Marseille and then take a two-hour train to Nice. As I was walking to the bus stop, I couldn’t remember if I grabbed my sunglasses or not. Thinking I had enough time (bc my apartment is 10 minutes away from the stop) I went back to grab them. I went back to the bus stop to wait. Shortly after the bus was supposed to arrive, I checked its location and it was on its way to the next stop without me. The bus had left 15 minutes before it was supposed to. I always arrive early in case that happens, but this time I used the extra time to go back to my apartment. To make matters worse, I had my sunglasses with me the whole time. I booked the next bus to Marseille which would leave in an hour. The downside was it had a connection in Leon at 3:30am. Thankfully the bus took longer to get there, so I arrived in Leon at 4:30 with my connecting at 5:15. The FlixBus area was under this bridge and to make it sketcher cops came because there was this big fight. All I want to do is get on this stupid bus. So I wait and wait, and wait. The bus NEVER SHOWS UP!!! I’m stranded in Leon. To end this horror story, I got an Uber to the train station and got a train to Nice. I will forever have beef with FlixBus (I’ll go on to ride with them four more times).
But as I mentioned earlier, all good things come to those who have a horrible commute to get there. Nice heard that I thought Bruges was the best and it decided to one-up it. I had an hour to kill before my students arrived, so I walked to the beach. On the way there I stopped at the market, got some pineapple, and ate it on the beach. I love my Strasbourg A&M group, but I didn’t know them before studying abroad and we don’t have many mutual friends at A&M. With my students, it felt like I was back at A&M. I also just love them and it's always good to surround yourself with people who are obsessed with you.
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| 2nd Attempt bc We Took Our First Pictures at the Wrong Turn |
We checked into our hostel and then walked around before catching the train to Monaco. I was expecting a little more based on the hype. Other than the fancy cars that drove by, and all the yachts parked, it looked like most cities. We spent a few hours there just walking around. We went into the casino and I got my picture taken by the famous F1 turn. It’s the sharpest turn in the F1 circuit (I know that because of Andrew). My life is complete knowing I’ve been to the set of the Monte Carlo movie.
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| Academic Weapon |
The next day we went to the market and then the beach. At the market, I got five prints. In my defense, they were all pretty and two were for my roommates. I also got a smoothie and pastry. We chilled at the beach and then I chilled in the freezing water. When I got out a Northern Irish guy was talking to my students. We talked for a little and as we went to get lunch he asked if he could come. He stuck around for lunch, and another market, and gelato, and a park. He was with us for the whole day. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but he was kinda annoying and we couldn't talk about anything A&M-related without having to explain it to him. On the bright side, the gelato was amazing and the park was my favorite part of Nice.
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| Typical Park Attire |
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| Still Thinking About That Sandwich |
My students left around 11 the next day, while my flight wasn’t until 7. I got another salami sandwich (got one the first day) and ate it at the beach. I think my dad’s spirit possessed me as soon as I came to Europe because not only am I eating sandwiches all the time for lunch, I’m eating salami sandwiches. As I was chilling on the beach, a man came up to me and after a very awkward conversation with lots of pauses on my part (to hopefully get him to leave) he asked me if I wanted to work on his boat. Sir, call me when you find someone dumb enough to believe your story and fake boat picture. I went back to the park and walked around the rest of the day, before heading to the airport and flying back. Knowing I had a flight back was the only thing that got me through my horrible commute to Nice.
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| Wouldn't You Stay up All Night and do a 12hr Commute for Them Too 😍 |
Seeing my students was amazing!! We swapped our traveling stories and we got to talk about mutual friends and what’s been going on at A&M. I didn’t know how much I needed to talk to people back home. I’ve been really bad about communicating with my A&M friends because of the time zone, and I also don’t want to come across as bragging when I tell them how I’ve been. So, I’ve kinda been out of the loop and missing my friends.
Nice became my top city after that weekend. Part of it was the company, part of it was finally seeing the sun, and part of it was having a chill beach weekend. It did make coming back and having to study for my last final horrible though. I think I studied maybe 3 hours.
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| View from our Hostel (Got Bug Bites bc we Kept our Door Open Though) |
PS: Sorry for the long wait. After Belgium, I stayed in Strasbourg because I had finals. Then after Nice, I had my last final, and immediately set off to London and have been traveling since. Ask MK, I’ve been stressing over not updating my fans.
Au revoir!
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