Ahhhh Cote D' Azur.... Superb. After a sad goodbye to Melbourne, a very long flight and a few airport dramas I finally made it to beautiful Nice. This has got to be the most amazing place i have ever seen. The bus from the airport into town took the scenic route down the coast just for me, i think. Amazing clear blue and turquoise waters. It felt so surreal after leaving cold Melbourne and then to be here in 30 degree Mediterranean sunshine, i thought i was dreaming.
I checked into my hostel with just my handbag as the airline decided to not put my luggage on the plane! Accommodation was fantastic, really clean, at the end of my bed was a very large window which looked out onto a small valley of orange roofed villas. The staff were so super friendly, not to mention good looking, obviously not as hot as the staff at longrain but hey they'll do for eye candy.
Went for a wander into the old town where I stumbled across the daily fruit and flower market, the smell and the colors were to die for. I was tempted to by kilos and kilos of juicy peaches and bright red strawberries but after converting Euro to dollar i settled for just one peach and one banana.
Everywhere i looked it looked like a perfect picture from a post card or a travel magazine, cobblestone roads, long narrow streets with really high walls, washing hanging out over balconies. I decided to go on a hunt in search of the best baguette in town, after searching long and hard.. well kind of i settled for mussels and chips with a carafe of Rose accompanied by 2 lovely american guys who i ran into. They just finished becoming doctors and decided to visit paradise. After exploring for a little while longer jet-lag started to kick in so headed back to the hostel which was packed full of travelers. Got chatting to Valerie and her boyfriend Jeremy from Canada who were super nice, we ended up spending the next couple of days together.
Took the bus down to Cape Di beach which is this pebble stone beach nestled in this cove, kind of hidden away from it all anyway, the beauty is too hard to describe in words, i'll let the pictures do all the talking.
After clillaxing for a few days I decided to try my luck at dock-walking in Antibes. I heard from many that the season has been very slow and people were leaving to go back home after being here for a couple of months and not finding work so i didn't expect to get a call back from a boat that was owned by Russians to come back at 10 am the next morning. However the next morning came around and I was 10 mins late. One of the dudes started yelling at me in half russian, half english in front of all the key, he wouldn't even let me get a word in, he had obviously had a very bad morning. So I walked off feeling a little disappointed in myself but more relieved thinking 'thank god I was not on time' because i totally would have taken the job considering the situation. I brushed it off and started dock walking again. After asking about a hundred boats I got to the end of a key and saw a guy washing a motor yacht, caught his eye and got a call back for the next day to start as a stew on day work. He even offered me accommodation on the boat which was sweet!. The next morning i checked out of the lovely hostel and checked into the 'Pink Champagne' Its been 2 weeks since i started. and I know have a contract until September. My captain, Daniel is really nice, we've been going to yoga and he has driven me around Antibes a few times on his scooter which is lots of fun. He has an apartment in Nice so i pretty much have the boat to myself in the evenings. The owner came down from the netherlands last week with his mistress and her daughter yes.. i did say mistress. Anyway we sailed to St Tropez which is about a 2 hour journey. On the way I saw the most amazing red rock mountains which i so desperately wanted to climb. St Tropez is so Gee-gee . We anchored and took the dingy across to land All the boats that were moored on the key had bright lights and fancy cocktails, girls in glitter dresses with cowboy hats on doing pole dances... crazy. Alot of the boats also had body guards. The street was crawled with either obvious tourist, bright white or should i say barossa poached chicken with water melon walking around or super tall, men dressed in white linen suits, women with botox and I'm sure the men looked a little plump as well. Lots of sparking ooooo la la. So if you want to be seen (Phil) then St Tropez is the place to be.
Anyway must go and ice my hand. Managed to fall down the hatch into my cabin last night... a bit sore!
