I am so tired this week. Our 6 days in the South of France were amazing!! We were greeted by Monica and Roy at the airport on a warm day in Nice, France. Monica and Roy are good friends of mine from Poland when I studied there. They are now doing a student exchange in Nice. The warm weather and friends were a great welcome. The first place we headed to was the beach just to relax and take in the view. We were informed that 6 days in Nice would not be very exciting so they also organized for us to go to Barcelona. We were going to rent a car between 6 of us- Monica, Roy, Tom, me, Niv (Roy's friend) and my high school friend Bobby from Windsor, Canada (who happens to be living in the South of France at the time too) for the 600km journey to Barca. We would also be there for Tom's 30th birthday! :)
We had a relaxing first night and then went to meet Bobby in Antibes (a small port town about 20km from Nice) the next day. Thursday we saw a bit of Nice and we all went out. Monica and Roy explained to us that they were not big fans of Nice- it was a sleepy town in the South of France and they had arrived post tourist season so there was not much going on. The beach gets old after a while and the night life was barely existent. The pub we went to that night was an expat location and the live bad was absolutely terrible. It was a group of 3 guys playing covers of Katy Perry and "Call Me Maybe" --no additional comment required. But you have to make the most of it and we were in good company so we enjoyed the comedy! Not to mention it is impossible to get a cab there so you have to walk a lot which was not easy since they lived a good 30min walk from city centre! That night we went out and it decided to start raining.....and continued raining.....and raining.....and pouring....and pouring.......we tried to wait it out but it just seemed to get worse and worse as we waited so we ended up walking (running) home in the pouring rain. My shoes and clothes were completely soaked!- it took my shoes about 4 days to dry!!! Not the most pleasant walk i've had....
We left to Aix de Provence on Friday on the way to Barcelona (we didn't want to make the whole drive to Barca Friday). It is a cute university town and has a really charming old town with lots of cobblestone streets and cute restaurants. We had a nice dinner and checked out the "woohoo" pub and called it a night. Roy and Bobby graced us with their karaoke skills :) We wanted some saved energy for Barcelona....
I love Barcelona. Out of the 6 of us, it was only Tom's first time there. Its a city full of character- the food, the architecture, the contrasts, the interesting and pleasant people, the atmosphere. The Spanish love their late night tapas and get togethers!!! Its an amazing city to experience at night. Tom had a great birthday celebration--one I don't think he could have expected !!! Roy and Bobby had the longest and most eventful nights in Barca, we enjoyed the AM stories that followed :P---managing to lose each other in the process and receiving random phone calls from random phone numbers in the AM :P
Everyone got along great on the trip and everyone made their own special addition to the group. What a great group of people! We had an awesome few days in Barca!! --my love of Tapas and spanish culture has only grown on my #2 Barcelona trip! :)
We thought we would try a stop in Monaco when we got back to Nice. Monaco is about a 20 min drive away. We took the coastal roads which provided some magnificent scenery!!! Jagged cliffs with gorgeous houses and palaces hugging the oceanside. its easy to see why the south of France is such a popular spot! If only it wasn't so expensive!! Monaco was a funny experience. We wanted to find the famous "James Bond" Casino (the main one) and gamble there. However, we were told the minimum bet was 500 Euro!!! We didn't dig deep to find cheaper so our gambling adventure to Monaco turned out to be sans gambling- except for Bobby who had to spend those 5 euro on slots! :P Parked outside the casino were a myriad of interesting vehicles- Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Porsche...you name it! Hello Monaco....wow ....
The trip was too short.....wish we stayed longer....i miss you guys already!!!! so much fun!
I didn't practice much of my french while we were there because the south of France are quite good and willing with their English (unlike Paris). I guess they see so many tourists yearly that they become accustomed to the English around them. Almost wished I was forced to speak more of it... Spanish seems to slip off the tongue a bit easier so we all used it a bit more then french...
I love roadtrips, especially when they are with great friends- new and old ones!!! Hope to see any one of the 4 additions on Tom & I's future travels this year.....pick a time and place and we will accomodate!!! :) Thanks again for Roy and Monica's hospitality and the cooking competition- Roy/Monica/Niv/Tom's guacamole??? ---The most useful human beings that did not make anything (Bobby & I) decided we would be top chef judges, however, no final vote were ever tallied---I'll leave that final decision to Bobby :P
Also, some amazing roadtrip tunes courtesy of Roy and Nevi---Tom is obsessed and is adding to his collection constantly!!
----now back to Poland for about 2 weeks: family time in the south, Krakow to visit and then off to Rome before Africa....!
