It is with a heavy heart that I must say that this post will be a relatively pictureless blog post (quite a contrast to my usual posts) as my camera broke on the second day of our trip. It says "lens error, please restart" and sometimes works whenever it feels like. Therefore I have no pictures of Monaco or Cannes and not many of Nice :(
but on to the happy part of this post! This weekend was our 5 day break. While most of our fellow GTL students ran around Italy and other countries, we took a different route -- RELAXATION! I know many of you are thinking who needs relaxation when you're in Europe for 12 weeks? A Georgia Tech student - that's who! This summer has been filled with lots of studying (I'll post about regular GTL life soon!) and traveling this frequently can become tiring. So we were thrilled to get to sit by the beach and relax, swim, nap, and read. Which is exactly what we did the first day we were there! The beaches in Nice are rocks instead of sand (kinda nice cause sand doesn't get everywhere!). After spending about 5 hours on the beach we headed back to our hotel and cleaned up for dinner. While we were at dinner, there was a band playing at one of the nearby restaurants. Then we wandered a couple blocks away into more central Nice where we found band after band after band after band. June 21st is a celebration throughout all major cities in France called fete de la musique -- a music festival to celebrate the coming of summer! We listened to a cover band called The Southwest Band from the UK for about half an hour while eating ice cream. Their harmonies were absolutely beautiful. We continued to wander the streets from band to band for a couple hours when we finally headed home for a good night's sleep.
We slept in Friday morning and it was so wonderful to catch up on sleep like that! But then we got up and had a nice lunch of KFC! In Europe if you want to eat lunch in less than an hour, I can guarantee you will find yourself at a fast food restaurant or a kebab place. We chose KFC -- they had a FOUNTAIN with Orangina on tap! so we got (*drum roll please*) REFILLS!!!!!!!!!!! and the chicken was crispy! Anyways the day does get better (hard to believe, I know) when we hopped on a train to Monaco! It is 0.75 square miles so it made the perfect day trip. We met some friends (Annaliese, David, and Michael) who just graduated from Michigan and are traveling around Europe for 6 weeks. We ended up hanging out with them all day and went to Cannes with them on Saturday. Upon arriving in Monaco we went to the Jardin Exotique which was set in the cliff side and overlooked Monaco. It was absolutely gorgeous and offered a spectacular view of Monaco. Then we meandered down to the Prince's palace. We toured the palace. On our audio guide, Prince Albert II sounds astonishingly very American. His mother was Grace Kelly so that makes a good bit of sense. Then we went to the Napolean Museum next door with lots of Napolean's stuff. Finally we went to the Aquarium! It was really pretty and had a shark tank (but not as large as Atlanta's!). Then we went to Monte Carlo where I lost five euros... but Kristen and David both made some money! After our gambling efforts we took a train back to Nice, cleaned up, and headed out to the most delicious dinner ever. We went to a place called La Favola where I had linguine with clams that was served in a bowl that you would use in your home as a serving dish...for the whole table. It was enormous and delicious! We had to wander around for a while to digest after such a fantastic dinner but then we all went to a place called Fenocchio's which I read about in my Let's Go! Europe book -- they have 96 flavors of gelato. I had chocolate ginger and speculoos (which tastes like the biscoff cookies you get on a Delta flight!) It was fantastic.
Saturday morning we got up and went to Cannes to enjoy their sand beaches (not that the rocks in Nice weren't lovely...). We napped, read, relaxed, and swam for a few hours. Then we took a break for lunch and climbed up a hill with a church and museum for a great view of Cannes. We took our remaining time in Cannes to head back to the beach where Michael, David, Kristen, and I swam out to a little island of rocks. The water was beautiful and felt great! We headed home, grabbed dinner, and turned in for the night.
Sunday morning we parted ways with our new friends as they had to continue on to Cinque Terre, Italy. But Mary Margaret, Kristen, and I went to breakfast at a place in my tour book where they have AMERICAN breakfast (study abroad makes you very patriotic as it turns out). I had an omelette, bacon, toast, and orange juice. (*note the French breakfast consists of baguette, croissant, jam, butter, and nutella -- if that gives you perspective of the difference in breakfast) Then we watched the Ironman Nice! Right as we finished our brunch, the first place racers were expected in for the bike/run transition. The way the course was set up they would be running a loop 4 times. So the street in front of us was divided into 3 sections: 1 for bikers coming into the transition, one for runners in one direction, one for runners in the other direction. It was so cool to get to watch! We took a break from this and hiked up a hill in Nice where there was an artificial waterfall we'd seen from the beach. It offered a spectacular view of Nice that was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't believe just how beautiful it was and wish that I could explain it in words. Photography can't even capture this beauty (which is good because my camera didn't work). Then I went back to watch more of the Ironman (the action was picking up as more and more people had started the marathon leg of the race) while Mary Margaret and Kristen went shopping a bit. Lance Armstrong was supposed to participate but couldn't because of the new dope allegations. And the most entertaining quote from a bystander at the Ironman that we heard: "what is an Ironman, is it like biking or running or swimming?"
We wrapped up our time in Nice with a little shopping, dinner, and headed to our train. We got back on Monday morning which was perfect to catch up on school and laundry (school started again Tuesday). It was a fantastic weekend. I'm so glad we went to the French Riviera and took a break from all the craziness of study abroad!
but on to the happy part of this post! This weekend was our 5 day break. While most of our fellow GTL students ran around Italy and other countries, we took a different route -- RELAXATION! I know many of you are thinking who needs relaxation when you're in Europe for 12 weeks? A Georgia Tech student - that's who! This summer has been filled with lots of studying (I'll post about regular GTL life soon!) and traveling this frequently can become tiring. So we were thrilled to get to sit by the beach and relax, swim, nap, and read. Which is exactly what we did the first day we were there! The beaches in Nice are rocks instead of sand (kinda nice cause sand doesn't get everywhere!). After spending about 5 hours on the beach we headed back to our hotel and cleaned up for dinner. While we were at dinner, there was a band playing at one of the nearby restaurants. Then we wandered a couple blocks away into more central Nice where we found band after band after band after band. June 21st is a celebration throughout all major cities in France called fete de la musique -- a music festival to celebrate the coming of summer! We listened to a cover band called The Southwest Band from the UK for about half an hour while eating ice cream. Their harmonies were absolutely beautiful. We continued to wander the streets from band to band for a couple hours when we finally headed home for a good night's sleep.
Beach in Nice
more beach in Nice
fete de la musique -- look at how crowded the streets were!
band playing at the fete de la musique!
We slept in Friday morning and it was so wonderful to catch up on sleep like that! But then we got up and had a nice lunch of KFC! In Europe if you want to eat lunch in less than an hour, I can guarantee you will find yourself at a fast food restaurant or a kebab place. We chose KFC -- they had a FOUNTAIN with Orangina on tap! so we got (*drum roll please*) REFILLS!!!!!!!!!!! and the chicken was crispy! Anyways the day does get better (hard to believe, I know) when we hopped on a train to Monaco! It is 0.75 square miles so it made the perfect day trip. We met some friends (Annaliese, David, and Michael) who just graduated from Michigan and are traveling around Europe for 6 weeks. We ended up hanging out with them all day and went to Cannes with them on Saturday. Upon arriving in Monaco we went to the Jardin Exotique which was set in the cliff side and overlooked Monaco. It was absolutely gorgeous and offered a spectacular view of Monaco. Then we meandered down to the Prince's palace. We toured the palace. On our audio guide, Prince Albert II sounds astonishingly very American. His mother was Grace Kelly so that makes a good bit of sense. Then we went to the Napolean Museum next door with lots of Napolean's stuff. Finally we went to the Aquarium! It was really pretty and had a shark tank (but not as large as Atlanta's!). Then we went to Monte Carlo where I lost five euros... but Kristen and David both made some money! After our gambling efforts we took a train back to Nice, cleaned up, and headed out to the most delicious dinner ever. We went to a place called La Favola where I had linguine with clams that was served in a bowl that you would use in your home as a serving dish...for the whole table. It was enormous and delicious! We had to wander around for a while to digest after such a fantastic dinner but then we all went to a place called Fenocchio's which I read about in my Let's Go! Europe book -- they have 96 flavors of gelato. I had chocolate ginger and speculoos (which tastes like the biscoff cookies you get on a Delta flight!) It was fantastic.
Saturday morning we got up and went to Cannes to enjoy their sand beaches (not that the rocks in Nice weren't lovely...). We napped, read, relaxed, and swam for a few hours. Then we took a break for lunch and climbed up a hill with a church and museum for a great view of Cannes. We took our remaining time in Cannes to head back to the beach where Michael, David, Kristen, and I swam out to a little island of rocks. The water was beautiful and felt great! We headed home, grabbed dinner, and turned in for the night.
Sunday morning we parted ways with our new friends as they had to continue on to Cinque Terre, Italy. But Mary Margaret, Kristen, and I went to breakfast at a place in my tour book where they have AMERICAN breakfast (study abroad makes you very patriotic as it turns out). I had an omelette, bacon, toast, and orange juice. (*note the French breakfast consists of baguette, croissant, jam, butter, and nutella -- if that gives you perspective of the difference in breakfast) Then we watched the Ironman Nice! Right as we finished our brunch, the first place racers were expected in for the bike/run transition. The way the course was set up they would be running a loop 4 times. So the street in front of us was divided into 3 sections: 1 for bikers coming into the transition, one for runners in one direction, one for runners in the other direction. It was so cool to get to watch! We took a break from this and hiked up a hill in Nice where there was an artificial waterfall we'd seen from the beach. It offered a spectacular view of Nice that was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't believe just how beautiful it was and wish that I could explain it in words. Photography can't even capture this beauty (which is good because my camera didn't work). Then I went back to watch more of the Ironman (the action was picking up as more and more people had started the marathon leg of the race) while Mary Margaret and Kristen went shopping a bit. Lance Armstrong was supposed to participate but couldn't because of the new dope allegations. And the most entertaining quote from a bystander at the Ironman that we heard: "what is an Ironman, is it like biking or running or swimming?"
We wrapped up our time in Nice with a little shopping, dinner, and headed to our train. We got back on Monday morning which was perfect to catch up on school and laundry (school started again Tuesday). It was a fantastic weekend. I'm so glad we went to the French Riviera and took a break from all the craziness of study abroad!
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