We
woke up the morning after the World Cup Final in our stuffy airbnb.
Surprisingly, we were not hungover, but every muscle in our bodies hurt and our
voices were raspy from all of the intense dancing and cheering.
We
packed and cleaned. Hannah and Jake were on their way to Brussels for a long
layover before heading home to San Diego. I was just starting my trip. I hugged
them goodbye and hopped on a mildly air
conditioned train from Lyon to Nice and watched the beautiful, sunny French
countryside pass by. The train was peaceful, but the 'air conditioning'
felt like someone was barely exhaling warm breath on me.
I arrived in Nice, on the southern coast of France, in the late evening. I walked out of the central train station and it was bustling, crowded, and hot as hell. My hostel was right across the street and I checked in. I planned to walk to the ocean that evening, about 2km roundtrip. But I was exhausted. I walked halfway down the promenade, bought some Turkish food from a street stand, shopped at H&M, and returned to my hostel for happy hour. I sipped cheap chilled red wine and chatted with mid-20s men and women from the U.S., Nigeria, Canada, and Korea.
I
was in an all-girl 8 person dorm room. I had the top bunk directly beneath the
air conditioning unit. Which, would have been nice, except the hostel only gave
out a sheet. When I attempted to sleep that night, I was so cold, even after
dumping out my backpack at 2 am and putting on my fleece and socks, that I
couldn't sleep. The poor night's sleep coupled with extreme heat, thousands of
miles in travel, the previous day's heavy drinking, and a wet hair-AC combo,
culminated into a nasty cold. I was not surprised I got sick,
but annoyed. Out of stubbornness, I resolved that it would not slow me down in
the slightest.
I
had a breakfast of coffee and nutella toast at the hostel the next
morning, and walked across the street to the train station. It cost me 15
bucks for a roundtrip train ticket to Monaco. The train took less than half an
hour, but was packed. On the train, I chatted with a guy who was teaching an
English camp for French kids and was trying to wrangle about 30 kids scattered
up the car. I was flattered he thought I was French; he was flattered I thought
he was British.
It
was muggy and overcast in Monaco. The tiny country is settled in the steep
Rivirean mountainside. I walked down the hill to the Monte
Carlo.
I
fed a 5 euro bill into the slot machine, and pushed buttons until I steadily
lost my money. Gambling's not for me.
I bought a surprisingly reasonably priced glass of red wine from the bar and sat in a fancy cushioned chair to sip it. I people watched British, Chinese, and German tourists for awhile.
The
wine was delicious, but I remember feeling sooo sick here.
Outside
I felt better, the fresh air soothed most of my symptoms, except the sweating
and fatigue. I decided I desperately needed spaghetti, the real
European kind, and set out on a mission to satiate that need. It helped
distract from my bizarre cold.
Monaco
is tiny, and densely packed with millionaires. It is 0.78 sq. miles and has a population of under
40,000. (Fewer people than my hometown!) Over a third of the population of
Monaco are millionaires. I walked the length of the entire country while I was
there. It was not hard. I saw literally the entire 2 sq km of country while I
felt like I was dying. And yet, I was craving spaghetti. I walked aimlessly
east for awhile down the coast, and stumbled upon a tourist information center.
"Bonjour. Je veux des spaghettis." I told the teenager manning the
stand. He smiled and pulled out a map and circled a restaurant for me. "Merci!"
I thanked him and was on my way. A short walk later I came across the restaurant
he recommended, right along the beach. I ordered spaghetti pomodoro and
drenched it in freshly grated parmesan. It tasted just like the spaghetti we
used to have while we were in Germany: fat noodles, mildly sweet and
tangy tomato sauce, perfectly soft cheese. I hadn't had that
dish since the last time I had been in Europe, and it was just how I
remembered.
I
peacefully twirled my spaghetti against my spoon, savoring every bite, as dark
storm clouds rolled in. Bite by bite, I kept twirling, even as the sky opened
up and the thunder clapped. Other patrons rushed into the covered restaurant,
irritated by the sudden storm. I was just finishing my food when the old
Italian waiter came out to my table. "You should come inside now," he
told me. By the time I finished paying, the storm had passed, and I walked out
to the beach and soaked my feet in the clear Mediterranean water.
I
then decided to hike to the top of the hill, to the castle, (with several
stops on benches to catch my cold-weakened breath along the way). On the way, I
passed a harbor full of yachts that were each larger than my entire
apartment complex and contemplated what you could possibly do with such an
absurd amount of space.
Finally,
I made it to the top of the hill. It was charming. The stacked homes looked so
lovely, and the view over the dense city-state was spectacular. The
Mediterranean buildings poured out of the mountain side into the sea. And
Monaco was so clean.
But oh my god, I felt so sick. I got to the top, mustered up the energy to take a halfhearted selfie, and trekked back down to the train station.
I was happy to be there! Just nauseous
Monaco was cool, but I am just really unimpressed by conspicuous consumption. Which, it seemed, was prevalent on every block I walked. There was so much dense, excessive wealth in that tiny country. Every other car was a lamborghini revving its engine and making sharp turns on the narrow streets.
I
made it back to my hostel, inhaled a to-go pasta salad from the grocery store
next door, chatted with a few hostel-mates, and did a desperately-needed load
of laundry.
There
was a laundromat behind the hostel, owned by an outgoing Nigerian. I looked
ridiculous in my wet hair, jeans, and long sleeve tshirt, but they were the
only clean clothes I had left. I chatted with him as he helped me buy soap
and start the machines, as the instructions were all in French. When he found
out I came to France for the World Cup he started cracking up, wiped the tears from his eyes, and high-fived me. "A white girl who likes football!" he laughed.
Shaynie
was arriving that night from California and I promised to pick her up from the
Nice airport. Due to multiple bad instructions, I messed up opportunities
to take any of the three of the public transit options to the airport and ended
up paying for an overpriced taxi. Shaynie arrived shortly after I did. We
took an uber back to the hostel, and passed out immediately.
I felt so much better after Shaynie arrived. I was still
sick, but having her around helped me feel calmer. I always want to prove
to myself that I'm capable of traveling alone, but there is something so nice
about sharing experiences with someone. Sometimes those experiences are
mundane, stressful, tedious, or frustrating. But more frequently, they're
thrilling, exciting, new, different, challenging, and wonderful. And being with
Shaynie, one of my best friends of almost ten years, is so relaxing. Sometimes
traveling with other people can be stressful. But Shaynie is so
level-headed and reassuring and nice even when things go
wrong, that it always calmed me down even when I got overwhelmed.
The
next morning we showered, chugged cups of coffee in the hostel foyer, and left
our backpacks behind in the hostel locker room for a morning in sweltering
Nice. I made Shaynie stop by the bakery on the corner for savory pastries and
espressos.
chaque jour, s’engager par amour du pain
We then walked to the Nice castle and back down again to catch some nice views.
Some of the World Cup games were in Nice!
There was a surprisingly long line to take this photo, which
is at best an okay photo. We got delayed by repeat queue jumpers trying to
perfect their photo. It's not a great photo, but it was hard earned, so I included it.
We thn walk to the beach that was covered in fat, smooth rocks and
stuck our feet in the water to cool off.
We walked through the market in Nice and bought mini macarons, berries,
and a satchel of lavender, all for under 4 euro.
We then took the tram a few stops, and found a fountain. Children and
adults were splashing barefoot in the spray of the jets. It was a welcome
reprieve from the sweltering heat.
The fountain also had a fancy water stand where you could refill
water bottles for free. You could choose chilled or sparkling water. I am
obsessed with this concept, and the support of reusable water bottle culture.
Not only is it helping the environment, it's good for public health! It was
important to stay hydrated during the relentless heatwave.
We picked up our backpacks from the hostel and hopped on the train
west to Antibes. It was only 5 bucks and 20 minutes. We walked from the train
station to our hostel, which was located 100m from the beach and right in the
heart of the charming old town. When I asked the friendly native Antiban for a
key to our room at check-in, he shrugged and said, "Eh, you don't need
one." None of the doors in the hostel locked, but we never felt
unsafe.
the door jamming was the highest level of security
The hostel was filled with people looking for work to crew on
a boat. Antibes is a large port city and the harbor is full of boats. Multiple
businesses lined the streets advertising their assistance in securing crew
work and there were businesses that advertised crew work. Two of the girls we
shared a room with were British 20 year olds looking for crew work. Every
morning they got up early, dressed in crew uniforms, and took their printed
resumes with color headshots at top go to interviews. We also met two guys in the kitchen of the hostel
who were also looking to do engineering work on boats.
Shaynie and I walked to the huge, hot square in the center of the
old town in the late afternoon. Restaurants lined the perimeter and their
chairs and tables spilled into the middle. We shopped around the menus outside
the restaurants until we found one we liked. All the restaurants were pretty
empty, but we were eating at 3 pm. Neither of us being huge foodies, this was
one of the only restaurant meals we bought the whole trip. Fewer people spoke
English here, so we stumbled through ordering our delicious raviolis au saumon
in French. Luckily, the very tall local who took our order was very helpful and
encouraging.
We went for a short walk around the old town and checked out
the views of the Mediterranean from the rampart walls surrounding the old port
town.
We couldn't resist the waves, so we changed into our suits and
headed for the nearest beach. We swam for hours in the super salty
Mediterranean. We passed most of the time floating in the warm water. We swam
out to the entrance of the cove which had a series of large, submerged rocks we
chilled on.
I love the water!
Eventually, we swam back to shore, pulled on half our clothes, and
climbed to the top of the wall to watch the sunset.
Salt water and sun soaked, we walked back over to the main
square. We sipped 3 euro glasses of wine, purchased using the last of the coins
in our pockets, in the relaxing late evening dusk.
The next morning, we found a covered farmers market for
breakfast. My coworker Julien sent
me with a list of food I needed to eat while in France, and I did my best to
eat my way through the list. We found one
of the food items he recommended, socca, a chickpea pancake. It was 5 euro for
a huge piece, made fresh
in front of us. Shaynie and I split one and snacked on it while drinking
espresso.
We spent the rest of our morning hiking along the wall that
surrounds the town.
We ended up back in the main square and went to a bakery. We
ordered the rest of the food on my coworker's list and the baker refilled our
water bottles.
On an aimless, self-guided walking tour of Antibes, we
stumbled across the newer part of the town. It was a modern, bustling town with
high-end shops on the streets and cars buzzing around. We considered walking
out to the peninsula, but we certainly had gotten our steps in, so decided to
head back to the old town, which we found to be so much more charming. Next
stop, gelato.
necessary
We ended our foot expedition on a narrow beach on the other side
of the rampart. We stood, soaking our feet in the salty sea water, until it was
time to catch the bus to the Nice airport.
We hopped on our short EasyJet flight to Geneva, Switzerland.