Wed 10/08/11 09:37
My time in Monte Carlo

So today I headed to Monaco for a morning to see what all the hype is about. I didn’t know that much before going except that Monaco was the place that Sean Connery’s James Bond would go in the old movies. I think there was also something about Princess Grace, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, with just a little knowledge I arrived at about 11 from the train station to the streets of Monaco.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip

What to say? I think the hype is more than that the city can compete with. It’s definitely a beautiful landscape of houses perched on the side of the mountains, all overlooking a bay filled with huge yachts. After that it’s a little hard to try to explain. The city is a mass of winding roads filled with cars and motorcycles. I walked down the hill from the train station to the part of the city known as Monte Carlo. I wanted to see some of the casinos, and besides, the lower you go in the city, the closer you get to the water and that’s always a good thing. The buildings of the casinos were very pretty, but there wasn’t that many of them that I could see, in fact I only saw about two definite casinos, though there were tons of hotels, and my guess is that the hotels probably had casinos. The beaches weren’t very crowded, probably because it was still relatively early, and they had the same look as the beaches in Nice, mostly rocks and very small. Like I always seem to do, I got lost on the way back to the train station. Getting down to the water was fairly easy, you knew that as long as you were going downward eventually you’d end up at the water. Going back to the train station was a different matter, just going up turned out to be problematic. I would get on a street that would go for at least a kilometer with no outlets. Sometimes the streets would end into a private driveway. Nevertheless I kept going up and eventually got to the road above the city, which was above the station. Then a different problem surfaced, I couldn’t see the water past the buildings so I couldn’t tell where I was in relation to the train station. In all I probably wandered around lost for about two hours, not really lost but looking for the train station.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis's Summer 2011 trip

The view of the water was fabulous, and the look of the mountains with the buildings was almost as good. I could probably keep talking, but I think the pictures will most likely show what I could spend hours trying to say.

Fri 05/08/11 13:52
Which means that I’m in the French Riviera :)

So what to say, I got into Nice about 330, about an hour late, and found my hostel shortly afterwards. So far the bad reviews of this place don’t seem really accurate, but time may prove me wrong. Nice is nice… I’ve been wanting to say that since I knew that I’d be coming here. It really is nice though. It’s not an easy thing to quantify though. There are some things that I really don’t like, and there doesn’t seem to be that much to take photos of (yet) but there is something about this place that is nice. It could be the beach with the massive amounts of people, the blue water, and everyone seemingly having fun. Maybe it’s the layout of the city that is working, there is a main street that goes on for quite a ways, maybe a mile or so, that has been closed off to cars so there are people everywhere. When I think about it, it’s the beach.

kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation   kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation

The beach is not the kind of beach that you probably think about when you think of a great beach, it doesn’t have sand, it’s got rocks. It only is about 30 meters from the wall, so people are packed in like sardines. It still looked like everyone was having fun though. I kind of wished that I had gone down to the water and at least waded in. Another thing that kind of startled me was that it was a topless beach, that’s startled in a good way.

kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation   kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation

kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation   kennethcurtis.com: Ken Curtis' 2011 summer vacation

I walked around after checking out the beach and eventually ended up at McDonalds for dinner, and before you think how pathetic I am to be eating there while I’m in the French Riviera, there were lots of other people doing the same thing.

Thu 04/08/11 14:50
should be fun to see

It’s about 10pm and I’m through for the day. I had some thoughts about going out tonight for a beer, but at about 8 I stretched out and now I don’t think I’ll do anything more. Besides I have a train to catch tomorrow for Nice, France. I’m staying in Nice for two nights in a hostel that sounds like it is awful. Unfortunately the way I travel I wait until the last minute to book a room and the only place available sounds pretty bad. No worries. I’ve got two possible plans while I’m in Nice, the first is to use one of the days to go to Monaco. I’d like to see the city-state at least to say that I’ve been there, and who knows, maybe go to Monte Carlo for a high stakes afternoon. The second is on my way to Italy, I’ll stop in Monaco for a day and then continue on to either Genova or Pisa.

I’ll then hang around Italy for a couple of weeks and then take a ferry to Greece. I’ll spend about week there before flying back to Dubai from Athens. That’s the plan at least.

Thu 04/08/11 08:24
It’s really very nice

I got into Marseille, France yesterday at about 5 pm. The bus ride was boring, but good. I had enough room and except for the smell of the chemicals of the bathroom that was right behind me, the ride was good. I like when that happens.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

What to say about this city? I can start by saying that I like it. It seems to be a lot smaller than Barcelona, there are less people, and for the most part I don’t think that I can complain at all. My hotel was only about 5 minutes walk from the bus station, that’s another good thing. The city is very picturesque too. My hotel is on the side of a hill, so going to the water is a downhill walk, and the walk is on the main tourist road. It kind of surprised me on the amount of Arabs here. There is a souk here, although smaller, it is just like one that you would expect to see in Dubai, Amman, or Casablanca. It’s also even more expensive here than Barcelona (and Barcelona was more expensive than Sevilla). I keep trying to understand why it’s so expensive? Is the added cost for items due to taxes or is it because it’s a tourist spot? Barcelona is a tourist location, and it’s cheaper than here. When I think about it, the further East I go, the more expensive it becomes. Maybe it is a latitude tax, or would that be longitude? ☺

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

Last night I walked around a little, took some photos, but I didn’t really stray too far from the main road that I mentioned above. I got back to the hotel about 9 and was too tired to go out again.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

This morning I headed out to see a church that was on top of a hill overlooking the city. The church is really pretty and you can see it from everywhere in the city, or should I say everywhere I’ve gone in the city. Like always I never consider taking a bus or finding any other mode of travel other than walking so I took the long walk to the summit in stride. It took me at least an hour to get there, and when I arrived I was soaked in sweat. It was a little bit embarrassing being around the other tourists with a drenched shirt, but what can you do? They should be the ones that are embarrassed for driving up to the top. The view was really beautiful and I took lots of photos of the vista. The rest of the day was making my way back to the hotel, stopping at a park to eat some fruit that I bought. I did make it to the water, but didn’t get in. It’s not a beach, in fact I haven’t seen a beach, but there were rocks that a person could swim from. I saw lots of people fishing or just sitting and watching the boats go by.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 Vacation

It’s early afternoon right now, so I’ll be heading out again in about an hour or so. Maybe I’ll get some more photos.

Wed 03/08/11 12:43
can’t wait to get on the road again…

The bus is pulling out of the station as I write this and although I don’t know how hard it is going to be to type while moving, I thought I’d share some thoughts on my stay in Barcelona. First, where’s the beach?? I couldn’t find it. I was told that the beach would be a spectacular place for some sightseeing, but unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. I guess it’s one of those things that you have to know a friend, who has a friend, whose cousin knows where to go… I don’t know anyone.

Second, to sum up Barcelona would be to say that for me it’s a one time stop, I don’t see myself ever coming back. It seems to be just a big city with a few beautiful buildings, and tons of people. I still don’t understand what all these people are doing. They seem to be just walking, that’s it, just walking, they aren’t taking photos, they don’t seem to be buying anything, they’re just walking. So although I’m glad that I got to see this city, I think two nights here was enough… maybe with one more day I would have found the elusive beach that I’ve heard about. ☹

Like I said I’m on the bus headed for France, Marseille to be more exact. I should be there in about six hours or so, and I’m looking forward to it.

Tue 02/08/11 09:05
A little bit better

After being less than impressed the first day here in Barcelona, I took off this morning to do a more structured walking trip. Last night I had planned my route, and did get a little bit excited about some of the things that I saw on the map. My first goal was to get to a bullfighting ring, or maybe stadium is the better word. I have to admit that I was having a little bit of a problem reading the map, maybe the problem was that it was still relatively early, maybe it was that I didn’t orient myself properly when I took off, but after the first hour I managed some semblance of understanding the map. Though when I think back, I don’t think that I ever really understood where I was, or what I was heading towards. I’d find my place on the map, only to not find the street that I needed to go to. Anyway, no worries, I had a full day of seeing most of the inner city of Barcelona. The bullfighting ring was a bust, nothing to see but bricks.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

The first few hours I didn’t take any photos, there simply wasn’t anything of interest to me. After that though, I started getting into more interesting architecture and the photos came shortly afterwards. In the end I probably ended up taking close to a hundred or so. Probably the most interesting was the parliament building, though I’m not sure if that’s what it was. I know it was a very substantial government building and I do recall seeing the word, “parliament” somewhere, so let’s just go with it.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

Behind the parliament building were some trails that led up, and when you’re quest is to see things, up is always good. If anything I knew that I could take some scenic photos of the cityscape if I got high enough. I did. I think I managed to get to the highest point of Barcelona when I reached the top of the hill. On the way there was this other guy doing the same thing as me, he was younger, but lugged a backpack like me, dressed like me, and seemed to be thinking the same as me. We came to the same place at the same time, to a dead end with a fence blocking our way. We kind of stood there for a second, and then decided together that we could jump the fence. We didn’t talk before, but then he tried at one spot of the fence, no luck, then I tried at another, no luck. He mentions that it looks easier at the very end of the fence, so he tries and makes it, I do as well. We say good-bye and we’re on different ways. One thing that happened to me is that at the first place I tried, the top of the fence went through my shoe. If you’ve ever stepped on a nail you can imagine what it was like. I stepped on the top of the fence it held, then slipped into my foot. It stopped before going into my foot, but I could feel the fence pushing against my foot.

kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation   kennethcurtis.com, Ken Curtis' Summer 2011 vacation

The point that I realized that I was tired and needed to think about heading back was when I was at the highest point, on a castle overlooking the water. It turned out to be a good decision because I’d already done the hard work of climbing up the hill, all I really had to do go down.