Last night I went and had a beer with one of the guys at the hostel. He was roughly my age and from Germany. I’m really quite surprised on the amount of Germans that I’ve been seeing since I started my vacation. The same could be said for the number of Americans as well; we’re everywhere. The room had three Aussies, one American, and one German. Two of the Aussies were girls in their twenties, and the other was a guy in his twenties. They went out together and the two older guys went out together… sucks to be old(er).

So now I’m sitting on my train and second-guessing myself if I’m actually on the right train. I asked a conductor, or a someone affiliated with the train, and he agreed that it was the right train, so I guess I’m good. The problem is, is my first train was late to the station, so I had about three minutes to get to this one, and it seems when I rush, I make mistakes… It’s 1115 as I write this, and I should be in Genoa about 1330, unless I’m on the wrong train and who knows where I’ll actually end up, though there is a side of me that kind of likes the idea of no knowing where I’ll end up. ☺

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? ☺

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.

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.

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.