Holiday - Nice & Monaco

Aitken & I bussed it into the city of Nice from the airport, and I saw mom and dad on the promenade next to the Mediterranean and hopped off in excitement to see them. Two of my pals! WOOHOO so pumped they were able to make the trip. Also stoked to be back in a country that I know the language - the Italian was a strug some days. Hol and I went up to the room to shower and after the day of travel we had it was everything and more, I felt like a zillion dollars (worth more than a euro otherwise I would've said a zillion euros, you know in spirit of eurojules and all.) the four of us ventured out for dinner, but of course no restaurants open until 7 for dinner so we had a few drinks waiting for places to prep and we chose an Italian spot. oddly enough, we all ordered the same thing and it was a rigatoni and it was tasty as (how can you go wrong with pasta?) Of course we passed a few gelaterias (Nice is so close to Italy it feels more like Italy than France) and dad had never tried gelato and he & I are the ice cream fiends so that was fun. Mom had lemon, Hol a berry something (strange for her bc she usually goes caramel or chocolate) dad went with a chocolate chip equivalent and coffee for me (SUPERBE.) It was really great having Hol there to meet mom and dad, it's two of my worlds colliding in the best way and they were able to see why I adore her so much, and of course vice versa for Hol to meet two of my best friends.

After gelato, we walked along the Mediterranean promenade, and mom suggested we go down and touch the water just to say we did. The beach is made mostly of pebbles and rocks, no sand, and the way the tide came in there was a ledge/shelf of the rocks already formed but not at all sturdy. The waves kept coming in short, so we scooted down a bit in order to touch and go. Mom was the first to slip, and she picked herself up pretty quickly. Then Hol went down because the rock shelf just slid and crumbled towards the water. I bent down to help her up, and this massive wave came up and soaked us all. We were all laughing so hard it was tough to get up and recoup away from the waves. Finally we did, I was soaked mid thigh down to my boots and mom was crying she was laughing so hard. Dad grouped us and we all did like a group huddle/hug and were like OKAY that was great we touched it alright. In fact our shoes squished with the sound of the Mediterranean the entire way back to the hotel. lolz

Dad walked Hol to the bus stop at about 5am Saturday morning, I was sleeping so heavily I missed them. It was weird waking up without her, considering we had been together for over a week nonstop. the two of us traveled really well together, and I had the time of my life by her side traveling through Italy. spring break 2016 - the best yet without a doubt.

Saturday we sort of bummed around, snagged a tasty lunch at a local diner type place, and then went back to chill for a bit before dinner. Our dinner was delightful - mom and dad had a ginger roasted chicken breast and I had sea bream with some veggies. ma bought tickets to the Carnevale finale, which is a massive parade celebration with a whole lot of weird floats, confetti and silly string. The floats though odd were incredibly well made and the music was fun - chilly and rainy didn't stop us from having a good time.

Sunday we ventured over to Monaco - the smallest country after the Vatican. It was really gorgeous with all of the yachts, mountain side buildings in array of colors, and the sparkly blue Mediterranean Sea. There were more luxury cars in Monaco than I think I've seen in the past year in total - it's a wealthy area to say the least. The hotel mom found had an incredible view of the sea as well as some pretty sweet boats, one of which looked so much like it would belong to James Bond and it was even called sky fall (one of the 007 movies.) We went into the Monte Carlo Casino, very fancy and embellished walls and big chandeliers. The Monte Carlo was featured in multiple James Bond movies, so that was pretty neat to see. We bummed around the docks and made our way back to the hotel where we ate an interesting and not so noteworthy dinner and called it a day early because we were wiped from the walk.

Early early early morning today to make the trek back to Nice to fly out to Nantes and then drive to Angers - thrilled to show mom and dad my home for the semester, not so thrilled to go back to class. What's school anyway?

cheers, jkro