Marseille to Nice

Marseille to Nice

Nice, France, Europe

I got up at 8:30am and got all my stuff together. My bus was leaving the train station at the same time as Sarah and Louise’s train, so we all go the metro to the St. Charles Station together. I said bye and found my bus stop outside the station. I was early, of course, but it was another beautiful morning, so I didn’t mind waiting for the bus to come. It left right on time from Marseille at 10:15am and got to Nice at about 2pm.

The drive down the coast was pretty nice, and it really showed why this is called the Azur Coast. The color of the water here is just incredible. I had been warned before I came here that the beaches in Nice were not the best, and I finally saw that for myself when I arrived. The water is beautiful, but the beach is all rocky. They look like pretty smooth rocks, but still, it doesn’t look nice to lie on. That didn’t stop anyone by the looks of it, there were thousands of people out there.

I was surprised to see just how beautiful Nice is though. I hadn’t heard many good things before I came, but it is a really nice city. The bus dropped me off at the center called Albert 1er, and I had a nice ten minute walk up the main shopping street to find Hostel Baccarat. The hostel is also in a great location, so that helps as well. I checked into my six bed dorm and was the first person in the room, so again I got to choose a bottom bunk. I’ve been on a good run of getting bottom bunks lately.

The hostel isn’t the nicest, but for €22 it’s not bad at all. At least our room has its only bathroom so I’m only sharing with five other people instead of about 25 like at the last hostel. It has pretty strange lockers in the room, like I’ve never seen before. It has two little cages under each bed that you can lock, and slide under. So you can lock up your valuables (if you have your own lock), but everyone can still see what you have locked up. It seems very strange. I locked up my valuables in it anyway, and headed down to the beach.

It is a beautiful coastline. The walk through the city to get to the sea was nice as well, through a fancy shopping district and then a big park. I walked all the way down the coast to the west, which took about an hour. There were tons of people relaxing on the beach, cycling, rollerblading, and all sorts of other activities. I walked back and ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe Nice at about 6pm. It was perfect timing to grab a bite to eat at my 41st Hard Rock, and watch the Italy vs. Costa Rica match. Italy was embarrassed and lost to CR, and even more importantly, that officially knocked England out of the World Cup. That didn’t last long. That’s two World Cups in a row that USA has done better than England. I like that trend!

After dinner I walked the east part of the beach and over to the Port of Nice. I headed back to the center and considered going up to the castle, but I realised the sun would be right in my eyes, so I wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway. I figured I would give it a miss for today and try to get up there earlier in the day either tomorrow or Sunday.

I chilled at my hostel and met three of my roommates for the night. They are three American girls from Oregon who were over here studying in Toledo, Spain. They seem like really nice girls who are on their first Eurotrip. Ah, to be young again!

Tomorrow I’m going to head over to Monaco to see what that’s all about. I know it’s really small and I’ve heard that it really only takes an hour or two to see everything worthwhile. I’ll see how it goes.

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