We walked around Nice for a while. The city was very cute. Strange mix of narrow streets and large plazas. On the edge of the city, we began to climb the surrounding hills, where after a long trek we reached an overlook of the city. The coast was really pretty. Walking to the other side of the hill we looked down into the harbor that all of the yachts and sailboats stay in and were amazed at how pretty the cliff with yellow flowers growing on it looked next to the blue water. We then continued our walk down to the harbor where we concluded our visit in Nice. We boarded the bus and continued to Menton for the night.
When we got to Menton it was close to 8:00 P.M. We had to go single file with our bags up to the first floor to be give our skeleton room key. Our room happened to be across the hall from the front desk. Our room was so quirky, looking into the bathroom there was a shower head to hold in your hand to wash but no shower curtain or glass surrounding the tub. We even had pink toilet paper! Looking out of our room window we realized we overlooked a dark and dirty alley and had a window we couldn't get to lock or shut completely (until the next morning before we left of course). We also could not get our room door to lock from the inside either which was extremely eery. After having a good laugh about our room situation we decided to go out and find food since we hadn't eaten in a long time.
As we walked down the street we realized almost everything was closed or closing. We asked a bar owner if anything was still open and he told us he didn't know of anything. We walked back down the street preparing to go hungry for the night when we ran into our professors and some adults on the trip right next to an alley. We told them the disappointing news and we were all ready to head back when we looked down the alley and saw a bright green neon sign saying creperie.
We walked down the alley and into the creperie not sure if they would still serve us. As we walked in, the group of people working, which we found out later were all one family, were sort of overwhelmed by the 12 of us walking in. They did not speak English well except for one girl. She began trying to help us order off of their menu that was all in French. With Kathleen, Drew, and my little French knowledge and the girls English we were able to figure things out eventually. The girl told us her name was Beatrice. She looked like she was in her late twenties and she had been learning English for one year now at school. She told us she felt her English was not good but she was actually very good at holding conversation. While waiting on our food to come out, a man came in that usually sells flowers on the street with his last bag of flowers for the day. He passed out a flower to each of the girls sitting there including Beatrice and her mother who was helping prepare the food in the back. My rose was pink and gorgeous, which made the night that much better. We continued talking to Beatrice and took a picture with her before our food came out. Our food was delicious. We all got crepes of some sort which they called Gallettes. Hillary, Sarah, and I got cheese crepes which took a little work to explain to them before but it was well worth it. We also got a chocolate crepe to split for dessert. The family came out to watch us eat and make sure everyone had been understood in their order. They were all so sweet. At the end of the meal Beatrice's parents came up to me knowing I knew a little French and could translate for them. They wanted to apologize to us for not knowing any English which I explained to them was not a problem and we wouldn't expect them to. In the U.S. you never find anyone who apologizes for not speaking a tourist's language. It is just another one of the ways we have different viewpoints. That night was one of the best times we've had in a long time.
We returned to our room that night and pressed our rose petals in our journals before packing our bags back up and going to sleep for leaving the next day. We woke up early the next day as always to board the coaches to continue on to our destination in Milan. On the way to Milan we made two stops along the way.
Our first stop was in the city of Eze. Eze was situated on a small hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The view on the drive was gorgeous. We rode across the mountainside overlooking the sea the entire time watching the sun rise. When we arrived in Eze, we got off the coach and began our trek up the hill to the top in the "Exotic Garden of Eze". The garden could very well be the prettiest place I've ever been. Different species of flowers and cacti covered the hill side, and statues were sprinkled in with them. The view was amazing down to the coast. We sketched the view and continued back down to the bus and headed to our next stop.
We assumed nothing would be as pretty as the view we had just seen, but in fact Monte Carlo, Monaco was very pretty as well. It was about a twenty minute drive away on the coast as well. Monaco is known for its formula one car races and has the most famous hairpin turn in a racing course in the world. We walked up to the casino from where we parked the bus which had beautiful gardens and fountains all around it. The city of Monaco is very rich. The only stores along the sidewalks were Cartier, Bentley, Ferrari, and Rolex, as well others in the same price range. After walking around and seeing some gardens and sketching a little, we separated to go find little souvenirs and to look around. A few of us who are collecting small things from each country went on a hunt to find something in the lower price range and found them in the last twenty minutes in a hotel lobby store ten minutes before loading the coach to leave. We made our way to Milan that night and arrived around seven thirty at our hotel.
Oh, Bailey! What a great trip! Beautiful pics! So many favorites!
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