Nice was.... Nice

(Sorry we haven't been on in a bit.  We like to write  about our last place when we are on the train and then post when we get to the new city.... but Cinque Terre didn't have internet so we're a bit behind).... Anyways....

Nice was nice....

But we’re happy to be leaving..We’re back on the train again.  We decided to change our plans a bit and leave Nice earlier than we had originally thought – not because we didn’t have a good time but because France is not cheap and Nice was pretty dirty.

We stayed in another good location – it was about a 5 minute walk to the train station, but because of this, it was extremely loud (you know, it sounded ‘like a freight train was going through your room’ -  except that it actually was).  This bed and breakfast was quite a bit smaller than the other ones we had stayed in and the owner was originally from Scotland and had lived in San Franscisco for 25 years before moving to Nice last year.   She also smoked… heavily.  Which is why I’m not that sad we’re leaving (although its not unusual because EVERYONE smokes here).

The city of Nice is about the size of Saskatoon and has an old and new part.  We spent our first day hiking along the seaside and ate lunch in one of the harbors.  Our waiter happened to be Australian and he asked us where we were from – we said Canada.  He then told us he had lived in Banff for 8 years and had just recently gotten a job offer in Panorama.  We looked around for a bit more and then wandered by to check out all the yachts.

Yesterday we spent the day on the beach – contrary to what we thought the beach would be like  (sandy, beautiful etc.) it was the complete opposite.  The beach was made of large rocks and you had to nose dive into the water so you wouldn’t get slammed into the ground.  The water was beautiful and blue though so that made up for it. 

We have also found that Nice was very dirty and very expensive.  Because you have to pay to use the toilets, people decide that it’s better to not.  Therefore everywhere smells like urine since people will pee in the streets…. Which is really quite disgusting.  As for food, it is still delicious (but a bit more expensive).  While we were here, Travis finally tried Nutella crepes and loved them (he wondered why he hadn't discovered Nutella sooner - I said we had it at home in our pantry....)

We also went to a market on our last day and that was really cool.  There was so many cool foods (and alot of olives and CHEAP olive oil)

We are now headed to Cinque Terre (5 villages) in Italy and are staying in Vernazza.  I’m so excited (not that every part hasn’t been great) but this is what I’ve been waiting for.