France - Nice

NICE


    We arrived in Nice, made ourselves at home and headed out for some unique food at one of the few places open at 10pm.  Some of the best Tabouli we've ever had, an eggplant thing with beef in it, and a triangular shaped burrito with meat and cheese.  The place we are at is only a 5 minute walk to the beach and we saw a bunch of twisty turny alleyways which weren't drivable but were lined with closed shops on all sides and could be worth a look during the day.

    In the morning we headed out to get WIFI at one of the places I found on a website called www.wificafespots.com.  It's a pretty cool website where if you need free Wifi, you just enter in your country and city and it actually pops up with places around there that have free wifi.  On it are reviews and ratings with regards to the speed of the internet, if you needed a passcode, etc.  Perfect!  The one we ended up choosing was a 2 minute walk and had decent food: Interesting veggie burger with the closest thing to what I could describe it as a Hash brown patty in it, some sauces, lettuce and some cooked veggies with a Bun that resembled what you'd get at McDonalds. It was pretty good.  Got some stuff done with the WEEFEE then headed to the Monday Antique market along an interesting strip near the water lined with cafes on either side and vendors all through the center.  A very cool walk



    We actually bought Candace a ring and bracelet, which is rare that we would buy any jewelry for her, usually its just inspiration based looking and she would just say "OH I could just make that" and we walk away =)  She got a cool bracelet and ring

    The wind started picking up and gusting through the area, and besides that it was closing time for some of the vendors (2pm), so we went onto the beach… ROCK beach.  I've never been on a beach like this in all my travels.  Not only is this beach not sandy, and likewise not rocky, but all smooth decent sized roundlike stones.  Super unique and cool.  The water was also beautiful and seductive as I just gazed at the light blue-to dark blue contrast and the open seas calling to me (they really do, kinda like fire calls to Sawyer).



    The waves were crashing pretty hard on the stones and were I'd say around 3 or 4 feet with swells up to 5 or 6 and it was super interesting to watch the water make it over the ridge and break on the stones then drain through..  Everyone that I saw in the water had watershoes / aquasocks on, probably so that they could actually walk on the stones.  Of course I had to go in the water.  I LOVE water and I've never been in the Mediterranean Sea!  Who cares about shoes.  With entering the water, Timing was everything with the size of the waves and the steep incline and the STONES.  Haha.  But I got in alright.



    The water was delightful and once out of the danger zone of the waves breaking on the stones it was immediately deep, well over my head as I dove down a couple times to reach bottom.  A bit of a current was pushing towards the Castle, so I got a good swim in just chillin and keeping position.  After a while I decided to get out.  I'll tell you, body surfing the waves into the stones was not a good idea…  Especially since I waited for the 1st swell of a set of big waves (I thought about this as I was surfing it in and about how I better not mess this up or I've got some big waves right behind me.)  Thinking like that will get you in trouble!  Instead, stay focused!!  Anyhow, I thought I could neutralize the stones upon landing, but it was just so different, by the time I got my footing to make a run for it, the next wave slammed me right over and I was thinking how ridiculous of an idea this was, as my wedding ring began to get pounded off of my hand and slipping towards the tip of my finger.  So instead of using my arms to push myself up and get out of the cycle, I decided stay down in the waves and to force my ring back all the way on as the next wave hit and stones pounded away at my face & body.  Of course in these conditions, I'd never find my ring if it came off.  As I started getting dragged back, I knew the wave was complete, and even though I couldn't see, I quickly stood up and booked it up the rocks and to safety.  I gave the lifeguard a smile and a little "hang loose" Hawaiian gesture and walked back over to our mats.  I decided to lay on the warm, sun-absorbed stones themselves and let it soothe me as I dried off.  Candace got back from the bathroom and I told her that if she is going in the Sea, she had better go over where the waves are small down the beach a bit and to go feet-first on the way back into the beach, kinda like when we float down class 3+ whitewater rapids.  She decided not to go in. I was glad. it was a bit chilly with the crazy wind out anyways for her, plus we had no towels because we had left them at the place in the morning instead of carrying them all day.

    We went back through the antique area to one of the cafes and I had a couple beers and read my book that I borrowed from James.  Candace was reading the Magic of Believing, the little red book =).  We then walked through the coolest shopping place of the trip yet.  I actually got some shorts, a shirt, and some shades.  It was that little narrow alley-type, filled with shops, place we saw the night before.  We also stopped in a beautiful church to check it out as we randomly walked by, and ended up in a cozy courtyard with a fountain and cool-looking buildings all around.  There were tables throughout the whole place and we just plopped a seat and had a banana split, an awesome salad, a couple beers, and alternated between reading and just absorbing the cool atmosphere while we got some sun.

    Heading back to the place, we stopped at a little market and picked up some breakfast food, some BIERE, and a couple snacks.  Upon getting home, our "roomate" (this time for AirBNB we had someone who was actually staying in the place we rented out - HER place ;), and it was kinda cool to have a local who could tell you this or that and give you the inside scoop, had beach towels and mats, etc etc.  She was a good host) ordered pizza, which we all split, watched some soccer, and called it a night.

TUESDAY:
    After heading to the post office to ship some of our stuff we bought back over to the states, we checked out the Market Strip where the Antiques were the previous day and found a flower market there instead because every day is different!  Smelled great to walk through and we noticed that the people at the Cafe's were ordering mussels, one order after another and the tables were full of them.  We headed to the castle and started our climb up, only to be rewarded as expected with a great view of the city, the ocean, and an interesting walk through some castle grounds at the top.




  While climbing a tree, I busted the screen on my camera so I lost the ability to view what I was taking pictures of and the zoom function became more or less worthless.  After reaching the top of a branch, I grabbed onto the railing of the next level up on the castle and climbed up.  Candace walked around and met me up there and we enjoyed another great view of Nice, France and the Ocean.





    We went to a couple of banks to exchange the rest of our American dollars at the best rate possible (don't do this, instead just use a debit card, no reason to bring US currency over, as I found out that day when researching the best exchange rates and such.  Best thing to do after over an hour of research is, unanimously, just to use the debit card of a Credit Union(which cool enough I have YAY), as its usually a 1% fee.  Also good and dandy are major bank debit cards, charging around 3%, which is Still highly preferable to paying 5-8% at a money change place plus possible commission or flat fees on top of that.)

    Then it was time for the "famous" shopping strip, which was kinda like Paris' commercialized walk except significantly smaller.  It was still cool to see, as it's different from the States and had a bunch of Cafe's and such along the way to see also.  We were heading to a WIFI spot called Queenie's, which had an ocean-view, when Candace spotted a Mediterranean food spot called Yalla!  She was like Woohoo!, hummus, cooked eggplant, special salad, pita, falafel, and some other stuff I had never actually seen.  Candace and I usually split meals and an appetizer but it was so good that we ordered another plate!   The owner was pretty cool and seemed to know Everyone.  People kept coming up to him while we ate and doing the French kiss thing (plant one on each cheek), saying hi and chatting.  He also had people waving to him from cars.  He had great English as he described that the brand new black Mercades out front was only 14,000 Euros (around 17,000 american), and that the taxes for cars was a lot lower here in France than many places.



    We finally made it to Queenies for wifi and a few cocktails as we watched Soccer, finalized Barcelona lodging, and figured out the nightlife scene in Nice for the night.  We finally ordered some mussels (since everybody else was!!) which ended up being great =)  Before heading home, we got to see how the game of rugby worked, which was super interesting to see the constant piling and piling over and over and the triangle shapes they form to force through the other teams defenses, or the lifting of teammate into the air to catch balls.  Anyways, we stopped at a couple places that we had reasearched on way back to check to see if they would be cool for later.  After getting home and changing, we headed out to Big Ben's.  It was great to see a place with some actual selection of beer!!  And I'm not being picky here or underplaying it when I say that nearly every bar/Cafe in France has either 1 beer (pretty common), or around 3-5 if its a really good bar, but even then, some of the times all the beers are super similar and simply light draft beers.  The WINE is always pretty good =), but not the beer.

    So I ordered a Kwak Belgin beer.  One cool thing about Europe so far is that anytime you are at a pub or decent establishment for beer, every beer you order comes with a special glass for that type of beer.  This particular one was pretty cool looking and had its own Stand to match!  In the background you will see our Menu, and if you click on the picture itself you will get a larger version and can perhaps read it -



    Then I saw that they had Rochefort ( a trap-pistes Belgian beer ), and although it was #10 instead of #12, and although I would have maybe preferred to try something new, I HAD to see what glass they would bring out with the beer!  Lol.  So I ordered it



    And Candace ordered a Strawberry Framboise beer as we busted out the Chinese Checkers and played a round where she ended up defeating me at one of the best games of chinese checkers I've played!  Super fun. 

    On the way to the next place (Wayne's), we saw this cool looking place as we walked by.  We paused for a second to see what was up and the guy was like "Hey! Come on it!  Gay Bar but no problem! Come on!"  He was so enthusiastic that we ended up going inside for a drink.  As Candace was telling me about a picture above my head behind me that I shouldn't look at and and then proceeded to describe it.. and talk about it.. I was like OK, I Gotta get outta here before I cave in and see this picture.  Thus, we slammed our drinks and off we went, my mind still clear of any lingering ridiculousness that could have been freshly planted.

    Off to Wayne's an English pub, run by British dudes who spoke excellent english.  It was interesting to see basically a British Pub turned into half pub, half dance party with a DJ spinning music and people dancing on the tables in the DJ room.  Also, we don't really have French or English pubs over in America, just Irish pubs, and those are run and worked by everyday American joes, so it was cool to check out an English pub in France. 

    On the walk back we found a place that was still open and serving something other than just late-night Pizza.  Score!  We had a huge bowl of some seafood soup, a super-loaded Chef's Salad, some bread, and good wine.  As the waiter described the wine "smooth.. not sweet, not bitter but, Smooooth" and that it was.  The soup was super different flavored and Candace didn't like it so she started making faces at me when I ate it.  We started busting out laughing and making more crazy twitching faces at eachother.  Well, originally I thought that the soup was just tolerable, but as it turned out, it was definitely worth the full amount in Euros for the laughs that it brought.

    Our train we got on in the morning is taking us to Barcelona right now.  Big travel day, as we don't get in until 9pm!!  Anyways, it has been a cool ride, and we are getting this train thing down as we switched over a couple trains today, and everything has went smoothly.  Gotta love free upgrades to 1st class with the Eurorail pass!  Cheers,

Jason & Candace