Nice Day 1

Alright, three weeks behind now. Man this stuff is hard to keep up with. I don't see how people do this all the time. But expect Nice posts now. So Nice in a nutshell - I found the architecture was similar to that of Geneva, just sorta oldish but still nice but now mind blowingly nice type of deal. Nice is located on the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur) / Provence region. So at least I can say I have been to Provence! but would like to return next time and check inland more for the vineyards and the canyon. People are very nice here and of course couldn't complain about the French pastries which were superior. Beaches are rocky (so don't expect sand) and when we went it was still quite windy and cold though we did get more sun than in the A'dam! My partner in crime was Erica Fong this time, who is mentioned in the earlier posts.



So another VERY early flight at 6 something from Schipol had us leave from home at 430. This time we BIKED to central station (first time with luggage) in torrential rain. Stupid rain, but we still made it there in good time and by the time we checked in and went through security, had lots of time to get breakfast and rest before the flight.
walking to the hotel, you get hit by all tehse pedestrian detours cause the main street was getting renovated so it ain't the prettiest site in Nice that's for sure. Good things didn't have to rely on public transport to get around.

We checked into Hotel Pastoral which was a hostel/hotel owned by one of the nicest families I've met. Frederic and Sabrina (yes mom - almost the same name!) were God-sends as they told us where to go and what to see, and what to avoid. Every time I asked them questions (in French of course) I could only imagine that I was probably the bajillionth tourist asking the same questions hee hee. Oh well, it was much better than printing out and reading a bunch of stuff (which my partner in crime did very well as well). I also insisted they speak French to me and they were more than happy to do it, though their English was also very good! I guess that's a given in this kind of business.
After dropping off our bags, the morning just started and we stroll along the beach front a little bit (then the enormous wind turned us off a little), so we headed to Nice's open market (Marche du Fleurs); LOTS of fresh foods and baked goods. Very nice market but I think A'dams are still pretty good in comparison.


When then headed through old nice towards the Chateau by late afternoon for some spectacular views of the city and beach front.

Lots of views and for a little hike it's well worth it!

vieux ville (old city) of nice. Then we headed the main shopping street for a cafe and panini (yup more freakin sandwiches) for lunch. We then walked around the streets, did a little shopping, and then headed back to the hostel. After that we went for some traditional Nicoise cuisine and then headed down to the carnival to check out the festivities.

Then we headed back to the hotel to rest before going out and celebrating the last weekend of Nice's carnival (good timing on us!).

The carnival parade occured on the second last day of the Carnival (the festivities span over 14 days I believe) and was characterized by lots of music, confetti, silly string (everywhere) and just people laughing and having a good time. Very PG and then it ended by about eleven. EC and I were going to wait around until the end until we realized we started to see the same floats over again (I guess the route was circular). So if you are allergic to silly, I would advise you not to come here as a cute little 4-year-old will money shot you with string from a can.

Afterwards, we followed the crowd into vieux nice for some night time gelato and watched an eclipse with a bunch of strangers!
And if you're wondering, yes that was all in one day, the city itself is actually quite big, but all the main attractions are quite close together which I guess I like most European cities. We headed back to the hotel to crash (we were considering going to the local watering hole, but it looked just like a regular pub were expats go).