I left Dublin on Monday morning after a very relaxing last day there. I did some shopping in the morning and cooked dinner again with Allison (I'll spare you the photos this time but rest assured, it was delicious.) I asked her what she'd do if it were her last night in Dublin, and she said she'd go on a long walk. So, that's what we did. We got gelato in Temple Bar and watched some crazy street performers doing acrobatics and flaming limbo, which was pretty intense/ridiculous. I got a cool video of it, maybe I'll post it later when I have the chance. Anyway, it was nice to just see the city one last time and say goodbye to everything. The gelato didn't suck, either... Oh my goodness, I'm so excited to see how many gelati I'll be able to eat in a year!
When we got back to the flat, Julien and Mattheu managed to suck us into a game of "Rock Band" on their Xbox. With Mattheu on the drums, Julien on guitar and Allison and myself on vocals, we delivered an incredible performance of "Dani California." We stayed up playing the game until midnight, at which point figured I might as well just stay awake until it was time to leave for the airport at 3:00AM. Ack, it seemed like a good idea at the time...
Of course, by the time I arrived in Nice at 11:00AM, I was regretting my earlier decision. I checked into my hostel and groggily spent the day in town and at the beach. The water here is the bluest I've ever seen, it almost doesn't look real. The beach isn't sandy, either - it's made up of millions and millions of smooth rocks and pebbles, most small enough that you can sink into them. There were thousands of people there, but it was still one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. I was exhausted so I just sat on the rocks taking it all in, and reading a book.
That night I ended up meeting a group of really cool people at the hostel. There was a group of guys from England, two guys from Australia and two girls from Scotland. It was so crazy hearing all of our different versions of the same language - let's just say that I learned some *ahem* interesting new slang, and leave it at that!
I hung out with that group all day yesterday, and we went to Monaco, home of the famous Monte Carlo casino! All in all, I didn't really like the town - it's really expensive, filled with Ferraris and Louis Vuitton. Blech. I'm actually not going to say much else about Monaco but I'll share this cool picture that I took outside of the casino.
Today, today was amazing. I teamed up with another lone traveler - Daniel from Ecuador. First, we made a trip to the Nice fruit and flower market. Oh, it was amazing. Blocks and blocks of fresh fruit, vegetables, olives, cheese, bread, flowers, honey, pastries, mmmmm. I wanted to buy everything, but I settled for peaches, some enormous figs, a baguette, and a tiny little pot of Miel de Lavande, lavender honey. Then we decided to get lost for a little while, exploring the tiny crowded streets of Nice and all of their hidden treasures. There's something about this place - I'm definitely coming back.
We left Nice (with some hesitation) and went to the port town of Villefranche, which I immediately fell in love with.
We spent most of the day on the beach, swimming and soaking up the sun (by soaking up, I mean deflecting with about ten pounds of spf 50) then went to explore the Fort of Mont Alban. I guess Villefranche used to be an important military and naval base pre-18th century. Now, the fort is just a tourist attraction, although we were literally the only two people in there. There was an amazing hidden garden and a lot of really interesting art. It was a really cool place, made even cooler by the fact that it was completely deserted. There was also an outdoor stage - I guess they have concerts there now! Most recently, there was a breath-taking performance of "Crazy American Attempts Ballet." 
It got rave reviews... :)
We got back to Nice about an hour before sunset and still had some time to kill before Daniel needed to leave. He's about to return home to Ecuador after studying in Wales for a year - he had a lot of advice to give me and it was really cool to see how excited he is about going home, knowing that I'll feel that way too! Anyway, we spent his last few hours here at the beach in Nice (the pebbly one) and swam in the perfect blue water. It was so beautiful, I was really tempted to extend my stay here. I think I could have stayed on that beach forever.
I've been feeling a little bit guilty being in a country where I don't speak the language at all. After my adventures today, though, I'm determined to come back here to live for a while. I find myself speaking combining the 10 words of french that I know into ridiculous sentences, just because I love the way the words roll off my tongue. "Merci, bonjour, je suis le baguette s'il vous plait, je ne sais pas et je ne sais qua? Soixante euro et bonsoir madmoiselle!!" I can't wait until I can actually speak french. It's ridiculous, I'm a hopeless language fanatic. I guess it's a good thing I'm a linguistics major and world traveler!
Bonsoir!
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