We got up early to try to catch a faster train back to Nice in the morning - it turns out there is no such thing. So - we ended up on the train for about 6 hours again. On the plus side, while we were buying a couple things in Ventimiglia, Italy on the way back, a cute little fruit vendor thought I was French, we chatted a little bit, and he gave me my peach for free. :)
When we finally arrived in Nice, we hadn't booked a hotel. We were wandering up and down the streets checking for availability when a little man asked us what we were looking for. It's super common for people to offer non-legit rooms to people on the streets so I told him we didn't have much money and wouldn't be able to stay in his rooms. As it turned out, he was the manager of a few hotels. He was impressed with my French too - woohoo. Anyway, he brought us to one of the hotels and instructed the concierge to only charge us half price, take care of us, and give us good advice of what to do around town. We checked in, and all was well. :)
We wandered down the streets looking for dinner since it was around 7 pm already, but most of the shops were closing. We ended up ducking into a little sandwich shop and the owners happened to be from where? You guessed it - Morocco! We talked a bit, and Mohammed invited us out to the bars with him. We told him we didn't want to drink, but would meet him later if he wanted. We just wandered around for a while and then the three of us met up to go grab some fresh squeezed orange juice and again hear another perspective on the social problems in France. He walked us back to our neighborhood and sent us on our way.
In the morning, we decided to just hang around Nice and relax. First we had a little picnic lunch in the city. Then, we searched out the Russian church, which was pretty, and ended up really just taking a nap in the grass nearby for a while. Then, we went to go find the chateau. It was on the other side of town, so we ended up walking by the beach for quite a bit. The waves were huge and the colors were amazing. Finally, we made it to the 358 (yes, I counted) stairs up to the chateau in the mountains. We had a great view of the city from up there. Then, it was off to find some dinner, and going to bed eeeearly so we can go to Monaco tomorrow morning. :)
WOW Amber, I just love reading your posts. Thank you so much updating us :) It again looks like things are going well, you're being taken care of and looked out for, thats good! :) Sounds like you have been seeing a TON of pretty scenery and WATER. I can't wait to see pics. OH and you're going to have to point out on the map all the places you were... because reading names means aboslutely nothing to me lol. I have no idea where you are on a map right now---just---traveling the world :) Well, love you lots... my big adventure is to go to green bay WI for a wedding this weekend. Hehe. Your wonderful, tell megan hi for me :) love you!!! - jess
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