The End of Our European Adventure: Part One

Once again, this absence is far to long, and completely unwarranted.  Sure, I’ve been busy since I got home.  But not too busy.  I partially blame myself, for not feeling motivated to finish my blog.  I partially toss the blame to Jon, saying that I’m not ready to finish it until I get my pictures from him, to which he replies “I have four months of pictures to go through, you’ll get them when I get to them.”  Does he really expect me to wait?  I guess so.

I think the real problem is that, finishing the blog means that my trip is officially over.  And as excited as I was to come home and see my friends and family, I’m not ready for it to be over.  I’m ready to go back.  We’ll come back to that in a few more posts.

So, my job right this moment is to tell you about my last few days in Ireland, and our trip home.

Dublin was wonderful, as always.  Jenna was very welcoming, and we had yet another fantastic weekend with her.  We did a lot of walking, a lot of sight seeing, and surprisingly a lot of learning.  The Sunday afternoon we were there, we spent in Dublin’s Archaeology Museum with her mentor for her internship, who happens to be an archaeologist!  Neat!  It was a surprisingly busy afternoon at the museum, but we managed to huddle close as she explained the significance of some of the artifacts in the museum.  Our group grew in numbers as we went along too; I guess they thought we were a free tour?  Also, I learned that not all archaeologists like ancient Egypt.  Apparently it scares her.  Who knew!

We ate some wonderful food (battered fried sausage and chips is a close rival to my favorite fish and chips!), we enjoyed a few drinks, and soaked in the sights.  For the most part the weather was beautiful, except Sunday afternoon.  Before we knew it, Monday night was upon us and it was time to start packing and thinking seriously about a good night’s sleep.  Funny how when sleep is important, you don’t go to bed until well past midnight.

Tuesday morning ran pretty smoothly.  I got up early, showered, and had all our bags fully packed before Jon got up.  Since he’s a serious pain in the morning, I figured that would be a better way to start.  I unfortunately had to leave my walking stick in Dublin so Jon could try and get his through security.  He was far more attached to his, since he made it, and I decided that the chances of two people using them as a crutch would look a little suspicious.

We left after an abundance of hugs before Jenna even left for work, and headed to the bus stop.  The very friendly bus driver made sure we got off at the right stop for our terminal, and we were on our way.

Of course, the first thing I notice as I’m dreading the 4 flights ahead of us, is that there’s a flight directly from Dublin to Orlando.  Seriously?  I don’t know if we even thought to check Orlando flights.  Regardless, I had a gut feeling those tickets probably cost a fortune, and didn’t mind that we weren’t going on that flight as soon as I noticed it was United.

As we go through the daily airport grind, Jon still with his walking stick in hand, it still hadn’t hit me that I was leaving this beautiful country.  It takes until I’m physically sitting in my seat (an exit row seat thanks to Jon’s wonderful timing!) that I start to feel sad for all those “I can’t wait to be home” wishes.  And by then, it was of course too late.

The flights really weren’t that bad.  I had never flown US Airways before, but I can tell you that if they’re an option in the future, I wouldn’t mind doing so again.  Obviously with exit row seats on our longest flight, it was considerably more comfortable than our flights into Europe, but even our domestic flights from Philadelphia to Chicago, Chicago to Charlotte, and Charlotte to Tampa had ample leg room for me, and even enough for Jon.  That’s quite a feat!  We only got food on our international flight (which was pretty good, I might add), but the usual beverage service on the rest.  We had some delays (which made our short layovers in each city a little stressful at times), but all and all, the experience wasn’t awful.  The only plane I slept on was the last one, but by then I had been up for nearly 24 hours anyway, so I guess that’s okay.  The in-flight entertainment on the long flight wasn’t bad; that surfer movie about Bethany Hamilton, and Marley and Me.  A great movie, though I wonder if I was the only one with tears in my eyes.  Jon had to stop watching it.  He won’t shy from saying that movies with dogs are the only type that “move” him.

Once we landed in Tampa, well past our planned midnight arrival, I went from complete exhaustion to that exhausted slap-happy phase.  Knowing that Cristina and Jon’s mom were waiting for us, every step of the de-boarding process seemed to take forever.  When we finally turned the corner in the terminal and saw them, I was so excited to be home.  It didn’t hurt that Cristina had made us signs to welcome us, saying “Welcome Home” in every language of every country we went too, plus Dutch!

After going through baggage claim, we were on our way to the beloved Taco Bus.  We took the time to enjoy our meal there, and went home.  We didn’t hesitate to put on our suits and jump in the pool.  We lasted a while too, considering the pool closes at 11, but we were eventually kicked out.  We proceeded to do a little unpacking, to share little souvenirs, and some much needed laundry.  Some very much needed laundry.  Jon went to sleep at around 3, to catch a little nap before having to take his mom back to the airport.  She made an unfortunate scheduling mistake when planning a business trip, but at least we got to see her briefly.  I fought to stay awake until the two of them left, and then left Cristina to enjoy the quiet living room and get some sleep.  I practically melted into my bed.  I had forgotten how comfortable it was.  I don’t even think I noticed when Jon joined me again after his trip to the airport.

And for now, I’ll leave you with this picture Jon’s mom managed to catch before leaving the airport. 

Treni italiani sono terribili.

Alright, now to update you on getting to Italy.  First, the one sentence summary.  Then I’ll explain.

In order to get from Spain to our host in Italy we took: one bus, two subways, one plane, two trains, sleeping in a train station, another train, sleeping outside a train station, and a car ride.

The Italian train system frustrated me before, when we visited Torino, but I never thought that I could feel so frustrated that all I could think about was going home.

The day started early, with a 7:20 AM bus from our host’s village to Madrid.  We were exhausted from being up late packing, and spent most of the trip dozing off.  When we arrived to the bus station we took two subways to get to the airport, had to pay an extra fine even though we had a boarding pass (oh well, just a euro), and proceeded to figure out the RyanAir process.  Which by the way, I’ll be taking RyanAir out of my Travel Resources page, because it is not as wonderful as we thought.  Went through checking our bags, the visa check, and proceeded to our gate, still with two hours to spare.  Not a big deal, but with recent events we thought security would be heightened, so we had the mindset of “better more time than no time.”  We got on our plane, got lucky with two bulkhead seats, and was annoyed by RyanAir flight attendants constantly trying to sell the passengers food, perfume, lottery tickets, those scam “energy bracelets” and all sorts of things.  So much for napping.

When we arrived in Pisa, we bought a train ticket from the airport to Florence, with the plan of getting off at Empoli.  We forgot to validate our ticket, so we almost got busted and fined for not doing so, but the train guy decided to show some mercy and validated it for us for 5 euros.  Not a wonderful start.  It was also then that we found out that the train wouldn’t be stopping anywhere, it just goes straight to Florence.  Okay… Not the end of the world, we’ll just take a train from Florence to Siena.

Unfortunately, all the trains from Florence to Siena were cancelled due to an electrical problem on the route.  So Jon stood in line for over an hour to ask some one for advice on how to get to our final destination, and after them assuring us that the train to Chiusi would get there in time to get on a train to Siena (and then get off on the stop for our host), we ran to the platform and hopped on the train.

Well, in order for us to make it to Chiusi in time for us to train towards Siena, the Italian train system would have to actually run on schedule.  We got there, only to find that we were in a nothing town, and had just missed the last train by 5 minutes.  We called our host, and after finding out that she wouldn’t be able to pick us up from the first train back home, we had to wait until 9:30ish the next morning until we could have some place comfortable to sleep.  After spending nine hours in the Chiusi train station, failing to get any sleep and freezing our butts off, we decided to hop on the first train anyway, with hopes of the station in Rapolano having a better place to sit.

Wrong again.  The station was tiny, but worse, the building was closed.  Now we had about four and a half hours, most of which we spent freezing, to wait outside until our host could pick us up.  I felt like I was going to be cold for the rest of my life.

I will, never ever ever again, use the Italian train system, unless I can start at the crack of dawn and hopefully avoid the chance of getting stuck some place after missing the last train.  I had a very poor first impression of Italy; its people, its transportation and its organization.  All that being said though, our host is wonderful, there are tons of people here, and we’ve had a good time since we arrived.  I’ll fill you in on that bit later though.

No puedo creer que me olvidé de mi español!

First of all, I’d like to apologize for the serious time-lapse between this post and my last.  Though the farm we’re staying at in Spain does have Internet, its tricky business and very expensive for our host, so we prefer to save it for important things, like banking, and telling our mothers we’re still alive. That being said, I have so much do update you on, while sitting in the Castilla la Mancha Public Library of Toledo.  They have free WIFI here, and our host had a doctor’s appointment here this afternoon, so we took the bus this morning from her village to town, and then we’ll ride back in the evening with here.  Decent plan, since Toledo is quite beautiful, but very small (at least the parts worth visiting), so that leaves ample time to catch up on things like emails, blogging, Facebook, and the news (which has proven quite active given recent occurrences!).

First, getting here.  Flight from Nice to Barcelona- relatively easy.  Jon had to check his tripod; a little odd considering its just a tripod, but I guess you can hide anything in those expandable legs… Getting from the airport in Barcelona to the train station- piece of cake.  Getting from Barcelona to Madrid…. well that was a little funny.  You see, we were traveling on Monday, the Monday after Easter to be exact, and seeing as it’s a bank holiday in a lot of European countries, the trains were full with families doing traveling for the holiday weekend.  This meant that all the tickets for Monday and Tuesday were sold out; that is, except first class.  After doing some quick mental calculations at the ticket counter, we bought two first class tickets on the high-speed train from Barcelona to Madrid, dinner included (yes!).  We figured we would have spent that in hotel costs staying in Barcelona for two nights until the trains were no longer full, and though seeing the city wouldn’t have been bad either, we had arrangements with our host and were excited to get there.  After a wonderful train experience to Madrid, about an hour of going from one metro tram to another to get to the bus station, and an hour and a half bus ride into the little village of Almorox, we met the smiling face of our first host; a very nice woman in her early fifties from Holland.

I don’t think its necessary to fill you in on all of the things we’ve done around her finca, but I’ll highlight the major things; we’ve prepared a patch to start a veggie garden, got rid of a whole bunch of these pesky poisonous (only if you eat them) plants, and put up an electric fence to get ready for the horse she was given by a close friend.  Yep, given.  Long story short, the horse has been traumatized by something in its past, and the family that owned it felt a little overwhelmed.  He’s a very sweet horse, but very nervous.  She also has three wonderful dogs, seven cats, and a plethora of insects I hope not to take to Italy with me.  The little village she lives near is nothing worth visiting, so we spend all of our time on the finca, which is fine.  She’s also a wonderful cook. I’ve finally done a little bit of souvenir shopping, so Brittany and Cristina, if you’re reading, you’re covered! :)  Some things in beautiful Toledo spoke your names to me.  I hope you like them.  :)

First Class!

Jon didn’t look so excited, but he was.

As was I :)

Yep. This was a hot towel! ITS BEEN YEARS SINCE I GOT ONE OF THESE!

Delish. I can now say I’ve tried bull.

AHHH!!! :D I miss this stuff!

The same chocolate. We received the eggs from our French host. Haha.

Middle of no where can be really pretty.

Sun in the picture. But I like it.

Spanish sun, fields of daisies, and spider webs.

Jon thought he was neat looking.

The house from the field of daisies.

Jon standing on a rock.

My feet standing on the same rock. And my camera strap. Ugh.

Rainy day, but MOUNTAIN!

Very purple.

Love these!

I had forgotten all about the wild poppies! So cute!

We took a picture of the map of Toledo because, as you can see, its easy to get lost.

Pretty church of some sort thats now part of the university.

And the top.

Imagine having these as your neighbors!

Old and the not so old.

He’s upset because I found the sign fitting.

Don Quixote!

View from the top of the Alcazar, where they have the public library!

Difficult to read, but its a map of Toledo with points-of-interest marked. Neat!

EDIT: Pictures flipped! Finally! Tenga un buen día!

Hier, on a trouvé une chute d’eau

Yesterday proved to be one of those days where it pays to be a little adventurous.

First of all, let me start by saying that at the start of the day, I didn’t anticipate doing much more than napping.  The tickle in the back of my throat turned into an actual sore throat, and my glands were so swollen they made my entire head and neck ache.  Well when our professor asked us “Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire cet après-midi?” Jon replied (much to my surprise) “Peut-être, on va aller à Èze.” So much for a nap…

We invited Ilona to come with us, since she said she hadn’t been, and made plans to meet her near the bus station at 1:45 to make it to our 2:00 bus.  Unlike last time we went to Èze, when the weather was freezing and we welcomed the warm bus, the weather was gorgeous, which made the bus seem quite stuffy and warm.  Alas, for a single euro, I can manage a stuffy 30 minutes.

Once we got to Èze Village, Ilona realized that she had indeed been there before, and had fond memories of it.  I guess thats better than taking her some place that she hated.  We did pretty much the exact same thing we did before; a lot of uphill walking to the top of the exotic gardens.  A few of the cacti were of course, still covered, but the sunlight made everything much more beautiful.

As we were leaving Èze Village, instead of stopping some place for a bite to eat, we opted to take the path next to the hotel’s valet parking area that said something to the effect of “Èze-Sur-Mer 45 minutes.”  Èze-Sur-Mer is a relatively new little village at the bottom of the mountain that ancient Roman Èze Village sits on.  Jon, having remembered that a bus goes through the little village that could take us back to Nice, insisted we give the little path a try…

… This was no little path.  And just because it was downhill doesn’t automatically make it easy.  Though given that some of the poorly places steps were concrete, and there for not as old as the Roman village we left, it was still quite old, and not exactly well kept.  Regardless, knowing in the back of our minds that we wouldn’t have to trek all the way back up the path kept us going.  The sign was clearly written when watches ran slower though, because it definitely took us nearly an hour and a half to reach the bottom.  We did however, take a little detour.

About half-way down our little mountain trail, I kept insisting “I hear water, there’s water near by.”  Ilona was half convinced, but Jon wasn’t; figured it was just the wind rustling through the trees through the valley.  As we got closer to the source of the noise, we all agreed it was water, and that we should find it.  Jon thankfully spotted a very well hidden little path that went past a small, old ruined building, and just a little ways behind it was the waterfall.  It was beautiful.  They don’t exactly exist in Florida, so I haven’t seen one in quite a long time.  We got right up next to it too, could have showered in it if we’d wanted to.  We took a few needed pictures and after consulting our watches and our clothes, which were growing wetter with the mist, we proceeded back to the path.  Definitely a wonderful find.

That being said, the past after that seemed rather long.  Except for a few spots were the view opened up to something quite spectacular, there were no more waterfalls.  We could hear it for a while, and in one little turn of our path we could just barely see through the shrubbery to see it, but other than that, the rest was just a rather long, downhill mountain hike.  We slowly began to grow tired, and as the trees thinned and exposed us to the sun, we got warmer too.  Eventually through we noticed the path become more civilized, and a few meters later it was a paved path.  Unfortunately, if you’ve ever walked downhill something completely smooth, this part of the trip proved to be the most difficult.  Your feet and knees hurt from gravity pulling your body on them in weird ways, and you’re gate is in that awkward stage between feeling the need to walk, and the need to sprint; sprinting of course resulting in the typical snowball effect, minus the snow.  Once we made it down to flat ground, our knees and feet thanked us, and we sighed almost in unison “Oh thank goodness, flat ground.”

Now, since we decided to ignore our growling stomachs at the top of the mountain, they were particularly upset with us when we reached the bottom.  We were a little underwhelmed when we got there too, because there wasn’t much more than just some rather lavish and expensive houses, and a restaurant that doesn’t serve food in the evening (someone please tell me how that makes sense, France…).  We went searching for the beach and when we finally found a public entrance (something I’m not used to having to look for, being from Florida) we realized why Èze is known for their perfumes and not their wonderful beaches.  They weren’t really anything special, and they were inside a bay where the water didn’t move much, so it was dirty and smelly.  Either they found that they had wonderful ingredients to make perfumes and never bothered advertising for beaches, of their citizens needed something to make them smell better after swimming in the water.  Who knows?  Either way, we were ready to catch the bus home.

The bus ride home was probably the worst part of the whole day.  Once we saw a bus stop, I realized that it was the same windy bus route we took to Monaco that left me feeling a little ill.  I was not looking forward to this in the slightest, but I figured I would feel better just to have a place to sit.  Well, the bus was packed; instead of sitting and feeling every little turn, I had to stand, making me feel every turn ten fold.  I kept moving from one spot to another, probably annoying all the passengers around me, in search of a place where I could hold myself looking out the front of a bus.  Unfortunately I only found this a few stops away from ours, but needless to say, I was not hungry when we got off the bus.

I was however, starving just a few minutes after getting off the bus and on to the tram, and even more parched than before.  Jon and I agreed to get off the tram a little sooner and stop at the grocery store.  Normally in the beverage section, Jon will reach for a beer he hasn’t tried before, and I flip flop between Orangina, Fanta Orange, Fanta Citron, and a variety of other juices.  This time, all we wanted was Gatorade.  They didn’t have the same choices I’m used to in the states, but it didn’t really matter what it tasted like, it was gone before we even got out of the store (and we opened them after paying for them!).

Once we got home it was really hard not to fall right to sleep.  After dinner (which I was nearly too exhausted to eat), I took a really long shower, and proceeded to pass out just about when my head hit the pillow.  Oddly enough though, I didn’t sleep that well last night; I was moving around a lot more than normal, which would result in me waking Jon up, and then him waking me up to tell me I woke him up and that I needed to move over.  Lovely system.  All and all though, totally worth it.

Now readers, I may be absent for a few days, because tomorrow after class, we’re going to TORINO!  Finally.  I’m so excited.  I promise though, I’ll have quite the post for you when I return on Monday, so stay tuned!

Until then, the pictures:

The bridge over the valley to get to Èze

Èze Church

Random purple flowers in a bunch of daisies.

View from Èze Village on a much sunnier day.

Prickly Pears!

The crazy expensive hotel at Èze

Èze Hotel’s crazy huge granite chess board.

Uh, yes please?

Our path.

The waterfall!

So pretty and peaceful

Jon and I in front of the waterfall!

The waterfall again.

So pretty!

Halfway there!

So blue.

This is from the bottom looking up. We started somewhere past that big cliff.

Le vent soufflait fort à Èze

Jon and I, despite the grey skies, were determined to get out of the house and out of Nice today.  We decided to visit the little village of  Èze, which is a great place to go if you’re looking for a customized perfume fragrance, or any fragrance,  because that’s what they’re known for.  More importantly, they have an exotic garden at the top of Chateau d’Èze that promised beautiful views of the Mediterranean and the mountains around it.

Had it been up to me though, we definitely wouldn’t have made it.  It wasn’t exactly easy getting to Èze.  Jon looked up the bus routes and schedules, and made an itinerary of where we needed to catch the bus, what bus to catch, where to get off, and what to do while we’re there.  Equipped with all the information we needed, we were feeling pretty excited.  We met Khalid at the bus station and waited for the bus… until we realized that none of the stops had the bus number we needed listed on them.  So much for trusting Nice bus websites.  So we consulted the map and found a bus station that bus 112 did pass, and we took the tram to it.  But once we got there, we realized that the next bus wouldn’t be there until 2, and we got there a little before 1.  The wind was strong, the air was on the frigid side of cold, and Khalid had to be home earlier than we did anyway because he was expecting guests this evening, so he said it wasn’t worth it and left.  I desperately wanted to leave too.  When I stuck my head out the window of our bedroom this morning, the air felt nice, the wind wasn’t strong, so I decided I just needed my grey coat and a scarf on top of my t-shirt.  I was definitely wrong, and could have used some extra layers on my arms.  The wind was so strong that my ears hurt like crazy, which gave me a killer headache.  But Jon insisted that we go.

Since our wait was over an hour, we walked around until we found a place to grab something to eat for lunch.  I had a nice little salad, though I’m learning with every time I eat chicken that the French definitely prefer the dark meat.  I prefer white meat, but alas, it was still pretty good.

Once on the bus to Èze I started to feel a little better, mainly because I was out of the cold.  Once we got to Èze though, we were significantly higher, so the wind was considerably stronger.  I don’t think I made it two steps before telling Jon that I was definitely not happy with him.  But its Jon, that didn’t phase him in the slightest, and we were walking up hill towards Chateau d’Èze and its exotic garden.

I will say, I have to visit it again.  There were tons of perfume shops, and I feel like I can’t go to Èze without at least coming back with some sort of fragrance, be it in perfume form or soap.  On top of that, the place was just really neat.  It’s a medieval village similar to Saint Paul de Vence, but just a little different.  It was beautiful, even with grey skies.  The garden was neat, but it was mostly a cactus garden, and since the weather has been so cold a lot of them were blanketed to protect them.  I guess it’s a good thing we only went to see the view.  Though I wasn’t exactly happy with Jon for hauling me all the way up there with the wind blowing as relentlessly as it was, the view made up for it.

We had to catch the 5:20 bus home, but since there wasn’t much else to do there other than bug all the little shop owners only to leave without purchasing anything, we opted to find a little restaurant (called Le Pinocchio) where we could split a pizza and get something hot to drink.  And boy did we find something hot to drink.  Vin chaud.  Yes, ladies and gentleman, that means hot wine.  It was a red wine that they put spices (like cloves and cinnamon) in along with a slice of orange.  It was spicy, warm and delicious.  Our pizza was also delicious, but once the bill came we learned that they charged us €4 to cut the pizza in half.  I thought I heard him say something about €4 when we ordered, but Jon insisted he said something else.  I found it to be a little ridiculous, but whatever.  Its France.

Before heading to the bus stop we went into another little fragrance shop that had a little museumish type thing to walk through.  They also had a room with all the different scents you could combine to make your own unique fragrance.  It was interesting, but more importantly it was warm.  While waiting at the bus stop, a group of students from London on their spring break (from all around: Maryland, California, Canada and Australia) were catching the same bus and we got to do a little bit of talking.  We heard them while at Le Pinocchio, and Jon said at least one of them was from California from across the restaurant.  I had to stifle a giggle when we found out he was right.  It was a little refreshing to speak to people in English without worrying about whether they knew what we were talking about.

We took the bus back, took the tram to the grocery store to buy some shampoo and conditioner, and now we’re home, still freezing, but at least there’s no wind in our room.  All and all, I’d say I was pretty miserable all day, but still had a good time.  Not sure how that works, but it definitely felt good to get out of the house today.  Especially since they’re promising rain tomorrow.

Here are some pictures!

View from Èze

Us :) Covering my head definitely helped

More view from Èze

Èze

Just above the church

This is someone’s house. Could you imagine?

To quote Jon: “I would tear that road up!”

I thought it looked cool

GIANT CHESS BOARD! We think this was part of a hotel.

Pizza, water and hot wine. Yum.

Bienvenue à Monaco

So after a somewhat rough start this morning, complete with minor bickering about the time, I forfeited sleeping in for a windy bus along the coast to Monaco.  Okay, I wouldn’t say forfeit, though the bus ride wasn’t entirely pleasant.  I can deal with bus rides, I can deal with car rides through windy roads, however I cannot deal with bus rides through windy roads.  At least not well.  So after finally getting off the bus and breathing in the cool, clean beautiful air of Monaco, and a quick lunch of Margarita pizza and tomato mozzarella salad on the beautiful Rue Princesse Caroline (thats right, I knew I was a princess!) I was feeling much better.

Now, let me answer the obvious questions: No, I didn’t see any of the Royal Family, or where they lived, and I did not set foot in the Monte Carlo Casino (but I did find it).  However, I did walk the ENTIRE route of the Monaco Grand Prix.  For all my car crazed buddies, be jealous.  Jon was really quite fun to watch.  His face would light up like he’s driven this course a thousand times, and got so excited every time we got to a particularly crazy turn, and just had to take the time to explain how the race would go through each of them.  Okay, I don’t mean that like I wasn’t enjoying it, because I was.  Of all the crazy obsession this boy could have, cars and races is a pretty good one.  That is essentially the whole reason for this trip to Monaco.  There will definitely be more though.

Just like we’ve been doing in Nice, we did a TON of walking.  Only the streets of Monaco are so much nicer than Nice.  I feel its unfair to compare the two though.  Nice is a very old resort town of France, right on the Mediterranean that has history dating back to the Greek Empire.  Monaco, on the other hand, is a microstate that I would describe as the European Las Vegas; a beautiful, expensive, constitutional monarchy that has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi for the past 7+ centuries, and could cost you nearly $2,000 a night just in hotel costs should you decide to vacation there.  You see why these two are incomparable- two completely separate and unique sorts of beautiful.  All that being said, I did thoroughly enjoy not having to watch my every step for dog doo.

Just as entertaining as seeing Jon describe the race was when he would see a particularly bad ass car.  I think in order to live in Monaco, you have to spend at least $250,000 on your car.  Amongst all the rather impressive Maserati’s, Porsche’s, Lamborghini’s, and a few of the new bagillion dollar Rolls Royce’s, we did see two rather impressive Ferrari’s.  These would have to be impressive to get Jon’s attention, since he generally doesn’t like Ferrari on principle, and boy were they.  The one I got pictures of was the Ferrari 599 GTO.  Apparently called the 599 because thats how many they made, and has a 5.99 liter engine, but other than that, I don’t know why its so impressive.  I keep up with his car obsession enough to know when something is impressive, but not enough to know why.  The other one, I failed to get pictures of, but was the Ferrari 458 Italia, which is apparently their new hyper car.  It was pretty, nevertheless.

Just as impressive as the cars were the yachts.  I’ve decided that my new goal in life is to own a yacht.  I WILL!  Okay, maybe not, since these were the types of yachts you only owned because you’ve grown up in that sort of wealth, but I will damn sure try!

Oh, and I got to feed some ducks.  I bought a bottle of wine for €4,35 (or $5.88) and some bread to go with it (that I’m currently enjoying, yum).  And I realized that I need a different coat.  Its just warm enough here that its too hot with my coat on, but too cold without it.  Its sort of frustrating, so I’ll be scoping the mall on Monday when everything opens back up (because it closes down on Sunday). C’est la vie.

I fell asleep on the bus ride home, which is probably for the best.  Came home and passed out until dinnertime.

And there you have it.  Monaco.  We’re definitely going back with a better itinerary.  I want to check out the museums and find the Prince’s Palace.  I saw what I thought might be it, but whether it is or isn’t, I still want to see what it was.  I think I know what our Saturdays from here on out will consist of: bus trips out of Nice.

Alright, here’s the pictures I took today.  I felt like such a tourist, I don’t find them all that aesthetically pleasing, but everyone who knew we were going to Monaco insisted I take a ton of pictures, so here you are!

See! I knew I was a princess! :)

This tasted just like the Cola Cao I would have in Spain! Nostalgia-gasm!

Tomato mozzarella salad.

Margarita pizza!

The view of Rue Princesse Caroline, where we dined.

Beautiful Monaco

I thought the blue tiled roof was really neat.

Bridge, church, and some Grand Prix statue.

Jon’s “My New Haircut” pose.

This is Sea Force One. I want it.

Mountain view

I don’t know what this building is, but I liked it.

I don’t know what kind of car this is, but I thought it was awesome too.

I had to find out what this building was.

So I got right up next to it and still couldn’t figure it out.

Then after deciding we weren’t going to bother figuring it out anymore, we found the sign!

Oh hi, random cliff hanging apartment building!

Jon said they valeted these cars out front on purpose. Gee, maybe because its the hotel across from the casino?

Ferrari 599 GTO from the front.

Ferrari 599 GTO from the rear.

The famous Monte Carlo Casino

Coolest entrance ever.

DUCKIES!

Awful, blurry picture, but the GP has a tunnel in its circuit that goes right under this hotel.

Beautiful blue water.

I’m determined to go sailing in the Med while I’m here.

Even the rocks are pretty in Monaco.

This was docked a few boats away from Sea Force One. I want it too.

Buildings, building, OH HIYA CLIFF!

View of the harbour.

This is possibly the Prince’s Palace, or just an old castle sort of thing. Either way, I’ll figure it out.

I had to get a picture of us together, no matter how awful and tired we look.