The next morning (January 2), we had free time. I slept in for a bit and then went downstairs to make sure I got in on breakfast. I was going to try and explore Nice with a couple people, but instead I decided to take one of the Australians to the Laundromat and walk her through the whole process before I wandered off on my own.
The start of my day.
First I went to the Contemporary Art Gallery. It was interesting. Although most of it was extremely weird, they did have a really cool exhibit about a guy who makes art by exploding gunpowder into different patterns across the paper. The upper floors also had a pretty fantastic view of the city. Other than that, it was pretty standard weirdness.
Gunpowder artwork.
Closer view.
View from the upper floors.
Next I went to explore the Old Quarter. I was already hungry, so I bought myself a beautiful and delicious raspberry tart. I found a neat old cathedral that had light eerily and majestically streaming in through the windows, and then I took a glimpse around the market. The market was right near the water, so I went over by it before I went to explore more in the newer section of downtown.
The Old Quarter.
Yum.
The church I went into.
Outside the church.
Inside the church.
A beautiful January day.
By that time I had decided that I needed to find myself a crêpe to buy and I wasn’t very interested in looking through the shopping district. I wandered through the little carnival that was there and then I finally found myself a crêpe that had CANADIAN maple syrup on it. It was delicious. Then I just headed back to the hotel.
Europe loves ferris wheels.
Cute doggies.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon relaxing and writing in my journal, and then I visited with some people before we got all dressed up to head off for our dinner in Monaco. Angie had told us to dress like we were celebrities, so everyone dressed up nicely.
We got to Monaco and walked around a bit on our way to dinner. We got to see (in the dark) the castle, the cathedral, and a lovely view from atop the hill (which would have been amazing to see in daylight as well I’d imagine).
Cathedral.
Castle.
The view.
The dinner that night was delicious. I had a goat cheese pasty as my appetizer, then a wonderful plate of salmon with a dill sauce, and some yummy chocolate cake for dessert. When dinner was over, we got back in the bus and headed to the Monte-Carlo Casino, the oldest casino in Europe.
We had to pay €10 to get in (that’s how swanky it was), and it would have been great to take photos in there because it was BEAUTIFUL. Every inch of wall and ceiling was filled with elaborate paintings and carvings. I didn’t gamble that night, but lots of others did, and all but a couple lost money.
Outside the casino.
When everyone was finally ready to go, we drove back to Nice. Pino was ready to let us off the bus downtown, but no one wanted to go out in their fancy clothes, so we all went back to the hotel. Some people went out later but I just decided to call it a night.
January 3 – as per usual on our travel days, we got up nice and early so we could pack out. Then we headed straight to the perfume factory for our tour there. It was somewhat interesting to hear about how they make perfumes, but the stench of the whole building was so overpowering that I just couldn’t stand it. I didn’t spend any time shopping in their store, I just went back to the bus and waited with a few other people while everyone else finished up their shopping.
From the factory, we drove to Aix-en-Provence for lunch, and it seemed that there were some issues with the toilet on the bus. Angie told us that we weren’t allowed to use it any more. When we got to Aix-en-Provence, we had some free time to find food, and I was with a fairly large group that ended up finding a nice little café to eat at. I didn’t take any photos of the town.
Next we continued driving to Avignon. We finished the rest of the introductions on the bus, and with Jag as the very final introduction, he lied about everything he could think of (for example, the fact that he was “19 and a half” but “married with 3 kids”).
When we got to Avignon, we had more free time to explore the town. Bianca and Mai and I headed up a hill next to a church in the square we had been lead to, and got to a lovely garden area. We had a nice view from up there, and it was beautiful just as the sun was starting to set. Then we walked through the downtown area and found some food and other things to buy in the shops there.
Church.
The view.
In the gardens.
Big elephant statue in the square.
In town.
City Hall.
Back by the church.
When our free time was up, we all got back on the bus to head to the hotel that was apparently in the middle of nowhere. Angie had already warned us about that though, so people had stocked up on alcohol that they would be able to consume later that evening.
We got to the hotel and took all our bags to our rooms. The hotel had no elevator, but luckily we were all on the first floor (except Eric, Derek and Jag – the old guys from Vancouver). That was when a couple of people noticed that their bags were soaking wet and smelled of piss. People were getting pretty upset, especially since only one person had been consistently using the bus toilet, so they blamed it all on her.
Luckily it was only 3 bags that got wet (the backpacks because of where they had been placed beside the toilet), and even though the one girl had JUST washed her clothes in Nice, she took it really well (“I get covered in piss at work every day anyway”). She filled up the bathtub in her room, added some laundry detergent, and threw in her clothes, and some stuff from the guys whose bags had gotten wet.
Our dinner that night was just in the hotel restaurant and (as per usual), it was chicken and chips. After dinner, we just got to hang out around the hotel. It was the first time we had gotten free access to the Internet, so we were all trying to use it (it was REALLY slow). I started trying to upload some photos while people were playing drinking games, and I ended up leaving it there uploading for the whole evening.
The drinking games got pretty rowdy, and by the time they all decided to pack it in, there were quite a few of them that were really drunk. I was still in the lobby visiting with people, but we pretty much got sent to bed when one of the guys broke a glass. He blamed it on me though because he had been reaching behind my chair to put the glass on a table, and I had moved my chair a bit because I thought he needed to get by. This caused him to lose his balance and the glass smashed onto the floor.
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