on thursday night i took a night train to nice where we arrived on the holiday friday...so nothing was open or running basically. we were instructed to call our hostel upon arrival, which we did, and they told us they would be sending a shuttle to come pick us up and take us to the hostel, since its basically way far away from the city center. just one of the amazing things our hostel did for us. when we got there we knew it would be too early to check in but they were like, have you eaten breakfast yet? and showed us to the free breakfast! and while we were eating two different people came up and asked what we were going to do that day and then gave us suggestions...one of which was to go to the villefranche beach instead of the nice beach. GREAT suggestion. it was SO pretty. it was about a 10 minute train ride from nice, and the beach was just off the train station. here is a picture of the beach:
so we lounged on the beach basically all day, and then decided we should go see nice, so we trained back and walked over to old town nice, where we decided we needed to eat, and then walked up about halfway up the hill and got gorgeous views of the city:
then we went back to our hostel and just hung out for the rest of the night!the next day we had decided we were going to go canyoning! we saw something for it in our hostel and signed up for it! it was basically an all day thing, and this guy came and picked us up at our hostel, drove us for about an hour into italy (you know...no big deal) and then gave us wetsuits and we hiked about 40 min to the start of the canyon. then we had lunch (which..btw, was DISGUSTING. it was ham and beet and pickle sandwhiches. and it was like.. a full beet cut up on every persons sandwhich. it was so gross. and bananas. so naturally i ate very little...) but anyways. the canyoning was SO MUCH FUN. we made our way down this river by sliding, walking, and jumping off of rocks! it was great! it was cold though, and exhasuting. ialso hit my knee on a rock so have a rather large bruise on my right knee... but it was so much fun! sadly i don't have anypictures:( it was SO gorgeous too.
so then after getting back to our hostel after our day of canyoning we went to the train station and went to marseilles. we were staying in this hotel in marseilles that i found and booked because it was the only cheap one...and it was SO SKETCHY. we walked up and the front was all closed, and i saw a little alley with a sign saying "entree" so i went there and saw a sign that said "reception open from 8 am to noon, if you arrive after call this number" which was this guys cell... and when i called he said this is your roomm, doors unlocked, keys are in the room. and the room was really crappy. but you know, you get what you pay for.
anways, we were so tired after our day of canyoning that we found food and basically passed out (on the most uncomfortable beds ever...).
the next morning we went to the beach! it was glorious. spent most of the day there, and ten decided we should see old town marseilles, so we walked in and saw the harbor, but we were all very exahsuted so this turned into us walking and sitting down on a bench, and then debating about how soon we wanted to move to go get our dinner...and then finding another place to sit down.
here are some pictures of the beach at marseilles:
the harbor:
the group in front of the harbor:
all in all i'm glad i went to marseilles cause otherwise i would have been disappointed with myself, but i wouldn't go back.anyways,
the next day we went to aix-en-provence which was SO pretty.
we basically just walked around all day..its a VERY small city. did some shopping, sat in some gardens, sat in a square, sat at a cafe, just had an enjoyable afternoon. except for the pollen. lots of sneezing by all of us!
by this time my camera had basically run out of battery so here is one of the only pics i have:
all in all it was a wonderful weekend, much more of a vacation than a trip if you understand what i mean by that. we basically had no schedules, just that we had a train to catch on monday night and that we were supposed to be in nice friday night, and marseilles sat and sun night. it was glorious!anways, i'll have more interesting posts next week: this weekend i'm off to istanbul!
you need to get Benj to tell you David and Jon's experience in Nice.....David nearly packed up his stuff and came home. He found his experience disgusting. We laughed till we cried when they told us the story and I thinki we still laugh till we cry when they repeat it now. Glad you had a good trip.
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