Nice is nice.

I met up with Abbi and Tiffany, two friends from Seattle, in Nice on Wednesday night (or rather Thursday morning, since I got there late and they had already gone to sleep). The first excursion we went on was to Eve village, a small medieval town in the Maritime Alps, and then the city-country of Monaco. Two Russian girls (Anastasia and Sasha) decided to join us as well, and we ended up spending our whole stay with them and learning a lot about Russia.

We took a bus up to the village and it was quite the experience since it went really fast along the winding mountain roads. It was something like what I would expect in South America but not Europe! The view from the top of the village, where there were castle ruins and a large garden, was spectacular. Apparently royalty from England, France, and Monaco had spent time there as well as Frederich Nietzche (I bet he would have thought it was the perfect place for an uber mench to live).

The next stop was Monaco, famous for five things:

1. The casino Monte Carlo

2. Cars. Extremely wealthy people live here since it is a tax-haven and they all drive really nice cars, expecially Ferraris. Formula 1 racing also goes on here.

3. The royal palace and princess Grace Kelly

4. Oceanography. It is the center for everything having to do with oceanography and has a great museum. Anastasia was studying to be a hydrographer and was really excited.

5. Being one of the smallest countries in the world.

That night, tired from our adventure, we relaxed on the beach in Nice and sipped wine.

The excitement continued the next day. In the morning we went on a walking tour of Nice and saw one of the biggest flower markets in Europe, some cool churches, and nice artwork (or I guess you can say Nice artwork). It ended in a museum with some nice Roman pieces like this one.

Later that day Abbi, Tiffany, and I went to Antibes to try to go swimming but it was too cold and windy so we just walked around. At the end of the night, we went out to old town and got some gelato. We also ran into a street band and did some swing dancing in the street before going to a crazy bar called Wayne's where people were dancing on tables.

The next day Abbi left in the afternoon so I went with the Russians to Cannes, where we saw the site of the Cannes international film festival and handprints of stars like Woopi Goldberg, Mel Gibson, and Nicolas Cage who had been there too. The weather was really sunny and hot so we went to the beach and waded in the water. Even though I didn't have anything to swim in with me, I ended up stripping down to my underwear and jumping in, since the Europeans sometimes have even less on.

I finished my time in the French Riviera by watching a sunset from a hill in Cannes and then saying goodbye to Anastasia, Sasha, and Tiffany.

Next destination: Italy