Euro Adventure 2005

I love surprises! So when my morning was interrupted by a text message from Ceala saying that she had a wonderful time last night and would like to meet again, I was alarming all kinds of strangers with the grin across my face! So grin affixed, I bounced up the road (even this early in the morning) to catch my train to the magic waterworld they call Venezia. Yeah, ok, Venice! Happy now?!

Had my usual panic ridden moments along the way when all the doubts cross my mind about being on the right train and winding up somewhere in Siberia instead of Venice, but as usual my doubts subside and we pull in to Venezia Mestre on time. Unfortunately this hadn’t been the case where I’d changed at Milan! Making the connection with less than 2 minutes to go and just praying that I’d read the board correctly!!

I had pretty clear instructions to follow to get me to my hotel and just checked by asking a local shopkeeper which way it was and found I was just about there anyway.

The hotel was a lot nicer than expected! It makes a change to have my own space for a few days and not have to pay for the room until I leave! Strange how your mindset changes on things like this. It just felt so unusual! The owner seemed nice enough and gave me directions on how to get into town and what was around locally (not a great deal by the look of it).

I decided to have a quiet evening, a chance to recover from all the travel and just unwind for a night. Wound up taking a walk to try and find the local supermarket (Jeez, there really is NOTHING here at all!!!) and grabbed some food and some breakfast for the morning and headed back to the hotel, scoffed the grub and put my feet in the direction of the bar I had seen on my little jaunt! It was certainly nice to just sit outside, grab a beer, have a cigarette or two and just take in this rather quaint, quiet and odd part of Venice. I guess I hadn’t expected the outskirts to be just this quiet!!

Back at the hotel, the bottle of wine I had purchased with my grub was looking ever more appealing and before I knew it I was consuming the stuff! Have a bottle later and my body was telling me it hadn’t been such a great idea!! A decent sleep now would hopefully set me in good unhungover status for Venice proper tomorrow!

And so to bed……

Feeling like I had seen as much of Nice as I really wanted, it was with relish that I disappeared off to Monaco for the day. Dustin was going to go as well so it made sense to go together and opted for the less stressful train over getting the bus. By all accounts (mainly Ceala), the bus is the nicer way to get there as you get to enjoy the scenery far more rather than heading through tunnels most of the way on the train. As it was, I was feeling a little impatient and the train was just an easy option.

Despite the feeling that we were missing several trains we could have caught, we hung around for one we knew was headed to Monaco (Monte Carlo), a mere hour’s wait at the station! We did get to see a good amount of the landscape as we headed along the coast and part of me just wished I could get out and enjoy these places as well, but I guess in a month, you can’t do everything! Maybe I’ll get to come back and do more of France one day, just take my time over the country. I guess I worry too much sometimes (how am I going to get there, where will I stay, can I find my way etc etc), which can really put me off just playing it by ear. For me it has its advantages as well, but there are definitely times I wish I could just be more of a free spirit!

Maybe we caught Monaco on a bad day, I’m really not sure. Perhaps it has to be super sunny here for you to see what makes it so special. I guess I just didn’t get why it attracts so many of the super rich! It struck me very quickly as being grey, very over crowded (both with people and traffic) and just rather uninspiring! Maybe I was expecting something else, expecting too much but overall impression was a let down.

Of course, there was some fun to be had, not least in our “cow” spotting! We were rather entertained as we made our way from the train station down to the marina by the “Safety Cow”, a model cow done up in a racing car and acquiring the said name. Now, there’s a connection here obviously with the grand prix, it was the other “cows” that we passed that day that made us gawp in bewilderment on occasion! There were arty cows, historical cows; political cows, emotional cows and many many more just doted around the place here and there. Wherever you walked, you just had no idea if a cow or 2 would crop up around the next corner. Welcome to MonaCOW I guess!

After several little detours (and many cows) we wound up in Monte Carlo and hunted down the famous Casino, for a little look round. Unfortunately it seems, the main casino like to charge €15 just for the privilege of entering, so we had a quick poke round the free to enter tourist trap with row upon row of annoying fruit machines and back out again, opting to take our loot to the somewhat less grande, yet rather impressive 2nd casino (I forget the actual name of this one) who allowed us on the main floor for absolutely nothing. Mind you at €25 the minimum bet at the blackjack tables was rather too high for the likes of me! Still €10 in a few machines disappeared pretty quickly and I could say I’d been gambling in Monte Carlo! Onwards and homewards!

Back at the hostel I got a rather unexpected text from Ceala and we arranged to meet up again tonight. I have to admit, I never expected to see her again but it’s a pretty nice surprise! She had also passed my details on to her friend Alexis in Prague who had already replied back to me saying she’d love to show me round. Sweet bonuses coming from all directions!

I met up with Ceala again at her place (eventually finding it after standing outside the wrong block for 5 minutes!) and she took me out and about to see a bit more of Nice. She took me in the Hotel Negresco foyer to show me around as you are apparently allowed in to do that. It seemed though that this very plush (and rather controversial – the name gives it away) hotel was having a plush do on and they quickly asked us to leave. From what I saw though, it really is quite an incredible place! I don’t think I’d be paying the astronomical sums of money needed to stay there but it was pretty cool to take a peak at how the other half live!

We ended up going for a drink/milkshake and just chatting away and seemed to get on pretty damn well! We had enough in common and enough differences to make the conversation easy and fun yet be able to have an intelligent chat! Being a baseball fan REALLY helps!!!!

We wound up back at her place and I got the feeling she was pretty nervous with all this but we did get pretty close that night! Her nervousness just put a slight dampener on things and it was clear we were going to remain close but nothing was going to happen that night! When her roommate came back any slim chance of me staying seemed to vanish and she walked me back to my hostel (which was very sweet of her!) at 2am. We hugged, exchanged details, I asked her up but already knew the answer and we went our separate ways. Maybe we’ll meet again sometime. Who knows! I tried carefully not to wake anyone on my return and set my alarm ready to catch my train to Venice in the morning.

After feeling whacked out last night I was up in good time this morning ready to delve into Nice. A chance to just wonder and explore for a day, whist soaking up the warmth of the sun! I'm pretty glad ... [Continue reading this entry]

An early start this morning was a bit of a struggle, the alarm going off at 6.45 in order for me to get to Barcelona Sants station for my train to Nice. I've been trying to give myself a little ... [Continue reading this entry]