A Semester Abroad: Weekend in Nice, France//Monte Carlo, Monaco

My first weekend in a different country is officially in the books. Lea and I returned this morning around 10 am from our weekend in Nice, France with a day trip to Monte Carlo. We left late Thursday night and caught our flight. It was a bit of a hassle as it was our first time figuring out how to get to the airport from our apartments. At one point, we were walking up the escalator to get to our gate and I tripped UP the escalator and cut my elbow, so as we're standing in line to board our plane, my elbow was bleeding a lot. The flight from Rome to Nice was only 50 minutes so it went by super quick and it was really pretty to fly over the Mediterranean at night and see all the city lights lining the coast line. Once we got off at the airport, we had to figure out how to use the public transportation to make our way into the city center to get to our hostel. It actually wasn't too hard and it was super cheap. The hostel was a pretty interesting thing as we were sleeping in a room with 11 other girls who we had never met. We ended up meeting some pretty cool people though, especially a couple Australian girls who had been traveling for the last three months to avoid the Australian winter! Once we got to the hostel, it was pretty late so we just called it a night and went to bed. The next day, we woke up early and got out to explore the city. We walked along the beach, which was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel and just looked around. We ended up seeing a waterfall from a distance and decided to hike up to find it and it was such a cool thing. We found the waterfall AND a super cool view of the city and the sea. After our little hiking excursion, we went in search of lunch. We ended up at a pretty cool little bistrot where we got these really yummy, really big pizzas and mojitos. After our lunch, we went and shopped around for a bit and then explored the city center a bit more before heading back to our hostel to take a quick nap. After our little power nap, we went back out for dinner. We had wanted to eat at a restaurant right by the sea, but it was a little overcast a sprinkling on Friday night, so nothing was really open/busy. We ended up at an American style restaurant that was surprisingly really popular. After getting really excited about the salmon dish on the menu, we were informed when we tried to order it that they were all out of salmon and we had to choose something else. I ended up getting tacos, which even though we were at an American style restaurant, definitely did not taste like normal, American tacos. Nonetheless, they were still pretty good. By the time we finished up with dinner, it had begun to downpour, so we hung out at the restaurant and waited it out before heading to our hostel for the night. The next morning, we woke up really early in order to catch a bus to Monte Carlo for the day. It was actually really cheap to get there (1.50 euro each way!) It's about a 45 minute bus ride, but Lea and I decided to get off halfway at a little village called Eze Village, known for having an amazing view of the sea and the bays. We did a little of hiking and ended up at a little cafe where we got crepes for breakfast before heading farther into the village to find the exotic gardens where, everyone was right, they had an amazing view of the sea. The pictures definitely don't do it justice, it was so beautiful. After that, we headed back down to the road to catch the bus to go all the way into Monte Carlo. Once in Monte Carlo, we first stopped at the Monte Carlo casino - definitely not like Fortune Bay! It was so pretty inside and they don't allow gambling before 2pm. After a quick look at the casino and all the expensive Ferrari's parked outside of it, we started our walk around the port to get to the other side of Monaco. We took our time walking and had some stops along the way, like a Monaco burger place to try out their burgers and fries. Not too bad but definitely not like Gordys! We stopped at a little bar place right on the harbor to grab a brownie for dessert and then continued our way along the sea. We saw so many little beaches and these bleachers where people just jump into the sea. As we made our way to the other side, we ended up at the Prince's Palace and did a little shopping in the area around there before heading back to catch the bus and get back to Nice. Once back in Nice, we headed straight to dinner and went to a restaurant right by our hostel where we FINALLY found our salmon! Honestly, it was some of the best salmon I've ever had. It tasted phenomenal. After dinner, we walked around the shops enjoying our last night in Nice and ended up at a little bakery where I got some churros for dessert and Lea got some cotton candy the size of her head. After the bakery, we finished up our dessert and headed back to the hostel where we packed our bags and headed to bed before getting up at 4am to make our way to the airport this morning for our 7am flight. Though only there for a few days, we saw so much of Nice and Monaco and it makes me so excited for all of the trips I have planned for this semester. All in all, it was a great weekend trip.