Nice

Day 1 - I do not think my hostel in Nice could have been a much bigger contrast to my hostel in Marseille, it was incredibly easy to find, had great facilities and I made a friend within an hour of being there. I met Anna (USA) as I was checking in and we got along pretty well so headed down to the beach and chilled out there for an hour or two. The beach in Marseille is nothing compared to the beach in Nice, it is so beautiful and even though it is a pebble beach they are at least smooth enough that they don't hurt. I actually heard someone comment on there being "surf" at Nice which made me chuckle quite a lot considering there was barely a wave the whole time we were there. 

The first thing I saw at the hostel was that there was a spaghetti party that night for 3 euro which included unlimited spaghetti and  wine, those who know me well will know how much that would have excited me and it did not disappoint! By this time I had made a bunch of friends and we all hung out there before heading to a bar called Wayne's. Wayne's seems to be the most popular place for tourists in Nice as I don't think I heard anyone speaking French in there, they had a band playing and it was absolutely packed, I had a good but not great time. 

Day 2 

I headed to Monaco with a group of people from the hostel, the ticket price of €3.70 return was well worth going there! The beach was probably on par with Nice so that was fun and relaxing. We also checked out the casino from Casino Royale (James Bond movie) which was very flash even though we didn't go inside, the cars outside and in the whole of Monaco in general were very fitting of a James Bond movie. I find Monaco to be quite surreal, 1 million euro application fee to live there amongst other things seems insane or at least to me! We also walked through the tunnel from the formula one track, a lot of the streets still have signs of being part of the F1 track all year round. 

One more amusing thing I saw in Monaco was the presence of a GUM TREE of all things at the beach! I could not believe it! It's funny what other people consider to be exotic.

After catching a packed train back to Nice and hanging out at the hostel for a bit Anna and I went to get dinner at an Italian restaurant in the old town. Sadly I did not take a picture of my bowl of spaghetti but it was ridiculous, I don't think I have ever been served so much food before! I think we could have just ordered one and had enough for both of us. I managed to finish about 75 percent of it before raising the white flag (napkin in this case), sadly our suggestion of a doggy bag for all that food was quickly thrown out by the waiter. 

Day 3

Most of the friends I had made left Nice on this day so I had to make some new friends, which a while back would have been fairly daunting but I'm starting to get the hang of approaching random people and just finding a common interest however small it may be. In reality most people in hostels are in the same boat and are more than happy to make new friends, groups much bigger than 3 or 4 don't really tend to socialize with others much but anyone other than that generally is usually up for a chat or a day trip or beers or whatever it is you want to do! 

First things first though I headed down to the beach for the afternoon to have a dip and lay around on some pebbles, I probably only stayed for an hour and a half but still I loved to go for a dip! People are also a lot more revealing at beaches here, however it always seems to be the old leathery people and no one needs to see that. 

I went down to a pub to watch the Chelsea v Fulham match at about 6.30 and thank god Chelsea won, I was becoming a bit worried about the season! I also was talking to a guy from England that was in the academy at Werder Bremen and played for Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga which I found pretty cool! Sadly I didn't catch his name. Here's a picture of my beer.

In the evening I made friends with a few other Australian people from the hostel and after the complete disaster that was my kebab (the jerk put hot chilli sauce in it and it was not fun) everyone told me about a free champagne party that had happened the night before at the hostel and that there was another tonight. Basically the hostel throws these parties every time big groups of Americans who are studying in Florence or Rome or whatever come and stay at the hostel, I was more than okay with this as it was good champagne too! However I think by the end of the night I learnt the power of drinking something that's very easy to put down, I swear I was still drunk when I awoke in the morning. Unsuprisingly the room was packed!

Reflections:

I must say if you ever go to Nice and are looking to stay in a hostel I would definitely recommend Antares hostel or the bacara which is on the opposite side of the courtyard. Both hostels seem to have a fairly open door policy when it comes to their events. I had a great time in Nice and only wish I had more time there to really soak up the city a bit more! 

That also concludes my time in France, it is an interesting place. I've seen the good, the bad and the plain ugly here but all in all I had a great time and will definitely return (maybe not to Marseille though).