What's the nicest place you have ever been. Mine is definitely Nice, France (Top quality joke #1372 in this blog). But in all seriousness it is awesome, think the best parts of Sydney & Surfers Paradise put together. It has some of the best shopping in Europe and a beautiful beachfront that stretches for kilometres. Nice at sunset is so amazing it could bring even Barry Hall to tears.
The Anteres Hotel was our chosen accomodation and it was a good choice on our behalf. The guest kitchen gave us a good chance to finally cook something and computers with free Internet was handy. But the "spaghetti parties" were the best aspect. Mat didn't get in because he dressed as penne by accident. For €1 you were entitled to unlimited spaghetti, wine and the hotel owner's daughter.
Nice is just one of those places that you can just walk around for hours and never get sick of. It actually feels like you are walking around in a painting or a fairytale. In that respect it is similar to Amsterdam, but in Nice you don't have to pay for the happy ending!
For our first day we managed to get a half day snorkelling trip along the coast. It was great value for €16, and the perfect weather ensured that the water was bluer than umm well something really blue I guess. Snorkelling and the Mediteranean are a match made in heaven, because the high levels of buoyancy mean you can just lie there and float. There were plenty of fish about, pardon the pun. Huge schools were swimming around us, still can't work out why the local high school went on an excursion that there! (#1373) Being on the boat was also a good way to get some cool views of the French Riviera.
That afternoon we fulfilled a dream that is no doubt shared with millions of people worldwide. That dream of course is Monaco, the playground of the rich and famous, and home of the reknowned Monte Carlo Casino. In Monaco there is an unconfirmed rumour that if you put change on the counter to pay for something, you get fined for littering. I had to wipe the drool off Whitey's chin with all the expensive cars cruising around, and he tried to tell me about them but I would rather listen to girls talk about their problems and their friends problems.
The casino was very cool, it has it's own gardens and the formula one track runs around it. Inside, each roulette table had no less than four bow tied employees on it just because they can. I actually kept a chip as a souvenier, Whitey wasn't so fortunate as the old roulette table claimed his. The pokies also got the better of us, much like a dodgy kebab the other day.
Some of the yachts and boats that you come across in both Nice and Monaco are ridiculous. The big ones make the suburb of Eltham look rather tiny.
Our final day in Monaco was spent doing two of the absolute best things in Nice; shopping & eating crepes. That is a day well spent in anyones books. Bargains were picked up, souveniers purchased and nasal delivery technology experimented with. And crepes. Oh how does such a small thing make me so happy. Just some batter and nutella, yet they are so good you need to wear a condom. The guy who owned our favourite crepery loved us and gave us free stuff which was pretty good.
Our days left on our trip are in single figures which is a but scary, but it will be good to be home. Today we go to Barcelona, our second last stop.