Rolland With The Punches: High Heels and Smiles

Day 31: Nice (pronounced niece)The French Riviera
(This one is for the most part a photo blog, by the way.)

We have been deprived of the beach since Mykonos so Nice was a Godsend. Absolutely beautiful, clear, blue water. From Paris we caught an eight-hour fast train. It was quite the ordeal at first. We were rushed in lugging our gigantic suitcases up the narrow stairs. Had our bags in trains five carts away from ours. One of our comrades was robbed, luckily it was just her money. And then everyone as in the wrong seats and between the English, Spanish and French, the whole cart was a mad house. We resolved the problem when we fund the culprit. I read, wrote, and all the usual things of our normal country-to-country journeys. The train ride was neat, but it made me miss the luxury of the space we had on our buses. Plus, there were other passengers who weren't having the time of their lives so we tried to be civil.
I think it was 4 o'clock ish when we arrived. Bri and I went straight to swimsuits and the beach located just at the end of a few blocks from our hotel. It was amazing to nap in the sun. The downfall to this beach is it is a rock beach. No sand, not tiny pebbles, I'm talking stones. We bought a cheap wicker mat for a few euros and dug a hole out in the rocks and soaked up the sun for the next several hours.
That night we relaxed in the hotel smoking hookah then we journeyed to the beach and just hung out. That night showed me a lot of how close I'd gotten to my new friends in such a short amount of time and it began to sink in that this vacation was close to being over. Every time one of us mentioned "the end," another interjected, "don't think about it." It was a "let it be" conversation.

Fast train from Paris.

Walking through town.

Europeans love some Nutella. I HATE it, ha!

Day 32: Monte Carlo

The next day Bri and I woke up early and headed straight to the beach only to fall asleep catching rays for the next few hours. We were going to Monaco tonight and wanted a nice suntan. We left the beach and walked around town trying to find an outfit, shoes and jewelry for tonight. Monaco has a strict dress code and we had to oblige. High rollers only.Once we found an outfit and toured enough of the city we headed back to the hotel to doll up for our big night in Monaco.
We spent roughly 30 minutes in the lobby taking pictures and voguing. This would turn out to be the most fun we had all night. Well, not the most fun, but the most photographic, memorable moment. Everyone looked so amazing and elegant. Now we had seen each other at our worst and bests. True friendships were born on this trip, ha.
From the hotel we rode the bus maybe 45 minutes into Monaco, the second smallest country in the world. Monaco is the most beautiful place I have ever seen as far as money and riches can buy you. Monaco looks like Greece, but designed, built and financed by Donald Trump. It has mansions on hilltops and curvy roads that extend from the shore and give a breathtaking view of the riviera. It really is gorgeous country. It was nice to be there all dolled up pretending like we belonged there. We had a nice gourmet dinner with free wine and from there we headed to Monte Carlo Casino. Stopping along the way at the most beautiful view of Monaco by night. The way the place lit up is unreal. When we arrive at the casino, rows of Bentleys, Lambos, Ferrari's and other six-figure cars I don't know about lined up outside the front steps. My $50 H&M dress suddenly feels a lot less elegant, ha. These people probably find Armani tacky. We make our way in to the casino and there is a grand total of about 30 people. We all signed up for this additional "excursion" through EF not really knowing what it entailed. Well, we learned quickly our money paid for access to the VIP room, but not the $1,000 starting bid in the VIP room. We all sat around like clueless goofs for several minutes and eventually blew a few euros on the slots and called it quits. No pictures and 20 euro drinks was no bueno for me. It was great to see it, but now you know why the pictures at the hotel were the highlight of our night. After hours of prancing in high heels we were all rather exhausted when we returned to the hotel that night. Bareclona, Spain tomorrow :)