Notre Voyage

Since Kevin was spending eight days in France and had never been overseas before, we really wanted to check out another country for a few days. So about a month ago, we booked plane tickets and a hotel in Venice, Italy! We decided to spend Tuesday to Thursday in Venice, which turned out to be a good decision because of less expensive costs and fewer crowds.

We knew getting around Italy would be a bit of a challenge since neither of us speak Italian and we wouldn’t be getting in until 8:30PM. We had to figure out how to get ourselves from the airport to our hotel and the first booth we went up to said it would 110 euro! We talked to another man who said that there was a bus for six euro that could drop us off about a 15 minute walk to our hotel and all we’d have to do was “crossa da bridgea an dena walka straighta!”

So we took the bus but after we got off, we crossed the wrong “bridgea” since the map of Venice we had was a public transportation map that showed only the main roads, and not having iPhone maps is a new thing for the both of us. I jokingly said to Kev that we needed a compass to direct us, and he actually started using the compass app on his phone. I would have never guessed in a million years I’d ever use that app, but here we are, traveling through Venice having no idea where we were going using a compass.

Thank goodness for Kevin because without him I would have never been able to get around Venice. Plus, the Venice streets at night are kind of creepy, especially since our hotel was further away from all the touristy sites. We dropped our things off in our beautiful hotel and headed somewhere to find dinner which turned out harder than we anticipated. We were warned that the kitchens close between 9-9:30, and it was about 9:25 by the time we started hunting for a restaurant. We finally settled on a place not too far from our hotel and had our first Italian pasta!

We wandered Venice for a little bit longer and got some waters for the next few days (you don’t realize what a luxury free tap water is until you’re in Europe). We bought four HUGE bottles that turned out to be seltzer water and only finished one by the time we left Venice. We finally headed back to the hotel and crashed early since we knew we’d be getting up at a decent hour to explore the city!

The next morning we were lucky enough to enjoy a free breakfast at our hotel (there was even BACON. I haven’t had bacon in so long). We stuffed ourselves knowing that all we’d eat for lunch was some gelato (fine by me) and went to go find our way to Saint Mark’s square! Again, we had no idea where we were going and we wanted to walk there to really get to see a lot of Venice. We ended up walking too far and going about fifteen minutes out of the way, but finally ended up at the square which was absolutely gorgeous.

We walked around the square for a few minutes before going into the basilica. Turns out that taking picture with pigeons is a huge trend in Venice? People pay to have pigeons climb all over them and take pictures with them. >>Here is a picture of parents having pigeons climb all over their baby. We also found that they harass people to buy roses. We actually had to yell at people to stop touching us because it was so irritating.

Anyways, we went inside St. Mark’s Basilica and it was amazing. Everything was gold and it was breathtaking. We walked around the inside for a short while and I prayed. There’s something amazing about European churches that I just love.

 

Afterwards, we decided to finally do what we came to Venice for: gondola! We found our way to the Grand Canal where there were about a billion gondoliers harassing people (by the end of our trip, Kev said we needed to walk around with four signs on us: “We already rode a gondola. We don’t want pictures with pigeons. We don’t want to eat at your restaurant. Don’t touch me with your rose.” I guess that’s the price you pay for going to a touristy city!)

The gondola was as amazing as we thought it would be. We started out on the Grand Canal and then made our way to the smaller canals. We passed under the biggest bridge in Venice which is made of marble. We saw St. Mark’s house, Casanova’s house, and found out that Venice is made up of 118 islands, 170 canals and 400 bridges. The oldest bridge is the Bridge of Sighs, which was built in 1602 and was given its name because convicts crossing over it to the New Prison would sigh at their final view of Venice.

 

The ride was about 30 minutes long and we were riding behind another gondola so our gondoliers were speaking Italian back and forth to each other. Something about listening to old men yell Italian on gondolas on the small canals in Venice is very endearing.

We asked our gondolier where the best place to get gelato was, so we followed his directions and we think we found it because it was the best gelato I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of gelato. Kev got pistachio and I got caramel and their award winning chocolate. My mouth is watering.

After our long day, we finally headed back to the hotel around 4:00 and got ready to do a little bit of shopping and go to dinner.  I had researched a thousand good restaurants to eat at in Venice and I was determined to find this one that was a 20 euro flat fee for appetizers, dinner, dessert, drinks and there was no menu and live music! Again, Kevin and I explored the creepiest part of Venice until we gave up and headed for a restaurant we could stumble into. We got pizza as an appetizer (obviously), pasta in a lobster sauce, pork chops in a mushroom sauce, tiramisu and a bottle of red wine. Other than the Christmas music, it was perfection.

We lucked out with the weather in that it was almost sunny on Wednesday and didn’t rain until that night. Thursday we woke up and it was the most beautiful day. Completely clear skies and 60 degrees. Seeing Venice like that was so beautiful.

 So by 1:00 Thursday we were exhausted and on our way back home and reminiscing on our amazing mini-trip. We had the absolute best time and there’s no one I would rather be there with. Until next time, Italia!

Baci,

A

Here's a few other pictures that I loved from our trip:

(J'aime beaucoup l'Italie. J'ai adoré que le voyage de Kevin n'était pas seulement lui montrant la France, mais l'expérience de Venise ensemble. Nous avons pu voir comment Nice est influencé par l'Italie, mais Venise est si différent que n'importe quel autre endroit dans le monde. J'ai aimé que nous avons eu à partager le voyage avec l'un autre.)

Mon Petit Ami

Well, Kevin just left so I figured writing a blogpost about this awesome week would be the perfect way for me to relive it.

On Friday, my roommate and I paced around my apartment until 4PM when I could finally get ready to head to the airport and wait for Kev to arrive! Taking after my mother, I had planned every single detail of every minute of Kevin’s trip to France. Since it was his first time to Europe, I really wanted to take advantage of the short time he had here. I figured we’d walk around Nice the night he got here, get some dinner and wake up early the next day to explore Cannes.

Well all my detailed planning went down the drain when I saw Kev at the airport and he could hardly keep his eyes open (he used the redeye flight to watch three different movies. If you know my boyfriend at all, this won’t surprise you). So Friday night we headed to my favorite creperie and I forced him to eat a ratatouille crepe then went home so he could get some sleep.

We spent Saturday walking around Nice, letting Kev recover from his jetlag and showing him the best sites that the city has to offer. We hiked up to the Colline where we got to see an amazing view of Nice, and then headed to the port where we saw the ninth biggest yacht in the world (just a little preview of our day in Monaco!).

I took him to the best French Onion Soup place in the world (still cracks me up that its just called “Onion Soup” here) and had him eat a Croque Monsieur (which he said would have been better if it had hot sauce on it). That night we went to Antibes to go to a really cool, quaint bar with live American music and awesome vibes.

The next day I had the best plan to go to Cannes. We would walk past where the movies premier during the film festival, then hike up to the museum and climb to the top of the Panorama to see an amazing view. After, we’d go to a great little restaurant for awesome mussels and pizza, and then take a ferry to the Island of St. Honorat and check out the monastery.

So this is where our luck turned bad- we missed the train to Cannes by literally seconds. I mean we actually pushed the button for the train doors to open and it pulled away. So we waited for the next one, and when we finally got to Cannes, it was the coldest, windiest, rainiest and most miserable day we’ve had here so far. We walked towards the theater, which was completely blocked off so we couldn’t even see any of the celebrity handprints. We walked up to the museum, bought tickets, walked towards the Panorama and couldn’t get inside. So I went to the front of the museum and went back and forth with the workers to ask them to please open the doors even though it was raining or refund our money. Poor Kev sat there so hopeless since he doesn’t speak any French (but by the end of the vacation, he was saying “merci” and “bonjour!”) We went to go grab lunch, which was absolutely delicious, and while we were getting our check, we checked ferry times at 4:29. The next and last ferry left at 4:30. Too classic. So we ditched any plans, went back home and celebrated St. Patty’s at a few of the local bars.

The next morning, we woke up at a decent hour and went to get croissants for breakfast, then to go catch a bus to Eze followed by a trip to Monaco. We made our way to the bus stop and it was absolutely dreadful out (again), so we figured we’d check out the Modern Art Museum until the weather cleared. Which was closed. For the entire week. Since our bad luck was continuing, we went back home, bought a baguette and the minute we stepped in the door, the rain cleared. We waited to make sure it was real (were we actually getting good weather?!) and headed to the place I’ve been wanting to show Kev since forever: Monaco!! 

The day couldn’t have been more perfect- it was an absolutely gorgeous day and Kev was in his own personal heaven. We (or I should say, he) checked out a bunch of fancy cars and we went inside Monte Carlo and gambled! It was absolutely gorgeous inside. I’ve been to Monaco a bunch of times and never actually went in. We lost, but hey, we gambled in the Monte Carlo casino. After Monaco, we got dinner at Le Grand Bleu where we could see the ocean and the sunset over an amazing seafood pasta dinner.

 

The next day, we only had until around 4PM because we were going to Venice! So we took a bus tour of Nice for some more great views and snuck into a garden that I’ve wanted to show him (which was closed due to our luck, but we didn’t let that stop us). We relaxed there for a while and ate oranges I picked off the tree by climbing on Kev’s shoulders.

We headed to Venice for the next two nights (blogpost to come!) and landed back to Nice on Thursday afternoon to another gorgeous day. We spent this day walking through Nice and got to show Kevin all the great Nice markets (where he bought me the most beautiful flowers. They bloomed this morning after he left, no joke.) and sat on the beach for a few hours.

That night we went to Monaco and Kev got to enjoy Monte Carlo at night, which really is a totally different experience than seeing it during the day (Kev said he liked Monaco better during the day, but Monte Carlo better at night). We even went in the casino again at night!! We didn’t walk in past the entrance because everyone was very dressed up, but it was still great to see.

And then suddenly, it was Friday. We hung out in the markets again, did some shopping, and got to experience more of the beautiful weather. We ate pizza for the fifth time this week, got some delicious macaroons and just enjoyed each others company for the last few hours.

Kevin’s flight was at 7am this morning, so we woke up at 4:30 and headed to the airport. The goodbye was hard; in fact, we even did the whole goodbye, I walked out of the airport, then came back and Kev got out of the security line for one last goodbye (yes, that actually does happen in real life apparently).

Only having a week together in four months is not an ideal situation, but it was the most perfect week and I was so happy Kev was impressed with the city. It was an amazing trip and I’m so lucky he was able to come. He even said he was jealous of me! (and he came to France with a not-so-open-mind).

Munch, thanks for the best week ever. I’m so happy I got to experience it all with you. Love you.

Our trip to Venice will be in my next post!

From the luckiest girl in Nice,

A

(C’était l'une des plus belles semaines de ma vie. Je ne peux pas dire comment que je suis chanceux d'avoir Kevin et partager une petite partie de mon expérience avec lui. Ce n'est pas facile de voir que Nice serait avec lui ici, mais une semaine avec lui était incroyable. Je suis très reconnaissant pour lui et tout ce que nous avons pu faire pendant qu'il était ici. Peut-être qu'un jour nous y retournerons!)

Day in the Life

I know I haven’t posted in quite sometime, but my experiences are starting to become more “everyday” experiences and nothing has seemed too worth posting!

That being said though, I’ve been here for a month and a half already, but everyday I’m still learning something new. I spent this weekend alone- my friends all traveled to different countries, but I hung here since I’m off to Venice next week! I was looking forward to a weekend alone since I had such a great time after I got back from Barcelona and was able to just wander around the city. Of course it ended up raining all weekend, but I still got to spend some time shopping and hanging out in different cafés.

I’ve realized that traveling alone puts you in the best (and most difficult) situation. It can be easy to rely on your friends who speak better than you, but being alone this weekend really showed me how much potential I have.

I really had a lot of time to reflect on just how much I’ve improved. I was shopping and the cashier told me how much the cost was, and I got the money out of my bag without even looking at the cash register.

I now know that any restaurant I go into, I seat myself. I look like a natural! I just walk in, wave at the waiter for a menu or even just yell what I want.

The other week I was listening to a couple of people on the bus, and the woman who was talking was wearing a circle scarf. The guys she was with kept making fun of her and saying “c’est pas une écharpe! Tu doit la couper!” I actually found myself laughing and realized I was listening to them speak in French and understood everything they were saying.

Some of the weirdest things happened to me this past week. I’ll be eaves dropping on some people, and they’ll get off the bus, or turn down another street or finish up their coffee and I’ll realize that I can’t remember if they were speaking in English or French. That’s how well I could understand them! It is a weird experience.

I also was in my apartment cooking, and thought to myself, “I need to go get my computer.” But I thought it in French. What the heck!

The best part about this weekend was when I was getting breakfast and coffee out at a café under my apartment. A man sitting near me started talking to me and asking me where I was from. He said his daughter is here learning English and gave me her number so we could meet up and help each other out. I was speaking in broken French, but he kept saying, “I understand everything you’re saying. You speak very well!” What a nice (and very generous…) compliment.

I promise I will start to be better about my blogging!  From now until the end of April I have a visit from my boyfriend, a trip to Venice, a trip to London and Dublin, a visit from my family, a trip to Paris and a visit from my friend in Seville! Anyways, I’ll have a lot more exciting stuff to post about!

Here’s some photos of last weekend when we went to check out the Villas in Beaulieu sur Mer (literally translates to “Beautiful Place on the Sea”). Enjoy!

Until next time,

A

(Je ne peux pas croire combien j'ai grandi depuis mon arrivée ici. Je suis très familier avec la ville maintenant. Je connais les gens et la culture, et je deviens niçoise! C'est un accomplissement. Je sais que je n'ai plus de place pour grandir, et je ne peux pas attendre.)