Follow those ORANGES!!

So, on Saturday we decided to train it down to Monaco for a day trip, it was hot and it was sunny and I was just very unprepared for it.... so after getting tired of squinting in all my photos, I just had to go buy one of them touristy caps just to keep the sun off my face. Plus, I was having a real bad hair day - urgh, of all the days to have a bad hair day! Monaco day trip should definitely not have been one of them.... I may have crossed paths with my potential future rich husband but he would've completely overlooked me because of my bad hair day.... So, I was looking rather unglamourous in this rather glamourous city, which is apparently full of wealthy people, lots of nice cars, and lots of nice yachts....

Anyway, the place is small, but beautiful, we pretty much just walked everywhere and it didn't take long and even in the sun it didn't feel very far and we didn't get tired from all the walking, it is very pretty place Monaco, I guess when you have so many rich people coming here, then it's easy to make things look good on the outside.

We walked up a hill just in time to see the changing of the guards at the Palace. That itself was kind of boring, all I saw was a whole lot of old people taking photos of a marching band, poor old people.... it was quite a lot of climbing up a rather steep hill to this palace. They probably had to take lots of photos just to make it all worthwhile :p

Sports mad Marisa was really excited about the race track that she recognised from watching motorsports, so we had to go to a few of the key spots along the Grand Prix track and of course, take the obligatory cheesy touristy snap at those locations. So, there was the 'Hairpin' and the 'Tunnel' and I would upload these pics to show you, but.... at this internet cafe, the computers are looking really dodgy, so I really don't want to bring my camera out to start uploading photos......

At this place, nice cars are aplenty, and they don't even turn heads anymore, if you really want to stand out, you have to have something different............................................

TADA!

How cute is this little hippy flower child car? And the man in a shirt standing next to it? Priceless! All that is missing is a hot hooker in the passenger seat.


Went up to the other side of the waterfront, to the Monte Carlo Casino, and yup, no surprises, luxury cars aplenty, heaps of them, it's almost like they cost nothing here....
Even the sales assistants look glamourous, the guy that served us at the souvenir shop is a spitting image of Alex Dimitriades, very handsome and very sexy with that French accent.

After that, we saw a huge commotion outside the Casino, and for that to happen you know it's gotta be good, perhaps someone famous? But no, we are not that lucky to spot a celebrity, it was an old lady driving a brand spanking new Lamborghini (spelling??). Thing was, she was having problems parking her car and needed a little assistance.... the sports car needed to be put pushed, yes, PUSHED into the car spot. So, either she is your stereotypical female driver and she cannot reverse park or it was a stupid car that cannot be put into reverse. I'll let you decide.

On our way back to Nice, we stopped by a little town by the name of Eze (we're still unsure of the exact pronounciation). This place apparently is famous for its ancient village, but when we got there, we found out that it was a 60 min walk up a mountain to get there, and we weren't sure which bus may or may not take us there, so... umm, thanks but no thanks. We're too buggered.

Instead, we headed towards Eze beach to wait for the next train to Nice.
Eze Beach, pebbly, quiet but still gorgeous. It's not nearly as crowded as Nice's beach, but it does the trick, here is where the families go, Nice is where people go to be seen. I think there will be lots of these kinds of beaches like Eze around. It would be great to be able to do a bit more exploring of this area, I really love it down here in the South of France. Despite the heat.

Had a quick Monoprix dinner (God bless Monoprix), relaxed a little before making our way to find a pub so we can watch the Quarter-Finals between Netherlands and Russia in a bit of atmosphere (that's the Euro Cup, soccer, for the uninitiated).

We hadn't expected so freaking many people out on a Saturday night, but what we hadn't realised was that France was celebrating some kind of national music festival, (Fete de la Musique) so every little corner of every little town had some sort of little concert for it's people, and Nice was no different. There were little bands playing at street corners, creating havoc and human traffic everywhere. It was getting more and more frustrating for us to get around and locate a decent looking place with a big tv for us to sit and enjoy the game. We were trying so hard to look for soccer mad fans wearing orange shirts, we need to follow the oranges! Where are all the oranges?! But we couldn't see any oranges, so we just had to find a pub....

AND, find one we did and you will never believe it, it was an Irish Pub! With tv's tuned to stations that had ENGLISH commentaries, how convenient was that! Oh it was a Godsend and it was fun.
We both had an enormous beer each, sat in a what was a quiet corner until all the Russian fans turned up... it was happily a Dutch supporting pub until the Russions turned up, but considering the Russians did win that match, I guess it wasn't too bad that it turned out that way. I'm not too sad that my Dutch boys lost, because I've come to expect that from them already....

After the game and the enormous beer we had, we both desperately needed to pee..... and pub toilets weren't that great, and public toilets are no better so we had to madly rush back, walking, no running of course, to our hotel just to pee.... heheh, what a fun night.

The next day, our last day in Nice, we just had a 'take it easy' day. Pretty much did nothing really.
Walked up to the Matisse Museum, came back down to town, went to the beach.

Matisse Museum was ok, it really doesn't compare at all to the wonderful Picasso Museum in Barcelona but the walk up to the suburbs of Nice was pleasant and made it worthwhile. A nice change from the craziness of last night. Nice town on a Sunday is very dead.

Considering that the Ironman competition is on today at the foreshore, I'm surprised not more shops are opened because there definitely is a lot of tourists around this weekend. It's too bad I had a massive headache marring my last day in Nice, I really like this place a lot. But you can't help getting sick.

A pleasant surprise happened on our last night in Nice, my good friend 'Fernando' managed to make his way to Nice from Barcelona while we were still in town, so of course we had to catch up. And even though we weren't able to contact him because he conveniently had no more credit left on his phone, and the Iron Man Competition still going, and lots of people and hellish traffic and no parking, he still managed to find us in the restaurant we were at, watching the other Quarter-Final match between Spain & Italy. You manage to amaze me everytime, Fernando, but it was great to see you again.

Late night, early start, must pack to move onto our next destination - MILAN!
Just gotta sleep it off on the train, let's hope it's a comfy one.......