Monaco

5 juin

Today we went to Monaco! It was about a 45 minute bus ride from Nice.  The bus drove east on the coast and it was so incredibly beautiful that it was hard to believe it was real.  The first thing we saw was the royal palace of Monaco where the prince lives.  Monaco is its own country, but is also part of France.  30,000 people live in the .75 square miles of Monaco.  This place is unique because EVERYONE that lives here is very wealthy.  No poor people at all.

This is real, I promise. So beautiful.  Below is the coat of arms for Monaco.

This is the church where Grace Kelly was married to the prince of Monaco.  They met when she was filming Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief in Monaco.  She is also buried here.

                                                                 Grace Kelly's adorned grave

There were hundreds of private yachts along with hundreds of the nicest cars I've ever seen.  Such wealth.

The Monaco Grand Prix had just taken place the week before and so they were cleaning up all of the signs and bleachers from that event.

The famous Monte Carlo casino.  Designed by Charles Garnier, same guy that did Opera Garnier.

After our sightseeing we went to a BEAUTIFUL beach.  This beach was little pebbles which was less painful than the bigger rocks in Nice.  I love the absence of sand that tends to get everywhere.  There was a white floating platform a ways out in the water so lots of us swam over to that and then laid in the sun on the dock to try off.  At times like these, life just feels so perfect.  Warm sun, beautiful mountains, clear blue water, and good friends.
There was this area of huge massive rocks that led to a concrete platform/walkway.  I begged Heather to come swim to the rocks with me to get up on the platform.  As we approached the mossy and pointy rocks, the current of the water slammed my leg into a sharp point.  It hurt as it hit right on my knee cap, but I decided to ignore the pain until I conquered getting up on these rocks.  However, I looked down at my leg and saw blood starting to trickle out.  Heather next to me started freaking out and told me that I needed to get out of the water because sharks can smell blood from miles away! That freaked me out and I started shaking and my muscles went limp.  Heather and Olivia helped to pull me up out of the rocks since I was shaking and I got out onto the platform.  I sat on platform and my leg just kept bleeding and bleeding.  We called over Aaron and he came and cleaned up my nasty blood and bandaged it up.  I limped back over to the beach and took a rest.  It was a bit of a traumatic experience when it really shouldn't have been..but it's an amusing memory now.  I swam some more and then we made our way back home.  I thought that my leg would just heal up nicely, but over the next few days, it has been swollen and has caused me lots of pain whenever I bend my knee.  I'm guessing that it got a bit infected and that it bruised my knee cap inside.  So I've limped my way through Nice but it is finally getting better.  

Nice is Nice

4 juin

I fell in love with Nice today.  We first saw this beautiful Russian cathedral that was built because of all the vacationing Russian royals that would come to the French riviera.  Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside, but I loved the outside architecture.

The day started out with a huge rainstorm that we got caught in the middle of.  We sought refuge in a tourism office to wait it out.  

It was incredible how fast the storm came upon us.  So at one point we decided that we would just take off our shirts and go out in our swimming suit tops.  So we tried it and the rain was sooo freezing, and we ran back inside.

After it stopped raining, the sky over the beach was gorgeous with the moving rain clouds.

Our next stop was Old Nice.  All of the buildings here were such beautiful bright Mediterranean colors.  It looked so much like Italy.  I took probably about 50 pictures of just the beautiful cute buildings.

     They had a flea market set up.

      The rain clouds cleared super fast, and we had a beautiful blue sky again.

Next we went up the castle hill where a castle used to be.  It had a breathtaking view of Nice below.  We definitely took the elevator up though.

Nice is seriously one of the prettiest cities EVER.  I understand now why all French people rave about the south of France and the French Riviera.

Next we had a delightful swim in the beautiful Mediterranean.  The beaches are pebbly which is kind of nice to not have get sand get stuck in you everywhere.  Also, it helps the water to be super clear because there isn't as much sand/dirt in it.  The mediterranean beaches are probably my favorite beaches I've ever been to. The water is so clean and warm and just feels so good.  It's so cool to look back at the city from the water and see the beautiful red and yellow buildings as well as the green mountains.  Here's a picture of Emily and the British friend that she made at the beach.

I LOVE NICE!