Thalazur Hotel Antibes

ok, it was more "collecting a new country" than being really interested in Monaco. Strange, when you go there from Nice airport by bus it costs you 18 € one way, when you go from Nice bus terminal it costs 1 € one way. Monaco is a very clean city. I have never seen so many big and expensive cars. I saw the casino and the castle. Nice, but not spectacular.

I know I always write the same...great weather, such a nice city, good food....but I have to say that Nice was a (very) big surprise for me, I can say that it is my favourite city in Europe (ok, number 2 after Lisbon). You have the mountains, the Cote dŽAzur (when you see the water you know why the name is Cote dŽAzur), the market with fresh vegetables, fruits, honey, oil, soap, you have great restaurants ...

... upon me it feels very strange and somewhat daunting. But to my knowledge no one has ever died from teaching children so I am sure I will survive.... My Amazon book order should arrive soon to inspire me. I am really looking forward to discovering the 100 things you can do with a paper plate. Life is never going to be the same!!

More when I start travelling...

... not limited by bus and train timetables. The other upside is that we are quite comfortably staying within our 50 Euro a day budget (25 Euro each) - yep that's fuel, food, the occasional wine or 3 out at a bar, entrance fees, the lot!! Downside of campervaning... it is a lot harder socialising and meeting other people. In a hostel this is easy especially if you are in an 8 bed dorm with a bunch of strangers. In a van you don't have this opportunity and most other vanners ...

On this morning we left Switzerland and travelled south into Italy en-route to the French Riviera. The scenery was pretty spectacular, with snow-white capped, jagged mountains that seemed to swallow the highway. Surreal!

When we arrived at our hotel we had about 30 mins to get ready for our trip into Monaco! On our drive to Monaco we crossed the bridge that Grace Kelly was killed on in a car accident. The roads are ...

... night, we were both incredibly relaxed and a little revitalized for Barcelona, which looks to be a lot of running around again.

We finished off our relaxing spa day with a walk to the pebbley beach, finished off with an interesting dinner at the hotel restaurant to celebrate 7 weeks of travel!!! The restaurant is on the top level of the hotel and has panoramic views of Nice, it was very pretty, lots of tiny glowing lights. We splashed out on an a la carte for Lewey (entree, main and ...

... was amazing. This place is absolutely beautiful! Apparently they have something like 300 days of sunshine a year here and the lowest temperature in winter is about 18°. We then got dropped into Nice and had some lunch and a quick look around. Then Cory, Kyla, Danielle and I caught a train to Cannes, where the 62nd Cannes Film Festival was on. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, look it up or get into Entourage; it is world renowned. This was a spectacular day out. There were ...

... into the wall to get really hot. We then got to actually cook our own beef, chicken and duck right at the table in front of us. It kind of reminded me of Benihana's! I really liked the duck, I don't think I've tried it before. My roommates and I enjoyed the meat a lot because we don't make it a lot in our apartment and we sometimes forget how much we miss it. We also had potatoes on the side, my favorite! The conversation, by the way, was entirely in ...

... only have to do three poster projects. It's very different compared to all the tests and essays I have to do in San Diego. Hopefully with this class I'll be able to draw better, maybe even as good as Ross... probably not. Well, we're off to the market and then I have Intro to Film with two friends and then we get a paid pizza dinner from my study abroad program. I'll write as soon as I have anything more exciting to say. Miss you all.

Monaco and Monte Carlo. Travelled there by train from Antibes, great trip and a beautiful but windy day. The place surprised us. Clean and tidy not over fussy, totally contained, obviously wealthy, jam-packed with cars, boats and beautiful people. Walking the whole place was not a problem. Lovely hills and the old town on a peninsula between the two ports, where the Palace is, is beautiful. Surrounded by gardens, which are magnificently looked after ...