Camping on gorgeous lake, great beaches, and party

I arrived in Nice, France after driving along some gorgeous roads and city on the southern part of Italy and France. I finally found a hostel and they were booked but she could see being on a motorcycle was a lot more difficult finding somewhere else than by foot so she put a bed in the dining room (not used in summer since they use the outside patio. I met a few girls and we went walking around the city (a fun town on the beach) and two fraternity buddies happen to be there eating at a place we walked by and happened to spot my bob Hamilton plumbing in Kansas City shirt. I spent the evening chatting with them and then running into another fraternity brother down on the beach that was with a friend, how bizarre since none of us knew the others were there. We got up that morning and spent the whole day relaxing on the beach and then spent the evening with some bottles of wine sitting down on the pier. That day I happened to meet ANOTHER KU person, a girl I bar tended with back at KU. I was able to chat with her and her friends for a while before they had to leave. The next day I met up with the girls from the hostel and we played V-ball and relaxed and then I met up with the two fraternity brothers and went to Monacco, the rich of all riches. This place had yachts and cars that are worth as much as most towns. We had a fabulous meal and walked around all the gardens and casinos. Did I mention the cars? It was unreal. (Along the way I always am meeting tons of other travelers but its hard to write about everything so I leave a lot of the people I meet out of the logs, so if you are one of them, I didn´t forget about you, I just want to make it where its not too long to read).

Fraternity brothers and myself enjoying some wine

I left the next day for Barcelona, Spain....which was going to be a LONG drive in major HEAT! Along the way I found a nice lake that was an ocean inlet with tons of windsurfers and kite borders. I spent awhile driving around the lake and then went to where they were all camped. I met an older couple from England that had retired and bought a RV and was there relaxing and windsurfing but he had crashed and broke his rib that day. I had a wonderful evening chatting with everyone. I drove into the small town that is by the lake and had a beer and walked around. There were only like 10 bars-restaurants open so it was a very ¨local´s¨ place. It was so windy that night it snapped a tent pole so I just laid there all night with the tent collapsed since it was too windy and late to do anything about it. It was quite a night. I spent the morning chatting and having breakfast with couple and then headed to Barcelona.

Hiking to the top of Lago de Garda in Italy

I arrived in Barcelona and did the typical driving around a very very congested city looking for one of the hostels. All the travel books are guided for people taking the trains so it is difficult finding directions in all these huge cities where I don´t speak the language. I found a place and the grabbed a wonderful meal and checked my email. The other fraternity brother we met in Nice had emailed and said he was going out to the Black Sheep that night in case I arrived that evening. I walked around downtown for a while and then met up with him and buddy. We had a wonderful evening.

I´m going to spend today seeing Barcelona and then going to spend a few days making my way to Pampalona for running of the bulls by the 4 or 5th. I´ll update it after the bulls!!

The beaches of Monte Carlo, Monacco, and Nice

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The beaches of Nice

Us in front of Casino in Monacco, France