La Cote d'Azur - Nice

As usual, my trip began the eve before our actual departure to the French Riviera. Thursday night, a large number of us drank a bit of wine and went to Rigi for a dance party with some of the DCT students. There is a guy that looks very much like Tom Cruise (Top Gun era) who is from Brazil. We all call him "Tom" and he was there engaging in quite a serious d.p.

After about 3 hours of sleep, at 6:o3 AM Jeanne abruptly woke me up and told me that the bus was going to leave in 7 minutes. Of course, I did not pack the night before and had to throw whatever it was that I deemed necessary for a trip to la Cote d'Azur. Due to the fact that every weather report that we looked at had a different opinion as to what lay in the future in regards to sun or rain, I was even more flustered as to what I should throw in my bag.

Running to the bus, we all looked like that scene in Home Alone when "Run Run Rudolph" is playing in the background and they almost miss their flight... Well, we made it, just like in the movie.

From there, we had buses to trains to more buses to more trains. The train is strategically placed along the entire coastline and delivered amazing views of blue ocean and blue skies for the last 3 hours of the ride. I knew that two people brought their I Pod chargers, so I was blasting my music because I knew that I could re-fuel it for the beach and then again for the ride home =)

It was getting hot and we were all getting restless. How great it was going to be to lay on the beach! We arrived at the train station in Nice at about 4 pm, and, besides the man that told me I was being too loud, everyone seemed nice. (Nice people in Nice- Ironic!)

Our hostel was about a 7 minute walk from the train station, so we gathered our belongings and ventured out into the unknown city of Nice. After a few wrong turns, we arrived at the HI hostel of Nice.

Deirdre, Jeanne and I were to share a room while the other girls had the room next door (our balconies were attached). We were all so excited to get out into the city after having re-applied deodorant and the parts of our faces that melted off on the train.

As usual, we found a place to eat and indulged in a scrumptious meal before all of us got "edgy". I had a really good salad with melted goat cheese on top and the others had either the burger or a panini.

We bought some wine after dinner and headed to the beach. A cute guy from Chicago took our photo and Christina and I fought over who he loved at first sight for the duration of the trip. He loved me..I could tell by the way he carefully took the photo with my camera.

All joking aside, it was absolutely beautiful! We sat for a while until the sun went down before we headed home to nap and get ready for a night out in Nice. This was the night that Ashley were to hand over the crown of 21st birthday girls. The crown has now gone from Dee to Jeanne to Ashley, and now, to Linda.

We were all pretty tired, so we didn't go wild. They each bought a mojito that cost 11 Euro! I didn't feel like spending any money, so I didn't drink. One thing that I have found interesting about traveling is that, no matter where we go, there are people from New Jersey. I can't escape them! As we were singing Happy Birthday at the turn of the hour, a Jersey boy decided that it was a good idea to take his shirt off (Not a good idea- he had weird texture) and dance for Linda.

We walked around for a bit and decided that the next night, we would be more wild and that we were all tired. When we got back to our room, there was a strange hippie lady in our extra bed. She took up the whole sink and the entire closet.

In the morning when we got up, she was still sleeping. We got dressed quickly and headed for free breakfast (not very elaborate, but good) and then to the beach. It was 8 am but we were amped and ready for some sun!!

The first ones at the beach, we had the option of any space that we wanted. We each bought a beach mat (the beach is made of rocks), put in our Ipods just low enough so we could hear the crashing waves, applied our sunblock, and basked in the sun.

After about 2 hours of basking, Dee, Jeanne, Ashley and I wanted to rent Kayaks. It was 10 € for an hour which wasn't a bad deal for the fun we had. One thing that we did not know about the beaches in France is that you don't need a top on. We obviously took full advantage and went nudie kayaking. I fell in 2 times and it was absolutely freezing, but equally as refreshing.

We continued our nudie bathing when we returned to the beach- it was very liberating! It was also very neat to see every shape and size of people at the beach strutting their stuff like they were super models. Everyone was comfortable and there was none of the covering-up stuff that goes on in America when people feel as if they don't look good enough to be un-clothed. It was great!

Lunch consisted of a panini and an ice cold water. There was this man that walked by about every 15 minutes with a funny french accent yelling " hallo hallo wata hieneken col beea" - He was so funny and ridiculous.

Christina and Linda and I left the beach at 3 and found the grocery store where we could buy food and wine for much cheaper than it would cost to go out to eat. A good bottle of wine was only 3.45 €!

Since we had a kitchen at our hostel, we could prepare anything we wanted. Dee brought pasta from Vitznau, so we had that accompanied with a colorful salad. The water took about 3 years to boil, so by the time it was "done" it was quite el dante. I thought it was a good idea to rinse the pasta before putting it in the water. Not a good idea! Randomly throughout the pasta there would appear a broom-like clump of pasta that was not cooked at all.The pesto we added to it was even more disgusting. I attempted to add onions and goat cheese, but there was no hope- It was all lost. The faces that Christina and Deirdre were making made me nearly pee my pants as they attempted to enjoy the 3€ dinner that we created.

On to new things, we showered and got ready for Linda's 21st birthday!! A bunch of us heard word that Waynes club was a fun place to go, so we found that. They were right! It was a jam-packed bar with live cover music and people going wild. The second room in the bar was all tables and it is common place to dance on them because the floor is only used for walking. We were so sweaty and disgusting, but having the time of our lives. We didn't even have to spend any money! I found a boy that had the same oxford as me, so clearly that intrigued me! We danced all night and we ended up sitting on the beach with Dee and her lovebird until the early hours of the morning. He was hot and he walked me back to the hostel, which at that point, I had only a vague idea of where it was.

Again, we woke up early for breakfast and went to the beach. It was a bit windy which made all of us a bit nervous for what was to lie ahead. Thankfully, about an hour later, the sun was blazing and it was even warmer than it was the previous day. A bunch of the girls went para sailing, but I got bored the last time I did that, so I didn't want to spend the money. They had a great time.

At 4, Christina and I decided that our skin was telling us to leave, so we took a few photos around the city and went in search for a grocery market. We should have known better- Everything was closed! How were we going to have a 3€ dinner again?! Stressing, we headed back to the beach to tell the girls. We saw them on our way back, and the whole way home, we were stressing.

Linda, who had left the beach earlier than us to do some shopping, happened to find a market that had everything that we needed in order to make an adequate dinner. Jeanne and I made a salad with goat cheese, corn, cucumbers, carrots, and blue crumbles. It was very colorful and pretty tasty as well.

That night, Ashley, Dee, Christina and I went out in search of nightlife. Surprise! There was none. We found "Gillato square", indulged in a scoop of coconut and went back to the hostel. On our way home, we were verbally assaulted by quite a few disgusting Parisians that we all could have done without. I feel as if they Google "gross things to say to American Girls" and then yell them at every girl that has legs. Not cool, but we're over it.

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and were on our way back to Switzerland. For some reason, the train ride home felt longer than any other, though it was one of the shortest that we have had thus far. I could not get comfortable and it just wasn't a very pleasurable experience.

Trains to buses to more trains and we were back in Vitznau just in time for dinner.

An amazing weekend it was indeed!!