When we got to the station however we soon learned that this was a local line kind of thing. We asked a guy at the ticket desk and he booked us tickets (from the other station) through a three-leg journey. Unfortunately, we had to do those three legs and not anything simpler, because we had to go through part of the Alps and they had their own line through a part.
We also now had a bit of time to kill before the train left, so we decided to walk to the other station. It wasn´t too far; maybe a 30 minute walk. It wasn´t too hot yet even though we had backpacks, so it seemed like an okay thing to do. Much simpler than trying to figure out buses, and much cheaper than a taxi.
We still had a bit of a wait at the station when we arrived but it passed quite quickly, and then we got on our train. The first leg took us to Cueno, and from there we boarded a very modern-looking train that took us through the Alps, to Ventimillia. The trip through the Alps was simply spectacular. So picturesque, so stunning. It was slightly misty, and the layers of mountain having discrete hues going off into the distance. The small Alpine towns were beautiful and I kind of wished we were staying at one of them.
When we arrived at our second stop we got off and found our way to our last train. The ride was okay and we eventually made it into Nice by about 4pm. It seemed a bit dismal, arriving so late, that we had missed out on a day. But, that´s not the way it happened.
We found a tourist office at the station and figured out that our hostel was actually only a couple blocks down. Very nice. We walked over there and got checked in. It didn't all go according to plan though. In cancelling our second night, somehow one bed for the first night had gone too. I panicked, thinking we were in trouble. They had a few free beds though and both of us ended up with somewhere to sleep for the night.
We headed off straight away, intending not to waste any of the day. We made our way down to the main street where there was a bunch of high-street shopping, nice stores and a myriad of cafés lining street. This suddenly seemed like real France. The cafés all had their seats facing out to the street, to watch the beautiful people walking past.
Since we were both a little tired from travelling and a little stressed from the trouble we had that day we picked a café and sat ourselves down. We had coffee and tea (as per usual) and had a nutella-filled crepe. Yes, crepes in France; the first thing we did once we were there.
We sat for a good while and relaxed, watching the people walking past. It was 5pm or so but the sun was still high in the sky. Once we had enough we kept making our way down the wide, busy street. Down the end we reached a large square. It was very cool, modern, hip. There were clear statues atop metal poles, and the floor was a cool checkerboard design.
In a park to the side there was something set up. Turns out we were there when the 17th annual European petanque championships were being held. How absolutely French!
At the end of the square was a large fountain with five statues in it. It was odd because five isn't a usual number of fountain statues (you know you´ve been travelling for too long when...) and they were all completely different. There were men fighting with horses, with bulls, women fighting bulls for a baby, a pegasus and a fish thing.
We stopped for a while to take photos and generally enjoy the ambiance of the place.
We kept on walking down towards the beach. Nice is apparently a beach holiday town. We didn't actually go down to the beach but we walked along the path above it and made our way slowly to the hills where there looked like a waterfall high up, and some lookout platforms. The sun was still high and we thought we had a load of time to get this done.
The walk up the stairs was fun. I was counting steps and testing Emma on French numbers with the totals from each flight (weŕe making an effort to learn French). There were several places to stop and take photos of the town and the bay it lies on. Very beautiful indeed.
Up the top we found the waterfall and went overboard, I think, with the photos (maybe). Waterfalls just happen to be a very awesome thing to photograph. From there we moved up again and around to the viewing platform on the top of the waterfall, looking down. The view of the town from there was spectacular.
We then headed back down, going through a park that was on top of the hill. There must be some sort of thing regarding Ulysses in Nice because there was a surprising amount of Uysses-themed things there. In the park there were pictorial mosaics on some steps of the Illiad and the Odyssey stories, and then another artistic Ulysses representation further down.
We headed down and into the older part of town, where the bars and restaurants were. We found dinner at a place that seemed definitely to be where the locals ate. We were looking for a Niceois dish called Sukka which is a sort of lentil omelette thing. We got those and also a piece of some other Nice dish which was a pizza covered in onion, olives and anchoves. It was okay. I enjoyed the sukka more, and got quite full from that.
We walked around the area, looking for places to go out for the night. We found one we knew of from the LP, called Chez Wayne. It was supposedly for both locals and tourists. Turns out that earlier on it was just British and Americans in there. We sat and had beer and cider, and waited for the live band to start playing.
The band was okay; a real average cover band, playing average cover band songs. Still, those are the sort of songs that get a crowd going, and it was quite a lot of fun. They didn't have a dance floor though! So, no dancing to cheesy kareoke ballads ;(
There was a group of girls who sat down next to us who seemed very young. I was pretty sure they were underage, and it turned out they were on a school trip, and they were drinking! Heh, just made me feel very old ;(
Afterwards we pretty much made our way back to the hostel. On the way we went through some markets that were set up in the area. There were some cute little statues of animals doing things like playing instruments. We made our way back through that big square, where the fountain was now lit up and the statues on poles were alight with changing coloured lights from the inside. Quite awesome.
There were also some blue light things stringed up on the main street, near where our street was. They were a bit odd, making it look almost like I kept blurring the photos since some were short and some long.
When we got back to the hostel we both headed straight for our rooms (which were separate). I bumped into some people in mine and we spoke for a bit; seemed like good guys. Then, I went straight to bed. Although, I woke up several times during the night due to people moving about in the room.
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