Sunday, July 11, 2010

Oh Nice...

Current Location: Nice Airport, Nice, France

So this has been an interesting weekend, to say the least. It wasn't what I was expecting, but Courtney and I have had quite the adventures and will have MANY stories to tell from this experience.

So getting there was fairly glitch free, once I got to the airport, that is. First, I had some flight issues. I'm not gonna go into it, but had to spend a good chunk of money fixing flight issues. I was going to cab it, but couldn't find a cab stand, so I decided to train it. That is where my one glitch occurred - in trying to buy my ticket. WIthout realizing it, I was on the line that takes only card and coins. Well thats alright, I have a card. WRONG. The machine would only take european credit cards. Well I didn't have enough change, so I ask a fruit guy in the station if he can make change. He says no. I'm about to start crying, when I see, lo and behold, a machine that takes bills too! Only thing it only takes exact change. Well digging through my wallet I find the change and get my ticket. Crisis averted.

The train is fine and check in goes smoothly. However, once on the plane, we get delayed about 45-60 minutes. Kinda annoying, considering Courtney had her own travel issues and had been in Nice since around 10 AM! Finally, we take off, I get there, get a bus, etc etc, and check in. YAY! We wander around get some food, and then found the coolest thing EVER! A foot-volley tournament! It is volleyball and football (as in soccer for americans) into ONE SPORT. It is played in pairs, and you have to get the ball over the net without using your hands. The guys were AMAZING! After that we got some drinks (desperado = amazing beer!) and went to bed.

And oh, the hostel. Not exactly what we were expected. It was a brand new hostel, just opened on July 1st. By brand new, they mean renovated hotel - and renovations are VERY behind. We had no AC and no WiFi like we thought, and DAMN was it hot at night. Did not sleep too well with that heat. The location was great, the people were really nice, and they gave us a refund of about 1/3 of our cost because of the issues which was really nice.

Our 2 days were really good. Day 1 (or 2 depending on how you look at it. Saturday anyways) was GREAT! We did everything that we wanted to, and walked all over the place! We think we walked about 5-6 miles that day, and oh yeah, we walked up a mountain! Not exactly, but kinda lol. It was a lot of fun, and we saw all sorts of things in Nice. That afternoon we hung out at the beach. The beach is very different from what I'm used to - they are pebble beaches, not sand. kinda hard to walk on barefoot, but they have their merits. We ended the day with some drinks at the bar. However, it was SO HOT last night, neither of us could sleep much, which was sad.

Today started out disappointing, but ended great, and then got disappointing again for me. Court and I had signed up for a scuba class - it was an introductory dive and seemed super cool. However, no one told me until we got to the place at 9 AM that you cant dive within 24 hours of having a flight. Well I didn't know, so we had to cancel that. We then went on an adventurous bus ride! LOL. LOoooooong story :). We then decided to head to the beach and just relax. It's vacation after all. Well when we went, we decided to go PARASAILING! It was absolutely AMAZING. The views were great, it was actually like we were flying. I loved it, and could have done it over and over if I had time (and could afford it!). After that we lounged on the beach and relaxed. It was vacation after all!

Now this is where things get REALLY interesting. After the beach all day, Courtney and I get food, and then I head to the airport to catch my flight. So I get to the airport really early, and what to I find out - my flight was cancelled. I go wait in line for about an hour before I get to someone and they try to rebook me for Monday at 2. Well I have class Monday mornings, so I ask for an earlier flight to Charles de Gaulle airport. So they say I can take an 8 AM flight. By this time I'm tired, stressed, and ready to be home, so I do what I never do - I start to cry. The woman seems to feel bad for me and offers to put me on the waitlist for a flight that night. I will have to wait around an 2 hours to find out if I can get on, but it's the best option (there were no trains I could take either). SO I wait, and lucky me - I get through! Well I go through security and Of course, the flight is delayed about 2 hours. I won't go through all the details of the wait (which sucked) and the flight (which sucked), but I made it back to my room around 1:30 in the morning. Bleh

All for now - Will update with things from this week in Paris sooon! Lots of stuff planned, including Bastille Day!!!

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