Sunburns and Delayed Trains

So for this past weekend a group of us decided to go to Nice, France on the Riveria. It was so much fun! We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Nice at around 9pm, thanks to our train deciding to stop for 30 minutes at each stop for smoke breaks and who knows what else. After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the beach and put our feet in the freezing cold Mediterranean. After walking around the city for quite some time, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday we got up and went to this beautiful Russian cathedral, and I paid 3 euros to go inside. The entire alter was covered in gold and relics, it was beautiful. Then we headed down to the beach where we swam, despite the cold water, and laid out, all of us managing to get sunburned despite wearing sunscreen. Later that afternoon we left the beach and headed up this mountain to some waterfalls in this old chateau-type place. It was gorgeous up there and we had an amazing view of the city. I'm also pretty sure I saw at least 3 wedding parties that day. Nice is apparently a very popular place to get married. After going back to the hotel to shower and rest up, we headed out again to find some seafood and gelatos. I had my first full, completely filling and satisfying meal on the trip - grilled salmon!! It was delicious. Then we walked around some more, found some gelatos to enjoy, and sat in this plaza where a woman was doing some sort of poetry reading and there was some kind of book fair going on. We were all so tired by that point that we all just pretty much crashed in our hotel rooms.

Sunday was the long train ride back to Vichy. But first, Ashley and I got up earlier in the morning and walked around the city center where I bought my signature souveniers - a scarf, some postcards, a mosaic turtle, and a magnet which is a shopping cart with wine, cheese, and bread in it - pretty much the only groceries we ever buy! I thought it was cute. After about an hour we walked back to the hotel, met up with the others, and we headed toward the train station. I happened to find some playing cards in the souvenier shop that morning, so thankfully we at least had some cards to entertain us on the 4 1/2 hour train ride to Lyon. Lyon to Vichy, of course was delayed, and we didn't make it back until after 9 last night. Overall, though, it was a fantastic trip! I highly suggest Nice to anyone who is interested in traveling to France someday. Such a beautiful city! I wish we could have stayed longer.

Next weekend I'm thinking of heading to Bourdeaux. It'll be my last full weekend in France. That is so strange to think about. I've already past the half-way point and it's all almost over. I'm trying not to think about it too much. :-)

I know I haven't really updated that much. It's hard to find the time, and since my internet is so slow I haven't gotten to update with as many pictures as I would have liked. But I plan on going to an internet cafe sometime this week to upload pictures to the blog and to facebook, so just get ready. It'll happen. Hopefully!

Much love to you all. I miss everyone back home, and hope everyone is doing well. :-)

Peace, Love, and Nice beaches.