Nice is nice

I had to go there. I just had to.

But look at this place - how could I not?

I really, really like Nice so far. It is so colorful and it's right on the Mediterranean and there are lots of nice places to walk around. I definitely feel like I'm on vacation; it has all the requirements of a vacation city!

I got here last evening after a very long day in the train. I walked around a bit and saw the beach (I'm about a five minute walk from the beach) but didn't do too much yesterday. My pictures all turned out poorly as well - not sure why. But I took 96 pictures today, so I made up for that!

This morning I got up and decided I would just start exploring the city. There was a chance of rain and since it was decently sunny, I wanted to get going. The clouds in the above photo were making me worry it would be overcast by the end of the day, but it ended up staying dry and getting nicer! I have color on my face and chest as a result of today's weather. Quite a difference from Périgueux...where it apparently was gross today.

Anyway, I walked through Nice's famous flower market this morning. Since this is the Côte d'Azur, plants of all types grow really well here.

Orange and lemon trees as well! 

Variations of roses.

There were enormous flower and tiny flowers - but they were all super colorful. There was also a ton of lavender and soap for sale, plus all the normal things you'd find in a market.

After the market I walked along the Promenade des Anglais (The English Walkway) that runs along the beach. It wasn't too crowded in the morning, but when I walked again this afternoon it was packed. The Promenade runs for miles along the beach in Nice and was installed decades ago when the British started coming to Nice as a vacation area.

There's a big hill between the old part of Nice city and the area with the port. The hill is the site of the now-in-ruins castle that used to overlook the sea and the city. I thought it was just a small tower to climb to the top of for panoramic views, but in reality it was a massive hill with parks and vistas and a waterfall and cemeteries and all kinds of things. I ended up wandering on the paths and seeing the views for almost two hours.

There were paths like this that criss-crossed all over the hill.

Mediterranean + Nice + the Alps

A cool structure of some sort up on the hill - no idea what it was.

Ruins of the old cathedral that was at one point on the hill along with the castle and a fortress.

There is tiling like this all over the city. It gives the city a very Mediterranean-feel. There are a lot of places that feel kind of Italian, too. (Which makes sense because we're not that far from Italy.)

Tiling again - there was also a big one that said "Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage" meaning "Happy is he, like Odysseus, who has taken a beautiful trip."

The port of Nice - lots of expensive boats.

The Mediterranean - which was all kinds of different colors, depending on the time of the day.

The area around the port was nice, though I really liked walking along the sea. I got really lucky with the weather, that's for sure! After exploring all morning, I decided to walk to a big Russian church that is one of the big landmarks in the city. While waiting for the church to open (lunch break - gotta have the lunch break), I met an American girl and her mother. They were from California but the girl had been an assistant for two years. Her first year was in a small town on the border with Germany while this year she was in Paris; she simultaneously did her assistantship and her first year of her Master's in Education. I ended up seeing the church with them and then walking back to the main part of town with them. They also invited me to get dinner with them, which I took them up on. It was nice to have company! Liane, the girl, is also going to be in New York next year for school - so we exchanged American numbers as well.

Just some typical shots of Nice...pretty buildings/windows/sea. 

The Russian Cathedral.

Russians cathedral and part of its gardens.

I have to pause this blog for a second - my friend Ana from high school had seen my status on Facebook about being in Nice and commented that she had just arrived in Nice. I knew she was in this hostel, I just had a feeling, and what are the odds? She's here. We just met up in the hall freaking out. She's traveling with a friend from Tech. How funny is that?? Anyway, we're going to meet up in the morning and hang out! I'm so excited!!! We're going to hang out tomorrow - we're meeting in the lobby for breakfast. So excited!

I'm also sleepy, so to finish this blog off, I'll also put up some pictures of "Old Nice." It's a lot like other old parts of French cities except that it's much more colorful. All the buildings here are very pretty and very colorful; even as if gets dark it seems pretty bright because so many of the buildings are painted bright yellow. Such a happy place!

Itty-bitty streets.

Colorful buildings on one of the streets leading up to the castle hill.

I really liked Nice today. I definitely feel like I'm on vacation - and it just got even better with Ana ending up in the same hostel and everything! What a good way to start my European trip! :-) Tomorrow we'll go see some little towns on the coast - hooray!