Nice and Monaco

Herein follows the story of the first-ever, cherry-poppin' study abroad trip. This one led us to Nice and Monaco.

Jessica, Stephanie, Paulina and I had tickets leaving from Lyon to Nice at 6:35 am Friday morning so we could get to Nice around 11. Long ass train ride. However, seeing as how P and I hate packing more than life itself, we went out to a party at a flat near ours. We knew this was a really bad idea but we also knew they would be pregaming and then heading out to Vieux Lyon, in which case we'd head back home as they were leaving to center city. Everyone started filtering out around midnight and we got back home around 12:30.

Now we really to pack. Shit. If we had to be at the train station say 6:15, we needed to be up before 5 to get ready and get out. A lot of fumbling and swearing later, we got to bed around 2:30. In what seemed like 5 minutes, the alarm rang. Ugh. Fast-forwarding, the train left at 6:35 sharp and we were seated right next to Le Bar. Score.

After making obscene amounts of noise for about an hour, we decided to nap, until loud assholes boarded at Marseilles, but we knocked out when they got off at Aix-en-Provence. However, I noticed the sky was the same color at 8am as it was at 5am. Uh oh. Horrific thunderstorm ensued while on train. I'm the only one who brought an umbrella. Shit.

We finally disembark, ass numbness kicks in, and it's dripping a little but cold as all hell, at least for Nice. We find our hotel and scour for food, but what happens next - it starts pouring and thunderstorming. Awwww yeah! Seeing as how it was brick cold on the train, we got no sleep, and it was wet and cold in Nice, I stocked up on some Vitamin C as we wandered through the city. Sure it was raining. Hard. But we made the best of it. A bunch of ridiculous crap happened along the way but the city itself is beautiful. We schlepped up and down Nice and finally crawled back to our hotel. We decided to take a nap so we would be energized by the time Jerry, Daniel and all of the Spanish arrived. Well, Jerry and Daniel took the wrong train because they're retarded.

At around 10:30 pm the four of us went out for dinner and during the 25 minute walk to the hotel, it started to thunderstorm like nobody's business. I left my umbrella in the room because it really looked like it was clearing. Let's just say we owned the Wet Dog Chic look. We werked it fo' sho. Jerry and Daniel got in around 1am as we were drying off.

Saturday morning we got up super early to get to Monaco. No one else was able to open their eyes because they went to some gay club the night before and got home at 5 while we take our sightseeing seriously. Jerry did join us, though. We had a nice French breakfast, facing the ominous dark cloud coming our way. We hopped on the train to Monaco and a half hour we were there. So was the rain. All 13 or 14 of us (Daniel and the Spanish made it as well) walked around Monaco for hours and it was sooooooo gorgeous. Smelled like Park Avenue but worse. The Spanish saw some Spanish socialite and I don't even remember what the Bentley, Rolls, Ferrari, exotic car count was. The Monte Carlo though was out of this world. No cameras allowed inside. By midday the rain stopped, which was nice. I can't understand why the Monaco Royal Family palace thing needs guards. Who the hell is going to rob/attack/hijack/assassinate the most useless people on Earth? For reals now.

Sadly on the way back we didn't get to stop at Villefranche which has absolutely breathtaking views of the coast, but what we saw from Princess Grace's garden and the like was also just as amazing. I learned I can't fucking stand traveling in large groups, or traveling with the Spanish, considering I don't even like the Spanish. Hence why Dublin was a better trip and the others will be even better.

Sunday was another half-day of touring Nice before our train back to Lyon. Which was over an hour and a half late, which means we got home over an hour and a half late. But it was one of the best times of my life, sitting on that train, with my 3 New York bitches and wild'n'out. Getting up for an 8am class blew hard but it was all in good fun.

All in all, great first trip. Nice was nothing too special, but Monaco was fantastic.