Wrapping up Monaco 2007

It occurs to me that I didn’t finish up the Monaco trip.  We got to the train station early that morning and got on the train we had reserved the night before.  Unfortunately, the train was supposed to leave at 7:08am and didn’t even arrive until about 8:20am.  We sat on it for over thirty minutes before they had everyone change trains.  Finally, we were off.

 Got to Paris only to discover that there were NO MORE SEATS.  High speed trains only alott so many seats to passholders on each train, and with the strikes, everyone in Europe got bumped back.  So we had two options.  A.) Wait until the next free train at 10:30pm, get into Brussels around 1am, spend the night outside the train station, make it back to Venlo around 11am; two people would miss midterms.  OR B.) Pay full fare for a ticket, 78euro, and make it back in time for finals.  After some lengthy debate, we decided this was EXACTLY the emergency our parents had given us credit cards for.  After charging the tickets, it was a FRITEMERGENCY.  We went rabid until getting our grubby fingers on some “delicious frites,” and inhaled them in a manner of minutes.  One quick stop by the chocolate shop for another binge and we were on our way.

From there on out, we only had one more scare.  The last bus from Venlo to Well is supposed to be at 11:47, but there’s also supposed to be one at 11:13.  We were there and waiting, but the 11:13 bus didn’t show, and when we asked, the men we asked said the busses were done for the night.  Fortunately they were WRONG, and a little before 1am Monday morning, we stumbled into the castle and directly into bed.

Monaco was beyond beautiful.  Ineffably beautiful.  If I hadn’t already been there, I’d want to honeymoon there.  We are already planning a reunion there for in a few years.  Nice wasn’t unreal, but it was nice.  Paris was good for the unplanned evening we were there.  Maastricht is probably fun in the daytime.  The train rides themselves weren’t bad, though all the stressful traveling definitely took its toll.  Despite that, though, we all stayed in high spirits and are all still talking, which is rather miraculous.

 AND we all made it back in time for our midterms, though it’s been a crazy week with them.  And I can’t think about the fact that I leave for Vienna tomorrow night, though I know it’ll be tons of fun.  Just too much stress at once, you know?

Went for a run today since I got out of my exam early.  I haven’t had the TIME to go running since the day before we left for London.  It was glorious.  Now I just have to write my midterm paper for Honors, go to American Night at the Linden, go running tomorrow morning, shower, pack, go to class, and head out for Vienna, where I’ll meet up with Fidan!  Yay.

Next weekend I’ve wound up with nothing planned.  I think I might hop down to Luxembourg for a day, and if Kristen goes we’ll spend a day possibly in Antwerp, too.  Then that’s one more day, which I hope to spend at a monkey zoo with Bridget. 

 Now I’ve wasted enough time putting pictures online instead of writing my paper.  I think we’ll leave for the Linden 11ish, which means I have roughly two hours to try and get a start on my paper if I wish to sleep tonight.  Which I need to, since I won’t get much sleep on the trains tomorrow night; I’ve got six connection, and though one IS a sleeping car, I’ll be in a chair.

I have a few photos I’ll be adding in here that my friends took on the trip, but right now photobucket is NOT cooperating, so only one this time.  More later!

Me in the Oceanography Museum in the first submarine.  Built by an American and used during the Revolutionary War, I find that the man was an utter idiot.  What moron would submerge themself in THIS?!?

Yeah, it was as comfortable as it looks.  The hotel lobby in Maastricht.

Climbing up to the palace; I may not be loosing weight but I’m certainly toning up!

Us lovely ladies on the steps across from the Monte Carlo.  I am just impressed that we all have different hair colors, haha.

The Day to End All Days

Saturday, our one day to enjoy all Monaco had to offer.  We caught the 30minute bus into Monaco early, and had been tipped off that bus line 100 took us along the coast.  It was an amazing view, if not also a terrifying ride as the driver whipped us along winding curves, through the mountains, right next to the cliffs.

First hit up the Monte Carlo casino.  It costs 10euro to even get inside, so we just refrained, instead admiring the unbelievable collection of Lambourghinis, Mustangs, Bentleys, and Rolls Royce in front of the casino.  There were also some lovely gardens out back and a phenomenal view of the incredibly blue water, gorgeous green cliffs, and the orange roofs that climb up the mountains.

Next stop was the palace, which required us to walk along the water, through the harbor, through a carnival setting up.  We shopped and watched the changing of the guards, which was terrible.  The slouched and fidgeted and craned their necks to see what the other guards were doing.  Compared to Buckingham, it was a joke.  Stef and Amanda went into the palace while the rest of us hung around in the courtyard; I bought a fleece for myself finally.  The palace was nice from the outside, but small and overall not very impressive.

From there, headed down through the Jardins Exotique to the Cathedral, which is actually was inspired the whole trip.  Amanda has an absolute adoration for Princess Grace Kelly, who is buried in the church, and it has always been her dream to see her grace.  Every five steps it Grace Kelly monument or statue or picture, and she admired each and every one.  When we hit the Cathedral, though, the trip was all worth it for the look on her face, which I managed to capture on film:

We wandered around inside and admired the church and graves.  It was nice –late Roman, Eric said.  Less opulent than St. Paul’s, less intimidating than Westminster; reminded me a lot of Notre Dame, inside and out. 

By this point, when we got outside, we had to admit we were all FREEZING.  It was getting windier and windier, colder and colder, and we had all been under the impression it would warm, so we were underdressed.  Nonetheless, despite our frozen noses, off we trooped to the Aquarium, what was supposedly one of the world’s best.

Not.  All the hype was disappointing.  All the tanks were confined to the basement, and though seeing some new kinds of fish was cool, and though aquariums are ALWAYS fun, it wasn’t half as good as even Texas State Aquarium.  I was more interested in the Oceanography Museum upstairs, which had all kinds of fish, sharks, squid, and starfish preserved in formaldihyde (sp?) from the 19th and early 20th century.  It was disgusting; everything was all shriveled up like aliens.  But it made me feel like an old oceanographer.  And I finally got to see what whale baleen actually looks like.  The view from on top of the aquarium was what made it actually worth the 6euro admission.  Have I said yet how BLUE the water is? 

Ate lunch in a little pizza place that had good prices.  The waitress was horribly cold and rude, though.  And she also didn’t mention to us that when Bridget, Stef, and I decided to share one pizza instead of getting our own, there was a 2euro charge.  Each.  We could have gotten two pizzas for that much.  We were so furious –the waitress didn’t tell us and it didn’t say charge for splitting ANYWHERE on the menu– that we didn’t give any tip beyond the service charge.  SOOOO angry.

The day was growing old, and we had thought about trying to find the rose garden, but sudden clouds were looking ominious overhead and we had quite a bit of a walk to the beach –which is what we all really wanted to do.  So off we set, through the habor where we admired all the multi-million-dollar yachts collected from around the world, through the carnival, through the mountains, along the boardwalk, until finally finding a public area on the other side of the Monte Carlo Bay resort.  Some surfers were in the water in full body suits, but we dove right in –Stef, Bridget and me in bikinis and Amanda in shorts and a t. shirt because she forgot her bathing suit.  Eric opted out and Jessye preferred to take pictures.  The air was frigid but the water wasn’t bad at all.  Unfortunately, the tide was coming in.  So in our battle with the Med Sea, we lost horribly.  The waves knocked us all over the place and would threw us seven or eight feet upshore each time.  And the beach wasn’t sand, it was smooth pebbles, which were beautiful but impossible and painful to stand on.  So each time you couldn’t get footing to try and hold your own against the waves.  After about fiften minutes, we’d had enough and could now say we’d swum in the Mediterranean sea, so out we got and toweled off, our bodies aching and our feet near bleeding.  But it was totally worth it.

It was getting quite late and we didn’t know for sure where the bus we wanted was, but after only a bit of wandering we found it, and we got to watch the sun set over Monaco as we looked.  I’ve seen better sunsets overall, but it was still beautiful, and the fact that it was already paired with the unearthly beauty of the mountains and buildings and sea helped.

Just picked up things at the grocery store and had a powwow on the floor of our hostel room (which had a microwave) for dinner, taking turns showering.  It was a lovely, relaxing close to an AMAZING day. 

Actual travel time: 2.5 days

7:00am: Planned wake up time.

7:30am: Actual wake up time.

7:44am: Breakfast!

8:00am: Having made some friends with two Canadain boys (named Eric and Riley but referred to as “the Canadians) who are also stranded, set out together.

8:45am: Arrive at first metro station but it’s not running.  Hear line 4 is.

10:04am: Arrive at a line 4 station and hop on a train to Paris Nord.

10:30am: After waiting in line, learn trains are running again!  Get reservations for 11:55am train to Nice.  All dance and cheer in the station, then run for the metro.

10:44am: Perhaps because of strike, metro isn’t charging money. Amanda and I left behind.  Take next train: line 5 to Bastille, line 1 to Gare du Lyon.

11:34am: Arrive at Gare du Lyon.

11:55am: Schedule and Actual departe of train to Nice.

11:57am: Nap.

2:00pm: Studying for midterms, which begin Monday.

5:25pm: Actual arrival in Nice, France.  Dancing all the way to the hostel down the road.  Beautiful reception man and woman got married TODAY.  Thank them, then tell them Congratulations and to go home.

The hostel was simple but amazing for the 14euro a night it cost.  We wandered around Old Nice for a bit to find some place to eat and finally settled on a Chinese restaurant that insisted it was Thai food.  From there, we headed back to the room to get all dolled up for “Disco Butterfly,” a club Eric found online that was supposed to be free for the ladies.  Unfortunately, it no longer exists, so we wound up playing on the beach for a while and celebrating the fact that we FINALLY after TWO AND A HALF DAYS of travel made it to Nice.  Old Nice was quite nice (hahaha …), and even more fun at night, all lit up.  The moon reflected on the sea was beautiful; there were small groups of people all up and down the beach.  In a main square, boys were doing tricks on bikes.  It was a bit chilly, but overall not bad.  We finally returned to the hotel and fell into happy slumber a little after midnight.  And despite all the trauma endured so far, everyone is in good spirits and still like each other –which in and of itself is as miraculous as us actually making it to Nice despite the French railway strike.

Planned Departure/Arrival vs. Actual Departe/Not-Arrival

9:15pm: Scheduled meeting time at the sign-out desk

9:25pm: Actual meeting time at the sign-out desk

9:38pm: Wave our bus down on the side of the road

10:15pm: Amanda realizes she forgot her passport.  No time to go back.

11:04pm: Get on the train to Brussels (we thought)

11:58pm: Realize the train split, we were on the wrong train, are headed to Maastricht

12:11am: Arrive in Maastricht.  Trainstation is closing.  No more trains.

12:45am: Arrive at the hotel Stef stayed at in Maastricht; convince the receptionist to let us hang out and do homework in the lobby/sleep.

5:30am: Load up and make the 45minute walk back to the train station

7:08am: Scheduled arrival time of our train.

8:34am: Actual arrive time of our train.

9:20am: Actual departure of our train, after we were forced to change trains.

11:00isham: Arrive in Brussels, hear faint tell of the French National Rail strike but it doesn’t totally concern us because we’re taking a Thylis train, which isn’t part of the National Rail System.

12:30pm: Arrive in Paris.  No more trains running.  Are stranded.  Try everything before accepting we’re stuck. 

3:00pm: After two hours looking for a hostel/hotel with an empty room, find one and arrive.

4:00pm: Scheduled arrival time in Nice, France.  Not.

4:15pm: Allowed into the room.  Naptime!  All six of us crash.

5:30pm: Scheduled wake-up-from-naptime

7:30pm: Actual wake-up-from-naptime.  Go off in search of dinner.

We wound up eating at this cute pub, Froggy’s.  And in looking for a hotel, we wandered all around the neighborhoods around Montmarte, which was ironically enough the neighborhood I just four days ago said I wish I could have explored more.  We had fun at dinner; a big bowl of penne pasta for 5euro is a steal!  It was chilly, though, since we all brought shorts and tanks and whatnot for the warm beaches of Southern France. (Keep that in mind).  Got back to the hotel, which was actually quite amazing, especially for only 25euro a night.  Meant to do homework, but most of us just showered and went back to sleep.  By this time, we were supposed to have been in Nice for an entire evening.  The strike is scheduled to life in the morning, but rumours are circulating that it will continue.  Until then, no trains, no RER trams, no metro, no beaches.

Nous allons!

Well not yet.  In nine hours, after two classes and I pack, me and some lovely friends (Amanda, Bridget, Jessye, Stef, and Eric) will be off to Nice, France & Monaco for a wonderful getaway, which will include but not be limited to the beach, Grace Kelly’s grave, the Monte Carlo, and writing midterm papers, which are all due the day after we get back.  I’m sure great fun will be had be all involved.

So that said, we leave tonight and we’ll get back in the afternoon on Sunday IF everything goes according to plan.  Which hopefully it will.  So everyone have a wonderful weekend –I know I will!