Well, since I just had my birthday (25 now, gulp) and had to celebrate it alone (at a club, anyway), I decided I would add a little class to my travels. So I made a trip to the Cote d'Azur on the French Riviera, and then spent a night gambling at Monte Carlo. I must say, not bad.
Cote d' Azur means blue coast. It totally earns it's name. The sea on the coast is soooo clear. Just crystal blue. It was awesome. The first day I checked into my hotel and dropped my stuff off in my room. It was basically a dump, but it was kind of a cool dump. Then I bummed around a little, and then went to a club that a local from New York told me about. Then I met some Australians (man, they're everywhere!) and danced till 1AM on a table with a bunch of other young people from all over. It was fun, but really hot and humid.
The next day I took a train to Antibes, a nearby city. The cool thing about the cote d'azur, is you just start at one end near San Tropez, and then work your way towards Monaco hitting a new beach city everyday. It would be a great way to spend two or three weeks. Anyway, Antibes was nice, but not the best around if you are traveling alone, cuz it's just big groups of people everywhere. Normally I dig traveling alone, but this was one day it would have been more fun with people. Then a few hours later, I put on my discman, listened to the soundtrack to The Beach and was totally cool. Music is so key while traveling. (BTW, the book The Beach is awesome!) Well, I had brought my rollerblades along hoping to skate along the coast, but the sidewalk is made for walking, but isn't smooth at all. I took them off after 5 minutes. Nice was the only city made for bikes and skaters. So I ended up walking around carrying my rollerblades in a plastic bag for 12 hours (plastic bags frickin' hurt after a while). Then as I was heading home I stumbled onto a large row of pubs and three hours later I realized I needed to hurry up and catch the last train back to Nice (at 1AM). While I was waiting I started talking to this kiwi who worked on a billionaire's boat in Monaco. He said the pay was really good. Tax free, because the only information anyone could get about the funds transfer was "legitimate source". Pretty cool. Also, all his food was paid for and he lived on the boat. No expenses. $5K a month in the pocket. Dang. But he said at times it was like being a personal servant. But it was interesting to hear about it all.
The next day I went to Cap d'Ail (pronounced cap die), which is the stop right before Monaco. This city was so pretty. Apparently it's a big vacation spot for lot's of Italians. No questions why. It's just beautiful. I went beach hopping again this day. Started at one end of a path along the coast and worked (hah!) my way back. It was so pretty and there were really neat challets or chateaus (I don't know which, I can only pronounce French, not understand it) all along the coast. I had been gagging for Cali weather for so long, that I just stopped every half hour and sat or swam or was lazy or took pics. I was in heaven. (German weather is not exactly tropical.) Then when I got to the other end, I walked up the hill a bit and wandered in between the buildings back to the bus stop. Man, if I owned a house in Cap d'Ail, I would probably lay down one day and never get up. Aaaaaahhhh. Probably not cheap, I'm thinking. Then I took the train back to Monaco (I had checked into my hotel earlier that morning) and got ready for...the casino.
So got all slicked up and put on my Hugo Boss suit. Sweet. Then I went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. Now normally I'm dressed like a bum while traveling, so when I showed up in my suit, I got considerably better service. Hmmph. Well, I'm not gonna go around in a suit all the time now, but it was still pretty nice. Then I went to the Casino.
Well, it was pretty cool, but admittedly not the mind-blowing thing I expected. It was pretty classy. Actually the whole surrounding area was neat. The down side the private rooms, where the have blackjack and other games, were closed during summer, so the only thing I could do was Roulette. Never did roulette before, but after losing $300 on it I decided I don't like it. The drag about roulette is you can't use the slightest amount of intelligence or strategy. You just decide what odds you want to bet at, like 1:36 for a number, 1:2 for red/black, etc. Then you wait till the ball stops and either take your money or lose it. (I, personally had a more, um...passive role--watching them take my chips). There were two funny things though. The first happened when I sat down at a table. Well, most of the people seem to stand around the tables, I don't know why, they just do. Well, after a few roles, I sat down and then all of a sudden people starting watching me gamble (which is kind of funny cuz I was betting like $10 at a time compared some people dropping $100 on several numbers per roll). So I was trying to figure out why they were watching me, then I figured it out. The people standing looked more animated, where as because I was sitting I looked less interested in the whole affair. And I assume this made them think I knew something they didn't. I was really amused when I figured this out. The other funny thing was this old guy sittin' next to me who had some sort of counting card to keep track of the number of times each number appeared. So he was doing this for about an hour (despite a few jokes from the guy working, cuz he wasn't betting). Then all of sudden, he lays down one 50F chip (the smallest you could bet), and says in this really ominous voice "Twenty-four" (in English, so he wasn't Italian or French, and he wasn't a native English speaker). When I heard the seriousness in his voice I considered betting on 24 as well, then I thought, nah, he's probably just some weird guy. Well, 13 bets on 24 later (each with the same ominous voice), he won. Then he left. Hmmm, 13 bets to win once, after counting for one hour. He could have picked any stupid number! It was kind of funny.
Well, around 1:30 I left and wandered around outside and just took it all in. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but that was a good reason to go too. Some experiences fulfill your dreams, others dispel them. This did both. Then because it was such a nice night I walked home and just marveled at Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo, the city of "Jesus Christ, who owns that thing?!"
The next day, Sunday, I just wandered around Monaco. It was a cool city. Lot's of people say you can skip going to Monaco, but I think if you're visiting the Cote d'Azur, you should save a day (and a night) for Monaco and the casino. It's an interesting place. The best thing about Monaco? Stars'n'Bars, an American restaurant with really good, really big American and Mexican food! I hadn't had Mexican food in ages! I was a total pig, and then I had a banana split. Oh god. I walked off bloated, but so happy. Ahhh. Then I hopped on the train back to Nice and then flew back to Dusseldorf. Happy bday, M. Not bad.
Naturally it was raining when I got back, and I was wearing swimshorts and a tank top. So I got soaked. But I was content. And of course, now I'm sick. Of course.
Well, that's it for now. Next week, gotta go to London for training, so I'm gonna stay the weekend before and after and check things out. London's fun, but it's still more expensive than Monaco.
One last thing I just thought of. The narrator in the The Beach makes a really point at one part. He says something like. "The thing about travel, is it doesn't require any build up. Don't talk about going to Borneo. Just buy a ticket, pack your stuff, and then you're there. Simple." I think, personally, I would add, buy a travel book, but basically the point is right. Just decide where you're gonna go, then go. Okay, if it's all new to you, you'll have some down times cuz you didn't know, but no worries. This is exactly what I did for my Monaco trip. I decided to do it during my Venice trip. So when I got back, I walked into a travel agency, booked a ticket, pulled out my LP Western Europe and booked a hotel in Nice and Monaco, and then I waited. Three weeks later it was time to go. I threw my stuff together, got on the plane, and then a few hours later I found myself looking around thinking, well shit, now I'm on the Cote d'Azur. How did this happen? It was only a three day trip. I just worked my company holidays in June so I could use them later for 3 days weekends. And I took a late afternoon flight. 3 days, not heaps, but more than nothing. Definitely.
So go.