Nice, France 5/9/08

In the morning, I said goodbye to some of my roommates who all had to leave early to catch their trains to the next cities on their trip. One roommate was left from the original 7 I met last night; Mark from England. Mark was 19, and started his journey from Thailand, dropping down to Australia, and then up to some countries in Europe. Like me, his trip will last a total of 3 months with this being his last month, although he stopped home for a couple of days before entering Europe which is a luxury I never got. Also like me, his next city was Barcelona, and he'd found a train leaving tomorrow at 10:08am to take him their. I'd done some searching yesterday to find some sort of train coming out of France, but France seems not to like to do international trains, and so all I could find was the speculation of a train which leaves to another big city along the way which I might find a connecting train to the next, and so on. However, Mark found a train that only switches over once, and goes right through to Barcelona. I asked if he'd mind if I hopped on that train with him tomorrow, and he told me he didn't mind at all, so we set our alarms to go off at 8:30am tomorrow (to make sure we had enough time to get ready and across the street to the station).

It was pretty much business as usual out on the streets of Nice. I tried to hold off eating for as long as I could get away with it, as I did yesterday. I walked along the road, around the side of the big touristy hill to where the docks were. I'd seen several cool antique shops around there which were closed yesterday which I figured I'd go explore through now that the holiday was over. However, once I got there it was just passed noon. At noon in most places in Europe, everywhere shuts down for about 3 hours so that Europeans can go home, eat lunch, and catch a little nap before getting back to work for another 2 or 3 hours till it's time to close shop. The whole European work day seems to be about 5 hours long. It seems like a pretty good gig when compared to the 8 hour, overtime, and often double shifts we're accustomed to back in America. When I worked at Guitar Center, I would have loved to close shop for 3 hours in the middle of the day to go home and nap. Anyway, now I had about 3 hours to kill before I could continue my search.

I walked down to the harbor where I'd never seen so many yachts in all my life. The average boat seen sitting in the Nice docks had more net worth than a fully furnished Laguna Beach home. Some of these boats looked more like small cruise liners than personal sea faring vessels. They came equipped with all the usual bells and whistles: Deck chairs out on their newly finished deck, satellite TV with special home theater installation, full gym and exercise areas, built in bar with 24 hour staff, and a full-time crew waiting on your every command. You could sail the seas without ever leaving the comfort of your mansion.

If I had the kind of money these guys had to throw into their floating palaces, I don't think I'd buy something so modern. I'd buy a huge pirate ship, or a whole fleet of them, with several decks, and hidden compartments to hide treasures in. Each one of ships in my fleet would be fully equipped with an arsenal of cannons, which would be fired to signal the hour. Whenever my ships happened to pass each other in our quests for adventure, my crews would be forced to reenact epic sea battles and the winning side gets a bonus in their paycheck; a "spoils of war bonus". My home on the beach would be specially equipped with its own docks designed to house each ship, and crews of carpenters and craftsmen would go to work repairing the damage done from open sea combat, whenever my ships made port. I'd be the talk of every port I docked at. During special events, I'd lend my ships out to reenactment groups, or kids who just want to pretend to be pirates for a day. I think that's what I'd do if I had that kind of money.

When I'd circled around the harbor back to the beach, I decided to take my sister's advice and buy a mixed drink and sit out on the beach. I bought a super expensive margarita from a beachside cafe, and settled out in a place amongst the rocks. I asked two French girls in front of me what the night life situation was in Nice, and they told me of a night club just down around the corner from one of the big hotels. When 3pm rolled around, I headed back to some of the antique shops, and poked around for a bit. There wasn't much in terms of small trinkets, and compasses. Nice, it seems, is more into antique furniture and costly jewelry, which makes sense because it's certainly more of what the rich tourists around here would be looking for. Regardless, I love just walking through antique shops in foreign countries. Often times you find even cooler things there than in the museums, and it's free to browse. I also love the search for hidden treasures you're on when looking through a good antique shop. The barter system is always in full use, and when you find something spectacular, you know there's nothing else like it any place else. It's a museum where you can touch, and try and even take home the inventory.

When I could find no more shops, I hung around the gardens, and parks. I called some of my friends, just to talk to someone familiar, and gain some encouragement. I caught Brandon in the middle of class, but he still stepped outside and talked with me for a little bit which made me feel special. Then I walked back down to the beach, and called Jordan. The two of us had a good long conversation, and after having talked to some of my best friends, I felt so much better.

That night, Mark and I greeted our new roommates. There were 3 from Canada, an American from Chicago, and an Australian from Melbourne. A couple of them went down, and bought us a couple beers and we talked, and told stories until late into the night. At one point I felt the need to make the connection, just after VE-Day, that we were all the Allies sitting here in France having beers, just like our grandparents probably all did over 60 years ago. I thought it was an interesting coincidence, but the rest of them just stopped for a second and laughed at me.

Mark and I made sure our alarms were set, and told each other to make sure the other was awake and ready in time to catch our train tomorrow to Barcelona.
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