Commence the worst travel day ever. I had a fever all night that night and I couldn’t stop coughing, and when we woke up at 4:30 on Tuesday to travel to Nice, I felt horrible. We had three train changes, and looking back on it, I am surprised I managed to be as coherent as I was. We were traveling for six hours, which included one long stop in a train station, and my luggage had somehow gotten heavier and overflowed into a big plastic bag I was now also lugging around, and it was awful. I did everything in a zombie-like state and I was so relieved to get to the hostel and collapse on my bed.
However, we were in the. Coolest. Hostel. Ever. It turned out to be the number-one hostel in France and one of the top ten in the world, which we didn’t know when we booked it! Our room was comfortable and the hostel itself was great. There was a huge common room with an upstairs loft and tons of computers, as well as a bar and a restaurant that served dinner! The surroundings were really pretty—it was on top of a hill—and they also led different excursions, like sailing, diving and rock-climbing. If I hadn’t been sick and I had had more funds, I would have loved to do one! I want to go back to Nice just so I can stay at this hostel again. Everyone working there was so much fun and we met some really nice people, too!
It was a good thing the hostel was so great because I ended up seeing a lot of it. We had three full days in Nice, and I spent all of them in bed with a fever and a horrible cough-- my cold got way worse. On the plus side, I got a lot of writing and reading done and I chatted with a few really nice girls who were also staying in our room. I also got to meet the hostel cat, No-No—she wandered into our room on the second day, circled the room, took one look at me and jumped up onto my bunk! She stayed there and snuggled with me all afternoon, which definitely made me feel better. And since the hostel had a restaurant, I didn’t have to miss out on going out to dinner with the girls, which was nice. Caroline met up with us on Wednesday night and it was great to see her!
On Friday I was feeling a bit better, so I went to the common hall to watch the royal wedding! It was cloudy and the other girls were tired, so they joined me, and it was so much fun. I hadn’t really been into William and Kate before I watched the wedding, but it was so sweet and so much fun to watch that we were pretty much obsessed afterwards. They served free tea and biscuits at the hostel and it provided very good entertainment.
That night, we decided to go out to dinner since it was our last night in Nice. This was my first view of Nice! Haha. We went to the old section of town, and it was really pretty. We found a delicious Italian restaurant and had a fun dinner. It was really nice to get out and hang out with Helen, Emily and Caro—finally!
The next day, we had almost the whole day before our train left. We headed to the Matisse museum in the morning, which was really fun! It was amazing to see how versatile Matisse was in his work. We also found a pretty park that had a maypole! I was really excited by that. Then we went back to collect our luggage, which we dragged with us to the beach. It was super windy and Nice has rocky rather than sandy beaches, but it was still nice to lay around by the ocean, which was quite pretty.
That afternoon, we got on our train to Dijon, which was a straight six-and-a-half hours! It got to feel quite long. By the time we were two hours away, our car had almost emptied and we were completely delirious. I never wanted to even look at a train again. We stumbled off and waited for a cab and finally we were home, travel-weary and tired, but completely content. We had the best break. I couldn’t have asked for anything better (well, aside from maybe not to get sick) or for better travel-mates, and it was just so much fun. I felt so lucky to be able to see these amazing parts of the world and experience all these different cultures. It was a much-needed respite from school, too, and definitely fulfilled my desire for adventure! I have to say I was really glad to come back to Dijon, and that was nice, too, because it kind of felt like home. :)
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