Monaco
One of the people I met on the first night was a German guy named Christian. He was keen to go to Monaco the next day, so we agreed to meet up and take a day trip.
Firstly though, I had to take care of the fact that I had nowhere to stay for the night. The hostel was booked out for Saturday and the Internet produced nothing. After quite a few tries I met success at a budget hotel for 35 euros. Not too bad in the scheme of things. Hostels in Western Europe are pretty expensive anyway, and I was going to enjoy having a room (and a decent large bed) to myself for at least one night.
When I met up with Christian, he’d already checked the train timetable and there was a train leaving in either 5 mins or an hour. One mad rush later, and we’re sitting on a stifling hot train to Monte Carlo. The trip is only about 20 minutes on the train, so it’s a great day trip from Nice.
We wandered around for a few hours, checking out the lay of the land. We went to the famous casino, and saw too many expensive cars for one afternoon. Then we wandered along some of the Formula one route, and around the famous harbour (I want a big boat now). The hill with the castle on it has plenty of spectacular views over Monaco in both directions along the coast.
I admit, I was impressed. I’d like to park my yacht there!
It was pretty tough being out in the sunshine looking over the meditteranean ocean, so we then had to go and find the cheapest looking eatery we could find for dinner. We made another trip up the hill to get the night-time view over Monaco, before catching a late train back to Nice. I went to bed exhausted this time.
Update: Photos!