A Day in Nice Part 2

So having given this blog a second thought... I think I've decided to just write it in the first person afterall. Mainly because it doesn't feel personal enough for me. I know I barely gave the story of Autumn Lane a day... but it's okay, she had a fulfilling first day.

Since I'm a little behind on this blog, I'll try my best to quickly summarize the events of my first two days. It's been pretty fun so far... a few mishaps here and there but overall a good experience.

After a long day of traveling, I arrived in Nice around 5pm. I was extremely exhausted and ready to pass out. I had to figure out how to get to my hostel. I knew I had to take bus 23 from the terminal, but finding the stop was more challenging than I thought. As soon as I stepped off the plane, my language barrier fears were coming back to me. I remembered the very basic words like bonjour and merci but how do you say "Where's the bus stop?" or "I'm lost, where's Rue St. Gaussier?" I guess at that point trying to keep my American status lowkey wasn't much of an option. I repeatedly told myself "Okay, you can do this." Luckily I did.

After finally getting on the bus, I went straight up to the driver and said "St. Maruice?" he kindly nodded and said Oui. I gave myself a sweet, high five for getting on the right bus. The ride itself took about 45 mins, and as promised the driver let me know right away. As soon as I got off, then I asked myself "now what?" I looked at my directions and that was it. I had no clue what to do next. All I had was the address and figured it must've been close, so I approached a French gay couple and asked for help. After a lot of pointing and some very poor translation, they pulled out a map and showed me where I needed to go. It was six blocks away. Now with my heavy ass backpack this trek wasn't fun. After walking four blocks I was lost. I mentally tallied my first unsuccessful trek and marked it as "Lost in Europe #1." And if any of you know me well enough, you know I'll probably be at #552 but the end of this trip.

I gave up and called the number of the hostel instead. I would have been so proud if I found it on my own, but even I know when it's a lost cause. To my surprise a native English speaker was on the line. I told him I was lost and he told me to go back to the stop and wait for them. Was I pissed I had just walked four blocks with heavy luggage? Of course... but at least I wouldn't be lost anymore. All I wanted at that point was some sleep.

The girl who picked me up was a tall blond Australian girl who was working there for the summer. Apparently, Australian kids tend to travel for long extended trips after finishing school... their trips average 1-2 years long! Geez... and why don't we do that in America?
When I arrived at the hostel, I was amazed at the international diversity of it. I don't think a single French person was working at that hostel. They were from Australia, New Zeland, the U.S.- anywhere but France, go figure!

My room was a large female room with 14 beds. I was expecting it to be extremely cramped, but it was surprisingly cozy. The rooms contained seven bunk beds, two bath rooms, and one shower room with four showers. The girls were sweet, six from Korea, one from Canada, two from Scotland and 1 from Colorado.

Then I went to their common area, and again I was quite impressed. It was basically a large two-story room with free internet on the first floor and a bar with live music (pianist and trumpet player) on the second. It was very hip, with so many foreigners gathered in one place. Not surprisigly, the language of the hour seemed to be English, so I was pretty comfortable.
After an hour of surfing I decided to call it a night. When I got to the room, the fire alarm in our room was leaking water from the rain... strike one. I finally fell asleep, but suddenly at 3:30am the alarm went off, waking up all the girls in the room... strike two. I was hoping there wouldn't be a strike three... thank goodness there wasn't.

Overall I give this hostel an A- for the free towels, decent beds, and trendy environment. Oh and the breakfast was pretty good. All this for $22 - not a bad deal.

Night one accomplished! Whew!