Nice is Nice

I heard several people today comment that Nice is Nice without realizing the pun debacle they had just partaken in. Because it's true. Nice IS Nice.

I hung around with a couple from New York all day today since we were pretty much planning on doing the same things. They (Brendan and Meghan) were a lot of fun and we had a good time. We strolled down to the beach, stopping occasionally on the way to look at old Nice or pick up a Strawberry tart or other French dessert. The beach, as I'd warned them in attempting to convince them to come to Cannes, was all rocks, but it really isn't that bad and you only end up with salt all over you, not sand. :)

We sat on the beach from around 11 until 3 which was more than enough. In fact, judging by the red-factor, is was even too much. But the water was warm and swimming was nice, and, well, the weather was perfect. We grabbed a bit at an out of the way cafe, and sat in a plaza for over an hour, believe it or not, watching some kids play soccer, do bike tricks, and, mostly, skateboarding. There were 20-somethings down to 14 year olds doing it, but there was this one kid we just kept watching. He consistently landed EVERYthing and was better than all the rest of them put together. I don't follow skateboarding, but I can tell you this kid was GOOD. Good enough to hold our collective interest for an hour and a half, but still very modest. I had to get a picture of him. Maybe he'll be the next Tony Hawk or something, who knows. In any case, it was nice to sit and relax in the shade and watch the locals passing the afternoon.

There wasn't much left to the day. We went to the grocery store and pickde up some snacks for our prospective train trips, and also spent an hour or so in a Virgin store where I did my best to preach the indie word and chatted with some guy from Virginia who was starting to get into indie music about what he HAD to listen to. Then they left on their train and I booked my ticket for tomorrow morning, went to the hostel and chatted with Jack, who informed me the steak was a really great deal, and ate, well, steak. For 8 Euros I got a really nice steak in a peppercorn sauce, a couple glasses of some regional red wine, and fries. Yum!

I visited with two sisters and one of their boyfriends (incidentally, I learned from a really friendly french girl on the train to Nice that the French word for boy or girl friend is petite ami or little friend, which I found quite funny) from Mexico for awhile that I had met in the morning and called it a night. I didn't want to sleep in for two trains in a row!

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