So today we had a bit of a drive again, leaving the French countryside for the French Riviera. Sometime in the afternoon we arrived at Cannes where they have the annual film festival. We were all ready for the beach and staked out a spot pretty quickly. I needed to find a place to change, so I went to this public toilet across the street. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Once you pay to go in, this door opens all futuristically and you get and do your stuff. When you leave, the door shuts automatically behind you and water jets spray the entire thing, including all the walls and the ceiling! How insane is that? It was really clean, but also really wet, so that was kind of annoying. Plus it took forever. If you were in a hurry to pee, you just had to wait for it to clean after every single person (if you tried to hold the door open to have the next person use it for free, it would get you all wet. haha). So, after that debaucle, I headed to the beach with everyone else.
This picture makes it look like it was a rocky beach (like some of the other French beaches are), but it was sandy on the other side of these rocks, which is where we were hanging out. It was a topless beach, so all the guys were pretty happy about that. So typical. Whatever. The water was really nice and we just floated around for a while and ended up talking to some girl from Australia who was just there traveling on her own.
When we'd had enough of the beach, some of us (me, Paul, Vanessa, and Tash) headed into town to get some postcards and some food. We walked over to where they have the film festival and saw the stars' hand prints and all that. It wasn't that exciting for me since I've been to Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and growing up in LA you get really jaded about all that celebrity stuff.
Then we went searching for food. We were starving. All that swimming I suppose. We were running out of time, so we needed something quick. And then we saw it: McDonald's. Now, I would just like to say for the record that I was hoping to not go to McDonald's (or Macca's as the Aussies call it) at all during my time abroad. However, I am sad to say, that this was not the only time I visited the golden arches. They have clean bathrooms and I know what I am ordering. It's sad but true. So anyway, we went in and I ordered a Royal Cheese (not Royale with Cheese as Pulp Fiction will have you believe). Interestingly enough, it was one of the best fast food hamburgers I have ever had. And I don't think it was because I was so hungry (although that was probably part of it). It was much better than any McDonald's here in the states.
We had to wait a bit in line, so once we got our food, we practically ran to the bus because we were actually a bit later than we expected. We got there with one minute to spare (go us!). After Dave and Jase left one of the Koreans at the hotel in Paris on the first day, we all got the message that we need to be on time. No one was late again.
Then we headed to the place we were staying in Antibes which is another beach town about half an hour away. The campsite there was pretty nice, although it was our first experience with the push button showers. Later on, we would wish we had these again, but at the time it was annoying that we could only get water for 15 seconds at a time. We had dinner at the campsite and then got all dressed up to go to Monaco.
Monaco is a separate country, but it's so small that it seems like just another city. We got into Monte Carlo and drove around a bit before stopping to see the sights. The view was really cool. There were lots of huge yachts and boats and other really expensive things. We saw the royal palace and the church where Grace Kelly married that prince and then headed over to the casinos.
Jase showed us the Grand Casino and informed us that it cost like 10 euro to get in, so we said forget that and followed him down the road to the one that was free. I only gambled 5 euro (on the slot machines) and was up to 9 at one point, but then lost it. I kept 1 euro token as a souvenir. It was fun to watch some of the other people playing roulette and black jack. Some of them were doing pretty well for a while. Some people were thirsty and actually paid like 6 euro for a coke. Aaahh! That is ridiculous.
Back at the campsite, we hung out for a little while at the bar (as we did every night), but I don't think anyone stayed out too late.
next day...
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