Another boat trip day! This time with Lukas and Luke (who almost missed it and it was his idea!)
Then a pretty sane evening: picked up another Lukas at the hostel and went for some sushi, a few beers and then hanging out on the beach skipping stones and giving each other piggy backs haha 😀
Relatively early night, for us! And most of us are leaving tomorrow aaaargh, Nice has been the best time so far ?
Met my roommates last night and we went out food and a lot of drinks n dancing! We decided on hiring a boat the next day, little luck in getting a boat hook-up from random strangers!
We were out til about 05:30 argh!
In the morning, off for a ramble down to the marina–we were in luck, one small 5 person boat available ?. I volunteered to be captain, and here’s me without my captains hat.
We sailed around to Villefranche-sur-Mer, dropped anchor and swam in the Mediterranean sea; drinking wine & champagne, having a blast.
After a truly awesome day at sea, another night of food n mental drinks! Lukas and his bud Colin met up at with us.
Luke from the hostel came along too, a fellow North-Eastern lad from the UK ?
This morning the wonderful Liza scooped us up another member of the group, Bec from Australia 🙂
Also a slightly sad morning because Vlada is leaving us to go to her next destination!
The lot of us, plus Bec & Luke, walked over to Castle Hill. We were most of us pretty knackered so we took the lift up to the top and then walked down.
Bec volunteered to be navigator for the next party of the day, a trip to Menti or Eze. We ended up in Eze, mini bus to the very top then a long walk down to The village.
The restaurant near the top was great, I had swordfish for the first time and it was delicious.
We hiked a short way to to the bottom along the Nietzche trail; some of the crew were in flip-flops but at all made it in one piece haha! Then we headed down to the beach for a swim in the sea before we got the train back to Nice.
And yeah, no surprise, food and big drinks around town again. Lukas met up with us with a large crowd of (mostly) girls he met swimming and we partied the night away, as usual ?
First of all, the train yesterday ?! The carriage I was in had broken air-conditioning, so bloody hot until room was made in another one, sweated buckets. I was lucky, the young physics student (judging by his notebook notes) who sat next to me had a little fan he shared!
Didn’t get into the hostel until midnight so I just crashed out.
Today, the usual wandering the city and making a little map in my head and scouting places to visit. Weather is great so spent a few hours on the beach.
Found a place to place to go kayaking tomorrow morning, and my boy Lukas who I met in Paris is here so off out tomorrow on the vin!
About six hours of train travel today so nothing too interesting to report.
The weather in Annecy changes so fast, got caught in a torrential downpour in just my shorts & a vest! Soaked through, fun though.
Started reading Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy whilst on the trains, I can’t believe I missed these books of his; the first one was really good.
Oh man I wish I could stay here longer but they’re all booked up for the season! Huge thanks to Simon Gilby for recommending this place.
Spent the morning sailing, kayaking and abseiling down a canyon, the evening chilling in Annecy Hostel bar–amazing burger of the day, and I got a surprise free beer for trying all the local beers on the menu ?
I also played chess for the first time in over ten years, sadly against a street pro who was playing 6 simultaneouse games. He was great, well worth the optional tip.
A chill night, and for some reason the toddler of the lovely French couple next to me took a shining and came up to me every half hour to play strange toddler games consisting of making lots of random noise ? in sure his parents appreciated the distraction lol.
We stayed out super late last night in some bars and clubs in Paris, then hung out on the balcony at the hostel until around 6am. ?
Late start and trained over to Gare de Lyon, killing time at a laundromat until the long train to Annecy and then a reasonably early night once I landed here.
So it was bound to happen, lost my wallet last night ? bugger! Nothing in it really but a bank card + a little cash. Got spares anyway so it’s all good.
Trying to find an open phone shop (for a cable) without realising it was a public holiday arghh! Took a few hours but eventually found an open one.
Thank goodness for helpful little ladies in the ticket booths 🙂 almost got off at the wrong train halfway to Paris!
