Thurs. 09-13-07 -- Nice, France and Monaco
Got up in time to make the roughly 30 minute walk to the harbor to get there by 9am. We stopped by a farmers' market to buy some fruit for breakfast (you guessed it, bananas!) We checked in at the SCUBA shop and they gave us our gear. The wetsuits were 5 mil and had hoods, so this wasn't Maui temperatures we're dealing with! We got on the boat and cruised out quite a way on the Med. Sea.
Soon enough we were in the water and exploring a dive spot they called 'coral cave.' The water was nice and clear (and not too cold for me) and we saw lots of cool stuff. There was some sort of sea grass covering most of the ground where we descended. The fish were less colorful than Maui, but there were plenty to look at and a few really cool ones like these tiny baby fish that were electric blue.
We made our way to the coral cave and went in a bit under the overhang. The guide shone his light up at the ceiling and the whole thing was covered in this very red coral. We stayed under for 48 minutes with a max depth of 18 meters, and saw: a bright red sea star, lots of interesting plants, an urchin that we picked up and it suctioned to our hand, and a few large schools of fish.
When we got out, they served us this interesting anise flavored liquor mixed with water that is apparently very typical in this region. One of the French guys we were diving with talked to us the whole boat ride back. He was pretty cool, he learned English by living in New York for 3.5 years.
Once we were back, we went back to our hotel to take showers. Once we were cleaned up, we spent some time planning our next few days of travel, then walked to the train station to buy our tickets to Monterosso (the north most town of Cinque Terre aka the Italian Riviera). The tickets were only 52 euro so we decided not to use a travel day on our pass, and we just paid the cash for the tickets.
With tomorrow's travel plans squared away, we walked toward the bus station to hop a bus to Monaco! We hadn't had lunch yet and we were running a bit late, so we stopped by McDonald's for a quick lunch. The bus ride to Monaco only cost 1.30 euro per person, and was a nice drive in the coastal cliffs along the Med. Sea. It took maybe 30 minutes to get there, and we exited the bus onto the soil of the 4th European country we've visited!
We hiked up this very long and wide walkway/stairway to the Prince's Palace. There were great views of the coastline from up there! We walked around a bit and went into the cathedral where we saw Princess Grace's (aka Grace Kelly's) tomb. We continued along the hillside and walked through a cool botanical garden before making our way down the hill. We needed to get change for our bus ride back, so Kara bought Toblerone and Coke and I bought a Cuban cigar. We rode the bus back to Nice, then hung out at the beach while I smoked my Cubano.
It was getting to be dinnertime, so we headed back and stopped at the store. This time we bought a can of ratatouille, penne pasta, pesto sauce, and a baguette. I cooked tonight, so I served dinner in courses! I heated up the ratatouille while the water warmed for the pasta. We enjoyed our Provencal first course while our Italian 2nd course cooked. Then the penne pesto was ready and it was quite good. I cooked WAY TOO MUCH pasta, so we bagged it in a ziplock and figured we could eat it cold on the train tomorrow for lunch! After dinner we cleaned up our mess of a room and then I walked down to the internet cafe to use the computer for an hour. Nice has been nice, pretty relaxing but with just enough to keep us a little busy. Next stop Cinque Terre and we're showing up without a room reservation! Eek!
