How Nice, A Day in Pisa!

May 8

Our passage to Nice was a marathon. All of the direct trains to the coast were booked solid, so we were forced to change trains three times, in Bourges, Lyon, and Marseille respectively. But we made it in the end, reaching our hostel (the same one we stayed in in December) around 9:15 pm.


While Nice is admittedly absolutely gorgeous, if you're not interested in modern art or medieval ruins, there's not that much to do except lie on the beach. However, this is generally an agreeable alternative, so we lay on the stony shore for about three hours sleeping or watching French people and a few pasty tourists roast in the sun. My own pale British Isles skin, accustomed to the short days of Canadian winters and the rain of Yorkshire, couldn't take the heat. I have a new lobster-red sunburn to prove it.

We kind of meandered up the mountain (or huffed and puffed, actually) to see the view and then went back to the city centre for gelato before calling it a day. Unfortunately, we had to suddenly catch a night train to Pisa instead of a morning one (again, due to sold-out trains) and had to lose one night's payment at the hostel. But it was unavoidable, and on the bright side, we have an extra day in Pisa. It's been gorgeous weather, as well, so we're pretty consistently relaxed and enjoying ourselves :).

May 9

A night spent in a train compartment with strangers is never necessarily pleasant, but the faint hope of a few hours of sleep was dashed pretty early on when I realized I was in a different car than the others. There were four American girls in my compartment, thankfully, although the atmosphere went downhill shortly after midnight when the Italian conductor loudly charged them fifty euros each for different mistakes on their Eurail passes. It's too bad-- where most conductors would've given them a break, this guy fined them to the full extent.

Pisa seems to exist solely to support its most famous tilting, ineptly built medieval structure: the much-ogled Leaning Tower of Pisa. First of all, I agree with Bryan's immediate reaction to the bell tower; as we emerged from the mini-city of vendors clustered around the base, Bryan looked up at it and said, 'But I thought it was in a field.'


True, Bryan. So did I. But in fact, the tower's just the main attraction of an entire cathedral and baptistery, and leans only metres from the nearest street. The mass of tourists with raised arms and strained smiles, pretending to hold it up for the camera, however, make for another obstacle entirely. I can't criticize them, though... we did it too!

(Pete, breaking the illusion ;))

I fly home EARLY tomorrow morning back to Leeds. In an interesting twist (to me, at least), we can actually walk to Galileo Galilei Airport-- it's ten minutes from our hotel. What? That's amazing. And Bryan, Pete and Lisa have insisted on walking me there at 4 am, which I appreciate so much. I'll miss them a lot as they continue on their travels to Rome, where Pete flies home, and then Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.

We came, we saw, we conquered: I just had one of the best weeks of my life seeing some of the most beautiful countryside in the world, with three of the best travel-mates (and friends) I could ask for.


Have an amazing final two weeks, Bryan and Lisa!