July 16^th, 2012

Day 58: Monte Carlo, Monaco

After a rude awakening by some drunkards yelling and screaming in the train station (aka, our hotel for the night), we waited for our train to Monte Carlo at 5:14. It’s silly that a 20 minute train ride essentially took us 4.5 hours, but we finally made it to Monte Carlo around quarter to 6!

We made ourselves presentable in the train station bathroom at Monte Carlo (surrounded by sterling silver taps, wooden floors and a general air of opulence) and changed into our bathing suits. There was no way we were doing anything buy laying/sleeping on the beach all day. We spent a bit of time in the train station with a cappuccino waiting for the ticket booth to open up and finally, at around 7a, our wishes were granted. We got a train to Barcelona. Now, I’m not quite sure how or why no other country seemed to be able to see that there was clearly space on one of the connections to Barcelona that we’d been asking about (for the past week), but the wonderful man in Monaco saved our lives. Feeling quite relieved that we’d make it to Spain and forego any  more nights on the floors of train or bus stations, we gathered up our stuff and headed to the beach!

As soon as we walked out of the train station and down to the main road, our jaws dropped. Not only was the weather perfect, city clean and air fresh- there were harbors as far as the eye could see with nothing but multi-million dollar yachts and sailboats. Like the kinds you see in movies.. usually owned by drug lords. But hundreds of them. We walked along the marina following the signs to the beach continuously asking ourselves “where the f$*! are we” and “is this real life.” The water was crystal clear and stunningly blue (like my favorite crayon as a kid, Cerulean). The cars were all BMW, Mercedes and the occasional Rolls Royce. The marina walls were marble. You might get the picture now.

Anyway, we continued our walk along the water until we found the beach. The beach was covered in pebbles instead of sand, probably because rich people don’t want to get sandy. That, or to stop corrosion… I’m not really sure which. We spread our towels and tucked in for long day of nothing but relaxation.

Some additional notes about the beach: There were buoys marking how far you could go. Of course, you could swim past them to reach any one of the several floating docks that were out there, but what you couldn’t see unless you went all the way out there, was that under the buoys was a net. A net that extended down the bottom, keeping out any fish, floating debris and scary sharks. That’s an insurance policy for sure- Monte Carlo probably wouldn’t be so popular if they had any shark attacks. Additionally, at a few points during the day, Stephen and I saw a man on a jet ski driving slowly through the water past the buoys. There were two skimming nets sticking out of either side of the jet ski to collect any seaweed, dirt, floating wood, etc. from the ocean. From the ocean. It’s the ocean, people, not a pool.

Regardless, Stephen and I had a fantastic day soaking up the sun in Monaco. A perfect way to follow up a sleepless night on a  cold tile floor. At around 4 or so, we made our way back to the train station to find our way to Nice. The train was a short ride and only a few euro, and once in Nice, we navigated our way to the hostel we had booked.

This hostel was on the list of Europe’s Best Hostels and it definitely deserved that honor! It was absolutely gorgeous- with gardens, patios, a huge dining area, organized trips to go scuba diving, canyoning, on tours, etc. They made fresh meals that you could purchase every night for dinner, had a great selection at the bar, and the rooms were quite comfortable. The view from our room was incredible and we had trouble avoiding the question “is this a joke” when we thought about where we were.

It was a shame that we were only here for one night; I would have loved to spend some more time at the hostel and in the city! We relaxed at the hostel for the night, nursing our sunburns and relaxing. We’ve got an early train tomorrow to Montpellier with a connection to Barcelona!

Favorite part of the day: Monte Carlo beach. Breathtakingly gorgeous place and a great way to relax after non-stop travel.