The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 21: Entering the Land of Wine and Crime (France--Nice, Avignon, Lyon)

Although this post covers 3 cities, i'm going to only spend more time on Avignon, but let's start wtih Nice.

Nice is not very nice. I mean, the view was good, and the weather was also good that day, but something happened that kinda ruined this trip for some group members.

View of Nice. There are a lot of boats at shore.

The main train station of Nice

We didn't have much time to tour Nice, but we managed to walk around after dinner (it wasn't dark yet.) There were many people walking around, and it was near the beach, so it was nice.

What's terrible happened in the very next day, during breakfast. We had breakfast in the hotel, so it was supposed to be safe, or so we thought. One of our member went to grab something to eat (it was like continental breakfast style) and left her bag on her chair. Her husband was right next to it. When she came back, she realized that the bag was gone. She asked around if anyone has seen it, but the result was discouraging. Her money, passport (and the husband's passport), and all her belonging were all in the bag. Now she has to get a passport before she could return to the US. At the point, we called the cop and report for theft, but the cop told us it's really hard to track these people down (yay, go cops! Way to go!) so we might have to expect for the worst.

Well, we already were. we asked for a copy of the report so that we can go to apply for passport later when we get to Paris. Seriously, not the best way to start a day.

We then went to Avignon, the Wind City. Yes, just like Chicago, Avignon has really strong wind. Unlike Chicago where wind is either blocked or generated by the many skyscrapers (yes, skyscrapers can block wind blowing high in the sky then push it downward to the ground. This is why the wind is always stronger under a skyscraper,) Avignon's wind is solely due to the location (near Mediterranean Sea) and the terrace (and nope, there's no skyscraper in Avignon.)

When we entered Avignon, the first thing we felt was the wind. It was REALLY strong. I weighed 165 lb and I felt like I was being blown away, literally. Sometimes you have to time your steps correctly, or the wind will blow you off balance. In fact, the wind is so strong that this happened.

Yes, it's a broken bridge.

This bridge was built, then destroyed by wind, then rebuilt, then destroyed by wind again. Eventually, the government was like "fuck it! we're not building that again!" And the bridge remains this way since.

The significance of Avignon came from the fact that Pope lived here for a while. Back then when there was as series of anti-pope movements, and the Pope was kicked out of Vatican. The pope came here for refuge, and lived (ruled) here for a while until he got transferred back toe the Holy City. This is why there are a lot of old buildings preserved for the historical value. The main plaza is surrounded by these buildings.

City wall.

Street

This is taken from main plaza. I think it's part of a church.

And this is where Pope lived.

The main plaza. It extends down the top right corner.

There were many people doing different things. I'm not sure why there are such varieties, but I've seen people playing music, dancing, eating, drinking, sight-seeing, reading, filming, and even painting. There are so many things happening in the little (okay, not that little) plaza. It was quite amazing, really.

I swear I only took this picture to show the filming set run by only three people.

When I go to a small town, I'd like to find a high point to take picture (Pisa, for example.) So I started climbing (again) and found a good spot.

City Plaza.

Clock tower far away.

Outside of the city. That's Rhone River there.

City.

Another

It was about lunch time when I finished, so I went down the street and found tons of restaurants there.

Restaurants everywhere.

Oh hi there!

I had this misconception that all French food is expensive, and there's no way you can get quality food without spending a lot. I was wrong. Food here is not expensive at all. I wouldn't say it is cheap, but it's definitely reasonable. I got the duck breast with sun dried tomato mayo and fries for a little more than 10 euro (about 13 bucks) Not bad. My friend got this pasta with meat sauce for 7 euros. They also served rabbit for about 10 euros, but we didn't get it.

Duck breast with sun dried tomato mayo. Good stuff.

Pasta with meat sauce.

When i went to the bathroom before going back to bus, I saw this right above the toilet.

Well, it was awkward.

Our trip to Avignon was short but sweet. The meal I had was probably the second best local meal on this trip (first being the one in Vienna, and I'm not counting the high class French cuisine, which we had later in Paris.)

Although the experience of that theft was not pleasant, I guess we can just look on the brighter side and say it's still a story to tell.

In the late afternoon, we entered Lyon, and it started raining. I tried going around, but it's really hard especially when I was sick. Some of our members went for the only Chinese restaurant there (I heard it was bad and expensive.) This is something I will rant about later in the conclusion post. I got this nice sandwich for 5 euros. Well, at this point I was so sick I thought my tasting buds were not working. This sandwich looked very flavorful, but I barely tasted anything.

Statue of Louis the XIV

Main plaza where the statue is located.

I like how they have red and green on each side.

Rhone River. I wish the weather was good.

After dinner, I walked on the main street where a lot of famous department stores are located (Printemps, Lafayette, whatever.) Since I was a poor guy who didn't have a job and wouldn't want to spend 100 euros on one single piece of clothing, I decided to just find a chair and sit. Guess what? I wasn't the only one having this idea. It was raining outside, so we couldn't walk around. The second best option would be sitting in a coffee shop or a department store (I tried going to a Starbucks there, but the only seat that was open was actually taken by someone else, thus generating a conversation between me and this person. Well, not exactly a conversation. More like 2 lines of me saying "I don't speak French" in French, something I already forgot how to say, and this person telling me the seat was taken.)

But finally, the rain stopped. I got a little time left before going back to the shuttle.

Street View

Pretty nice when it wasn't raining.

I don't understand why they built this at the middle of the road without
any fence or whatever to block it off. Almost walked into this......

Shit is so expensive here.......

Well, I finished 3 cities in one post. Not bad. We spent 2 days in Paris, so the post(s) will be longer. Probably will take at least 2 posts to finish the Paris trip (our last!)

Next stop: Paris, France

The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 20: Grand Prix (Monaco--Monte Carlo)

After Italy, we actually entered France first. However, that was not our destination. After another 10 minute drive, we entered Monaco, 2nd smallest country in this world. Monaco only has 4(?) cities (which is actually too many, in my opinion.) Since it's just a small corner in France, they don't really have their own military, and they still have a king who rules. No matter, no one really wants to attack this place anyway. In fact, many want to live here because there's no income tax (which explains all those rich people and casino here.)

The drive there was horrible. WE had to get up to the mountains and then get down to the coast. The pressure change was killing me (nasal congestion was bad......) At one point I heard air coming out of my ears (and it fucking hurt)

When we arrived, it was 3 days before the Grand Prix event here, so majority of roads are blocked off. Luckily, we found a way to take public transportation to get to Monte Carlo. It was a very nice day (almost too hot, even for a sick me.)

View of Monaco from the mountain.

This picture kinda shows the life in Monaco and who live here.

Fancy houses and hotels everywhere.

Monte Carlo Casino

You know how rich people here are? ALL these cars are more expensive than my house, most likely. Ferrari? There are plenty. Porsche? Well we've got a lot here, too. BMW? Sorry, bro, your car is not cool enough. Lamborghini? Sure, we got some as well.

Let's talk about bags. According to one of our members in the groups, she has seen nothing cheaper than a Prada (for what she could recognize). All women here carry some kind of name brand.

Want another sign? How about short, fat men having tall, beautiful, model-status dates. Well, now we're talking! Money sure can do a lot of things.

Seats on top of the building.

Sun Casino

Fairmont Hairpin

I can imagine cars going by and making the zoom~ sound.

I have no idea where I was.

I started walking from the Monte Carlo Casino, and I took the first path I found down to the beach. For a while I really had no idea where I was. I just kept walking towards the beach. It was a nice walk, not talking to anyone, not needing to worry about time, just a peaceful walk. The beautiful view only adds to the greatness.

There are a lot of foot prints

Eventually I got to the beach and then realized it was a nude beach. And yes, there were some nice boobs, although most of them are saggy....... Anyway, the beach itself isn't good, in my opinion. It doesn't have the white, silky sand. Instead, it's more of a beach formed of tiny rocks that cannot be called sand just yet. Some people were playing volleyball on the beach, but most of them were just lying there chilling. There were several bars/restaurants around the beach. They charge you a lot of a cup of water.......

One of the bars at the beach. Behind is the beach.

I didn't take photos at the beach because, well, it's rude. This picture is the only one I took at the beach, and you can't really see any body behind all these umbrellas. I did manage to capture some photos of the statues around the beach. Some are cool while others just look hilarious.

"So chill~~~"

"I can play some Frisbee with you"

People busy building a new deck. For what, though?

After sitting there for a while (while blowing my nose,) I returned to the casino to meet up with others. There were so many fat men with beautiful ladies there. Damn it! It's another reason to want to be rich.

This is a bad photo because I didn't want to be a creeper (I know it's still creepy)
but I meant to take a picture of the woman in blue dress. She's pretty hot.

It was a short but interesting stay at Monte Carlo, especially when there was an event going on. I like how we found a way to get into the city even though they didn't allow private transportation.

We stayed in Nice for a night, and some crazy thing happened. I'll talk about it in next post. 

I realized that my post has been shorter and shorter. Well, I guess people are only interested in photos anyway. I bet no one will even read this line so.... PENIS!!!!!!!! Yes I'm 25.

Next stop: Nice, Avignon, and Lyon, France

The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 19: Tower Defense (Italy--Pisa)

Pisa, Monaco, Lyon, Avignon, and Paris......that's 5 more (well, 4-6 depends on how I wanna combine some of the cities) posts. I hope I can finish this before I leave for NY.

Pisa is actually not a big town. within the ancient city wall, there are only several buildings. Of course there are more outside of the wall, but those were not what Pisa is known for. The thing Pisa is known for is, of course, the leaning tower.

The entrance of the city (within the wall)

They have interesting vendor shops.

The gate

We entered the city pretty early, so there weren't many tourists at that point. However, the first thing people do when they see the tower is to pretend they are holding the tower......

And there it is! The Duomo (the baptistery, the church, and the dome).
The tower is the clock tower of the church.

Interesting how they have different colors
for the roof.

The church.

And the compilation of picture of holding tower begins.

The gentle hold. Not sure what's going on with this
guy's shirt......

The upside down hold.

The "my leg is stronger" hold.

The "trying very hard" hold.

The "team work" hold.

The "I'm fat but I'm capable" hold.

And of course my failed attempt.

The magnificent tower.

The history of the tower is simple: They built this tower using marble because marble is beautiful, but they did not realize that the ground is not solid enough to support all the weight from the tower, thus the tower started sinking on one side. There were multiple effort to restore the uprightness of the tower, but all failed or not doing much. The most deviation it was from the center was 5.5 degrees. Now they actually found a way to make it upright again. instead of sticking bunch of metal bars under the sinking side to lift it up, they decided to drill the other side to make other side sink as well. Yes, they can actually make it straight, but, come on, why would you do that since it's been famous being slanted? They managed to make it sink enough to form a 4 degree angle. 

They try to control the weight added by people by charging for the entry (duh! and it's hella expensive!) and restrict the number of people on top at an instance. Like I said earlier, we arrived early, so the line for getting up the tower wasn't long. Therefore we all went up!

It's slanted enough to see in naked eyes.

Inside the tower, looking up.

Description, and I don't know that person.

Climbing......I do a lot of climbing on this trip......
and sorry for the bad picture.

Seeing the church from top of the tower.

Top is guarded by fence. 

Remember it's a bell tower? There are actually more
than one bell.

One famous person is associated with the tower: Galileo. He dropped some shit down the tower and proved that the speed and time it takes to reach the bottom is independent with the mass of the object. It was so historical and revolutionary for the field of physics, even the field of......world! It's such an honor standing at the same spot as him where he dropped those objects.

View of the city outside the wall from the tower.

 

More and more tourists showed up.

The spiral stairs, pretty hard to climb.

It's an honor being at the spot shit was dropped.

Throughout this trip, I got to relive the same experience great people have lived, real or imaginative. Whether it's Galileo,  Mozart, or even Ezio. I guess this is my biggest gain from this trip.

I'm gonna end this post here. Short, I know, but I guess it's good enough to finish the trip in Italy. Definitely visiting again!

Next stop: Monte Carlo, Monaco.