looking down on Nice
I would like to dispute all those people out there who say Nice is nice. Which is quite disappointing, because "the French Riviera" sounds so enticing. Now let me explain why…
I arrived in Nice on Wednesday night, and the flashing neon lights & gaudy Chinese restaurants & lit-up palm trees were all something of a sudden shock transition from the untouched beauty of the Swiss Alps.
Now there is apparently a really great hostel just out of the city centre, which I would've loved to stay at, except as it was dark when I arrived, I didn't really want to navigate buses & bus-stops & my hurriedly scribbled map.
hanging out on the beach
So I went for the HI hostel not far from the station - it at least confirmed my opinion that Hostelling International hostels in Europe generally suck. It was fine really - the usual HI slightly sterile, no real lounge area, all fairly basic - but it seems that all the other people staying there were slightly crazy. I did talk to one normal American guy over breakfast, but otherwise there were strange-looking older people who seemingly lived there. The first night there was a woman in my room who just kept muttering the whole time, then the second night there was a woman who talked at me for close to an hour about how terrible France is & it's completely lawless & had ruined her life & she wished she never came - and then she moved on to multiple other topics without appearing to draw breath. I even stood for about 20mins holding the door open, as I was trying to leave, but she just didn't stop. Then this morning the muttering madlady checked back in to the room at about 7am. I basically couldn't get out of there fast enough, and spent my whole train trip out of there feeling very agitated.
Anyway, Nice itself was nice enough, I guess.
Nice by night
I spent my day there wandering along the beach & up on the scenic little hill above the city, and lay on the beach for a while soaking up some sun & listening to the Mediterranean wash over the pebbles. Then I visited the Musee d'Art moderne et d'Art contemporain, which had some very interesting pieces (including an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art, which slightly disoriented me) AND it was only €4 entry, which is a vast improvement on the €10-13 for all the museums in Italy.
So maybe if I'd stayed somewhere else, I wouldn't have found Nice quite so offensive, but in the end it's just not my kind of town. I need to remind myself that I don't like flashy resort towns, filled with neon lights and hotels lining the beach. In fact why does anybody like that? Give me mountains, or a more natural beach any day (suddenly I want to go back to Switzerland. Or Vermont. Or Prince Edward Island. Or Apollo Bay).
