A little Copenhagen and Nice

Hello Everyone!

Just got back from a whirlwind trip of Europe with Donnie and Kirk. As we said many time throughout the trip—it’s amazing what you can see in a limited amount of time. I feel like we did every city we visited justice by seeing the main sights and trying to get away from touristy areas for the some authentic food and a picture of what the city was really like.

I kept a journal on my trip as I have done on previous trips, it being ingrained in my head from my family, starting with my great-grandmother Helen (“Whenever you have the chance to travel you should take it, and make sure to keep a journal of what you do”).

So my next few blogs will essentially be my journal entries from along the trip with some pictures. On a side note my classes begin this week, and I’m trying to work all the logistics of what classes I will be taking etc. (There are more classes I want to take than time I have available so I need to choose, and figure out how to navigate this unorganized university).

Just a quick summary of the trip: Copenhagen-flight-Nice-train-Monaco-train-Florence-train-Venice-train-Interlaken/Gimmelwald-train-Milan-flight-Copenhagen.

Copenhagen

The first two days of our trip Donnie and Dad came to visit in Copenhagen and stay at my place. We checked out all the major sights and got a delicious, authentic Danish meal courtesy of Ole, and Anne Grethe.

We also stopped by Christiania which I had not been to yet. Definitely an interesting look at the other side of Copenhagen—it’s the hippie “free city” in Copenhagen, but relies on tourism as a major industry. We arrived around 7:30 pm to find Danish police already walking around the area, more common now that the state has been more critical of the town.

I snapped a few pictures of some awesome graffiti before noticing that there were “no camera” signs posted (a recurring theme throughout the trip…). Dad was also able to point out a marijuana plant that they just had growing out in the open (surprisingly, another recurring theme throughout the trip).

Nice

Ah, how I love traveling between EU countries. Got off the plane in the morning and just walked through the airport into Nice without any customs. With Rick Steves (famous travel guide author my grandmother strongly suggested, and now I am in full agreement, for good reason) as our guide, we were off.

We walked through the morning market seeing the usual fruits and vegetables, as well as more interesting things, such as more kinds of olives that I knew existed. We also stopped (as recommended by Rick) to get some homemade socca, which is basically like a pancake/crepe made out of chickpeas. The taste wasn’t as amazing as I was expecting judging by the line, but they were good, and it was great to see them being delivered by scooter, then cooked on a big metal barrel with fire in it right in front of you.

We spent more time walking through the Old Town of Nice, just past the market. We passed by the house where the socca was being made and scootered down to the market. We enjoyed the narrow streets and atmosphere before heading up “castle hill” (although there is no castle on it…) for an amazing view of the town from the top.

We were quite hot after this so we decided to go down to the perfectly cooling beach. It was quite nice except that the beach consisted of rocks the size of your fist—nearly impossible to lie down on without a thick towel.

After the beach it was off to the Chagall museum—our first of many. The museum only featured works of Chagall, who was a French, modern painter. It was definitely interesting seeing all the stuff he painted (he must have had weird dreams). Tons of the color blue and merged figures of people, animals, instruments, and houses. I wouldn’t go back, but not bad.

After an afternoon nap we headed down the boardwalk to Nice’s most fancy hotel—Hotel Negrasco. The hotel has its own free museum inside which was just a quick loop, but interesting. We left to go find diner somewhere else, as it ran around 90 euros a person at the hotel…

Had a nice 3-course dinner getting there way too early, around 6:30. The place was full by the time we finished around 9pm. I had to keep asking the waiter how exactly I was supposed to eat my food (is this bread and cheese for me just to eat or does it go in my soup, or is it for later???). Felt like the uncultured American, but it was fun and good.

After we explored the city a bit more and wound back around to where the market was being held earlier that day. The transformation of the area is absolutely amazing as the street which was filled with tables of vendors and fruits/vegetables/litter on the ground was now filled with cafés.

The place was absolutely packed with people on a Sunday night, and some were not even served by 11:30 when I made my last walk through to join Donnie and Dad back in the hostel to sleep.

We left Nice quite early the next morning, but we did have crepes for breakfast just outside our hostel. Being the adventuresome eater that I am (and assuming you can’t go wrong with a crepe), I ordered something I didn’t recognize. It turned out to be an orange liqueur (nothing like the taste of alcohol at 9 am!) crepe, and I jealously stared at Donnie as he ate his new favorite flavor of Nutella. About half-way through, after getting over the light alcohol taste, it actually was pretty good.

Next, on the train off to Monaco…

Here’s some pics of Nice: I did a few captions but didn’t edit any out so they might not all be too interesting:

Euro Trip - Nice