Nice Part 2

Hey Everybody,

Though it's cliché and silly, Nice is nice... I have been waiting to say that for a long time.

Nice is a city on the French Riviera that has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Imagine a playground for rich people. The only industry that I have seen is tourism. Throughout my 4 days here, I have not noticed any buildings for Fortune 500 companies. It seems that the only real shops are small boutiques that charge you a pretty penny for anything. Most are retail, but some are small cafes.

There is an old part of the city that has random paths that go to small shops that all lead back to the main church of the city. Shockingly, Nice (like everywhere else) has a huge church in the middle of it.

By this point, I have seen Jesus in a variety of positions, as well as a variety of ages. Baby Jesus, Old Jesus, Dead Jesus, Jesus healing someone, Someone healing Jesus. I like to think of Homer from the Simpsons when talking about Jesus.

"I dont even believe in Jebus!!"

Nice doesnt have houses, one can think of it more as a chateau or castles that overlook the beach.

I am staying in a hostel right now that used to be a Monastery. Unfortunately, it is unbelievably hot and there is no AC. On top of that, my room doesnt have windows, so we leave the door open for some type of ventilation. But, my mantra is that I cant complain, I am in Europe. I have also been reading about the heatwave on the east coast... does not sound fun. Plus, the bar has 1 euro beers... beat that.

For the first two days I went to the beach. The beach is famous for two reasons. A. its topless (and generally speaking, people seem to care more about their bodies then they did in Barcelona) and B. The beach is totally made out of rocks. The only sand I saw was brought in to make a volleyball court. This made tanning kind of hard, because you had to constantly switch your position, and move rocks away from your towel.

The water was very salty and very green. As of now I have touched 3 oceans. Atlantic (Jersey shore baby!), Pacific (I ran to the beach when I was like 7 or 8 in the middle of the winter when my family visited California... it was freezing) and now the Mediterranean. I have also now been stung by jelly fish in two oceans.

Today, I went to Monaco.

This was my James Bond day.

My name is Gorman, Zachary Gorman... Unfortunately I couldnt find a place where I could order a martini... "Shaken, not stirred"... cheesy, I know

I did bring a change of clothes purposely because I had been told that there is some type of dress code at the Monte Carlo Casino.

The casino cost 10 Euro to go in, and it was well worth it. It wasnt as big as one would think. There was one room that was absolutely breath taking. Gold all around the place. Tres Cool.

There was a roulette table that had a minimum 1000 euro bet. With a maximum of 30000... WOW

I was expecting some type of poker room, but for some odd reason they dont have one... I imagine if I were to prove my net worth (probably somewhere around $4 at this point in life) and it were to be great enough, they would put me in a poker room.

I ended up at a different casino, and lost 50 bucks playing a slot machine. And yes, I know that the probability of losing your money is pretty high on a slot machine, it was just that the poker room didnt open till 5, and I didnt want to wait.

Monaco has it all, An F1 track that are basic roads throughout the city... There are literally curve marks on some of the roads.... Yachts bigger then my house, and unbelievable views.

On a side note, I saw a yacht that had a helicopter pad with a helicopter on it. I swear. Ridiculous.

Tomorrow, I head to Luzern in Switzerland for a few nights. Apparently very beautiful, but I have another 9 hours of trains... Not fun

Some other notes:

I was planning on switching my plans if Germany had won last night so that I would be there for the world cup final... Of course, the one time a Jew wants Germany to do something positive they end up screwing it up... oh well.

There is a cat at my hostel who both looks and acts like my old cat growing up.... Woot

Thats it for now.

Three weeks in officially, three and a half left to the real world... NOOOO

Good luck to everyone,
Zac