Day Trip to Nice

On Friday, our 7^th day at the festival, we had our much needed day off. The festival scheduled a bus for all of us to go to Nice for the day.

First on my radar was to head straight to the beach.

I still have the best memories of the Adriatic Sea while I was in Pula 2 years ago. It’s been so miserably hot, I only hope the Mediterranean Sea provides as much relief as it does pleasure.

Of course as soon as I step off the bus, I realize I don’t have a map of the city (my one and only real need in a strange city). So a large group of us manage to follow two of the faculty to the beach. I take pictures of every corner we turn at so I can use it as reference on the way back if I get lost. I picked that up while I was in Austria and was so discombobulated that wound up being the best way I could keep track of things. 

The Mediterranean was spectacular. The beach was rocks and not sandy. The most difficulty part of the beach experience was actually just getting in and out of the water. With the stony banks and bare feet, it made it very difficult and a little painful to climb into or out of the water.

The water was so clear and so refreshing. My festival roommate Lauren and my new found friend Abbie and I decided we wanted to swim out to the bouy. This seemed like an admirable and adventurous feat.

We’re swimming against the tide on the way out so it takes us a while. But, every couple hundred feet the color of the water changed. It was really spectacular to experience. We finally made it to the buoy and after “riding on it” to rest a bit, we headed back. Just a few minutes later, Abbie tells Lauren and I she has a leg cramp.

You don’t have to experience more than one while swimming to realize how bad that can really be and that it usually gets worse. I flash to a memory while on swim team when a leg cramp surprised me and completely took me under water. I had to get myself out of the water and lay on my back while my coach took my leg and leaned her whole weight into it. Only then did my muscle release. So, I didn’t even hesitate and swam over to Abbie. I grabbed her hands, told her to put her leg against the front of my thigh and push against me as hard as she could. I took a deep breath, went under as I stopped swimming, and pulled her as hard as I could towards me. I came back up for air and she’s in shock, her leg cramp was gone! Thankfully, we were able to swim back to the shore without any further problems.

The rest of the day was like continuation of this surreal experience. We go over to the Museum of Modern Art and look around for a number of hours. We got in for free out of the generosity (and admitted laziness) of the entrance attendant. She looked at all 15 of us and said “I don’t feel like working today. You’re all students? Go ahead. No flash pictures.”

 

Afterwards, Abbie, Lauren, and I found ourselves together again as we start looking for lunch and other adventures. Abbie and I decide that if we can find a salon we’re both getting French haircuts. Because that sounds exotic and fun and my hair desperately needs a minimum of a trim. No shop we came across had any availability.

But, as we’re exploring for a salon, we randomly come across Napolean’s house of residence while he lived in Nice. That was a pleasant surprise.

We decided to give up on the haircuts and explored all the local sea side shops. My favorite was the toy store—all hand made and finely crafter wood and cloth toys. Like simple but cute puppets, a wooden scale with weights, and fishing pole with a hook to grab your rubber ducky our of the water. My favorite were the mobiles. Pulled down on a string and it looked like they were flying through the air, very slowly and peacefully. 

With these old towns and cities, inevitably they have a center that contains the old castle walls, or fortress during medieval times. In Nice it overlooks the sea, so we climb up the many steps to the top and get a breathtaking view of the city. On the way down we decide to walk down on the opposite side we ascended. And I’m so glad we did because we found an awesome little graffiti treasure on the walls of the stairwell.