Day Twenty-Two: Nice and Monaco

Day two of Contiki, and it started strong with having to pay for all the excursions. A solid 313€... big ouch after also spending almost 10€ a drink last night. But after having the included breakfast and being told I snored with my eyes open... we were on the move. And actually early! Unusual for us. We walked around with our bunk mate and some other guys for a while. We also stopped for a coffee. Afterward, we went to skip some rocks on the beach. It was not a sandy beach. But the views were just spectacular on the beach. You truly feel like you are in a movie. Just on the coast with beautiful buildings just layered on the hillsides. Then the other boys went off the bike ride we didn't do, and we just sat on the beach for a while. I decided to wear my flip flops walking around today, and I learned the hard way about breaking your shoes in. They were super comfortable, but the strap rubbed the shit out of the top of my foot. I couldn't walk around in them, but I was stuck in them. So you just suck it up. Spoiler alert, I guess, we are heading to Monte Carlo Casino later, but apparently, they have a strictish dress code and, of course, backpacking. I have nothing fancy. The only shoes I have are bright blue hikers. So Bec, our guide, said there was an H&M, so that is where we went. I ended up buying a new bathsuit (sorry, dad didn't really want your old one), a button-up shirt, and a cheap pair of nice-looking sneakers. Wasn't that cheap over all. Still spend just under 60€, ouch again. Then, on the way back to the hostel, we stopped at this burger place for lunch. And they even asked us if we wanted the burger well done! Thank god. And It was delicious, a nice BBQ burger with bacon and sautéed onions. It was expensive, for the burger fries and a drink it was 18€. We went back to the hostel and showered all the sweat from last night and got all fancy for the trip to monaco. I got to say it felt really nice to actually dress up and not wear the same t-shirts for once. Very refreshing! Ethan showered and everything first and went to get a quick drink before coming back to gether dressed. So then I showered and decided to get fully ready. Afterward, I met him, had a beer, and went back to get him dressed and for my passport. We did, in fact, not realize what time it was, and we were running short on it. We knew monaco was going to be expensive, so we quickly bought this chicken skewer from a Chinese place, shoved our faces, and left. When we reached the hostel, it turned out our hostel room door was broken. Our roommate was there too, and our door was just beeping at us. The problem was in monaco. The only way into the casino was if you had your passport because monaco citizens are not allowed to gamble. So we really needed it. And of course we talked to our travel guide and she explicitly said they can not wait for us if we are late... So, of course, we are all sweating our ass off. Luckily, the receptionist found a master key and let us in. Ethan was getting undressed before we were even in the room. And we sprinted our ass out of the hostel to the couch. Guess what?!? The couch was late anyways so we had plenty of time. But very stressful for sure. I really didn't want to miss out on that. The road to monaco was insanely beautiful, I am not sure if anything will beat those views. Just overlooking this city on the hills and the water... it was amazing just looking out of the window. And we had a quick stop for a grpup photo and pictures where they surprised us with some prosceco! I didn't realize either that monaco wasn't a part of the EU and has 12 millioniares per square km... it is only 2 square kilometers. We started monaco on a viewpoint overlooking the bay with all the crazy fancy boats. George Clooney has his yacht in there! We had time to walk around, and I wanted to get souvenir. Ethan just accidentally knocked over a hat, and he was just swearing at both of us and said he was closing and took the shit out of my hand that I was telling him I was buying. It's always the French people. Have yet to meet a nice one. Then we got to go to the Monte Carlo Casino. And as soon as we walked up, the whole street was just full of super cars. Millions of dollars just sitting right in front of me. With valet just driving these crazy cars, like how do I get that job?? But walking in to Monte Carlo was unreal, I'm used to the river Cree or the St. albert casino. This is a different beast. But honestly, it was smaller than I thought it would. I do guarantee there is plenty of the casino we can't see as commoners. Of course, the first thing I do is pull out some chips with another guy. And now I can officially say I gambled in Monte Carlo. And I can say I lost 50€ in one bet... of course, the guy convinced me to put all my money down on black at Roulette. The worst part of it was a different guy asked me to pick a number, I picked 12. A red number. And I pit money on black right after. AND IT LANDED ON 12. So I was stupid. I didn't want it to be over, so I grabbed a ten and put it into a roulette machine. Somehow, I did manage to turn that back into 60. So I did break even and even hit the right number! It was more fun than I would like to admit. But I had to leave, I only had an hour, unfortunately, or for the best. But afterward, we had a nice chill night. I just hung out with the group at the hostel and had a couple of drinks.Read more