14 hours later...

(Cerbere, France)

We have finally arrived to Nice after 14 hours of travel. As Lizzie and I have strived to maintain a spontaneous trip here in Europa, we have also failed to follow the proper reservations for certain train tickets that as we discovered today...are required. After enjoying my last night in Barcelona with some new Canadian friends, I rolled out of bed this morning at 7 am to make our 9 am train ride that turned out to be non-existent or full (our Spanish is still a bit rough). They informed us that we would have to take 3 trains over a 14 hour period. Well our first destination was a town on the French border called Cerbere. We found out our final train that we would take to Nice was full and we could not get a ticket and would have to try and get the conductor to let us on when we got to Nimes (where the train left from). With 2 hours to kill, we decided to explore the city of Cerbere which was located on the coast. As we hiked up and down hills with our backpacks (that for some reason seems to grow everytime I pack it), no one was in sight. I felt like I was in a movie and the world had just ended, it was completely unoccupied. As we got to the city center, we finally found a few restaurants opened and saw maybe a total of 30 people spread out in the town. We inhaled a delicious pizza (with creme fraiche? but it was good!) and set back on our hike to the train to Nimes. We arrived to Nimes with a total of 10 minutes to find a way on the Nice train. The ticket line was SO long, everyone else that was working there did not speak any English. The only person that did speak English informed as that we definetly needed a ticket but that he didn't know how to get it. We got on the train to try and find the conductor and couldnt find him. Before we could think of what to do next, the train started moving. There was an area on the train with tables that a few people were at so we went and just sat down on the ground praying to God they would not come around and check tickets. I was terrified that we were going to get kicked off and left in some random town like Cerbere. Thankfully we made it to Nice without them checking for tickets and enjoyed a rather interesting ride talking to French people that we barely understood a word they were saying. 


Nice has been beautiful. Lizzie and I have enjoyed a lovely day on the beach. The beaches are all rocks here and since our backpacking budget does not fit the fancy chairs, we did have to take some time to rearrange to our comfort but we made it work. Christina and Maggie arrive tonight and tomorrow is Christinas birthday! Celebration for the next 2 nights is definetly in order. Ciao for now my friends!