Getting Nice

After three hellish days at home leading up to my travel abroad (and not to mention 2 weeks of separation from Ty), I finally began my trip to Nice. I packed lightly in 3 bags to save room for souvenirs, called a cab and arrived at the San Diego airport early for the two-hour window prescribed for international flights. As usual, this does not apply to San Diego and I had 90 minutes to kill. I took a seat at Bloody Mary's, ordered a beer and a sandwich and mused over all the things that could potentially be disasterous consequences of this trip, such as an emotionally scarred dog, a plane crash into the icy Atlantic, and bankruptcy (in order of increasing seriousness).

The first flight to Chicago was longer than I anticipated but easy. The next leg of the trip was the 6.5-hr transatlantic flight to London that I was most nervous about. I am historically a nervous flier, mainly due to my lack of experience with it as a young person. My first flight was at the age of 17 to my senior class trip in Cancun. I've abated this fear and now fly 3-4 times a year, but, they are usually relatively short and uncomplicated trips. The flight to London is my most adventurous to date. Doing it solo didn't bother me too much. I feel pretty confident in my abilities to manage new situations, and being that English is spoken in England helped ease my nerves.

However, as I looked for my requested isle seat (for bathroom purposes), it dawned on me that it was in the second to last row of the 777. I don't especially like sitting in the back of planes because it seems that the turbulance is felt more. But whatever, I had my restoril in my pocket and swallowed half of it in preparation for an unconscious journey. Then my seat mate showed up. He was brown, and as I eavesdropped on his conversation on his blue tooth, he was speaking Arabic. Justifiably or not, my anxiety went from 5 to 9.5 on a scale of 10, and I decided that security was everyone's responsibility and therefore I would be doing my part, making sure that this gentleman didn't fiddle around in his shorts under a blanket and that his electronic devices were switched to the off position.

We landed of course, or I wouldn't be writing this. And I do feel a bit guilty about my reaction to sitting next to him and watching him like a hawk for 7 hours. But the real consequence of this was that I had sedated myself, then became extremely anxious, and did not sleep the entire flight. It was significantly turbulant at times and I felt every bump in the air.

I had a very tight connection in London. If the plane hadn't been late arriving, I'm pretty sure I would have missed the flight from London to Nice. Getting to the gate consisted of a short bus ride, so I was able to experience driving on the wrong side of the road, but other than that did not see much of England. That will have to be another trip. And if there was one thing I gained from the transatlantic flight to London was confidence that next time anything short of a plane crash will be a better experience.

I arrived in Nice at about 3pm local time, which by my calculation was about a 27 hour trip in total. I'd gotten about 90 minutes of sleep during that trip and I was significantly fatigued. Immigration at Nice was very easy to get through and my bag was waiting for me. Just on the other side of baggage claim, Ty was waiting for me. It was a really good feeling being together in Europe after the two+ weeks apart and we had a long hug in the airport. Ty took the bus to the airport and helped me with my luggage and escorted me to take the bus back to the Citadines, where we are staying. It was my first attempt at using French, and I paid for two bus tickets instead of one. The lady was very nice about it though and refunded my money once I realized that 8 euro was an expensive city bus ride.

The first thing I noticed about Nice was that it was hot and humid. It's not like Africa hot, but it is warmer than the mild climate I've grown accustomed to in San Diego after a year living there. There is no shortage of people here, and we traveled along the Promenade de Anglaise which is the main avenue bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The beaches look rocky but clean, the water is a turqoise blue. Later today I intend to investigate the beaches further. Our apartment is like a small hotel room with a kitchenette. It is clean and well appointed, the fold out bed is much more comfortable than it sounds.

I took a nap for two hours, as I was starting to get that queasy sick feeling from being awake for too long. Ty woke me up and we went out for dinner. As we were leaving the building, we walked out at the same time as two of Ty's classmates that he has been spending time with prior to my arrival, Kelly and Alby. The three of them told me about our surroundings that include "Women of the Night" that post up at the end of our block and our neighbors with "loose morals" across the street that dance naked in open windows after drinking too much vin. I like this place already.

Kelly and Alby wanted Thai food, and I wasn't into that for my first meal in Nice. So we parted ways after walking about a mile. For a Monday night at about 8 pm, the town was hoppin'. Merchants spread out lunettes des soleil (sunglasses) and fancy purses (haven't learned that word yet), people are painting, braiding hair, and dogs with balls walk off-leash and shit where they please. Ty and I picked an open-air cafe and ate a relatively expensive meal (not surprisingly, I know). There I comitted my first faux pas and asked to take my leftovers with me. The waitor was quite agreeable, however, the hostess apparently gave him a dirty look over my shoulder. Oh well, now I have my salmon in basil sauce for lunch today.

We finished the evening with a long walk along the Mediterranean on the promenade. Again I was impressed by the crowds out at 11 pm on a Monday night. It also occurred to me how many people here were foreigners. I feel completely at ease in this country where I speak very little of the language. It also occurred to me how different this is back home. (Most) Americans would be very uncomfortable having as many foreigners speaking foreign languages on their turf. I am glad it is different here, and I wonder if more Americans would benefit from wearing the shoe on the other foot to see how it feels.

That's all for now. It's 10 am and Ty is at class. He will be back in two and a half hours and he has the day off for the holiday tomorrow, so we will be forming a game plan then. In the meantime, I think I might venture out and find some bread.