A taste of Italy

This morning I had to make a really tough decision. I had to decide if I was going to get up at 6am and take a trip to Italy. Even though my bed was incredibly comfortable – especially after my long day of walking – I dragged myself out of bed. A Russian friend, Kostya, of mine was the one organizing the train trip into the Italian mountains.....but since we left so early in the morning, it turned out that we were the only people who could wake up ........and also a lot of the students that were staying in Nice for the first semester had to start getting their residence permits etc.

I wasn't expecting it at all but there was actually a tour guide on the train giving a little explanation of all the sites and cities we were passing. She was very knowledgeable and she was saying everything in English and French. This was a great for me to practice my French, and i also practiced French with Kostya seeing as he had done the same French program as i had just completed, the year before in a small town in Quebec. Small world eh?

We got off the train in Tende (France) and had a couple hours to look around before the next train to Italy arrived. It was a really nice small town surrounded by mountains. One mountain in particular looked very inviting with a chapel and a swinging bridge on top. We asked how to get there and then headed for the mountain. There were a couple different paths and we decided to just check out a path that lead to a rock climbing area. We saw some people with all the rock climbing gear on the mountain......there were different elements set up on the rocks, like a swinging bridge, a zip line, and lots of ladders. After watching them for a while we took the easier root up to the chapel on the top. The 'easy' root also had a really small ledge you had to walk across but there was a security railing that you could hang on to. Once at the top of the mountain we enjoyed the sun for a bit and Kostya pulled out his teddy bears and took some pictures. Kostya carries three teddy bears with him everywhere he goes (at least when he is traveling) so that he can take pictures of them in different locations all around the world.........it's kind of like that traveling gnome thing. Later we walked back down, saw an old church in the town and then hopped on the train to Italy

Now I must mention that I did this whole walking trip in my Teva flip flops. There were times when I could have used a little ankle support, my feet were a little dirty and my flip-flops are quite flat now but generally I love walking barefoot so it really was fine.

We got to Cuneo, Italy in the late afternoon. We didn't spend much time there but I did mail some postcards, walked around downtown, we had some yummy Italian coffee (marocchino) and some pastries. I guess we were both expecting a city nestled in the mountains but that wasn't the case and with the haze we couldn't even see the mountains in the distance. It was neat though seeing the differences between France and Italy.......people were very loud, but obviously friendly. Again Kostya pulled out his teddy bears and took a picture of them in front of a church. He got a couple weird looks but rarely does anyone ever ask him what he is doing.

We caught the train back at about 6pm. I went directly back to Nice and Kostya went to another Italian city along the coast. I decided not to go seeing as I had a flight to catch the next day. I got back to the residence at about 1am and I think Kostya was back around 4.......I think i made the right decision.

A Nice walk through Nice

I thought it was about time I checked out the town that I had been staying in for over a week so I took a little stroll through nice Nice. In the morning I went for a swim with Malaysian and Japanese students from my program. The water was great and just the perfect temperature. We decided to build some stone castles, seeing as there was only a stone beach instead of sand.

After laying on the beach for a bit i headed for downtown. I took the bus downtown and then walked up to Parc du Château and had a look at the great panoramic view and some old ruins of a Citadelle. As I was looking at the scenery and doing my usual people watching I noticed someone wearing a Queens t-shirt. Turns out he an his friend just graduated from engineering (they has the iron rings too) and were doing a Europe trip.....Canadians are everywhere. After climbing down from the hill where the park was i realized i forgot to see the cemetery that was up there. So I walked back up the many stairs again and checked it out. As someone mentioned to me later that day I also forgot to see an artificial waterfall that was in the park........I'll just have to go back some other day :) After the park I walked, pretty much all the way uphill to the Archaeological museum. It was a really nice long walk through a really ritzy area with lots of old houses with nice gardens. At the museum (which i never actually intended on going into) i walked around the grounds and saw some old roman ruins an old Franciscan church and a public garden. There was another amazing view of the port and other parts of nice. I decided to take a bus back since it probably would have been about a 3 hour walk back to my residence room.

Later that night i met up with a few people who were heading downtown so I decided to go back with them. We looked around the old part of the city a bit and then we went for some of the famous gilato. I ended up buying two scoops; one scoop of chili chocolate and one of rocher (mmmmmmmm chocolate). Later we passed by the same place and I got a scoop of tomato basil ice cream. All three scoops were really good believe it or not. And all the ice cream gave me the extra energy to walk back to our residence.......another hour walk...........boy did i have a good day of walking.

Le bateau à St. Tropez

One of my friends from Romania did a little research and found out about a nice boat trip to St. Tropez (a peninsula west of Nice). A group of six EuroAquae students, including myself, got up early and saw the sun rise over the Mediterranean as we waited for the bus to take us to the Nice port. The boat left at about 9 am and took maybe 3.5 hours to get to St. Tropez. There was a guide on the boat who would give a description of the sites along the way and would answer any of your questions. He pointed out Elton John's and Sean Connery's houses. Along the way we stopped in Cannes to switch boats. Sadly I ended up sleeping most of the way from Cannes to St. Tropez........i don't know what it is but as soon as i get into any moving vehicle i am rocked to sleep. It wasn't really that bad though because I knew i would be able to see everything on the way back.

I had found out before that it was possible to go scuba diving in St. Tropez so when we got there i left the group and went to go inquire about diving. As i figured there was a dive in the afternoon but it probably wouldn't get back in time for me to catch the boat back to Nice. So instead of going diving I walked around St. Tropez. I saw the citadel and there was a wonderful view from up there. I also walked along the shore line for a bit and found a dead baby sting ray (or maybe it was some other kind of ray). So it turned out i didn't have to go scuba diving to see the wildlife......although i guess it would have been nicer to see a live one :)

Later i went in search of the beach. I ended up running into the other students and we hung out at the beach until it was time to catch the boat back. We sat in the back of the boat on the way back which meant we were sheltered from the wind. This was nice but it was VERY hot and I really felt like jumping in the water. I did however get a nice tan and was able to stay awake and see the beautiful scenery on the way back. We really couldn't have asked for better weather, it really was a superb day.

Anchovies, gilato and chapels in Vence

Today I met up with the Canadian consultant (from Ontario) an we decided to take a trip to the "mountains". We ended up going to Vence (I almost felt like i was meant to go there because just before I left Ottawa I got a present from a friend and attached to the present was a postcard from Vence) which is really not very far from Nice and not really in the mountains, more like large hills. We took a local bus there and when there we found the tourist office and got a pamphlet on different walking trails in the area. After getting some lunch from a local Patisserie we went off in search of one of the described walking trails. The pamphlet we got from the tourist office lacked quite a few details (such as street names) so we ended up mostly walking along some roads and never got to see the ruins that were supposedly near by. It was a nice walk though because we got a wonderful view of the town and we got to see some amazing houses in the area........although i kept wishing that I could have walked up this one large rock face that was peering down on us all day.

After our self-organized walking trip we went to the Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire. This is a chapel designed by a famous french artist, Henri Matisse. It was amazingly simple yet somehow very bright and lively (which i guess is unlike most dark churches). The walls were white and there were a few paintings consisting of simple black strokes on simple white tiles. The stain glass was also designed in a way to cast a specific colour of light at specific times in the day. Very sharp contrast from the typical churches you would imagine in the 1950's.

Seeing as we saw the medieval part of Vence from a distance it only seemed appropriate to go have a closer look. The medieval part of town was just a maze of tiny cobblestone streets with very interesting old buildings decorated with flowers and art. There were tons of art shops with some real original stuff. The store that impressed me the most was basically a room just packed with what looked like disorganized piles of junk.......but if it is anything like the piles of stuff in my room there is a little method to the madness :)

After I had some gilato and an onion/anchovy pizza type thing (yes in that order) and we took the bus back to Nice.

Forced labour and Ritzy Monaco

Friday, September 8, 2006

After only a few hours of sleep i got up to make it to a meeting at the university for 11am. As I and another girl were walking to the bus stop a University of Nice mini-bus pulled up beside us and asked if we were EuroAquae students heading to the meeting because they were there to pick us up. We said yes and hopped in the bus. When we passed the university the girl i was with asked the man where he was going and he said that we were supposed to go to the Acropolis, the place where the conference had been held. We were a bit confused since we were told to go to the University but the man seemed to know what he was talking about. We ended up being driven into the truck docking area at the Acropolis. At this point i really had no clue what was going on but when i say one of the organizers of the program walk towards us i thought he would be able to explain what was going on. He ended up not being any help at all........i don't know if it was because his english was bad or because he was preoccupied with other things. Anyways we eventually figured out from some of the other students that were at the Acropolis that the man in the minibus was supposed to pick up some other students who had volunteered to help pack up some of the stuff from the conference. Well this girl and I hadn't volunteered (not that we could've anyway because for some STRANGE reason they only asked the boys because there was some lifting involved.....i guess they figured women are superior beings and should be spared the manual labour ;) ). We ended up helping pack up some of the stuff anyway and we got a lift back to the university just in time for the meeting. The meeting was kinda useless for me since most of it was aimed at the people staying in Nice but i got some good info.

After the meeting I took the bus to Monaco for the afternoon. I was with a group of Asian people but what was really neat was that everyone was from a different country and therefore had to speak English to communicate. There were people from Japan, Malaysia, Korea, China, Philippines and Thailand. The bus ride to Monaco was really beautiful following a road along the coast. There were many mansions and yachts all along the way. Once in Monaco we found some maps then went to the Monte Carlo Casino. We went into the lobby of the casino, which was nicely decorated, but didn't pay the 10 euros to go into the actual casino part. I really didn't think it was alnything to special but i guess it is one of those things you just have to do. After the casino we took the bus to the Oceanographic Museum & Aquarium located on a cliff right beside the water. There was alot of cool wildlife in the museum including a huge aquarium full of sharks. The view from the top of the building was amazing, you could see all of monaco and the sea surrounding it.

After the museum we forced ourselves (we were all a bit tired from the day before) to go look at the church where Grace Kelly (and other monaco royalty) was buried. We also saw the palace and sent some post cards from the second smallest country in the world...............yes monaco. Supposedly the Vatican is the smallest country.

We took the bus back at 8pm but didn't end up getting back to the residence until 10pm since the public transportation in Nice is almost non existant after 6pm.

Moon (the one in the sky ;) ) gazing

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Hello all,

Today was the last day of the conference. Instead of watching more seminars all afternoon i toured a bit of the old part of Nice with some other people. There were the typical narrow European streets where you would expect no car to get by, and then you see a mini car squeeze through.

At the closing ceremony for the conference (which i made it back in time for :) ) the graduating students presented the director of the EuroAquae program with a globe that marked where all the students came from and it was very clear that the director really cared about the program and about the students involved.

Later that night there was a party on the beach near the residence where everyone was staying. Some students took the leftover food from the conference so we chowed down on that and watched the moon move across the Mediterranean sea. Some people even went for a dip in the water but the air was a bit too cold for me to go in.

Ciao,

Steph

Swimming in Nice with the local fauna

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Again I attended some of the seminars however it does get a bit tiresome listening to people talk about very technical details that i can't understand. There were some interesting presentations from Columbia, about dealing with a species of plant that was taking over a lake, and there were some more presentations from Canada. By the end of the day most of the students and the people attending the conference would just be standing outside chatting.

After the conference finished, at about 6pm, i went for a swim with some of the graduating students. The beach in Nice is very accessible no matter where you are and there is an artificial stone beach. I would definitely prefer a sand beach but i am not gonna complain since the water is so clear, blue and beautiful. We swam way out to the buoys (a good couple hundred meters out) and i am pretty sure i saw some sorta jellyfish or something else floating just under the surface of the water. It kind of looked like this:

I guess i was a bit freaked out considering that in Bermuda you had to be so careful when you saw jellyfish. The funny thing was that i had been talking about the Portuguese man of war (jellyfish) a few minutes before i saw this thing. Anyways, i just swam aside and didn't see anything else in the water.

Later that night there was a banquet on the beach for the people who were attending the conference and the graduating students were also invited. I didn't have a ticket but since i was hanging out with some of the students who were going i was able to get in.....the man who was organizing the whole conference said if i waited around a couple minutes, he would see if there was enough space. Well i did get in and i enjoyed a nice buffet with lots of seafood and of course some French wine.

See ya,
Steph