European Adventure Departure

Transport to Gatwick via train and airline bus all went according to plan and fairly uneventful in the continuing rain.  You wanted an early update Dot but there is little to say as yet. I forgot how huge and busy this airport is – a far cry from quiet little Southampton airport just a few weeks ago!  113 boarding gates – crazy!!  An hour and a half before take off to Nice… not just rain to look forward to there but thunder and lightening!  Hey ho I will just relax and start living the moment with my coffee and duck wrap!  Who knows what lies ahead……

Easy flight with easy jet! The plane was full of excited French teenagers probably returning home after a holiday weekend in London. I sat next to a young French couple who knew little English but felt too tired to start trying to engage in French and promptly fell asleep – will leave that til I get there.

mo at Nice AirportGot the shuttle bus to terminal 1 as suggested in hostel instructions. Then no 23 to Place St Maurice. ’twas a long bus ride – about an hour but a great opportunity to try out my French on the locals. And there was the sea at last. I had not seen that stretch of coast since I was 18, I told the person next to me on the bus. Then we chatted about L’eglise Matisse en Vence et le temps. YES I can do this!

But where is my shuttle bus to the hostel? The mobile Pizza man very kindly phoned them an hour ago and they said ’10 minutes’. In that time he has cooked me a delicious Margurite and I have eaten it and wished several customers ‘bon appetit’ in the meantime and also had plenty of time to write up today’s events. I have just called again on the very kind Pizza man’s mobile…. just another 10 mins – there is a big party arriving. It is now a quarter to eight…. an hour later of course, but I still feel very tired.
I’m now getting just a bit fed up with watching mad French drivers careering round this square, blasting their horns when motorists won’t move quick enough at the lights…. and the very nice pizza man has sold an awful lot of pizzas!!

At last a young man lifts my bag and beckons me to the Toyota minibus I have been keenly looking out for for what seems like an eternity. Full of apologies, I am driven a very short way but up an exceedingly steep hill to the Exupery Gardens Hostel. I won’t go into too much detail here but after manhandling my rather heavy bag up 2 flights of stairs, I opened room 215 to meet Tiga, from Chili. She and soon Gloria, were to be my room mates tonight. After a brief introduction and preparing of beds, together we made our way down to the terrace bar. A quietly shaded area where we spent a pleasant evening with a beer. Tiga, a beautiful 27 year old with Italian looks from her grandmother, was an agricultural engineer no less and was traveling around Europe – unbelievable!! Gloria from New Zealand was in Nice to find a job. She had just completed a course as a chef in Auckland and wanted to work on the boats in Antibes. We were also joined by two others, an Irish man from Downpatrick who had a degree in media studies and had come to Nice to completely change the direction he was going with his life. The other was an older lady from Melbourne, who was a seasoned traveler and we shared experiences til bedtime.

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