Day 45 – Nice

I don’t remember falling asleep last night but I still felt tired. We allowed ourselves to sleep for a bit longer as our check out time was 12pm and there was no need to pack either as we would be going straight to our apartment to meet our ‘landlord’ girl. Nice was so warm and actually really pretty. Some might say it was nice… We walked along the main streets before following a shortcut through a couple of side streets and waited at a huge tree (apparently it was a real pine tree we were told).

The husband of the lady we were meeting greeted us and spoke horrendous English. He ran out of questions to ask in a minute and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even understand what we were saying anyway. Thankfully, his wife came in time but awkwardly asked us all the same questions – “How did you get here?”, “Where are you from?”, “Where are you going after?”. We tried to show as much enthusiasm as I could but I kept thinking of all those movies where this happens; 2 young people meet the owners and follow them back to their apartment for a bloodbath and a bit of dismembering.

Luckily for us, she wasn’t a serial killer, although the husband did seem a bit weird. She went into depth about the flat and literally everything in it – how to open every cupboard and all the spare towels. The husband was showing me how to roll down the blinds on every single window, not just the one window, all of them (even though they all followed the same process). At the end of the day though, they were very nice and helpful and most of all, very welcoming.

When they left, we immediately turned on all the fans because it was so warm in the flat talking to them – they were obviously used to it – and so we sat down to chill and cool down for a while. Without even packing, we left straight away to the beach. I was really hoping for sand this time but again the beaches disappointed me and I really wanted to buy a sun lounger instead of getting an uncomfortable stone massage on the beach. It was so overpriced that I took my chances on the rough terrain and spent a while sunbathing and swimming.

My girlfriend didn’t want to move anywhere so it was up to me to find us lunch. I walked for ages and ages but only seemed to come across restaurants and cafes, no shops like Carrefour and the like. I even went into a hotel and used by best French accent to ask where the nearest restaurant was instead of a shop, making me look like an idiot. It got even worse when she replied in the poshest London accent and told me where to go.

I got a selection of foods because I didn’t really know what I felt like – that’s what the heat does to you sometimes. My girlfriend was the same when we got back and we didn’t eat much of it. Instead, we listened to a girl and boy play with their bat and ball behind us. She was giving out to him like mad every time he missed the ball or did a bad shot. When she made a mistake, it was always his fault as well. She must have been worth it as he didn’t complain once! They were like 10 by the way. My girlfriend also informed me about the girl who was sunbathing behind us. All she did was put on sunscreen, then have a cigarette, reapply suncream again and repeat the process. Someone didn’t want to get burnt today. 

When we went back to our apartment later, we unpacked everything and lay down for ages because we were so tired. It was almost 9pm by the time we got up to go to the shop. To save us from walking more than we would need to, we asked the hotel next to us where the nearest shop was. Again, I asked where the nearest restaurant was and made me look like an idiot once more. I was even thinking in my head to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake!

We took our time in the supermarket and the security guard had told us that it was closing and to hurry up. We still had so much to get and my girlfriend ran off to find the rest of the groceries we needed. She was peeking down the aisles to avoid the security guards and sprinted between them. She got caught from the other end of the shop but managed to run away with everything we needed. Other people were all doing the same, it was actually quite comical. However the humour of the situation was overshadowed by the till attendant in the self service area. It was a 20 items or less area and we had 19 items, but still, he told us it was too much. We took half of our shop and re-entered when he then made another fuss about not allowing the trolley to come into the area with us. I dumped it outside and put it all in the basket whilst giving out to him for his stupid rules.

My girlfriend was making a mess at her till during all this and had somehow put the milk through 8 times and didn’t know what she was doing wrong. After all that, I forgot to leave the trolley back and get my €1 – the till attendant can take it for being so helpful! At home, we made ourselves gnocchi dinner like the meal we had in Budapest and made some cocktails. Again we fell asleep straight away without knowing. I do remember waking up during the middle of the night to shouting from the bathroom. Apparently I had left the toilet seat up and during the night, my girlfriend didn’t check and fell down the toilet. Shit happens.