Brannon's Euro-Trip

I swam in the Medeterrainian

And it was lovely. The whole day. But the "pebble beaches" aren't so much pebbles as large stones. They are very hard to walk on. But the water is REALLY blue and crystal clear and salty. I'm hanging out with Cassie, another Aussie, she is 22 as well and taking a year off from school to work and travel. She is taking a French course in Montpelliar and has a French working visa. We met this morning at breakfast and went to the beach and then to Cap D'ial where there is supposed to be caves and cliff diving. We got there sort of late and met up with the boys we were originally supposed to go with before we actually made it to the swimming. But it was beautiful scenery. I think we're going to hang out tomorrow too. And she may come to Monaco with me the next day.
The hostel is a bit out of the way, its an old monastary that has been converted. The common room is called "The Chapel" and they have a stained glass wall. Which is probably a good omen. And the showers are hot. But the free internet is relatively terrible. The only decent computer's space bar doesn't work and the rest are slow and tempramental. I was lucky to find a group of 5 guys (4 Americans and an Aussie)going to the same hostel from my hostel in Barcelona. One of the guys had been before so that made the "cross the streets in front of the trainstation to the buses, take bus #23 15 minutes, get off at a square, then use the phone to call us and we'll pick you up" directions less intimidating. Honestly it was pretty sketchy but the hostel and the people are really nice. It's really laid back. Last night I hung out with Patrisha (the French-Canadian), Jenna and Gemma (the Scottish girls studying in Milan) and Sas (funny little Iranian-British dude). We went out on the town for an expensive dinner (is was everyone's last night) and to a club... that closed at 2 am. Are we in Georgia? They had a live band playing bongos and beachy music. It was fun. We took a cab home. We have to take the bus everywhere. It's not that expensive but I like to be in walking distance.
Everyone seems to be very disappointed that I don't have a Southern drawl. Jenna lived in Texas for a year and does a pretty good impression. So I may have to work something up. One of the Aussie twins in my last bunk said I had a "very nice" American accent. Apparently some of them give her headaches.
Hmmm. In other news... I've run out of shampoo and, as I feel it has done me no real favors in the last few years, have resorted to using soap. OOh. I'm SO very excited because this morning I took all of my clothes, ect. in for a 5 euro wash and dry. So they'll all be clean and smell nice by tomorrow morning. No effort whatsoever. Amazing. I was going to wait for the halfway mark. But it was too good a deal. And I lost my Tide.
To sum up: I'm safe, I'm sound. I love Nice.

posted by Brannon @ 10:44 PM