Day 100: Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Beach in Saint Raphael

Today we woke up and went straight to the beach.  It was supposed to be high 70s all day, so we were stoked to lay on the beach and get some sun!  We found a nice little beach down the street from out hotel where we laid out.  It was peaceful and serene, and exactly what we were looking for.  We hung out for a bit, getting a tan, listening to music, and people watching.  We packed up camp around 1pm, because we had a catamaran ride scheduled at 2pm!  Per usual, many things were lost in translation when it came to this catamaran.  The first being where in the world we were supposed to meet.  It took five separate phone calls to the number on the flier to figure out where the heck we were supposed to go.  And it turned out the meeting point was the port we had been standing in front of all along.  It's funny that these huge tourist attractions, which publish brochure completely in English, have receptionists and crew who speak no English whatsoever.  Nevertheless, we found the meeting spot and we were so pleasantly surprised with the boat.  It was big and beautiful and clean and borderline luxurious.  There was an ample amount of deck space over two levels, an outdoor and indoor bar, a plasma screen television in an inside sitting area with couches and tables, tables and chairs for eating, and also lawn chairs to lay out on.  It was fantastic.

Beach before the catamaran ride!

Catamaran before departure!

Hanging out on the boat

You could feel the water splash up!  Pretty cool.

There was also some miscommunication about the activities that were supposed to take place on the boat.  The whole reason I booked the boat trip was because I really wanted to go snorkeling.  Snorkeling in crystal clear water with vibrant colored coral lining the ocean floor is just about as cool as it gets.  And on the brochure it lists a bunch of activities that come with the boat trip, including snorkeling, kayaking, kite surfing, jet skiing, etc.  Now it doesn't surprise me that this didn't go exactly according to plan, because we were skeptical from the beginning.  After reading the brochure, I called the company to verify that in fact, this one boat trip included all the listed activities, and they assured me that it did.  So after boarding the boat and finding a great spot right a long the edge, we laid out as we headed out to sea.  One of the crew members made a five minute speech, I presume about some of the rules and essential whereabouts of things, completely in French.  We "listened" intently, trying to gather what we could.  Not much.  There was soft drinks and alcohol available on the boat, so we helped ourselves shortly after we left shore!  We talked and drank and hung out for awhile, anxiously awaiting the bountiful amount of activities that were allegedly available to us.  So we waited, and waited.  But we never even anchored!  We literally just went for a two hour cruise, then headed back to shore!  Classic mix-up.    

Out to sea!

Inside the catamaran 

Wayne's Bar :)

We weren't mad about the money we spent on the catamaran, it was still a blast.  We got to hang out on a beautiful catamaran in the Mediterranean Sea while drinking beer and listening to music.  Not much to complain about!  It just wasn't what we expected at all, which is typical.  After we docked, we went back to our hostel and grabbed our luggage, then headed to the train station!  We needed to go back to Nice tonight, only because we wanted to go to Monaco tomorrow, and Monaco was most accessible through Nice.  So we grabbed a sandwich on-the-go and quickly got to the train station just in time to catch the train.  It was a quick ride back to Nice, one in which we continued our afternoon drinking on.  We got a couple of dirty looks, but no more than normal :)  When we got to Nice, we rechecked into the same hostel we stayed in before and continued our festivities.  Later that night we went to Wayne's Bar again and had a blast!  Somehow, we made it back safely that night, just like we always do!