So let me preface this trip by saying that back in St. Louis Mardi Gras is a huge thing for my family. It has been since I was a little kid and almost without fail I have been toe very Mardi Gras since I was probably 3 or 4 years old. So when I cam to the realization that I would not be home for Mardi Gras this year I was disappointed to say the least. One of my best friends, however, is a true Arcadian from Lafayette, New Orleans and she promised me that we would celebrate it in true fashion over here. And when we say true fashion we mean, Níce where it essentially originated. If you are wondering where Níce is it is on the French Riviera pretty close to the border with Italy. So it is basically sun and sea.
Now prior to our trip to Nice we were going to go see Spring Awakening in London because we found really inexpensive tickets and we had all been wanting to see it. It was phenomenal. One of the best theatrical productions I've seen to date, and I don't say that too often. It's not for the faint of heart and if you ever see it prepare to be assaulted by less than savory language and be pulled back to the angst of your adolescence. Having said that it is a true masterpiece. It shows the consequences of being ill-informed and in this case being completely uninformed about sexual relations with members of the opposite sex. It is not a modern day setting... I think it is in the 1920s maybe in Germany... not sure if that is entirely correct. Anyway, the cast is entirely kids, I mean that literally, and two adults. I was probably older than all of the young actors and actresses. Me, the old bag at twenty years of age. I even felt old sitting in the front row and that's saying something. Anyway, the show is a powerhouse, with an underlying poignant message that I think often gets lost when we are all forced to grow up before we are ready. In the last year I've learned that growing up isn't fun or easy. Basically, Peter Pan knew what he was talking about. Now if I only knew the way to Neverland I'd be set.
So after seeing the show that night Dani and I scooted ourselves out the Luton airport for... another night of sleeping in an airport. I won't go into the gory details because it was much like all the the other times I have slept in an airport. Basically I can't wait to go home and not have to sleep in an airport. So anyway, our flight leaves around 1:45 on Friday and we arrive in Nice approximately 4:45pm give or take a little bit. Upon our arrival we are greeted by a bunch of dancing girls and men banging on drums. It was like show girls from Vegas and musicians from somewhere south of the border. Quite the site let me tell you. The French Riviera French are much freer about their bodies and so in that fashion and in the spirit of Mardi Gras (I'm sure) the ladies were wearing thongs, and I don't mean the sandal. Sadly we had to leave the welcoming party and hop on a bus to take us into town. The Nice airport is very near the center of the city so it was only a 15 minute bus ride to our stop. We got off the bus and were on the beach, literally. The sun was already sinking low in the sky and stretched out before us was the Mediterranean Sea. It was jaw-dropping. We finally tore ourselves away from the beach and found our hotel, which was a block and a half away from the beach; and I don't mean a long Arsenal block, I mean a short little Arsenal to Spring block.
After checking into our hotel we walked a couple blocks to the grocery store to get our traditional bread, cherrios, milk and jelly combination. We went back to the hotel and made ourselves some dinner before heading out for the night. By the time we left our hotel it was after dark, but we still headed down to the beach. We walked along the waterfront for a while before heading up towards the main part of the city. Let me just say here that the parade runs on the blvd parallel to the beach right next to it. Anyway so we walked towards the center of the city and followed all the color for Carnival posters. We had no map so we were just wandering blindly around Nice. We eventually found ourselves in the Jardin de Albert I-- Albert's garden where there was a huge ferris wheel. We couldn't restrain ourselves so we got tickets and road the ferris wheel. I hadn't been on ferris wheel since I was very very young at Six Flags so it was pretty exciting. From the top of the ferris wheel you could see all of Nice glittering below you and the French alps off in the distance. It was pretty stunning. Directly below in Albert's garden was the main center of all the Carnival festivities and where the two highlight floats were on display. We went around a few times and then got off to go look at the two floats. The incredible thing about the Carnival Parade floats is that they are made entirely from papier-mache, no truck beds here. They are moving pieces of art. We walked around them and took a bunch of pictures before heading away into the city.
Nice is set up in a way that there are wide boulevards and then there are narrow little pedestrian walk-ways. We walked down what was probably one of their main drags looking into the windows with glee. Nice definitely has got the fashion thing down pat. We wandered on the pretty deserted streets for awhile. We figured no one was out because they were all resting up for the following day of insanity! We found a little gelateria and I got some fantastic terramissou gelato. It was soooo good! So we walked around with our gelato and eventually headed back to our hostel for the night.
When we got back we met one of our roommates, Anthony. Anthony is from Belfast, Ireland who is on a vacation because of the economy. He is a shy, blonde-haired, 34 year-old construction worker. We had the hardest time figuring out what he was saying at first because his accent is so thick, but once we did we all became great friends and bonded over our common distaste of our other roommate this young man from Turkey who snored so incredibly loudly that none of us could sleep that night. So yeah, you basically know how our night went. I actually slept really well because I was so exhausted from getting little to no sleep in the airport.
So we went to bed in anticipation for the next day.
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