DAY 10 NICE / LONDON

I'm going to London today!! Kelly sent me to the airport in the morning and then I have to go on the trip on my own. When I arrived London, it was around 11am.

I booked Palmers Lodge for 3 nights. This hostel locates in Swiss Cottage. I took train from Gatwick airport to Victoria Couch Station and then take the bus to Swiss Cottage. It was easy to find the hostel. The hostel was bigger than I expected and the room was tidy, secure and private. I highly recommend this hostel if anyone looks for a cheap accommodation in London.

When I checked into the hotel, it was nearly 3pm. I knew there were flea markets in the weekend so I took a bus to Camden Town.

Just like in Hong Kong, I like taking bus more than underground coz it is very convenient and there are seats. Also it is a pleasure to sit on the bus and look around the outside view. There were signs on the bus so I knew where I should get off.

The bus drivers were even more friendly than those in Hong Kong. They wore smiles and they were very helpful.

There were a lot of things to see in Camden Town. Many shops and street markets as well. They sold antiques, clothes, shoes, accessories, souvenirs... I bought some accessories for myself.

The Regent's Canal runs through the North of Camden Town. There is Canalboat trip for tourists.

I strolled around until evening and then went back to the hostel. I was pretty tired so I slept at around 11pm.

DAY 9 NICE / ANTIBES

We woke up at around 8am, had breakfast and then we went to Kelly's new host family and dropped down her luggage first. Her host mom was an old friendly woman, she let me get into her flat as well and she tried to talk to me in French. Luckily I could cope it well :D

Then we went to the weekend market. They mainly sold flowers, fruits, antiques, ornaments and dinnerwares.

I didn't buy anything tho I really enjoyed walking around the weekend market. We don't have this kinda market in Hong Kong and even if we had, I wouldn't wake up in the early morning for strolling around there. I can wake up easily when I'm on vacation in other country coz I don't want to waste time on sleeping!! :D

We had a quick lunch coz we had to take the bus to Antibes. We found a shop where a lot of people queuing there and we guessed the food must be good. There was a Asian girl working in the shop and she could speak fluent French. She didn't look like being born in France, I guess she is a exchange student. I really hope one day I can study in France.

The food was a bit salty but overall it was good. I quite liked the sardine fishes. It wasn't like the Portuguese style but it tasted nice.

It took around 45mins from Nice to Antibes by bus and we took a nap on the bus. We got off the bus and walked to the seaside, a very impressive big blue sea was in our eyes!! It felt so relaxing and good to walk along the waterfront promenade.

Comparing with Cannes, Antibes is rather more like a small town and the beaches looked better. Most of the beach area in Cannes are reserved by the hotels so I barely saw the nice view from the beach.

We walked pass a church and they were holding a wedding ceremony. I couldn't see the bride but I saw the bridegroom. He was busy talking and taking photos with the guests. The guests dressed so elegant and it totally doesn't look similar to the Hong Kong style wedding.

I found my dream house in Antibes!! It faces to the Mediterranean Sea and it looks like a little villa. I don't need a big grand house!! All I want is a house next to the sea!!

We went back to Nice in the evening and then we had dinner in a Italian Restaurant. I guess French people usually have late dinner so the restaurant was still not full at 7pm.

In France, the wine was even cheaper than the water so I got used to drink wine during the meaks :D We ordered a Spaghetti with mussels and a pizza. The portion was very big and it was enough for both of us. The spaghetti was soooo delicious!!!

Since it is going to be summer, the sun sets late in Europe. I could still a bit sun at around 8 or 9pm.

We headed back to the hostel at around 9pm and then we met a Malaysia girl on the tram. She heard me and Kelly talking in Cantonese so she asked if we were from Hong Kong. She visited Nice on her own and we asked her to join us for drinks with some new friends at the chapel together.

We drank and talked until 1am, this hostel brought me a lot of good memories tho I have only stayed there for 3 days. It is my last day in France and tomorrow I'm heading to London.

You may not like Nice immediately when you first arrive there but the longer you stay, the more you find this is a very lovely city. I do like Nice a lot and for sure I will go back one day!!

DAY 8 NICE / CANNES

Kate was going back to Strasbourg today so only me and Kelly continued our journey in South of France. We took the tram to downtown and then walked around this city.

It is not difficult to walk around Nice coz you are almost go everywhere by tram. I like to stroll around on the street and take photos. Everyone was so relaxed and walking in slow pace. It rarely happens in Hong Kong.

We visited Musee d'art Moderne and there were a lot of morden art works and paintings. Very interesting and impressive. We spent for nearly 2 hours inside.

Then we took a bus to Cannes, I always wonder how Cannes looks like coz it is well-known for the annual Cannes film festival and I imagined that it was a big city like Paris. But I was wrong!! It was a another nice vacation place with luxurious houses and mansions. Also there were a lot of nice boats too!!

It would be cool to have a boat trip but it still isn't summer yet, they didn't have boat services. They have boat service in summer for travelling around the the Côte d'Azur.

The oysters there were so cheap!! Only 12Euro for one dozen!! The shop assistant opened the osysters for us immediately and they tasted so fresh and delicious!! Incredible!!!

We took the last bus back to Nice and then went back to our hostel for dinner. We ordered some drinks and the chapel and we met many people there. It was a great fun to know some new friends and exchange ideas.

DAY 7 NICE

Our plan has changed a bit so we had to move from Hostel Baccarat to Villa Saint Exupery in the morning. Villa Saint Exupery located on the hill and it was a wonderful villa. They had free shuttle bus services and the staffs were very friendly and nice. I liked the atmosphere there.

We had no idea where to go yet so after checking in, we asked the staffs to recommend us some nice beaches. Surprisingly the staffs could speak fluently English. Later on I found that most of them weren't French, they were from Canada and they worked there as a summer job. I met quite a lot of Canadian in Nice!

A staff recommended us to go to Villefranche Sur Mer, it was only 15-20mins by train so it wasn't far away. There were quite a lot of people on the beach and enjoying sunbath!! We didn't plan to go swimming so we just lied down and relaxed on the beach.

Honestly I didn't quite enjoy the sunbath. I like the beach, the sun and the blue sky but I didn't want to get tanned. It was so hot and I wish I could swim in the sea!!

We stayed in the beach for around an hour (that's really enough for sunbath only) and then headed back to downtown. I understand why Nice is a one of the most popular vacation destination in France coz you will really adore such mild weather and beautiful beaches when you are there.

We bought some take away pizza, snacks and champagne and then went back to our hostel. There was a nice chapel where we could enjoy our dinner and meet people there.

We met a Chinese guy who was studying in Italy and he came to Nice with his mom for vacation. hahaha Kate envied him very much :D

My roommates were from Canada, Australia and States. The one who was next to my bed was super cute!! :D I was pretty lucky LOL Kate and Kelly stayed up late to use laptops but I was so tired and I just slept right away.

DAY 6 MONACO / NICE

Leaving Monaco in the early morning, we dragged our heavy luggages to the bus station. The bus station was pretty far away from Kelly's friend's home, we had to walk a long way. This crazy long stairs tired us out!!

Nice is not far away from Monaco, we only needed around one hour to Nice. What a nice sunny weather!! Nice is a small city and people there were nice!! When we were looking for the way to the hostel, a young lad just popped up and told us the direction. He thought we were from China but then we told him that we were from Hong Kong, he knew the different between Hong Kong and China :D yay!

Our hostel is in the city centre and it was quite convenient. We dropped off our luggages and went out for shopping. We bought some clothes and sandals!!

We then went back to the hostel to take a shower, dress up and went out for a bar to watch the European Champion League Final, Man United vs FC Barcelona. Kate is a big fans of Man Utd and she loves C.Ronaldo very much. I'm not so into Man Utd but I don't really like FC Barcelona so I chose to support an England team :D

We were a bit late so it was very full in the bar. We couldn't find a seat, we could only stand and watch the game. FC Barcelona won 2-0, I wasn't surprised tho LOL

There were a live band show after the game, we then got seats and enjoyed the live music. I think we were the only one who pay attention to their performance coz they sang in English and seems not many people were interested in their performance. We even took photos with the band! How nice they were!!

We were a bit hungry so we then had some dessert and wine in a nice restaurant. Both crème brûlée and tiramisu were good!!

We hardly recognised the road in the dark so we spent nearly an hour to walk back to our hostel :P It was pretty late when we were back!! Our roommates were sleeping already.

DAY 5 EDINBURGH / MONACO

Goodbye Scotland!! We are going to South of France today!! This morning we took a flight from Edinburgh to Nice. It was only 2 hours more to Nice and we were so excited for going there!!

There were a group of French secondary school students in the same flight with us. We tried to talk with them in French and then we started to talk on the flight. They went to Scotland for school trip!! Wow!! How come I never had such school trip?? Those students were friendly, cute and curious. I guess they were surprised that we could speak a little bit French.

Nice Airport is pretty small. We bought bus tickets from Nice Airport to Monte Carlo. Thanks for Kelly!! I could buy a student ticket :D It costed EUR 12.50, pretty expensive tho.

The weather in Nice Monaco wasn't so good. It was a bit foggy and cloudy. I could see some sun but it wasn't what I expected. I thought I could see a beautiful blue sky.

We dropped off our luggages at Kelly's friend's home and then we went out and walked around. Monaco is the world smallest French speaking country. The Formula One was held just a week before we were there. We could still see the F1 tracks.

Kelly's friend finished work at around 4.30pm and then he drove us to a ancient village - Èze. This small medieval village is famous for its beauty and charm.

Since it was quite foggy when we were at the top of the hill, we had to wait for a while until the clouds and fog was blew away.

This village is really so beautiful and the old buildings impressed me a lot!! I felt like I was back into the middle age. What a lovely village!!

We were quite lucky that we could see the beautiful sunset and it was fantastic!! I love this little village!!

We went back to Monte Carlo in the evening and took a look on the famous casino. We didn't get in coz people dressed up beautiful there. Most of them were rich coz there were a lot of nice luxury cars such as Porsche, Ferrari...

We then had a nice dinner in a Italian restaurant. The food was delicious but it wasn't expensive. Eating dinner next to the Mediterranean Sea was so wonderful!!!