Time for some music

Well now, have no idea what songs to post (except one) but will come up with something then :D

Have never been a big fan of Lady Gaga, but I listened (mostly because of R. Kelly, really like his part) that song over 300 times during 3-4 days

Heard that song in Strictly, sadly I liked their version too much and there isn't quite like the Strictly one anywhere online

Something from Estonia, as always

Ems

Exams and assignments have finally arrived

And you can only guess that I’m not too happy about it :D So far everything’s been fine and I’ve been lucky enough to have picked the modules that do not have too much homework, the others have had to or always talk about having some work to do. But my luck is finally ending L Before Christmas I have to tackle 2 exams (technically I should do 3 but the last one is Tourism Law, so it’s super difficult and I’ve missed more lectures than I’ve attended since the lecturer keeps on changing the time of the lecture -.- For example the last session was supposed to be 9AM Saturday yeah wtf?!? Saturday 9AM, ok if it’s only once I guess I can live with that but looked at the timetable again yesterday evening and oplaa I had that lecture during the day and at that moment as well... whaaaaat? Why are you doing this to me? Anyway decided to knock that lecture on the head and just not go to the exam, was going to fail anyway so why go and embarrass myself. Now I have more time to revise for the other two exams and maybe even pass :P). Those two exams that I am going to do are Marketing and History/ Sociology of Tourism, shouldn’t be too difficult?

But before that I have to do a presentation (15mins?) on the touristic communication of the Baltic Countries and Estonia. Ummm yeah not too sure what it has to be yet :P lol I have three weeks to do it and I’ll figure something out. Another good thing – my French teacher is letting me do my presentation in our French class before so I could improve anything that needs improving before I go in front of my actual class and prof J Isn’t that nice J I might have a big chance not to fail that module lol :D

I’ve already had 2 tests and there will be more :D First one was in French – the harder one that is meant to teach grammar to French students so yeah, but taking into account that it came as a surprise for me I didn’t do too bad and when I got it back it didn’t say that I’d failed so all good J The second one was in Arabic and yet again totally out of the blue. Should pay more attention to what the teachers say perhaps? Lol Anyway she started dictating some words and I was like oh shoooot I have learned the alphabet like that yet!!! What to do, wrote my version of the pronunciation down and hoped for a miracle that came :D On the third word she asked some other guy if he didn’t need to use the alphabet meaning that we can have the alphabet in front of us... pheeew. This made it a bit easier. Then she wrote some words down and we had to find a similar French word... yeah well no comments :D and third task was to translate a couple of phrases she wrote down meaning that we have to be able to read it and then translate, if that’s what the exam is going to look like it’s fine because I’ll actually study for the exam :P But since everyone was struggling she started talking through everything except for the first task and basically gave us the answers J That is teaching: not having the mindset that if students do not know then they’ll have a bad mark but then I have to help them get the answers, which she did J

Next Monday I’ll have a test in Corsican that requires a lot of revision because last week I just sat there without understanding anything :D We’ll see what happens.... ;) There was some talk about a test in the other law module I’m taking but I’m not too sure... :S Since it is our last session next week how could she give us feedback?? Surely I have to know how I did and then work on it, in my case everything, so I’m thinking of skipping it because I can’t do a test in that no way, I’ll fail without a doubt! But at first in the lesson she only said that we’re gonna work on some cases e.g. how to use the theorie we’ve learned (well I haven’t learned anything yet). + I was thinking of just letting that module go as well and not turn up to the exam.

In History and Sociology the week after next we have to be in groups of three with a computer and each one of us has to have a list of some reason why the tourist do or don't do something... yeah didn't really listen, so I'll have to ask someone and then be like please please please can I be in someone's group, lol :D although since I do not speak a lot most of them think I don't understand anything in French so why would they want me in their group? Oh well :D If I have to I'll just skip it, but I kinda can't because I wanted to make sure the lecturer knows that I'm an Erasmus student :D

Aaaahhhh I don’t know life is so hard right now :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Crossing borders

When in Nice the Italian border isn’t too far away, not to mention the small tiny Principality of Monaco. Mr. Special’s favourite place in the world now. He kept talking about it the whole entire trip after we’d been there “Can we go back? Please please please?! Just for an afternoon?” 

So I’ll talk about Monaco first. Got out of the train but we didn’t have any maps – very typical of me. But as soon as we exited the train station I saw a sign that said exotic gardens and since we had planned a visit there it was perfect. Although since we didn’t know how far it would be there were a couple freak out moments when we couldn’t see the next sign and didn’t know if we were on the right track but the soon we saw a sign again :). Although we went in another way, there is a museum right next to the gardens that offers a combo-ticket, which is free for under 26 year olds :) whippiiiii. He had to pay 10 pounds LOL. So we visited the gallery first and he whined all the way through like could you please shut up for one second. It was a modern art gallery so as he’d say: just red blobs on the wall, I could do the same. Luckily (for him) it wasn’t a huge gallery :P. I wasn’t thrilled about it but hey, it’s not too bad to get some fine culture ;) into our trip. Finally found the exotic gardens and guess what he whined practically all the way through them as well. Let me enjoy my cacti in peace please!!!! He wasn’t that bad lol. The garden was huge and since it was on a hillside you could see it spreading up the hill, when down or downhill when you were up. So for me it was a totally new experience, I’m used to seeing most of the garden in front of me all the time and see where I’m going to end up if I take one route, but there it was like a maze with stunning views to Monaco. I liked it a lotJ. Aaaand there were fishies in the pond. 

After spending a couple of hours up the hill we decided that the old town should be right in front of us and we had to go down the hill to then go back up to old town. And tha’ts what we did, without a map and without any signs to help us this time, but I wasn’t worried. Another first I experienced while in Monaco: public lifts in the streets to take you up or down the hill. Bizarre... But they are really handy although you’re not always sure where you end up in :) Found our way to the stunning old town and having a walk through it, didn’t visit the Palace but just seeing it was enough for me :). Then the Japanese gardens. Compared to the exotic gardens I thought the Japanese one was a bit bland... Yeah yeah I know it is autumn but still I’d expected more because the exotic gardens had so many different plants. Japanese gardens were considerably smaller to be fair but still, I wanted more :D Not to say that it isn’t worth going to, because it totally is and Mr. Special liked the Japanese gardens better than the exotic ones.

It was around four o’clock when we decided to find a place to eat – a pretty normal time to grab something to eat right? Oh no no no no not in France or Monaco because the vast majority of restaurants close their kitchens around 2-3 and re-open around 7 in the evening again -.- In the meantime they just serve drinks. What a stupid system! Luckily we found a small cafe that still served crepes and galettes :) mmmmm so good :)

Had a quick look into the Monte-Carlo Casino – Mr. Special was like a little kid while there, he was sooo excited. To me it was a bit too fancy, people were drinking champagne etc. I just felt that I don’t fit into that lifestyle. And I thought it’d be bigger because of seeing films and tv-shows about Las Vegas casinos which are huge. But it only had two rooms, one with the card tables and lots of room around them, there weren’t a lot of people there because it was in the middle of the day and the other room with the machines and again a lot of room to walk and mingle and whatever they do. I don’t know... It just was a bit weird for me... Haha I’ll never become addicted to gambling because I’m too afraid to go into a casino – which is a good thing :) lol.

Cactus :)

The view to Monaco from the Exotic Gardens - the old town part is on the right side corner

"me and Mr. Special" 

lol actually just some random people but use your imagination ok ;)

Fishies :)

Cacti

From the top entrance of the exotic gardens -

 Most of Monaco is down there :P

Japanese Gardens

Fishies again so are they exotic fishies or Japanese fishies?!?

The Monte-Carlo Casino

Our tiny trip to Italy’s border town coming up soon :)

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Nice Nice

So back to my lovely lovely holiday week that is now over L I want to go back!!!!!!

Besides visiting all the nice little fairytale towns we also visited the bigger ones.

At first we had planned 2 days for Nice but since we failed going to Eze and Menton at the same day we had to leave only one day + the evenings because our hotel was there, to discover Nice and I can say now that only one day is not enough! The old town with its narrow streets between high buildings is a sight to see. I think that the end of October was the perfect time to visit too, because the weather is still  warm and nice but there aren’t as many tourists around as in the high season. The streets were still full of people so I can only imagine how horrendous it might be trying to find your way around and look at some on the narrow streets when there is constantly someone breathing on your shoulder or trying to pass by, or maybe it’s just my imagination and it isn’t so bad during the summer. We managed to squeeze in an organic wine-tasting. At first I was a bit disappointed when I found out that it isn’t the obvious visit the wine cellar etc but just sitting around the table and drinking wine :D but the guy in charge was so good and knew so much and knew how to deliver his knowledge without making us feel like we were in a lecture. He made it fun and no I wasn’t drunk after that :D It lasted for about 2 hours – scheduled 1,5h – and we tasted, the six of us, 6 wines. And by the end you could take any bottle that still had something in it with you and I did, lol :D red wine – Mr. Special hated it. But he loved one sweet white wine that he bought two bottles of and on rosé.

Do I need to mention how awesome the promenade des Anglais is? It goes on forever! Airport on one side and the port on the other ;)

On a Friday we found an awesome Chinese takeaway practically next to our hotel. Why didn’t we find it sooner – I wasn’t keen on going and finding proper restaurants in the old town so would’ve loved to have that takeaway lol I’m a simple country girl and can’t handle fancy fancy restaurants which does not mean that we didn’t go to any but means that although the food was nice and interesting I still would’ve preferred spending 10x less money on it :D Anyway at the Chinese takeaway you could actually see what you were ordering – like a market rather than a restaurant where the kitchen is hidden and you know what you ordered only after paying. So at first we were like OMG i want this and that and this and trust me it was delicious!!!!!!

The castle hill – a huge park with a stunning view to the city, there used to be a castle there duh, but now all there is the ruins of a church (if I remember correctly, plese don’t quote me on this!!!). And it is high up! So if you´re lazy and can’t be bothered to take the stairs you can take the lift. A free public lift... That’s perfectly normal.

Ooooh.. I managed to amaze Mr. Special with my ability to navigate without looking at the map every second. We decided to go to the Russian Cathedral, so had a quick look where it is and we went but the road wasn't obviously straight and when a minor turn came he was like "how do you know where you are going???!!!" Because I looked at the map and remembered my general direction where to go!!! When he tries to navigate like that he has to stand still in the middle of the street and look around with a confused look on his face but I will just look at the signs and buildings while moving and I do not look like a stupid tourist.

Ooh and we made a bet: whoever spots a British licence plate gets 5 pounds from the other one. I saw the first one in Villefranche sur mer - because obviously it had a big GB sticker on it. And since basically all the other European countries have the little country mark on the licence plate I thought that the UK has one too - because how on earth would I know what the UK licence plate looks like otherwise. But Noooo the british are freaking too good for that apparently. So when Matt actually screamed and scared me to death on a street in Nice because he'd spotted a british number plate I refused to give him any money since it didn't have the country marker on it! So how would I know - then while we were arguing another one drove past without the marker and he saw it. No way I was giving him any money!!! He wasn't too happy about it :D Then on the last day when we got a taxi to the airport I spotted a british licence plate yet again and indeed it had the little blue UK spot on the plate so HA! but since we were even he'd seen two and same for me I didn't make him pay this time - look who kind I am :)

The Russian Cathedral

The view to Nice from the Castle Hill

A part of Promenade des Anglais from the Castle Hill

Nice port

The narrow streets of the old town

A shop in the old town

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Getting lost in little Frenchie towns

The week has flown by and been well spent, in my humble opinion at least. Most of the week we spent discovering little towns in Cote d’Azur and may I say WOW WOW WOW. They have been breathtaking and jaw-dropping just amazing. At first when planning out our week we were like a day for these 3-4 towns because they were so close to each other by train and the train went every half an hour but 2 towns a day is the most you can do I think. Yeah they look tiny and they are but you can get lost in them and not in the sense of omg I don’t know where I am but in the sense of wow lets go there and there and then take that street and make that turn etc. So you’re standing in a street corner hoping you could split yourself into two and take both the left and right turn so you just wander round just to get a feel of the town and not looking at the map all the time to know exactly where you are because it doesn’t matter. You want to take a picture of every view (keep in mind we visited the coast and a couple of town in the mountains) of the breathtaking light blue sea, of every beautiful and colourful shutter bordering the windows, of every building, of every street and so on and so on. But pictures never capture the beauty the way eyes and the memory does. Later you’ll flick through the photos and yes, you’ll have some pearls, some pics that are wow but all the rest are just another picture of another beautiful street, view, building etc but nothing compared to what your eyes saw in reality.

To give you an idea of what the hell am I talking about I’ll try to pick out just one! Can I do that? Which one is the best photo of every town? Keep in mind that I’m not a great photographer either but I try :P

Mandelieu-La Napoule

We went there for the castle and although it wasn’t the proper huge one that you think of when someone mentions the word castle it was still worth going to and the surrounding garden was marvellous.

Gourdon

The tiniest little town almost on top of the mountain range. Only 3 streets but so worth going to! Had lunch at a restaurant with a view to the valley – to a girl who comes from a flat country: our highest point (everyone says it with so much pride in their voice and so do I J ) 318 metres and it’s called the BIG egg mountain; that view was unbelievable.

 Do you see those two? buldings? Yeah that's the village :D

 St Paul de Vence

Beforehand when trying to plan where to go we read some forums etc and everyone said that this town is a must see so expectations were high. Drumroll. And they were met: little narrow streets going up and down containing one art gallery after another, little cafes, everything you could ever ask for when trying to absorb the prettiness of small French medieval towns. Picturesque everywhere you look.

Villefranche sur mer

Town that Mr. Special picked out, then forgot about, then remembered again, then didn’t think we had the time to go (I insisted that we’d make time) and then loved it and talked about going back the rest of the trip. Underground street!!! Well maybe it isn't actually underground but under buildings? can't remember anymore and forgot to check at the time but yeah on that street you can't see the sky!

Beaulieu sur mer

A 20-minute walk from the previous town – Mr. Special wanted to take the train at first because it is so far and could be miles away and blah blah blah but luckily I insisted and got my way because it was a lovely walk on the promenade! At first we didn’t actually plan on seeing the town because we wanted to go to the Greece Villa and then take the bus to Eze but it got too late (by the time we would’ve got there it would’ve been dark), so we had a nice little stroll on the streets of blublublu (Mr. Special can’t pronounce the name properly).

Eze

On our third attempt to go there we finally succeeded :D First time we got off at the train station of Eze but turns out it’s Eze sur mer and not the actual touristy village everyone wants to go to – you could get a bus from the station but we thought we wouldn’t have time that day. The second attempt was when we visited Villefranche and Beaulieu and wanted to do Eze too but it got too late. So now we were up early and ready to go and knew where and how to go. And it was worth having its own day :) It had an exotic garden and I've found a likeness to gardens on the mountains so different to the usual gardens that you see in front of you. Also I noticed a Relais & Chateaux hotel which had rooms on the street! Yeah the hotel wasn't just one building - or maybe it was :P but you had streets in the hotel then. And we walked past one room that had the do not disturb sign on the doorknob :D lol wink wink.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Bring on Cote d'Azur

It feels I’ve only been in Corsica for 5 minutes but it’s already time for my first holiday, just to be clear: an official holiday from Uni – no lectures. And just before the holiday started I had some good news: on any of my courses I do not need to write any essays or dossiers or whatever coursework – just the exam!!!! Well that makes my life a bit easier – until the exam of course and tourism exams are already before Christmas – when do I have time to revise????

But now a full week without any lectures what to do? Travelling around Corsica sounds nice but it’s such a hassle at the moment so I came up with a plan to go to Nice and the surrounding areas (Monaco, Cannes, St. Tropez etc) for a week since Mr. Special would have to fly to Nice anyway (and then take a ferry or god knows what to get to Corsica) so I decided to meet there J When else is a better time to go to Nice when I live practically next to it?

A bit of drama and stress always follows me around – it’s my curse. So on Tuesday I learned – totally by accident – that we have another tourism law lecture on Thursday at 14. I had planned that time to for packing and cleaning and preparing. Oh well. So went online to look at the timetable and it wasn’t there – i knew it was taking place but just didn’t know where... Of course that would’ve been easily found out by texting someone from that lecture but since it had homework to be done (pretty hardcore if you can imagine – law!!!) I was like naaaaaahhh I’m Erasmus, no one cares anyway :D although I kinda already told the lecturer that I would be there and he was supposed to tell me the exam date then... Oh well... I’ll just say I forgot, or didn’t know the room (which is true!), or didn’t understand or whatever if he remembers in a couple of weeks – which I hope he doesn’t :D. While looking at the timetable I noticed that my Friday 9 o’clock lecture was cancelled – good news, that meant that I could take and earlier train to Bastia and have a wander round there J Asked the other Aber girl to come with me for the day.

On the AirFrance (oooh yeaaaaaah flying with a proper airline – my wallet is crying but my heart jumps with joy) webpage it says that you can check-in online 30h before the flight. So tried doing that about 28h before. And nothing... Put in all my details and it said can’t find the booking!!! WTFUUUUUUUUDGE!!! No no no no no what do you mean can’t find the booking???? So tried another million times – nothing, in panic wrote them am I able to board the plane tomorrow etc. And went to print out all the receipts and confirmation for the flight because the library was supposed to close pretty soon. When I came back AirFrance had answered my e-mail by saying that everything seems to be fine and I can check-in online 24h before my flight. Ummmm..... who makes the rules in your company? You should stick to them and not panic the clients. But no real worries since AirFrance does have the opportunity to check-in at the airport and not on-line.

At 6 AM the other Aber girl had sent me a text saying that she still hadn’t gone to sleep and won’t come to Bastia with me L So instead of taking the early 8AM train I took the 11 o’clock train – otherwise I’d die in boredom – because I can’t really enjoy myself when I have to be somewhere (at the airport) at a certain time and spend the day before alone in a new town. So I had time to try to check-in online again, now about 12h before my flight. And still we can’t find your booking??? What the hell? I’m so done with this.

To consolidate myself I went to a chocolate fair in Bastia!!!! OMG macaroons macaroons macaroons, chocolate – purple, blue etc. Chocolate crayons and whatever else you can imagine!!! I was in seventh heaven. A part of me wished I had thought of taking cash with me, the other part was happy with the 10 euros in my purse. So I bought some chocolate crayons :P

It was so hot in Bastia with my jeans on and my little suitcase, so I was really happy when there were clouds in the sky :P Had an awkward moment at the automatic toilet because how do you know if it’s locked or not? Well I didn’t want to risk it + I think I went in too early – the other person had just left and I saw how the toilet cleans itself – it sprayed water everywhere – not on me thankfully :D but yeah the toiletseat was wet and since there was no toilet paper... Well I wasn’t in a rush...

I got to the airport about 1h 45min before my flight and I’m so used to having check-in open 2h before your flight, but mine wasn’t – another time to panic and go ask someone what the hell (this I’ve gotten from Mr. Special because I’m usually the one who suffers and figures things out on my own, but he always asks EVERYTHING from random people). But everything went fine J a little last minute no announcement gate change but luckily I figured it out J Turns out I flew with AirCorsica – a little tiny plane – only 4 seats per row so no middle seat and the woman next to me – who had a window seat decided to go sit somewhere else – WIN! Except for the guy in front of me who stank of sweat – have you ever heard of a deodorant or washing????  

And now I’m here writing this as I wait for Mr. Special at Nice airport. (not the actual time of publishing though).

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...