In the Middle of Nowhere?!: 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 :)