Après Nice retour à la merde

Bonjour mes amis,

Pourquoi ce titre ?... vous allez en savoir

En fait je viens de Paris (pas vraiment) qui aime bien voyager surtout aller vers les pays, villes où il y’a de la mer, des montagnes et du soleil. Ca me permet de découvrir un nouveau monde, de rencontrer les gens, des voyageurs comme moi, et surtout la cuisine.
J’ai passé une superbe journée à Nice, une ville sud-est de la France qui est fameuse pour son « Côte d’Azur » … je continue en anglais pour ne pas embêter mes amis anglophones.

Well, I have been to Nice, one of the French coastal cities in south-east of France, famous for its beach line “Côte d’Azur” or near by the famous city of Cannes of “Cannes film festival”.
Being born in a family of travel enthusiasts, as a kid my dad used to take us to mountaineering, trekking expeditions and we used to enjoy a lot… time went by and these expeditions lessened. But, this thing is something like in blood, you got time & right attitude, go out and enjoy.

I was getting bored from the usual Parisian life and needed a change. Having limited budget, I didn’t wanted to go out and stay waiting for a job opportunity. I got a call from an institute near Nice to have an interview locally; I hesitated, but thought to give it a try and what a stroke of luck! It was the right time and the right city to be in!

I started my journey on 18th morning and reached Cannes in the afternoon (got to have a glimpse of Mediterranean Sea from the TGV and knew where I was heading), after giving an interview at Sophia Antipolis (Silicon Valley of France), I went to Nice to spend a day & half there.
I lodged the first night (18th) at “Backpacker’s chez Patrick” on “rue de la Pertinax” adjacent to the “avenue Jean Médcin”, that evening I went to walk besides the seashore, amazing, crystal clear blue water, sound of sea & fresh air.

The next morning I decided to discover more of the city, its cuisine and people. In the morning I changed the hostel to “Auberge de jeunesse” and went out for discovery, as I passed by the avenue Jean Médcin, it remembered me of “Connaught Place” in New Delhi (architectural similarities), when I read about the city’s history, astonishingly, there was mention of Duke of Connaught who helped to remodel Nice.

Next was “Colline du chateaux” a site of historical importance and establishment of Nice as a port. Now a day it’s a hilltop ruins of medieval castle which gives a panoramic view of the city.
Haven’t eaten my breakfast, I thought of having “La Socca”, pancake made from chick-peas flour & olive oil. Coming down the hill from Colline to Old Nice (Vieux Nice) was a task (the sign boards on the hill are confusing).
I found a road side eatery called “Lou…” famous by its Niçois food & wooden roadside tables; I got into a discussion with local people about the city, Niçois French accent is different  and not so easy to pick up ;) (I can’t generalize having chatted with only a couple of people) …. But it has an Italian influence for sure. …. Next hop was of course sea beach & tanning, it was wonderful, under the sun, cold sea breeze & fresh air. I stayed there for some 4 hours and started again to discover the city, I was astonished to see Russian architecture while coming from Sophia, so I decided to have a look. It’s a Russian Orthodox Church commissioned by Tsar Nicolas II of Russia built on a private property (so it’s paid to enter the church – which I didn’t do).

Tired, I returned to hostel…. here I will meet some interesting people….
2 Germans (a guy & a girl)
1 French girl
1 American girl
1 Japanese guy (I wasn’t able to recollect his name, so I called him Kung-Fu)

All these people want to visit India someday, specially the French girl, she told me she need to prepare mentally to go to India (I don’t understand why? – It’s not like bungee jumping or sky diving) the only preparation I did to come to France was visa & baggage….. still very confused about the “mental” preparation one needs to go to my beautiful country.

The night we had a drink together and got to know more about each-other (Germans, Japanese & myself)… I went back to the same restaurant and had Niçoise specialities:

Pissaladière – a share of Onion&Olive Piza
Farsi – Vegetable stuffed with meat – don’t miss it!!
La Socca again

The next morning we had breakfast together and exchanged our contacts, hope we remain in touch & meet somewhere someday!

And now about the title: After getting a refresher at Nice, I returned to Paris & immediately felt like being suffocated and stressed… that’s why return to “la merde” (the usual shit)

More to come… keep checking…

Yours Pranay

Venice Week-end 18-20 Nov 2005

Welcome to paradise !

But, I need to decide whether I found the city paradisque or not.

I started my journey on 18^th November from Beauvais airport some 70 kms and an hour and half from Paris city. The reason behind this journey was:

1. To get some rest from stressful life of Paris and relax.

2. To meet an uncle (my dad’s childhood friend) who was coincidently in Italy.

Way out & Ostello

Having limited budget for my adventure, I decided to find a youth hostel or dormitory for the 2 nights I was to stay. Surprisingly, I found over the internet hostel Santa Fosca: http://www.santafosca.com/statiche/ostello/servizi.asp

And the return flight to-fro Venice by Ryanair http://www.ryanair.com/ . I shall guide and hence share my week-end experience with you.

Access to Beauvais airport from Porte de Maillot: bus (13€). Beauvais airport is small airport handling only low-cost airliners.

Voilà I landed on Venice airport in the night and took a bus from Treviso airport for Venice city.

Welcome to beauty! I stepped my foot inside a bateau for the first time. Venice is a city abundant with water, and, boats or vaporettos are the major mode of transport. Air seemed to be fresh, tinge of cold et c’est parti.

I was there for 2 days and 2 nights, the week-end of 19^th November.

As I booked the hostel for Friday night, I took my way through narrow pathways, guessing my way over few bridges. It was cold and dark, yet it was beautiful. There were some young people roaming around, must be backpackers as myself.

Finally I reached Ostello Santa Fosca late at night, thanks to kindheartedness of Erika, the girl at the reception who agreed to keep the room keys outside the hostel (It would have been risky).

Day 1, Uncle St. Marco et all

The next morning, I woke up early to discover the city myself. Mornings are different than afternoons and afternoons are tiring than evenings. So, I started for my discovery crossing streets, narrow lanes, and small bridges looking at people, local & otherwise noticing their activities and sensing the air of Venice morning life.
You can roam around Venice very easily; it’s a small city with well connected lanes and by-lanes. But, at times it becomes confusing because there are no signboards or if there are, they are old or hidden somewhere.
In the afternoon after having my breakfast, I went to Santa Lucia railway station (I will tell about this station later in the write-up) to meet my uncle who was arriving from Trieste, a small Italian city near Venice.
After freshening up, we decided to discover more of Venice à pied and take the boat to visit nearby islands the day after.
We crossed some streets, between the hush and rush of off-season visitors, (still there were many) and reached San Marco. A very beautiful palace museum with gold studded interiors and exteriors. The palace (now converted into museum) has huge courtyard to welcome ever-growing number of visitors, the entrance to the courtyard occupied by expensive jewel merchants on two sides and continued with Grand Canal on one and general shops on the other. Inside the palace there is huge veranda linked to 4 parts of museum, and the bloody (chiant) thing is you have to start from one end and come from another; you can’t come down and revisit one area or start from the middle. Maybe it happened with us because we entered late. The museum closes at 5 in the evening!
Indeed, it’s a beautiful museum palace worth visiting with stunning interiors.
Now regarding food, if you are looking for Italian specialties, you would get it here, but as it’s not “that” famous Italian food, I was obliged to eat fast-food (paninis, pizzas) and buy some stuff from BILLA supermarket for morning breakfast.