The serene haven we found ourselves in seemed to be relatively unspoilt by tourist activity. I loved taking in the fresh sea breeze, the bluish-green expanse of the sea stretching for miles beyond, the imposing cliffs with houses gingerly perched at their edges and just hearing the crunching of the pebbles as we strolled along Plage Mala (Mala beach).
right: an audition for heroes? =D
left: Lynn and I loving this tranquil little paradise.
left: Plage Mala, a pebble beach
Along the coastal path, where the huge sea waves came crashing against the unyielding rocks:
above: a tiny island of some sort, a little distance away from the 'mainland'. kinda spells romance.
Hunger called so we headed back to one of a Niçois restaurant for lunch. Since it was gonna be the our last meal in Nice, I told myself that I had to try the renowned Salade Niçoise even though I had a craving for something more savoury. But what a disappointment the salad was! It was a pretty much tasteless haphazard combination of random vegetables. Think it wasn't the authentic Salade Niçoise as the restaurant didn't really seem established. They even served Lynn a Carbonara that tasted really bitter! Poor Lynn was forcing the pasta down as she thought it was probably supposed to be like that until she tasted some of Guillaume's (who had ordered the same thing) and found it nothing like hers! The chef insisted that he made them exactly the same (how could that be?) but reluctantly replaced both hers and Guillaume's with a new batch.
left: La Salade Niçoise
right: the mystery of the Carbonara
As we were making our way back to our hostel to get our luggage, we were lured into this shop which sold a large range of freshly baked cookies and candies. Living in France with all its good food taught us never to reject another meal even after a heavy one. So we each bought a few cookies (rather pricey at about 2 SGD for one) with giant smiles on our faces until we realised that we were running late.
When we reached the tram stop near our hostel, we started panicking like crazy as we had only half an hour till our train would leave for Grenoble (the last train of the day)! But thankfully the hostel staff said it would be possible for them to send us to the train station at a charge of 36€ in total. Also, we had to thank our lucky stars that the staff that was at the wheel was this daredevil English lady who sped us all the way, cursing at the peak-hour traffic that threatened to force us to extend our stay in Nice for another day. It was a nail-biting experience for Lynn and I as the clock ticked cause the experience of missing a train and having to wait 6h for the next one was in the back of our minds.
We reached the train station with 10 minutes to spare and sprinted to locate our platform and validate our train tickets. When we finally sank into our seats on the train with relief, I swore to myself to never let this situation happen again. (fellow travellers please be warned!)
During the 5 hour-long train ride to Valence (where we had to alight to take a 2h bus ride to Grenoble), we shared our cookies, experiences, thoughts, jokes and attempted to act as pro photographers and models with Yunzhi's SLR :) The 5 hours didn't seem that long after all. After that, it was au revoir YZ, who continued on the train back to Lyon.
That marked the end of the last long vacation of my SEP.
The glamour and football :) of Milan, the natural beauty of Lugano, the cultural richesse of Rome and the Vatican, the rustic allure of Napoli, the historical Pompeii, the imposing Mount Vesuvius, the opulence of Monaco and the tranquility of Cap d'Ail. It's true that one cannot truly appreciate the essence of several cities in a span of just two weeks. I'd merely scratched the surface but already I'm in love! Given the chance, I'd return in a jiffy!
Exams in 3 days! Time to hit the books. Zut!
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