Classy girls pee in the Mediterranean.

I know that we have a bit to catch up on, but I am on a horrible French keyboard where the letters are all out of place so this may be brief. Last you heard from us, we were enjoying the hills of Tuscany that were pretty, despite being a taaaad bit isolated. Well, our last day there was spent in Florence, and it was actually nice to be back to our old routine of sightseeing. The weather was supposed to be horrible but God decided to like us and it didn't rain too much. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, 463 steps, and the sun came out to give us a good view of the city. Florence is pretty and very walkable (unlike Paris which has killed my legs; they have given up at this point). We checked out a couple of museums, because what is Florence is famous for?? It's art! So we saw Michaelangelo's David and The Birth of Venus, both of which we stood in line for a good deal of time. But it's ok, we had modern technology on our side and watched episodes of The Office on Kati's iPod while we waited. Our last night in Tuscany was very entertaining as we decided to stay up all night (we had to leave at 6am anyway). This was Kati's idea, one that she claims was a joke in the first place and I'm sure later regretted joking about [she fell asleep anyways]. Somehow the guys who worked at the hostel (the Vandy ones) agreed to stay up with us (stupid on their part) and we played cards, watched X-Men 3 and bad Italian television. When the sun started to rise and the rooster started to crow (no joke), we finished packing and hiked, yes, hiked, the 2 kilometers to the bus stop, at 6am, with our huge framepacks. You should have seen us, because that officially made us backpackers. The bus ride (which began very disheartened, because it drove back through the 2km we had just hiked) ended up being very pretty as the mountains we stayed in turned into rolling hills. We went through the smaller Tuscan towns like Vinci (Leonardo's birthplace), and it was very nice in the early morning sun.

So we ended up in Nice! A new language that we can both understand!!! We stayed at Villa Saint Exupery which used to be a monastery. We took the tram up a hill where we could've called the hostel to pick us up, but we decided to walk ourselves. From this experience we learned to not be independent and take all the free handouts we can get, because we ended up hiking up the steepest hill I have ever seen with huge backpacks and running on zero sleep. The hostel was great though, and the best part was each night they prepared a homecooked meal for €6,50. GLORY. We enjoyed pot roast, salad, and potato wedges, and went to sleep by 10:00 (clearly we are wild). The next day we went to Monaco, because buses between towns on the Cote D'Azur are only €1. The bus ride is a tour in itself, because it is a gorgeous ride that goes along the coast. Monaco is very fancy and very overpriced...lots of fancy cars and private banks. So we did what we do best by finding a public pool (yes, we had our swimsuits on) and paying €3 to swim and relax. The weather ended up being gorgeous, despite the forecasts for rain during our entire French Riviera stay. Sunday we took the bus the other direction to Cannes [Monaco is east of Nice; Cannes is west] with one mission: beach! Cannes is the only town with sandy beaches, so we camped out for the entire afternoon and enjoyed a swim in the Mediterranean. Upon our return to Nice, we climbed a hill in the old town just to get the nice view that we require from each city we visit and returned to our hostel for a dinner of beef stew (the previous night was roast turkey, rice, and green beans; I recommend this place just because of the dinners). We didn't see too much of Nice because we opted for other towns and beach instead, but it definitely is a place that deserves a better look. Out of all the places we have been, this is the one I would liked to have stayed longer, because there are so many places to explore. You can sightsee and lounge at the beach, but 2.5 days is not enough for both. It would be a good vacation spot for a week or two (parents...forego Florida for France?).

I am done with this keyboard. The Q and A have switched locations, as well as the Z and W. And you have to use the shift key for numbers and the period. And the M has taken up residence where the apostrophe lives. France is out of control.