French Riviera
Our next leg of the journey involved stepping back across the border back into France, staying in a place called
Antibes, a small area of close proximity to Nice. Although the entire area was beautiful and Nice was basically French
paradise (can’t let it go unsaid that Nice was quite nice, sorry), one of the bizarre highlights of this stay was the fact
that our hostel campsite was positioned right next to a small theme park including a 60 metre tall giant swing, which
naturally we had to try. The ride involved three of us slowly getting pulled up to the top most point, 60 metres
above the ground, which had an amazing view over Nice, before we were suddenly dropped said 60 metres down
towards a nice and soft car park, before the rope went taut and we were swung out in an arc. Despite the shared
need of a new pair of pants, it was really one of the coolest rides I’ve done. Apart from the theme park, the only
other places we visited in our short stay were the beachfront shopping strip (I use the term beachfront loosely, as we
discovered in the Greek Islands, what Europeans call beaches we would typically call piles of stones with water next
to them),the Casino and a weirdly enjoyable tour of a perfume factory.
Venice
Italy followed France, with our bus taking us from Antibes across to Venice. Although it was definitely one of the
most anticipated parts of our tour for most, my expectations for Venice had never been that high. I’ve always
imagined it as a city with a cool, novelty layout that would be packed with a never-ending swarm of tourists. This
notion was soon confirmed when we crossed the first few bridges and reach the central St Mark’s square, though
after spending a few hours wandering the backstreets (read getting very, very lost), I fell in love with the city. One
minute we would be walking down a several hundred year old desolate alleyway, and one turn later we would be in
a thriving street filled with street vendors selling venetian glass and masks along a canal. Naturally it’s pretty much
impossible to visit Venice without doing a gondola ride, which I also found a lot more enjoyable than I thought I
would, and our tour manager then took us on to a glass blowing demonstration which only furthered my
appreciation of the waterborne city.
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