 |
| Meyerbeer Hostel was so welcoming and full of other interesting travelers. I am super appreciative of our first hostel stay experience. |
Our destination last weekend was
Nice, France. Four of my friends and I hopped from Edinburgh to Dublin then
Dublin to Nice. We arrived Saturday evening to stay in our very first hostel
ever. As soon as we opened the door we were greeted by 5 other super welcoming travelers
that would be bunking with us. I immediately liked the place, but let me tell
you, getting to this point wasn’t easy.
After
arriving at the airport, the five of us crammed onto a crowded bus in hopes
(because we didn’t actually know and the driver didn’t speak a lick of English)
it would take us somewhere near our hostel. We got off in the general area and
found the front door of our place locked. We needed some mysterious code to let
us into the lobby of the hostel but had no way of knowing it. We now needed to
call the number on the door to receive said code. This would be much easier if
any of us had working cell phones. Our next task was to locate a working pay
phone. Thank the gods for Marina’s knowledge of a little French, as she was
able to extract rough directions to a phone from a kind super market cashier
down the road. After quite the search, we found one! We weren’t done yet. All
of the instructions for operating this phone were in French, but after a good
10 minutes and a little frustration we did it and received the code! We got
into the hostel and called it a night.
 |
| the city |
That
day we wandered through the city, got gelato from an gelato stand advertising
90+ flavors including tomato basil, olive, cactus, and avocado (I got cookie
butter flavored), we strolled the stone beaches, and I practiced the little French
I knew (which was limited to ordering at a restaurant).
Monday
was another relaxing day. We all had French crepes from breakfast and took a
long nap on the beach. We visited some antique markets and had a relaxing time.
It was an invited change of pace from St. Paddy’s Day in Dublin.
One of
my favorite components of this trip was the language barrier. This was the first
time during my semester abroad I’ve been immersed in a culture where not
everyone spoke English and it was refreshingly challenging. Aside from this,
Nice was beautiful, the people were friendly, and the crepes were delicious.