France blues

Day 3: Nice

There's a really wonderful little village on a steep hill near Nice. Inside the castle from the 16th century were little cafès and art galleries, and atop the hill was an old church and my personal favourite, an "exotic garden" which featured amazing cacti and succulents so large and extraordibary I never knew plants like them existed. There were cacti as big as trees.


The next stop from there was Nice, which was the kind of city you could spend weeks exploring and not get tired. Beach boulevards, museums, parks, small alleyways... very pictoresque yet lively with street artists and tons of people going about. And not just regulat people, by the way - today was the third time I saw soldiers in full army gear carrying full on assault rifles and patrolling around the streets. It's quite a striking and thought-provoking sight.


The traffic in Nice is pretty amusing. Cars come and go pretty spontaneously, lanes seemed to be recommendations, and parking space was often improvised...


So far I'm liking France a lot more than I thought I would. I had no idea it's so tropical down here - although I can't wait to head several hundred kilometres more south with one backpack, a couple train tickets, and hopefully tons of luck!

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City hiking

Kuva
Day 5: Genova I was too lazy to come up with places to see in Genova, so I just spent most of today wandering around the city without a goal. I like to think of it as city hiking - steadily walking for 4-6 hours enjoying watching the streets, parks, sights and people. It also gives you a nice overview of the city. Based on this brief overview, Genova was a pretty relaxing city. Traffic wasn't insane, the old town was charming, and the harbour beautiful. Kind of wanted to check out the maritime museum, but after 6 hours on my feet already I decided to skip it and head towards the ferry terminal. I'm currently in the ferry towards Sardegna! The ship isn't very big, but otherwise very much like any cruise ship with shops and restaurants. Except you could buy cheaper tickets without getting a cabin, so there are lots of seats and benches around for us cheapskates to spend our night. ;)
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Gelato overload

Days 19, 20: Bologna Unlike with Napoli, I had zero expectations for Bologna. I knew that I wanted to stop somewhere between Napoli and Milano, so I pretty much threw a dart on the map and it landed on Bologna. Now the bad thing about travelling like this is that you have no way to know in advance whether you're going to like some place or not, and I very much wished I had spent these days in Napoli. Bologna is pretty and all, but there's not that much to see - and honestly, I'm not an endurance athlete so walking around for hours every day for weeks was starting to take its toll - so I mostly sat around licking gelato on one piazza. No regrets though, and it was so hot, hotter than in the south,  that that was the most enjoyable activity anyway. Well, never regret seeing extra places :)
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Halfway thoughts

Currently sipping coffee and charging my phone in a cafe, mostly waiting for time to pass by so I can get to my ferry. I'm exhausted - last night was chaotic trying to find a place to sleep while in the harbour at 11pm and then at 2am trying to find a way to get to Napoli the following day. Again, things would have been a lot more difficult without other people's help. Turns out the most important phrase of all is "I don't know what I would have done without you." Yet to prove myself, I want to mention that I got the help I needed because I reached out to the right people at the right time and came up with solutions myself. See, Mom and Dad? I'm out here. I'm doing ok. And I'm clever enough. I'm going to miss this a lot. It feels good to pass by places and cities knowing I'll soon be somewhere else again. Not worrying about anything that might be going on at home, because I'm too far to help anyway. I haven't seen myself in a mirror...
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