the frogs love a good protest

Sorry it's been a while since a worthy blog, the internet in the places we're staying at seems to be getting more and more expensive and spare time has been scarce. So! The last I wrote was in Barcelona, which I have said my fond, but temporary, farewell to. I'm meeting up with some people I met there when I go back on my own which should be awesome. I also met a guy from brisbane who rides these weird bike cab things for a job, and he told me about this awesome awesome place in Grenada.

Apparently they've just recently renovated the old gypsy caves by the beach, and you can stay in them really cheap. Could I possibly stay in a cooler place? I don't think so. So super stoked for that. But anyway, left Barcelona on an amazing note having dinner with some of the girls on the tour and literally nearly peeing my pants laughing over stupid shit. We had some yummy yummy tapas for dinner and then had some gelato before heading back to the hotel and having some drinks to farewell the people that hopped off at Barca. I said goodbye to my two favourite girls on the tour which was sad, but we're on facebook and stuff, and one of them is meeting up with me again in Rome, so that should be cool.

So we left Barca and headed to the French Riviera - and the weather took a pretty awful turn. Cloudy, cold and moggy. We stopped off at a perfumery which was pretty damn interesting, and I did a tiny bit of shopping, which was cool. Did you know it takes 4 tonnes of orange blossoms to make one litre of essential oils? How insane is that? After an incredible dinner in Nice, I turned into an old lady and went to bed at about 9pm. I hadn't slept the past two nights at all, so it finally caught up with me and I had a killer sleep - until about 6am when I heard screaming from outside the hotel.

It might have been on the news in Australia, but there was some crazy rioting all over France about raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. There was all out riots throughout the main street of Nice, even in the awful weather, and there were smoke bombs everywhere. Despite that and the awful weather, I made my way down to the Old Chateau, all the way to the top of the waterfall, and then down to the beach. The stones? Yikes. My feet were pretty unhappy with me. I also spent about 3 hours trying to ask someone where the vet was, because there was a poor little injured pigeon near the water. Honestly, up until that point, the French had been kind and more than accomodating. But the locals in Nice? Obnoxious bastards, seriously. I was really surprised. I did, however, buy a really awesome dress - so it wasn't all bad! I also bought an FC barcelona poofy pillow thing. So far? best 8 euros I've spent. It's actually incredible. It hasn't left my side since I bought it.

That night we headed off to Monaco, and the Monte Carlo Casino. The drive was great, and the buildings were really spectacular. I didn't actually go into the casino, because I thought 40 euro entry fee (roughly $70) was steep to say the least, especially when I don't gamble hah. Dan told me it was just one big room anyway, and you can't take photos inside. So instead, I had dinner with two of the nice girls on the tour. A really great ( and cheap! ) 3 course meal and some yum coffee before we headed back to the hotel for a 6am leaving time to get to Switzerland today.

Well. The weather is really awful! I want my European summer back. The drive was about 12 hours today, and the Italian truck stops are seriously complete chaos. It's like a mosh pit hah. And the system is weird? You have to pay at one register, then she gives you a ticket, then you take it to the next register and she gets out what you want, and then you have to take that food to another register and they cook it? Surely this could all be done by one person! Or at least on one station, not 3 stops for a toasted sandwich thing. Another quirky cultural thing? You have to pay for toilets over here. None of this free business. You've gotta pay for the priviledge to empty your bladder. It's usually around 2 euro? Roughly $3. Lucky for me, I'm kind of a camel. So I'm saving quite a bit of money just holding it in.

So we arrived in Switzerland, and despite the shitty weather, it's still really beautiful. There's a bit of blue sky dotted here and there right now, so I'm hoping it will clear up tomorrow when we head down to Lucerne. We got a cable car up the mountain to our hotel and so far? It's...very dodgy to say the least. One receptionist girl that was sleeping when we got here today at 7pm. I get to my room, it's freezing, the lights all flicker and we apparently have no hot water in the entire place. The thermostat says it's -2 degrees outside.

We're having fondu for dinner tonight, so I'm hoping that will salvage this place a little for me. Tomorrow we're heading down to Lucerne to look at some swiss army knives, and have lunch and shit and I'm taking off away from the rest of the tour to go on a little hike on my own. On the cable car I spotted a pretty awesome beginner's track and there was all deer and shit, so that seems right up my alley at the moment. Been stuffing my face with snacks for these 12+ hour drives, so I need to get my legs moving! We have a nine hour walking tour in Rome in a few days, so I need to be pretty in shape for that.