Cannes

After saying for years that I hated flying and would only travel via ground transportation, I willingly booked a 16 hour flight to Nice, France. It actually turned out to be a decent experience. I was delayed for an hour in both Cleveland and JFK, which made for a fun jog thru customs and the Paris airport, but I arrived on time. I made a 20 minute bus ride to Cannes and met us with Nate where we then proceeded to La Bocca, which is just a short distance from downtown Cannes. You would think after very little sleep, I would have been ready to crash but I was actually ready to go out and explore. The first stop was the ATM and a local grocery for breakfast and snack foods. We then went to the local regular stop for dinner, Bocca Croq. Their best item the Americana Bocca Croq, which was a Philly steak on a French baguette topped with fries. It was amazing and probably not at all French, but well worth it. I then went to one of Nate's work events where they were hosting a short film festival for college students. It was nice to meet his work team (who made the stay so much fun!) and relax for a bit. We then went to a local place for the afterparty they had for the students. My night finally came to a close at 3:30am and it made for a great first day overseas.

 By day 2, my long days caught up to me, so a day at the beach was in order. I made my way down to the shore and found the perfect spot where I stretch out and enjoyed listening to the clear blue waves come crashing in. I quickly learned that tops were optional for everyone and apparently speedos for men was a staple. I managed to catch up on some rest and get some rays. That evening we went out on the town in Cannes with Matt and Logan, two of Nate's work mates. We had a great dinner at a local restaurant and then went to an after party. It was a gorgeous night and we had a lot of fun hanging out with all the interns on a pier in the middle of Cannes. Time flew by and after a very long journey home, we made it to bed by 4am. I haven't really had to do a whole lot of adjusting to the time change at this point, to say the least. On Saturday I was finally able to get out and experience the whole Cannes/film festival experience. We went into the festival for a bit to work the booth. My hopes of running into a celebrity while we were there didn't happen. We then ate lunch with a group and I had an amazing cafe drink (which was essentially a frappecino but waaay better).


 At this point I had realized that the large majority of dishes revolved around ham,cheese, bread, and eggs. This is ok with me since I love them all. We then walked around Cannes, did some shopping, and checked out the celebrity yachts parked in the dock. These vessels were a site to be seen, larger than most houses and absolutely beautiful. The town was packed with people, but it was really fun to see all the activity. When the evening rolled around Nate, Matt, Logan, and I made our way to see the areas oldest castle which sat atop a hill right next to the festival. We went up while the sun was setting and it made for an amazing view. By the time we made it back down it was time for dinner and then it started raining.

We were hoping to hit the last movie on the beach where we were hoping the surprise movie was one of Marilyn Monroe's since she was the face of the festival. The guys were actually hoping it was Dumb and Dumber. The rain had slowed so we made our way to the beach where we quickly realized the movie was actually a terrible foreign film. We decided that gelato and a walk around town was a much better alternative. I also got to see the red carpet entrance that occurred for every premier. I had no idea who the people were, but they must have been important because there were hundreds and hundreds of people there. I didn't get to catch a film while at the festival, but it was still awesome to experience the festival. Sunday we decided to take the hour train ride to Monaco and try to catch the grand prix, which was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was actually not a very nice day and we arrived late in the race so we ended up watching the end from the top of the town and in a local restaurant so we could see exactly what was happening. We we able to hear and see pretty well from there. After the race concluded we decided to make our way down to the festivities, which in hindsight was a terrible idea. We ended up getting stuck in a crowd that I would consider hundreds of thousands of people.

We wanted to go into Monte Carlo which happened to be close to where we originally were at the top of the hill because the track was closed where we needed to walk through. It just so happened when we turned around, those thousands of people were also trying to get to the top of the hill. Logan spotted a back alley set of steps that thankfully took us right where we needed to be and saved us quite possibly hours waiting in line. We made it Monte Carlo where we checked out the large casino which had some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen. It was way to fancy for our taste, so we headed to the other casino which was much more our style. Nate and Matt decided to try their luck at the two cent slots. By the end of that, we were ready to get back and much of the traffic had cleared out. We headed back to Cannes. While in monte Carlo I have neve seen so many fancy cars. Ferraris were as common as mustangs are in the states sprinkle with Audi, Mercedes, Lambo,and every other expensive brand out there. It was an awesome experience to have, but something I wouldn't need to do again. I would love to see Monaco without the hustle and bustle because it was a beautiful country. Cannes was the perfect way to start my trip and I met some very cool people. While I am sad to leave them behind, it's onto the next in Italy!