A blur of cities...

Milan was a nightmare. We landed around 6 in the evening caught a bus to the city center arrived there around 8:pm found an Internet café but did not find a hostel. My on line search showed hardly anything as far as places to stay for cheap. We narrowed down our search to a hotel that said they had beds for 19€ ea. Found our way there but when we arrived the desk clerk didn’t speak English and he wanted 70€ for the room. Barely able to afford the 19€ price we tried somewhere else.. Finally around 11:30 pm we arrived (through a very “dodgy” part of town) at a YHA hostel found our rooms and didn’t even think about seeing any of Milan that night...

The next morning I was ready to keep moving.. After reading my very disappointing guidebook that did finally give us the hostel in Milan. I decided to skip Milan and hit the road to Toulouse...

Not wanting to miss any of the coastline along the area of Europe that is most compared to Santa Barbara I opted for the train leaving in 20 minutes. So a quick good bye and I was out of Milan..

 

I could be in Malibu right now moving west along this coast really brings me back home..

And with the mountains on the opposite side of the train I’m just amazed by my decision to not say around for a few days. But I will be back through this area.

The sky is clear and the water is blue.. Town after town and I’m really enjoying my trip. (In fact I’m writing this as we go through every “Galleria” (tunnel in Italian) so I can stand and move from one side of the train to the other side taking photos as we speed along chasing the sunset..

I just hope we can get to Monaco before it sets and I can’t see anything.. 

So I think I’m in France as all the signs have changed and yes the announcement is now in French..  I never saw the border but that’s understandable as I was so captivated by the beautiful coastline I’m traveling along.

Menton. Just another stop along the way. Oh but its my first back in France. 

I'm Still hopping to see Monaco in the day light but sadly I’m loosing hope as my arrival time into Nice was supposed to be at 4:16 pm and my train was 30 minutes late leaving Italy. I believe it will still be light out when I get there even with the delay.. (Argh I keep missing shots because I’m inspired to write.) I believe Monaco is the next stop. WOW the underground station could compare with any station in Moscow. Not in the marble that the Russian stations have but in the beauty of it.. It’s got wonderful wood work and windows to the out side...

 

I don’t know how it happens but I seam to do very well when faced with a problem when I’m in France.. 

I remember my first trip here this year. I landed in Bordeaux not knowing how I would get to the train station or even where it was I was helped by to beautiful sisters that offered me a ride lunch carried one of my bags and even translated at the ticket counter.. Then at the other end of the train ride later that day I was given a free sim card for my phone. I thought my luck had run out, but now that I’m back in France the beautiful women are helping me again.

And I’m very grateful...