I’m writing this column from a crowded Internet cafe in Nice, France. Or, as I like to call it, my favorite mistake.
My trip here has been doomed from the start. While I have no regrets about coming here, I have learned one valuable lesson: plan your trip.
I came here with my friend Simon, plenty of stuff and no common sense. I originally planned on coming to Nice to visit my friend Lauren, who is also studying abroad this semester. The only problem with this plan is that she is studying in Aix En Provence, another small town in the south of France. I didn’t figure this out until I had already booked my flight.
My plan centered around traveling in the South, and I decided I would fly into Nice as planned. I could then take buses and trains around the south and still see Lauren in Aix while visiting Nice and Monte Carlo.
I flew into Nice only to find that the buses to Aix en Provence stopped running at 8 p.m. I arrived in Nice at 9 p.m. I called Lauren and told her about the complication and made plans to meet her the next day. Simon and I stayed at a hostel in Nice and woke up the next day to find that there were no buses going to Aix En Provence until 5 p.m., too late for a day trip. Undaunted, we went to the train station only to find that there were no trains to Aix that day.
With one trip blown, we decided not to waste the day and instead took a train to Cannes. The south of France is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The open, quiet neighborhoods were a welcome change from the congested, overcrowded streets of Amsterdam. The pleasant warm weather with the cool breeze coming off of the Mediterranean Sea made Cannes a paradise in contrast to Amsterdam, where it is constantly freezing!
Simon and I made the trip with two girls named Suzy and Austin that Simon knew from his university in Melbourne. We walked along the coast, mesmerized by the beautiful blue water and the massive yachts that lined the docks. The entire city looked like one big postcard.
We found charter ships that made trips to and from the small islands off the coast and quickly jumped at the chance to experience the sea. After a brief and very windy ride we arrived at Ile Sainte Marguerite. There aren’t many words that can really describe this island; somehow “beautiful,” “amazing” and “breathtaking” just don’t do it justice. We found a small cafe where we sat and enjoyed a few glasses of wine and took in the view. I could have sat in that cafe for hours, but we had to catch the boat back to Nice.
By the time anybody reads this, I will be sitting in a casino in Monte Carlo, the capital city of Monaco. This trip has taught me the importance of planning, but it has also taught me the potential benefits of improvising.
 
Will always doubles down.
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