A Year Abroad: Moneyco.

Liz had uni at lunchtime today, and as she lives in Nice and has been to Monaco before, I flew solo. The bus cost one euro, and was supposed to take about 45 minutes. There must have been roadworks or something because it took over an hour. When I arrived, I hadn't look at a map of Monaco or anything so I didn't really know where I was. I grabbed some food from a supermarket and went walking. I saw a path that was heading in an upwards direction and thought it might be heading to a lookout of sorts. And what a lookout it was. Turns out, the path was actually to the palace. The view was incredible, and I perfected my skills in asking other people to take photos of me! I explored the narrow streets around the palace and grabbed my first savoury crepe in a small restaurant.

Arriving in Monaco

In front of the palace

The palace

A massive statue at the lookout

The view from the palace

Me and the view! (got really good at asking people to

take photos for me!)

The palace

Lunch street

Checkout this link for a dodgy 360 degree panorama I took: http://360.io/DME28H

After, with a bit of a bearing on where stuff was from up high, I headed back down, going through some gardens, and then out onto the F1 track. It was all set up for the Grand Prix which is in about a week. I didn't think I'd actually be allowed to walk on it, so was heaps sneaky in getting down. And then I realised there were random cars and tourists walking on it everywhere. I used the track as my base point. I would venture out from it and return. I knew that once I got back to the starting line, I would be able to find the bus stop again.

Walking through the garden

Exotic gardens

The grandstand

Getting closer

The pits

On the track

Entrance to the tunnel

In the tunnel

Heaps of ships in the harbour

Coming out of the tunnel

I just walked everywhere, finding a Japanese garden along the way. Climbing a steep section, I ended up at the casino, not actually knowing it was the casino. I arrived at the back of it, and it was a but old building which looked nice so I started taking photos of it, then asked someone where the casino was, and he was like "I thought you were just taking photos of it...". I walked around to the front and voila! Monte Carlo Casino! To get in I had to cloak stuff and register with ID, but then felt like a kid in a candy store (I sound like a compulsive gambler... I'm not). I even giggled at one point.

I wanted to play one game, so opted for blackjack, the safest one and I kind of knew what I was doing. I bet very, very low and lost. So took the hint and left. The guy beside me putting down hundred notes every hand wasnt taking the hint. I'm not sure how much he would have lost just when I was there, but it was a lot. The house just kept winning. It was kind of intimidating with men in black suits all around the walls.

The Grimaldi forum

Japanese Gardens!

It said Monte Carlo, so I took a picture

Back of the casino

Hotel de Paris

Entrance to the casino

Someone parking my car for me

Hotel de Paris

Monte Carlo casino in all its finery

Here's another dodgy 360 view: http://360.io/xrk8VP

After leaving the casino, I rejoined the f1 track and kept following it around back to the starting line, taking small detours around backstreets. I arrived back where I started, found the bus stop and jumped on one back to Nice. I knew Liz had an exam the next day, so to give her time to study at home, I explored the surrounding streets of Nice, grabbing gelato from an amazing little outdoor store. Absolutely amazing tutti fruiti. I headed back home at about 6pm and napped for a while, until we both went out and grabbed some dinner and walked the streets of Nice for a while, walking along the beach, which was cool.

I then looked up plans for visiting Italy tomorrow!