Venice---> Monaco ---> Nice ---> Paris

Bobo and I enjoyed Venice.. but all of a sudden we felt a sense of urgency. I was running out of time.. and Bobo wanted to check out other places.. Our original plan was to head to Croatia next. However, getting there on train was going to take quite a bit of time, and we figured that we wouldnt actually have that much time there to relax.. So instead we decided to go to Paris. Bobo hadnt been to Paris yet.. and I felt like returning to my cousins' place to relax for the next few days. At this point we were both perpetually hungry and worn out.
So we headed over to the train station to make reservations for the next train to Paris. I'll never forget what the ticket clerk said.. "The train to Paris is fully booked.. today.. tomorrow.. the day after tomorrow.." They had first class seats available, but they cost about 89 Euros each! It turns out there is only one train a day to Paris.. Bobo and I stepped aside for a while.. we furiously studied our train schedule booklets.. we figured there had to be a way out of this place! Every route we picked was thwarted for one reason or another.. It was almost like we were in Alcatraz.. although im sure the inmates had bigger meal portions. Flights leaving Venice were in the hundreds of Euros.. on our way out of the train station one of those guys in a suit asked us if we were looking for accomodation.. we asked him to get us a ticket to Paris.. he got the idea and left us alone. Eventually we came up with a slightly demented plan.. We made reservations for the next train to Monaco.. and from Monaco take another train heading to Paris. The slightly demented part involved us arriving in Monaco at night.. dumping our bags somewhere.. and walking around the city all night until the first morning train to Paris departs and hop on that. This way we can tour Monaco at night and save our money by not sleeping anywhere.. we were also feeling a bit adventurous. So we hopped on the next train.. to Monaco..

Here's a pic of the station, its quite nice. We arrived around 11pm i think.. it was pretty much deserted..



There's Bobo with his bag..



We didnt find any place to deposit our bags.. Some train stations have automatic bag depot things..

I ventured out of the station for a little bit.. just to see what it looks like outside..



an exotic hospital? after standing there 5 minutes i must've seen at least half a dozen sports cars drive by..



As u can see we were pretty high up..






We asked a woman walking by if she knew of any places to check out.. she told us that everything in Monaco was closed because the prince had just died. How unfortunate... just our luck. So we decided to spend the night in the station.. well until we were approached by two policemen.. they told us that the station closes at midnight, and that we'd have to go to the Nice train station to stay overnight.. We hopped on the last train to Nice..

Bobo found a nice bench in the Nice train station.. took out his bedsheets.. made a nice pillow.. took off his shoes.. and was just about to lie down.. when we were approached by two french policemen with a crazy K-9 dog.. it had a muzzle on its mouth for good reason! They told us we couldnt sleep on the bench.. they asked us to get up and follow them. We walked out on to the train platform.. it was pretty dark.. just us and these two policemen.. I thought maybe we were going to be fed to this dog.. But instead they put us in a room with other unfortunates. The room had the most uncomfortable benchesin the universe.. I can say this with confidence. I must have tried a million different positions.. I just couldnt sleep. Bobo, of course managed to find a way by combining two benches..



He actually started a mini-movement.. Other people started moving benches around once Bobo found his solution.. I just sat there.. I decided it was a good time to clean my pocket knife that had a gazillion functions. I took out some wet wipes.. and started cleaning all the blades.. saws.. scissors.. screwdrivers..etc. As I was cleaning the blades I couldnt help but stare at a corpulent man across the room from me. I must have looked a bit crazy to him.. my hair was a mess.. I hadnt shaved for days.. and I kept starring at him while I polished my knife. I did it on purpose acually.. I was slightly dellusional and got a kick out of it. The poor man couldnt fall asleep.. he kept glancing at me with a disturbed look on his face.. hehehe.. poor man.. Anyways.. im digressing..

After a few hours the policemen came back in and told us not to leave the room.. I think they were releasing the dog.. So for the rest of the night we were prisoners once again. In the morning we rushed to the ticket booth and asked the lady for reservations for the next train to Paris. She told us all the second class seats were booked!! You can imagine how we took that news.. We ended up buying first class tickets.. even though I had one more free train ride on my pass and Bobo had a few more on second class. (In fact I cheated earlier (and got fined) with my pass so i could save a day for the trip back to paris (so I wouldnt have to buy a ticket).. and in the end i never used that last free day.. how ironic) The first class tickets were not as expensive as the ones in Venice.. so we bore the costs. I must say.. first class isnt that much better than second class.. the toilets just smell a lot nicer.. but it doesnt justify the huge price difference.

On our way to Paris we went through an area that had SNOW!! Keep in mind we're travelling around the end of March.. we hadnt seen snow the whole trip..







We started wondering that maybe we should have stuck with going to Croatia!! Well.. we arrived in Paris.. it wasnt snowing there.. thankfully.. and we had a great time with my cousins and their kids..