Ben Murrell

Got up around 6:30 and caught a train to nice, but didn’t get enough tickets for the ride apparently (had to switch in 5 minutes and didn’t realize I needed another). When I bought the ticket, the lady that sold it to me didn’t speak English – I thought she was saying to have a good day or what time the train was… it turns out she was probably telling me I needed to buy another ticket when I switched. Oops. The controllato wrote down 58 euros as the penalty but said since “No italiano” and pointed to his eye as if to point to a tear and the penalty ended up being 5 euros plus the ticket price. I got to Nice around 1pm or so and checked into Hostel Baccarat. Met Canadians and Aussies in my room then went into the Garden/Courtyard. Asked a guy where to get food, went and got cherries, a banana, a baguette, and two beers. Came back and sat with the group the guy was with (who I asked about the food). Ended up being cool Aussies/Kiwis/South African on a BusAbout circuit (Peter, Sam, Beck, Sally, Curly, Niel). We hung out at the hostel then went to a bar that was too expensive so we left, bought champagne, and went to the beach. Sam got in to the water and a homeless guy took 200 euros from his wallet. We hung out with another homeless guy with a drum then went to McDonalds (or Macky’s as they called it) then went back to the hostel.