Rainydaze

Nice is like it’s name: nice. I loved the Italian food, and great beaches. It was a good place to relax after rushing around London and Paris.

The only bad thing that happened was that we walked into a park at night (bad idea, folks) to take pictures of some flowers. Apparently we disturbed the resident homeless man and his dog (because everyone in France, even the homeless, have dogs). He started swearing at us, in both French and English. We got the message and were about to leave when he threw a bottle and it landed SMACK! on the back of my head. Needless to say, my head hurt the next day.

Anyways, heed my lesson and stay away from the parks at night, and you’ll have a great time!

San Francisco made for a wonderful summer trip! I loved the food, the stores, and the whole feel of the city. The mix of cultures made for a great experience, and also made me long to go back.

My favorite moment was the first night of our trip. We were bored and my mother and sister were asleep, so my father and I decided to go for a late night trolley ride. We had planned to get on and get off on the next stop, but as the ride began one stop turned into the next, and then another.

“It goes in a circle,” my dad finally said, “So we’ll just ride until we get back to the hotel.”

He couldn’t have been more wrong. It turned out that there IS an end to the cable cars route (I would have known that had I read the guide books a little more carefully). Not only that, but it was miles away from our hotel, and the line to get on the returning trolley was almost as long as it would take us to walk back!

“I know,” my father grinned, “Let’s just walk up the hill to the third stop. That way we can get on quickly.”

I agreed, and so we started the uphill trek. If only I had known that the hill we were to climb was not a normal hill. It was a San Francisco hill, and it seemed to be a inch away from being entirely vertical.

30(?) minutes later we were standing at the top of the hill, panting, our arms and legs which had already been tired from traveling now close to dead. The cable car came and we barely squeezed onto the side.

I should have been mad, or frustrated, or weary. Instead, I was clinging onto the side of the cable car, watching as the old houses flew by in the dark, and I was happy. I was euphoric, enchanted under the spell of the magical city. I felt like I could ride forever.

Unfortunately, we came to our stop and had to go back to the hotel. But our first night adventure made for an amazing start to one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on.