Be Excellent To Each Other

Regular readers will know I've been away. This is the news from Thursday until Monday.

Thursday we drove to the Hoilday Inn, M4 J4, which MrsA had managed to sort out a room for £60 including 8 days car parking. Perfect for out needs. Having sorted that out, and done a double take at the £280 walk-in rate, we caught a bus to a place called Hounslow (Where I think my mate Mohammed used to live, but I didn't see him there, so I suspect he was lying). We had to change buses about 3 times and get on the one behind for no apparent reason, too. Which was quite exciting. On reaching Hounslow we went on the Underground to Waterloo, so we had to change as Hounslow is on the Picadilly Line and Waterloo isn't. After we emerged from the metal tube of conveyance, it was raining quite a lot. Nevertheless, we soldiered no and after a few wrong turns around the South Bank, joined the queue for The Bubble with David Mitchell. Cutting a story short, he and Robert Webb were brilliantly funny, and DM is a charming and engaging host. The two women on it were rubbish. After that, we went back to the hotel, getting in about midnight for a 5am start.

On Friday, we groggily arose and had a shower and the taxi was on time and we were waiting in the departures lounge at 0610. There were no body scanners which disappointed me slightly, but one cannot afford to not be vigiliant in this day of terrorism so I had to take my belt off instead. The flight was a bit under two hours and BA's service was at its usual high standards. I really don't understand why anybody would fly with anyone else. After landing, it was raining. We grabbed a coffee and the girl behind the tourist information failed her saving throw against my Charm (+35 for 10 seconds on target, the French usually have a high Base resistance to this), and she gave up the information that it was the number 98 bus I needed. This cost 4 Euro, and the ticket allowed me on to the Trams, Buses and something else all day. Which, I have to say is pretty decent value for money. We found the Hotel after walking the wrong way up the road and it was on the 3rd floor, opposite a Solicitor's Office. Our room was nice (we had the Oriental Room at Hotel Wilson). As it was early, we went for a walk to explore our surroundings.

The old town in Nice is a maze of very narrow streets full of little shops, bars and restaurants. There was a flwoer market on, which was lovely, and after about an hour or so of wandering about, we settled down and had a late lunch of Crepes. I had an Oringina, as they tast so much better in France than anywhere else in the world. We walked about a bit more, ending up in a bar on the seafront, next to a casino, where the waiter was most excellent, and had a some drinks (2 pints of beer and 2 bottles of Leffe came to about £25) and then retired for an afternoon nap, as it had been a very long day so far. In the evening, we returned to the old town and had a meal (14 Euro for three courses), and a demi caraffe of wine, which was perfectly serviceable. We fancied a drink and managed to walk into a pub which had Austraian and English staff and was full of Australian and WEnglish people, so we drank up and fucked off sharpish. After that, we went home to bed, and were only briefly disturned by an American girl's voice coming in from outside at about 2am.

The enxt day was spent wallking around the old town again, and we went up to the site of the old fort, overlooking the town and the bay, which was beautiful, as it was warm and sunny, but everso slightly windy. We ate lunch up there and admired the views, as they were most excellent. After lunch, we walked back down and went for a walk through town and along the seafront where we had a beer on the beach (Stella Artois over there is actually drinkable and frightenly expensive at £4 for 250ml) and then along to another bar on the ebach where we ahd another demi carraffe of wine. Back home for another afternoon nap, and then we went onto the market again, and ate in a restarant (23 Euro set menu, 30 Euro bottle of wine) where the food was average, but the wine was good. We went to a place called Les 3 Diablos where beer was still expensive but the service was brilliant, and then off to bed.

The next day was spent wallking around the old town again, and we went up to the site of the old fort, overlooking the town and the bay, which was beautiful, as it was warm and sunny, but everso slightly windy. We ate lunch up there and admired the views, as they were most excellent. After lunch, we walked back down and went for a walk through town and along the seafront where we had a beer on the beach (Stella Artois over there is actually drinkable and frightenly expensive at £4 for 250ml) and then along to another bar on the ebach where we ahd another demi carraffe of wine. Back home for another afternoon nap, and then we went onto the market again, and ate in a restarant (23 Euro set menu, 30 Euro bottle of wine) where the food was average, but the wine was good. We went to a place called Les 3 Diablos where beer was still expensive but the service was brilliant, and then off to bed.


The next day dawned witht he clocks changing as well, leading to some confusion, so I watched the end of the Grand prix whilst MrsA worked it all out. hen, we went into town, had breakfast of coffee, orange juice, pain au chocolat and baguette avec confiture and set off again. We went along the seafront, around the head and went into the port side of town. We walked past the hugely expensive boats, and felt sorry for the person who probably parked his 100 foot superboat there the night previous and went to bed feeling the top dog to wake up and find himself between two 130 foot superyachts. This place oozes money. After that, we got some food and walked around teh main town, pausing to watch the skateboarders do their stuff on one of the squares, as they were setting up for some kind of concert.We had more coffee and walked about a bit more, then got on a tram. We headed north and totally checked out a church dedicated to Noah's Wife, but as it was Plam Sunday, we couldn't go in. We pushed further north up a road, heading for the Matisse Museum. We didn't make it, as we got halfway there on foot and were informed that some chap called Miterand was there, and it was closed anyway. So we went back to town and had more coffee. We decided to hang around and drink more coffee and a couple of beers in town so we got the tram back. I love using trams, they are brilliant and everywhere should have one. After that, we walked back for an afternoon nap, as it was really rather warm, and checked out the skateboarders again. By this time, tehre was a sound system pumping out music and skaters were frontside grinding over a funbox, and some of the local homeless and mentally ill were dancing in and out amongst them. It was pretty funky. That evening, we ate in another restaurant, at about 2030. The food was pretty good, and the waitress was pretty efficient, which pleased me. The people on the table less so, as one bloke kept complaining about the amount of English people about, so I'm happy that the french have gotten over their internecine racism and now direct it mostly outwards, that's progress, I guess. After we'd been fed and drunk another bottle of wine, we went back to the bar fromt he night before, andhad a couple more drinks where the telly had 80s pop songs on. A Johnny Halliday video had full frontal female nudity on it, presumably to keep the interest of the audience. The to bed at about midnight.

The final day was spent walking around the old town, picking up souvenirs and stuff like that, and I had a final beer and then it was on the bus to the airport, and a we left on a jet plane.

Nice!

I'm so, so, sorry

All in all I'd say this:

Nice is awesome and I could seriously consider living there full time. It's warm, the city is beautiful, clean and friendly. The French still behave like cunts at times, but if you make an effort to speak the language, you can rub ablong fine with them. French tramps do a mean line in crunk dancing and do eat out of bins. Take money, a lot of money. It's massively expensive but worth every penny. We took almost enough cash and only had to get a further 20 out to get some lunch at the airport on the way home. Go there, do it.

MaliA and NervousPete should be sponsored around the world to write reviews of the whole trip including the mundane travelling parts, to bring a bit of sunshine into our lives.

Get a haircut ya scruffy get

Looks like a lovely place. Anywhere that can do true blue skies is heaven for me.

Heh. Yes, deffo.



I cannot recommend it enough.

Have you stolen the holiday photos of popular comedian, Barry Shitpeas?

One of my favorite jokes at the recording of The Bubble was when they were discussing the public outcries when "Arseholes win the lottery", taking as cases the rapist and the Lotto Lout. It was on the end segment of the broadcast show. Anyway, at the end of that little bit David Mitchell said "I hope John Venables wins it" which made me laugh quite a lot.

http://www.hotel-wilson-nice.com/ is where we stayed.

Looks nice. Shame about that ugly tourist who kept ruining the shots ;-)

Ace write-up, Mali. I'm jealous.



Glad I'm not the only one who hates being surrounded by British when he goes away. I want to see somewhere new, and new people, not somewhere warm with exactly the same tossers you get here anyway.

How can you vote Tory but yet like other countries?