Nice is nice

LOCATION Nice, France

Weather is beautiful, but very warm. You're almost sweating at 10pm still.

So an eventful departure from Barcelona. When in the breakfast room, one of our tour group had her handbag stolen. It was so fast it was incredible, she put it down, went to get something, not even her whole breakfast, and when she came back it was gone. Afterward a bunch of people remembered seeing two dodgy looking blokes that weren’t in our group, I saw one of them myself but just assumed he was another guest at the hotel. As he left apparently, a different female member realized her bag was gone too, and looked at him, asking if he had it. He proceeded to open his coat, give it back to her and mumble something about “a mistake”.

Scary for the whole tour group, though we had been warned about not leaving our things unattended at breakfast, and thankfully the woman whose bag was stolen found her passport in her other carry-on, along with her “big” credit cards.

**updated-thankfully her bag was found near the hotel after we left Barcelona. As suspected, only the cash was taken, credit cards, camera etc were all intact and they will set about returning the bag to her somehow.**

Barcelona was beautiful, very hot, we saw a sign at 2pm saying it was 33 degrees, and when we got on the bus this morning it was 25 at 8am. So very warm! Not really the weather for boots, but I was determined to buy some anyway and we appeared to arrive just as winter stock was going out in the shops, so there was quite a selection. Boots in Spain, I’m “allowed” a handbag in Italy, and some new sunglasses would be nice. Perhaps in Greece? Heheheheh

We were warned a lot about pickpockets in Barcelona, particularly on the main walking mall area, the “rambla”. There was heaps of great street art and performance, but the consequence is to make you less aware of your person. Thankfully with two of us we could be hyperaware of what was going on around us, but it certainly dampens the experience of being in a foreign city. We definitely saw a few dodgy looking blokes, and I was pretty worried about any man on his own really. Apparently young girls can be just as bad though.

I was disappointed overall with the shopping in Spain, I think we were in the wrong area, because there seemed to be potential we just couldn’t find quite what I was looking for. One of my favourite Sydney shops is called Starfish Earrings. They started with a little shop in Hornsby and expanded to several stores, which was great for them as it was run by a family. The first shop in Hornsby started off only stocking earrings. Earrings from all over the world that are gorgeous. The consequence is though, that I’ve come to Spain looking for cool and interesting jewelry, and found all these things I’ve seen already! That’s a bit sad, but I suppose that’s the way the world is heading! Can’t wait for Venice, hoping to get some Venetian glass pieces.

Touring is interesting.

There is one super annoying Canadian woman on our tour. She’s traveling alone, I can only assume because none of her friends would have her. Unfortunately for another woman traveling singly also, they get lumped in the same room most of the time. She has an irritating habit of talking to herself, or sort of talking at the air, saying things that we don’t care about!!!! Trying not to listen to her, hoping she will curl up and die. Okay not really, but just trying to ignore her as much as we can. Without bringing the subject up, others appear to have the same opinion of her.

Most of the people seem good though, very friendly and middle class so we fit right in. A few younger couples which is nice, but wasn’t a priority for us, so its just gravy.