Surprise paid vacation?! OUI MERCI. (Part One)

So now that I am further in to my time in Digne (left the US August 20, but have only been in Digne since Sept. 21) and my time as an English teacher, let's just say...there are ups and downs. Not everything is charming when it comes to life in France. Mostly, things are confusing and a little frustrating. HOWEVER, an amazing gift came my way. Call it a perk of the job, but I began teaching officially on October 1, only to be told that I had 2 weeks of paid vacation beginning October 17.

At the last possible minute (like the Wednesday before my Friday departure...) I made a rough itinerary and loosely mapped out my vacation destinations. The original idea had been Spain & Portugal, because I am DYNA TRYNA hit those 2, but it was too expensive by the time I actually went for tickets. So, thanks to my location in a mountain village, my vacation sort of mapped itself: the main obstacle in Digne is getting OUT of Digne, so Nice became my first stop on my 2 weeks, if only to serve as a point of departure. To be fair, though, I have never seen Nice and I have always wanted to. It seemed a good a time as any, and the weather was still warm and lovey. I took the tiny, SLOW little tourist train that winds through the mountain villages en route to Nice, and about 3.5 hours later, I was in one of the most beautiful French cities I have had the pleasure of visiting! I loved it.

I'll probably have to make two posts (at least!) out of this, because 2 weeks of adventuring makes for a lot of photos and little anecdotes, but here was the basic itinerary:

Nice, France->Sanremo/Imperia, Italy->Torino, Italy->Milan, Italy->Krakow, Poland (wildcard!)->Paris, France

Direction: Nice!

Night #1 in Nice I was all alone, because I was couchsurfing and my host had to work late, so my mission was basically to stay out until 1 AM or later, depending on when he got off. It was actually super easy; I just walked around a lot and then went to a pub called Wayne's, where I attached myself to a 45-person Australian tour group. Those Aussies were so much fun! We danced on tables...

A beautiful, hilltop park in Nice. I think there is supposed to be a chateau here but I couldn't find a castle...there's a waterfall though!

Luxury life

The main square, with its weird human-shaped lanterns (they glow different neon shades at night..it's disconcerting)

After Nice, I travelled by "covoiturage," or ridesharing, via a super popular website called "blablacar." It's actually very well-known and often used in France and in Italy, and it is not sketchy at all. You get on, search for a ride to your chosen destination, and choose the date and time that works for you (assuming, of course, someone is headed that way!). You usually pay a few euros, depending on how far the trip is. My first blablacar experience was from Nice to Sanremo, Italy, with a really sweet Italian lady named Manuela. She had amazing stories because she has spent most of her career working as a chef/hostess on private yachts (she even worked for Roberto Cavalli!). Manuela dropped me in Sanremo, which I explored a bit before taking the bus just 30 minutes into Imperia's city center, where I met Alessandro, my next Couchsurfing host. He took it upon himself to show me Imperia and nearby cities, including the Bussana Vecchia, Dolceacqua, and Cervo.

A donkey in a yard in the Bussana Vecchia, a tiny speck of an old village of crumbling rocks, which is now an artists' community. The donkey did not like Nocciola, Alessandro's crazy brown lab and our touring companion for the day...

Alessandro amid the crumbling homes in B.V.

Nocciola and I, cheesin' in the car en route to the next stop!

Dolceacqua in all it's glory. The bridge is really famous, and was painted by Monet! 

In Dolceacqua we stopped for lunch--pizza with an egg on it! It was all very exciting. 

The view from a square in Cervo

My last night, we had a dinner party with Ale & his friends, and he cooked rabbit in a wine sauce. It was an intense Italian immersion experience, to say the least...

The crew! (Aren't they so beautiful?!)

As if Ale weren't cool enough, he owns a beach bar...and surfs...and is Italian...

The view from the bar. Yup. That's the private beach and chairs for bar patrons. I think I may need to revisit in the summertime...

Yeah, I had a good trip.
Everything went really well for me, like wayyyyy more smoothly than I generally expect when I'm traveling with limited money and no real plans. Also, my cellphone decided not to work abroad (it's supposed to work outside of France but...it's fickle), so communication took creativity. I think my life has become a mad search for Wifi.
My entire first week was spent traveling alone in Italy, and I still had two cities to go: Turin and Milan. They get their own post because Turin became a game-changer for me. It's a beautiful city. More to come!