i Our trip thus far:
On Thursday we took the 5:45 am bus to Madrid to catch either the 7:40 or 8:00 am train to San Sebastian. We didn't know there were 2 Renfe stations in Madrid and ended up at the wrong one. Therefore we missed both of those trains and couldn't get on one until 4:10 that afternoon. We finally got to San Sebastian and checked into our pension at 10 pm when we were supposed to be there around 1 or 2. We got up the next morning and walked around the city. It's actually pretty small and we walked from one end to the other in less than an hour. We sat on the beach for a while and walked along the water with our shoes off despite the temperature. After lunch we hiked up one of the "mountains" to the castle on top. Along the way we came across an English cemetary which was really strange but we climbed the big rocks in it and sat overlooking the sea for a while. We attempted to watch the sunset and it looked like it had potential to be beautiful but in the last 30 minutes or so before it hit the horizon the sky turned completely overcast.
The next morning we got on a 7:45 train to Hendaye and then an 8:30 train to Toulouse which is where we got stuck. We bought our tickets for the next morning and set off to find internet to contact our hostel here in Nice. As I was going in to the internet place some creepy guy with an 80's hairstyle tried talking to us in French and no matter how many times we told him we didn't speak French he wouldn't quit asking us questions. Eventually he went and stood about 5 feet away so I went in to use the internet. After a few minutes I hear him talking to the reception worker and I kept hearing him say "Americans" in French so I tightened my grip on my belongings and typed faster. Afterwards the other 2 went in to the store to buy some groceries and I waited on the street full of blinking neon signs because the store was too small for 3 backpackers. We headed back to the station where we were planning to camp out but saw a hotel was connected to the station that looked a bit less sketchy than the rest. We decided to get a room which cost more than we really wanted to pay but which was still cheaper than most any other hotels. We hung out in the room for a while and discussed walking around the city. We even made to stand outside the lobby of the hotel with a map but realized that we still didn't feel that safe and it was beginning to rain. I'm sure had we gotten further from the station it would have been nicer and actually the church that holds the tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas was in Toulouse but... it just didn't sound appealing at the time.
We finally got to Nice yesterday afternoon and tried to explore some after checking in to our hostel but it was really raining good. We went and saw a Russian cathedral which was interesting and we were hoping for better weather today but it's still raining. The town is mainly know for it's beaches and the promenade along the beach so this rain is really dampening our plans. After a bit we're going to head to the grocery store (there's a community kitchen in our hostel... pasta!) and then we're going to go walk and check out the old town. Pray that this rain stops soon!
Our next stop is Cinque Terre which is 5 towns along the northern coast of Italy. We already have our train tickets and our hostel booked so we shouldn't have too many problems getting there. The area is where people go for hiking but the girl using the internet next to us told us that if it's raining the hiking isn't that great. So Rain... PLEASE PLEASE GO AWAY!!!
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