Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze

Since my arrival abroad I think yesterday’s excursion trumps everything I have done so far.

Yesterday, my fellow AIFS travelers and I went on an excursion to visit the tiny Principality of Monaco. Monaco, which is the name of the country and the city (the only city), is located on the coast of the Mediterranean about an hour drive from Cannes. The city is gorgeous and very quiet, which I guess is expected when you only have around 30,000 residents. The area surrounding the palace is made up of beautiful gardens, featuring both modern and classic sculptures, quaint shops and wonderful cliff side views of the sea. Upon our arrival in Monaco we made our way to Monaco Cathedral. From within the Cathedral’s brilliant ivory walls one could find stunning works of art and alters dedicated to various Saints such as Saint Nicholas. Monaco Cathedral also serves as the final resting place of the beautiful Princess Grace Kelly (who happened to be a Philadelphia native). From the Cathedral we traveled Monaco’s beautiful streets to get to the Palace. Having only ever pictured what the Palace may have looked like I was quite surprised by what stood before me. The Palace was very large but was very plain and resembled more of a fortress than a renaissance palace that would have been the more popular design at the time of its erection. Though nonetheless it was quite beautiful and made for a nice backdrop to take pictures. Along with walking the palace grounds we were entertained with the time old tradition of the changing of the guards. In comparison to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace the version featured at Monaco was a little anti-climatic, but made for an interesting show regardless. Following the changing of the guards we made our way to the Institut Oceanographique where we got to get up close and personal with Mediterranean marine life and learned more of the oceanic studies and travels of Prince Albert.

The Prince's Palace

The guards during the ceremony

After a lovely morning exploring Monaco’s Palace area we ventured onto the world famous Monte Carlo. Once at Monte Carlo we were given the opportunity to explore the main casino, Casino Monte Carlo. Once in the casino we were restricted to the area designated for slot machines because the facility charged 10euro to enter the table area. Feeling daring my roommate Steph and I decided to split 5euro and play a 20cent slot machine called Lobster Mania. Having no clue how to play we blindly pushed buttons and hoped for the best. Not to our surprise that resulted in us losing credits rapidly. With only 10 credits left we decided to go all in and hope for the best, at the very least we could tell people we gambled at The Monte Carlo. To our surprise........we WON! That final spin resulted in us winning a grand total of 200euro! I can’t even explain the rush of finding out we won; it was fantastic! Quickly after winning we acquired a crowd, so as not to be swept up in the moment and blow our big win we quickly cashed out and divided our winnings. Though much of our high came from winning some extra cash to fund our upcoming trip to Milan, I think an even greater part came from knowing that we could forever tell the story of how we won at The Monte Carlo.

The back of The Casino Monte Carlo where I won!

Me showing off my big win

Though the remainder of the trip, which was spent exploring Eze, was lovely it definitely failed in comparison to our exciting exploration of Monte Carlo. Eze is an amazing medieval village, next to Nice, that was built on the cliff side along the Mediterranean. The best part of Eze is the magnificent view you get from following the narrow cobblestone streets up to the exotic garden to finally reach the ruins at the top. From there you can see all along the coast, including the runway for the Nice airport that was about a 40 minute drive from there. It was breath taking! I actually became a little jealous of the people who lived there until I remembered how much my calves hurt from the climb. Eze definitely created a feeling of calm and serenity, which was a wonderful way to end our day.

Me taking in the view

The narrow streets of Eze

To see more pictures from my trip click here