Cannes, Nice and the Italian Alps!

I had the most amazing weekend!

On Thursday right after dinner with my host mother (Mme Rossette) I caught a train to Cannes. I went with four of my friends Jane, Sydney, Heather and Helen. But it turned out that ten more Syracuse students were also going to Nice that same night and staying in the same youth hostel. During my 12 hour train ride I drank wine, talked, read about Nice and Cannes and read my book New Moon. Sleeping was not the easiest thing to do on the train but I slept about 4 hours. I really enjoyed looking out the window and reading in a quite train.

Only Sydney, Helen, Heather, Jane and I spent the day in Cannes.

We walked to the top of the city to see the view and peeked into the church up there. Went to the daily market where I bought Breakfast/Lunch: a fresh tomatoe, apple/rain bread and goat cheese. Yumm! We ate on some rocks by the shore and took a little nap in the sun. We also wandered around some expensive yachts. We saw where the Cannes film festival is held and they were holding a modelling competition there that night. Jane and I walked down the boardwalk then met with out friends on the sandy beach. I dipped my feet in the Mediterranean, read and watched Sydney do a back flip on the shore. After we wandered threw some shops, we jumped on to a bus to Nice for one Euro!! I had to sit on the floor for a while but it was worth it.

Our Hostel in Nice was amazing.

It is called Villa Saint Exupery and was filled with young backpackers. I stayed in an 11 person dorm style room for 20 euro a night, it included breakfast and it had a really cool bar/cafe area where we had pizza for dinner, drank wine, talked with friends and met new people. On Saturday we visited the Matisse Museum, Russian Cathedral, walked along the beach (where I picked up really cool rocks!!). I had the most amazing dinner a little bit of q splerg of 10.50 euro but I had gnocchi and Sydney had Lasagne and we split it. Then we got ice cream from a place that had 96 flavours! I had honey and the darkest chocolate ice cream I've ever seen.

SUNDAY!

Was the most amazing adventurous day I can remember. I signed up for an excursion called cannoning. Myself and seven others staying in the hostel where driven to the Alps in Italy where we hiked for 30 mins in our bathing suits, it was about 60 degrees but we hiked to the cannon rivers put on wet suits and helmets and hiked back down the river for 3 hours. We climbed rocks, scaled cliffs, rappelled down cliffs, jumped off cliffs, swam, floated and walked down the river. I have to say I have never in my life experienced more in a 5 hour time period of my life. It has been 3 days and I am still sore and I have a huge bruise on my leg where I hit the water wrong. It was incredible!

Our train came at 7:30 the same day and you would have thought I would pass out from exhaustion but I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. If I knew I was going to be on the polar express I would have brought my fur trimmed Eskimo jacket. I will be prepared for next time though! I arrived in Strasbourg at 8:30 and had class at 9. Of course I made it on time but after class I went home, showered and took the best 30 min nap.

Back to school!

It is so hard to adjust my focus back to school when I am having such a great time, I love to hang out with everyone and I am planning my next adventure! I have booked my flight to London for fall break on the 23rdm for only 25 euro! From there Scotland and Ireland, not exactly sure where but it looks like I am going to spend my birthday in Ireland this year! I wonder if I am a little Irish.

I love and miss everyone tremendously and love hearing from you. I forgot my address book at home therefore I have unsent postcards and letters that I would like to send. Could you send me your address please?

You can write back to me at cheavenjroberts@gmail.com or send mail to:

7 Rue Schiller

Strasbourg, France 67000