Adele abroad: Monaco!

Since I have not been particulary active on my blog of late and I have so many pictures and things to tell you all about my recent trip I have decided to take a town by town approach. So you can look forward to several more entries with town names. You might miss out on the details of my daily life (I go to class, and eat)but you'll get to hear about all the glamourous parts.

So, I visited an entire country in about 6 hours. This seems pretty quick, but in all fairness the entirety of Monaco fits into about 2 square kilometers (about .75 square miles). It is the second smallest country in the world and the first most densely populated. I didn't see any green space or parks while I was there so I imagine this is true. All of the areas I saw were much like a downtown area, but far far cleaner than anything I though possible.

Before I get carried away I should probably begin with how I arrived in Monaco. The city of Nice has an excellent public transit system and for 1euro you can take the bus almost anywhere, even to another country. So I hopped on the bus and off I went. The bus actually goes through Monaco in its entireity so I decided to follow directions I read online and got off in Monte Carlo (ontop of a hill) so I would be able to walk down and save myself from excessive physical exertion. For those of you who don't know Monte Carlo is a city in Monaco, it might well be the only city... I don't know. I personally believe they created it just so they would have a capital and that the boundries are rather arbitary. It's claim to fame is it's casino, which is featured in many movies (I think, I haven't seen any movies that have featured it). Though am not quite sure of the distinction between Monte carlo and the rest of Monaco I know that I saw them both.

The casino was quite fancy, and like everything else in Monaco catered to the very rich. To get into some of the rooms you had to be dressed formally, think tuxedo and top hat. You also had to pay 10 euros just to get into the casino gambling rooms, I decided against going in because I wouldn`t have gambled anyways and I wanted to see more of the city. I should also clarify that I wasn`t alone while visiting Monaco, I went with a friends of a friend so I got to enjoy the sights in good company. Other people shared my opinion and half of us ended up venturing down to the harbour. The boats were huge, many of which were larger than my house and far nicer. I counted 4 stories on one boat, though I`m not it would still be classified as a boat with 4 stories, perhaps the title of mini cruise ship would be more appropriate. While talking to people in my hostel I ended up meeting someone who was repairing the prince of Sudan`s boat, which was moored in Monaco`s harbour. Though I had never heard of this prince I was told that he is rich enough to sustain 15 generations (without lifting a finger), at the quality of life he is used to. This involves personal servants as well as a private cook and three deckhands. Just imagine what kind of service he receives at his palace back home!

After enjoying a nice lunch that I purchased at the grocery store back in Nice, I wandered the streets and glimpsed my first ever orange tree! It was very exciting though despite my best efforts (I couldn`t reach and didn`t want to make a fool of myself by jumping) I was not able to try an orange. I was successful later on in another town but that is a story for later.

Back on track to Monaco, after my orange adventures I ventured to the Prince of Monaco`s castle. At this point I was back to wandering solo so I took my time and wandered the streets. The palace itself was underwhelming and not nearly as regal as I had imagined. Regular folk were not allowed into the palace, so I had to settle for picture of the outside. It was still pretty cool though, and I did get to see the Princes guards dressed in outfits that wouldn`t have seemed out of place at Buckingham palace. All this lead me to believe that this prince is quite and important guy, I was quite surprised to learn that the prince is about 40 years old and balding. Though some might say you should never judge a book by it`s cover, I was nonethless a little bit let down with the whole royal setup, prince and castle.

Aside from the notable exception of the royal family, Monaco only really differed from France in a few notable ways. Firstly Monaco is incredibly clean. They must have people whos only job is to clean garbage off the streets because I did not see a single piece of garbage out of place, cigarette butt on the street or chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk. Actually, while I was sitting in the courtyard just outside the palace I witnessed a man vacuuming up pine needles that had fallen onto the ground from the trees above. I also saw a lot of police officers but they were not doing normal police type things. Instead they were acting as crossing guards at the local school. I realize that police officers do this sometimes, but it seemed like this was quite a regular thing.

I was told that there is basically no crime in Monaco (aside from drug abuse by the rich) and that there are police at the train station and borders who will send you back to where you came from if you look too scruffy. I am tempted to believe this as not once did I see anyone who looked remotely homeless, aside from the occasional poorly dressed tourist.