What shocked me the most was the fact that as soon as I stepped foot into Nice, I could instantly feel the rush of heat and it was definitely shocking. I loved spending time with my friends, as well as making new friends along the way.
On the first day, after we had taken a short lunch break following our flight, we were allowed to walk around Nice and take photos of different things. It was a fabulous activity as you could work with different people and find a multitude of beautiful buildings, markets and even an opera house! My favourite part of this was definitely getting to eat some ice-cream and having to talk to the cashiers in French! I was a little scared at first, but many of the sixth formers that were on the trip came along and we managed to do it together. One thing I noticed the most was the change in temperature. We were all so tired that we sat down near these beautiful fountains and watched the droplets spray over the children as they ran around, enjoying themselves. I really wished I could join them, but I knew I’d get drenched in the fountains, so I just sat down and watched them in jealousy. After this experience, we were all starving and so we walked to a lovely restaurant. We were allowed to eat some pizza; I decided to choose the ham and mushroom pizza. For dessert they came and gave us some ice-cream. It really helped me cool down after the tiring day I had had. Afterwards we rushed back to the hotel and we were so surprised at seeing how big our rooms were. I shared a room with my friends and we had 2 bunk beds which had curtains attached for privacy, and even the bathroom was big. The best part of my room was the air conditioning, but I hated all the mosquitos… I kept killing them over and over, constantly throwing my clothes around to trap them – that was not fun at all.
On the second day, we finally went to our language school and met with our French teacher for the first time. They were all very welcoming and made sure all of us were happy. We started off with the basics, learning key phrases and words to help us in a day-to-day conversation. We managed to fit in some fun games such as bingo, and I really enjoyed the lesson. We had a delicious lunch of baguettes with ham and cheese, crisps, sweets and madeleines. It was absolutely amazing, and I really enjoyed it. Once our school was over, we were allowed to go around the different shops, and buy whatever we wanted. We also had an amazing guided tour, where we got to see all the different parts of Nice. However there was one area which I definitely wished I had more water and that was for going up what felt like millions of stairs to reach a stunning waterfall. The walk was definitely worth it, although everybody was incredibly tired. Our group had split up into smaller groups of 3 and we went around different shops to buy things, then all of a sudden, the skies got cloudy, and it started to rain, with thunder and lightning and everybody was absolutely drenched. We ran back to the meeting place; not a person was in sight as everybody was inside, making sure they were not cold. Seeing how cold we were, the teachers decided to let us get back to the hotel, change, and get ready for dinner. After a while of waiting in my bed, the weather got a lot better and we finally walked back to the restaurant for a meal of rice, chicken with this lovely creamy sauce and a salad… and let me tell you what we had for dessert. Ice cream, again!
On the third day, I was extremely excited to go and visit the flower market; it seemed so beautiful there and I was eager to buy everything in sight! We also had the option to go to an opera house; that was also one of my favourite things as from a few metres away, you could hear the singer inside and it was just so amazing. We were allowed to wander around; my favourite part was definitely seeing my language school teacher! She was so friendly and I managed to get some Kinder chocolate for lunch! We were allowed to explore this beautiful venue and do some small souvenir shopping. I managed to buy a snowglobe, and bought myself another ice-cream. Nice was just so warm all the time! As we were walking around, we got to see a preview of the beach, which was most definitely something I loved. We got to go in groups and play in the sea. My clothes were so wet and for so long! I had to carry around wet clothes in my suitcase and it was not good at all. We were allowed to go to a sweet factory; sadly we weren’t allowed to see them actually making the sweets and chocolates, but other than that we actually managed to eat some of the sweets and jams, and they were just so good. After this, I thought to myself that dinner at the restaurant was most definitely not going to be any better than the sweets, but I was wrong. We got some delicious lasagne, and it was amazing! I drank some Pepsi, and of course, once again… ice-cream! Hey, I’m not complaining at all.
On the fourth day, everybody was so tired from everything we had done before, but luckily we were allowed to go to the beach and walk around the square Massena, where we saw a beautiful statue of the Greek God, Apollo, surrounded by men on horses and bulls. It was honestly such a surreal thing to look at. All of us were extremely tired, and preparing ourselves for tomorrow! None of us were that excited to leave Nice as we all had so much fun together. I spent time in language school once again, which is always really nice as I touched up on some French speaking, and we got to play charades which was super funny! As everybody was rather tired, we managed to get some dinner slightly earlier and I got to eat spaghetti bolognese, which I really enjoyed; it was so well flavoured. French food is definitely my favourite! I tried to get an early night as tomorrow was our last day, and so I rushed back to my hotel room, changed, brushed my teeth and managed to sleep around 10pm.
The final day, I could see that everybody was super tired and we had to eat our breakfast slightly earlier as we had to leave the hotel. We ran to language school once again and managed to learn a song in French. We performed it to the teachers and they all loved it! It was fun, sung by someone called Angel. As today was our last day, the teachers decided to buy all of us either slushies or some ice-cream. We obviously had to order in French which was extremely fun! I could tell the people working in the ice-cream shop were shocked to see so many girls charging into their store, but I got mango and raspberry sorbet which is my go-to mix! Afterwards, we were given around 2 hours to walk between two different areas and buy some souvenirs. I really wanted to get some things for my family, so I bought a beautiful fan for my mother, a cute purple bear for my sister and a really detailed keychain for my father. I couldn’t wait to see my family again. Finally, we walked to somewhere the coach could pick us up easily. I was so tired I was practically asleep on the coach! We were slightly late, and had to rush and grab our food within 10 minutes. I was stressing so I bought a sandwich, Pringles and a bottle of coke. I managed to eat all of it on the plane and as soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep. I woke up when we had landed and had to drag myself to the baggage claim area, only to stand there for a good 20 minutes, waiting for my suitcase to finally come. Then we had around an hour drive back to school, and I was so excited to be back home! Although, this trip to Nice is most definitely one of the best trips I have ever been on.
Anisa, Lower V
