Côte d'Azur

Back in December my good friend Amy who used to live in Paris came to visit for several weeks during her school break. Amy had always wanted to visit the south of France so we decided to take an impromptu weekend trip to Nice to visit a mutual friend that lives there.

We took the 10 hour night train because we really wanted to get the most out of the experience and I'm pretty sure that I got so much out of it that there really is no good reason for me to take the night train again. Upon arriving in Nice our host met us up at the train station and brought us to her place. Being the wonderful host that she was, she immediately whipped up some crepes, fresh fruit and coffee for us. And after catching up for a bit we were off to the marché at the Cours Saleya. After that Amy and I walked around a bit, took in a few sights and then headed back to the apartment.

On our second day we woke up relatively early and made our way to the Matisse Museum (good), saw some ancient Roman ruins (good) and then checked out the Chagall Museum (can I have my money back please). We stopped briefly for a coffee, chatted with two old men who were impressed with Amy's hair and then boarded a train and were off to Monaco for a few hours. While there we visited the jardin exotique, the casino (of course) and the palace before heading back to Nice. On our last day in the region we visited the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (gorgeous) before boarding a train to Cannes. I really wasn't blown away by Cannes which is probably why I have no recollection of what we actually did while there. What I do remember is that my knee was killing me after walking around so much that I had to stop by a pharmacy to get some medication to alleviate the situation.

Dubai, Oh My!

One of my unofficial New Year's resolutions is "do more, think less". This may not sound like the best motto to live by for some but for me it's a truly useful reminder to not get all caught up in the constant analysis, processing and what if scenarios that tend to cloud my judgment and paralyze my decision making when it comes to experiencing certain things in life.

So do more, think less is exactly what I did when an opportunity presented itself for me to travel to Dubai. The old me upon considering the situation; alone, to an unfamiliar region, to visit a guy that I had only met once, would have never even considered it a possibility let alone been able to board an airplane. The new me however, looked up ticket prices, run a quick cost benefit analysis and was on my way. Life is all about experiences is what I keep reminding myself.

As for my trip, it couldn't have been better and all of the fears of the old me were for naught. My host was absolutely amazing, kind and generous and I can't possibly thank him enough for welcoming me into his lovely home. Dubai doesn't have the charm that old European cities like Paris and Rome have and I was initially put off by the somewhat its Vegas-esque, faux feel. Even though there were quite a few things that I didn't like about Dubai I have to admit that it is quite impressive what they were able to build and accomplish there in the middle of a desert. Whether or not it's sustainable is yet to be seen.

Transitions

As you may have noticed I've taken an extended blogging hiatus as of late. The reason being is because past couple of months have been somewhat challenging and I wasn't ready face certain impending realities, let alone put it all out there for the masses to read.

What I can and am willing to say at this time is that I'm going through a transitional phase and how things end up is anybody's guess. But stay tuned to see how it all pans out.

In the meantime, I have a few recent trips that I took that I plan to blog about in the upcoming days.