Sunday: Stressful birthday to me!

Sunday morning we woke up at 7:15 for breakfast and then headed straight to the beach near our hotel. I went in up to me thighs, but didn't want to go any further because I'd showered the night before and didn't want to have to again. The water was very calm because it was protected in a little harbor. The beach was full of local older men and women getting their Sunday morning swim in. It was a very nice visit, and I just laid on my towel and read my book and listened to music. We headed back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and get ready for the day at 9:30. We left the hotel at 10:45 and headed to Saint-Paul, a little medieval village inland. When we boarded the bus we took seats near the front to avoid car-sickness. Then two came on the bus (late) and told Chris and Katie they had to move because they were in their seats. We told them seats aren't assigned and they needed to sit there as to not be carsick. The woman seemed to think it was funny that we thought we had just as much right as her to the seat. We argued for a bit and the woman just sort of laughed at us and proceeded to put her stuff in the overhead compartment. Chris and Katie finally conceded and ended up in the very last row of the bus despite being some of the first people on the bus. Then, throughout the trip to Saint-Paul, the two rude Iraqi woman sitting nearby proceeded to rudely talk about us in Arabic while we sat right there listening. I won't go into it any further as to not make this post too negative, but the bus seat drama continued all day.

Saint-John was a beautiful little walled village. There were tons of boutiques and galleries. It made me want to quit school and be a painter full time, and open a gallery (after seeing the prices on the artwork there, anyone would be tempted). Despite the beauty, we had a bad experience with the French. We stopped for sodas at a cafe and the waiter was extremely impatient and rude, he literally threw our bill at us. Then later, for lunch we tried to eat at a restaurant but were turned away, because they were too "busy". there were 4 other table there, not even half full, and it was 1pm, LUNCH TIME! We were really getting fed up with the French system for eating out. No tipping means bad service, and the relaxed do-what-I-want attitude shown by the owners and employees makes it difficult to get what you want when you want. They can literally just say no to you if they don't feel like serving you. We ended up just stopping at a sandwich stand and I had a chicken panini.

We left Saint-Paul and headed to Cannes for an hour and a half at the beach. A storm was coming in, the wind was ridiculous. The waves looked like tons of fun, but I didn't want to be cold, wet and salty on the bus, so I opted out. I sat and read again. After a while at the beach we stopped ta a crepe stand and had birthday crepes. then at 5:00 we boarded the bus and began the long trip home. We took the route around the mountains, so car-sickness wasn't a problem, it was just a long and tiring trip. When we finally got to Grenoble it was after midnight. I forgot my bag under the bus in the stress of getting off the bus and figuring out how to get home. We took a taxi, which wasn't bad because there were 3 of us to split it. I got home, thought Nathan had forgot about my birthday, and I was just very tired, stressed and lonely, so I cried for a while wishing I was home on my birthday instead if thousands of miles away.