Jack Daniels!

Monday 14th September

I woke up a couple of times in the night again but eventually got up at around 8am. I sorted out all of my dirty clothes so that I could do some washing this morning before heading down for breakfast. Breakfast was a refreshing change for me - cereal, orange juice and French bread (that wasn't stale!!) - and I actually enjoyed it for the first time in a while! Once I had had breakfast I went to do my washing and it took absolutely ages - over an hour to wash and almost an hour to dry and, even then, it wasn't all completely dry.

I only have one t shirt now as I decided it wouldn't be, or feel, right to wear one that says I am walking to Rome for charity. As a result it makes it quite difficult for washing right now. I put my only t shirt in the wash but then got told off by the people in the hostel for not wearing one so had to sit outside in the sun for about two hours whilst waiting for the washing - I would have spent this time catching up on Facebook so it was a little inconvenient to say the least! Still, it was a fairly pleasant morning so it was a good opportunity for me to try and get a little bit of a tan - always the optimist!

I have decided to get some more clothes when I get to Milan but will have to arrange for my clothes to be sent over as soon as I sort somewhere to live in Rome as I will need clothes then and I can't afford to buy a whole new wardrobe, especially not at Milan's prices! To be honest, it will probably cost me enough just to buy one more outfit in Milan - when I was there last year I could have spent a fortune so easily!

I managed to pick up a charger for my iPod yesterday so at least I had some music to accompany me whilst I sat around outside waiting for my washing. You wouldn't believe just how much I have missed my music since I left home. I don't think you realise how big a part it plays in your life until you can't have it! I was like a kid in a sweet shop this morning shuffling through all my favourite music!

I set off for Monaco just after 1pm and the train only took about 20 minutes to get there. I have to say I was a little disappointed when I got there - Monaco and Monte Carlo are built up so much by people that I had gone there with this image in my head of some magical place but I have to say it felt a little like a hotel resort in Spain only with Ferraris, yachts and rich people all over the place! I got bored pretty quickly there and I was on a train back to Nice by 4pm! It's a shame I didn't enjoy it more but there have been places where I expected nothing and got some really good experiences so I guess it balances itself out in the end. In a way I am actually a little gutted I didn't spend more time in Nice looking around as it seemed like a more interesting place to me.

When I got back to the hostel I updated another couple of days on my blog and this brought me pretty much up to date. Tonight I am planning to have some rest and relaxation and I have already decided I am going to get a bottle of Jack Daniels to help the time pass! It's been so long since I had a really good night on Jack Daniels and there have been some testing times recently so I think that it is definitely in order!

I spent a little time today looking online for jobs in Rome to see what was available at the moment but I will have a really good look once I have some more time. I also sent an email off to Holly at Vango offering to pay for the equipment they donated as I didn't manage to complete the walk. I am hoping that they don't take me up on it as I have already shelled out so much funding the walk itself but I felt that I had to offer in the same way as I did to the people who donated to charity.

I added a load of photos to Facebook today and labelled and tagged them all only for Facebook to not apply all of the labels and tags - I was so annoyed but didn't really have time to go through them all again so I will have to do that another time. It's a good thing I have been making notes on what all of the pictures are otherwise I would be in trouble now! Also, I have spent quite a bit of time online today and I don't really want to be sat here any longer, I just want to go and have some fun with the other people in the hostle.

I went and got the bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of coke and was made up as it only cost me €20. I think that works out cheaper than it is in England at the moment and, at last, a reasonable price in France. I think that it must just be really expensive to drink in bars, maybe that is a deliberate thing initiated by the powers that be to discourage binge drinking in bars. I ended up drinking the whole bottle tonight and even got another 5 beers from the bar in the hostel afterwards but, I have to admit, I was pretty wasted!

There was quite a gathering at the hostel tonight and there must have been at least a dozen of us sat outside until the early hours of the morning. It was another good opportunity to speak French and I found that I can even speak it when I am wasted so I must be getting pretty good at it now! I ended up going to bed at about 2am feeling pretty tired and extremely drunk!