Part II of Day 22

After I left the Italian man-child I headed to the beach, boarding pass tucked safely in journal. The water was aqua, but cold. The sand, what sand? There were rocks. I was told that the stones turned to pebbles if I went far off then aways, but far off and aways sounded exactly how it sounds now.

After lying there for a bit trying to decide on how many days to stay in Belgium, I asked a skinny boy to snap my picture. Ha poor guy. It went a little like this. I on my stomach:

Me: "I'm just going to lay here...Can you try to get the rocks in the shot? O! And don't get my bottom. I don't want to be indecent."

Boy laughed.

Boy: "How's this?"

I took a look.

Me: "Yeahhh you got my butt a little. Can you take another?"

Boy laughed.

Boy: "How 'bout this one?"

The boy's pale faced, navy blue eyed, friend started to quizzically stare. (Of course I couldn't tell the color of his eyes from there this came minutes later)

Me: "Okay! That's good. Thanks!" (I smile. I still unhappy with the picture, but I was not going to make him take another.)

Before the polite thanks came out of my mouth the boys introduced themselves. They were from Canada and were also staying at my hostel. O world you're as small as a child sized show box, aren't you? We got to talking. Navy Eyes told me he had kissed two girls the night before which meant he "might" have cheated on his girlfriend. Then the discussion developed into: Tell her or not? Yes there are too obvious answers: honesty or dishonesty. But let's not forget about the gray area.

Me: "Normally I would advise you to go with the truth. But since it was just a kiss, I vote don't tell her, that is if you still want her, if you don't. Then tell."

Navy Eyes: "She'll know something happened when she sees me." (I can tell A- that he liked her B- that he was worried."

Me: "Then why are you kissing other girls!"

After the subject was thoroughly discussed to no result the boys invited me to go clubbing with them later on. I declined because frankly I was becoming tired of these imbeciles. The Russian, Andrea, the Canadians. My eyes could not take anymore rolling. Dinner with a book sounded ideal.

For dinner I went to a pricey-ish restaurant. I figured since I was paying 22 Euros for a bed it evened out. I had duck with wild mushroom sauce. The duck was tough, but the wine was tasty. I wasn't pleased, but I was okay with it. It was my own fault for being too lazy to hunt down a restaurant on a quiet street. When my waiter came by to ask about desert, I said: "Merci, but no, no desert for me." He asked why I was dining alone. I told him I was traveling alone. At this his eyes popped open a little, not too much, just a little. Then he told me that if I wanted to wait until 10:30, he could meet me for a drink. After paying the bill I told him I would be back to fetch him at 10:30. Did I mean it? No. I was tired of men. Stupid men eating up all of my time

We said see you later to each other and I went for a long walk. The shops were closed so I window shopped at LongChamp. Dear LongChamp, why are your bloody bags so expensive. Really? As I started to head back to the hostel I thought, desert does sound good. I walked in directions where streets became familiar, then before I could realize it I was twenty something feet away from the restaurant I had previously dined at and there was my waiter, Jeremy.

He saw me. There was no avoiding it, so I thought fine, but I'm not going out for drinks! I told him that I did not want alcohol, that I wanted ice cream. He saw no offense in that and took me to a gelataria of which he claimed. "they have the best ice cream in town." This made :) inside because Jane like ice cream. As we walked, Jeremy pointed out the good places to go and he told me about his trip to Australia. He wasn't trying to sex me at all. Why hadn't I found him a day earlier?

He walked me back to the hostel. We hugged good-bye, he said, "Don't forget, come back to Nice." I looked for the petite piece of paper I had written the entrance code on for the front door and it was gone. I started to buzz, but remembered that the personnel at the front desk got off at midnight and that I was told not to lose the tiny piece of paper. I was unsure as to what I should do, so I walked to the center of the street and yelled up:

Me: "Hello I'm staying at this hostel is anyone there!"

Nothing. Jeremy started with attempts to force the door in.

Me: "That isn't going to work. I tried that this afternoon." (I had lost my second piece of paper, but someone was there earlier to let me in.)

A wave of desperation came over me and what was left was:

Me: "Someone open this door now! Hello wake up up there!"

A guy pops his head out of the window facing the street.

Guy: "Hey! Are you that girl from the kitchen?"

Me: "Yeah! I'm that girl! I forgot the code, can you let me in?" (While I had coffee with the Russian the day before, which seemed like six days ago, this Moroccan guy came into the kitchen asking for a tea pot. The Russian being the jackass he is was not very nice to him.)

Guy: "Sure! Just wait!"

The door buzzed. Jeremy said, "Don't forget!" I said, "I won't!"

What ah day.