Monaco is a principality and considered the second smallest country in the world (the Vatican is the smallest!). It is ruled by Prince Albert II (luckily, it's a monarchy, and not a dictatorship). I'm also pretty sure that the Prince must make a cut of all taxi fares throughout the region as well. At 25euro for a 7 minute cab ride, someone is making bank!
Arriving to Monaco from Berlin was quite a task in itself, and to be honest, I wasn't in the best mood ever when we finally did make it. Anyone coming from Berlin to Monaco must first complete a 2 hour plane ride to the Nice, France airport, and you have to take a 30 minute taxi ride to get to the airport in Berlin first. Then, you have three options. 1)You can take a helicopter to the heliport in Monaco for about 60euro, then get a taxi to your apartment. 2) You can pay for a taxi to drive you from Nice to Monaco which is about a 35 minutes ride, all while enjoying the fact that you are clearly being raped the entire time because you will have to pay 100+ euros. or 3) You can get into a bus (obviously with a few other poker players also heading to Monaco) that takes you to Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, then you can wait and try to flag down a taxi, that will then overcharge you, to drive you 3 minutes up the most hilly roads EVER, to your apartment. Dave and I chose to do the latter. So, we left for the Berlin airport at 11:50am, and FINALLY made it to our apartment at 7:00pm.
Sadly, we arrived to our apartment and hadn't ate all day, so we attempted to walk to the nearest store. That is when we discovered the steps that you must take to get ANYWHERE in Monaco. This is a definitely an issue. Like how can handicapped people even feel welcome here?! Okay, so I'm just plain out of shape and I like to make excuses, but seriously, it is brutal. We finally got back to our apartment at about 9:20pm...I was a pissed off hungry gal and Dave was on my shitlist. Thank god that day is over with. haha
The next day I spent the entire day trying to find the quickest way to the casino. By quick, I mean involving around 560 steps and luckily, 2 elevators. The trip down to the casino takes about 20 minutes (from the time you figure out how to actually get outside the apartment...you have to take 2 elevators and go from floor 2 to floor 0, then floor zero (which is actually floor five), to floor 3 to exit. I won't even go into detail about how the heck you get into the apartment. It will take a normal human being about 35 minutes to get back to the apartment by foot though, and you best be wearing decent shoes and have the ability to juke out glass pieces and dog poop. Regardless of all the hassle, the place we are staying is really nice (minus the fact that all Europeans think a "clothes dryer" is a metal rack that you drag onto the balcony to dry your clothes on). It is a pretty big apartment, with a nice view, and hey, I guess getting a work out in everyday won't kill Dave or I, although I am worried about Dave. haha.
Here are the pictures from the first few days in Monaco.
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Welcome to Monaco!
Home of the rich, famous, and more Porches than one could ever imagine! |
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| The view from our patio. Slightly obstructed view of the Mediterranean but still very nice! |
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| Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino. This is where Dave spends all his waking hours. |
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| The beach! Not too warm to go swimming but still pretty to look at. |
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| The casino is somewhere down there by the water....this is the first part of the walk to get there from the apartment. |
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| So blue! |
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| A view of the mountains and the city of Menton, I believe. |
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| Looking up! |
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| The Monte Carlo Bay Hotel pool. We aren't allowed to swim in it because we aren't resort guests. Pompous jerks. haha |
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| This is what I call the "faux-Croisette". In Cannes, France, the boardwalk by the beach is called the Croisette. I have no idea what they call it here. |
