HALLOFUS: Europe IV (10-27 Feb 2011): Carnival@Nice (Day 12-14)

Nice, France 22-24 Feb 2011 (Day 12-14)
We arrived Nice after a long overnight bus ride and we were exhausted.
We got into our 2-star hotel, which was fabulously located in the heart of the Carnival Square.

We got to try on the old wooden and iron-grilled lift at Hotel Paradis.
The twirling steps would have decapitated our arms, especially with a heavier luggage by now...

View from outside our balcony
The crowd had started coming...! There were whistles, drums and cheers heard everywhere.
We hopped down quickly with our cameras!

Cheeky and Playful!

Pounding music could be heard from every corner.
It added live and excitement to the atmosphere!

This boy loved our camera!

If you notice, there were confetti everywhere and kids, and (even parents!) held on to spray cans, aiming at everybody on the streets, especially those on the parade!
It was a total mess!!

The culprits!!

And of course, some on parade came prepared too!

Mind you, it was freezing cold that day! Brave women!

This young girl was so interesting to watch, she enjoyed throwing her confetti but got mad when everyone else did that to her!

Kids came to the carnival dressed in interesting costumes.

And then, more spraying and wacky costumes on parade!

Wen and I dodged the hyper kids, and luckily we were able to escape from the sticky sprays, but confetti did got onto our jackets after the carnival ended..

More cute kids on the streets!

We were hungry after watching the parade and we knew we had to have one of this, a local favourite snack, Crêpe! (pronounced as 'crabs')
They have all sorts of flavours, we went for the Nutella. Very good.

It was funny to see that the organisers have engaged a large crew of 'cleaners' to clean up the entire streets that evening! It was a massive job I have to say!

The dispersed crowd after the Carnival.
The two buildings along this track on the left picture were actually shopping malls! *thumbs up*
The picture on the right shows the tracks leading to the other side of the town, known as the Old Town of Nice.

We ventured off to the Old Town of Nice, a distance away from where we stayed.
There were some little shops selling souvenirs but it was pretty quiet that evening when we were there, probably because of the bustling carnival on the other side of the vicinity.

23 Feb 2011 (Day 13)
Morning came and we strolled down the beach of Nice.
Located on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the coastline of Nice was beautiful.

Adorable toddler!

People here just seem so carefree and happy... and healthy.

We did a bit of hiking, a beautiful panoramic view of Nice.

An old fort, I suppose.

And we found a Church, at the bottom of the hill.
It was needless to say, beautiful architecture and design.

Tulips!! So pretty!!

It's Churros Time!!!
The weather was so chilly that something hot like this was a delight.

So hot and crispy!

We ended our night with a hearty dinner at Hippopotamus!
You can find this in Singapore too (MS), it was my first visit though.
I took this picture off their website, I didn't get a good shot of the place and we were starving then! :p