Seize the Day

I got to the beach yesterday at 11. The sun was already high in the sky, the temperature was hovering around 27 degrees, and I was already really warm. I slapped on a second coat of sunscreen, picked up my book, and slowly rotated from stomach to back to stomach on every chapter. I kind of felt like a chicken on a rotisserie. By 1 in the afternoon, I was afraid my pathetically fair skin would not be able to handle any more midday sun, so I packed up and headed for lunch at a shady cafe.

After that, I wandered back to the hostel and I stayed there for a few hours researching different ways to see Nice, uploading my pictures, and eventually I just had a good ol' afternoon nap. By 5 o'clock the guilt felt like it was going to swallow me whole. Nice will only be available to me for two more days, and I'm sleeping my time away in the hostel. The Old Town is only a five minute walk from the hostel, so I grabbed my camera but kept my cheap Old Navy flip flops on, because I was determined this walk was just going to be a short stroll through the city. Of course, my short stroll turned into a two hour hike through old town and up to Parc de la Colline du Château, which is the huge modern park on top of a hill overlooking Nice. In the past, it has been the site of a Roman settlement, Medieval churches, a defense post that was ordered to be destroyed by King Louis the.. actually I don't know. One of them. The Third? Fourteenth? There were a lot of Louis'. Eventually as Nice expanded out into the valley and had more room for everything, the hill was remodeled into a large green area with innumerable pathways and secret alcoves tucked away in every corner. It took me a good hour to get through to the other side. I arrived at the gates of the Catholic cemetery 5 minutes before it closed, but still got to wander around for a bit. It seems like every person buried in that cemetery has a family plot with a huge and very detailed grave marker. I wish I could have seen more but I left and headed back to the hostel through a really cool side street full of little boutiques. The buildings are so high and the roads are so narrow that the streets in the Old Town are quite dark. It may have been sketchy, but the shops are fairly expensive and well kept so it makes it quite nice to walk around.

As I made my way back to the hostel, I contemplated how I was finally content that I had "done something" with my day. If I had been at home in Edmonton, I would have played on my computer and had a nap without the slightest amount of guilt. Anything I need to do can be left for tomorrow and is usually left for tomorrow. I have probably felt this guilt at one point in my life, but I am so well trained to ignore everything I need to do at home that it just doesn't matter what time I eventually get around to doing something. I need to find a way to harness this guilt I feel every time my day isn't full enough from sight seeing on vacation and transform it into daily life. But I guess I can figure out how to do that tomorrow.