Monaco

Country	Regions	Month	Stay duration
Monaco	Nice, Monaco	December 2019	4 days

Came December came a final new country location of visit for this year as per my self imposed challenge.

This time around I chose to visit none other than Monaco, given how it was on the way home (Azores) where I’m spending the holidays.

Quite similarly to Liechtenstein, where I had visited before earlier in the year, Monaco is also a destination that is probably worth complementing with visits to the neighbouring areas given how it is also a microstate.

With that in mind and a budget to stick to I chose to stay in Nice (France) and had planned to visit Monaco for an afternoon and then return to Nice

Nice, Côte d'Azur

Nice

I had also visited France for the first time earlier this year and as the saying goes, the ‘proof is in the pudding’, I knew I was in France as soon as I arrived in Nice city centre and smelt the baking, cooking and general food produce aftermath.

Nice is one of the prime destinations of the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) and I found it to be a very self-flattering city.

That is, the sheer number of fashion stores spread across the city was very high and it’s possibly a positive factor during the high‑season in Nice due to tourist affluence, but when in low‑season these stores were mostly empty which felt wrong and out of place in my opinion.

The old town of Nice is truly remarkable and it’s the stuff of tale, least I found myself reminiscing about what I had read and seen regarding old alleyways of Paris and Marseille with clothes hanging above one’s head and tucked away taverns in holes in the wall.

It was also in the old town where I had the best kebab of the year, it was light and fresh, therefore not overfilling.

Sadly I didn’t try that much of the Niçoise cuisine as I gotten sick during my stay (surely not the kebab?) and thus was confined to light and healthy meals.

Last entry of the challenge… and it did end on a very high note. Monaco is probably the “best” country I’ve visited this year. That is from an overall and statistical perspective.

Not saying it’s my favourite nor that it’s perfect, but it has to be the closest to perfect country I’ve visited.

Perfection though is not necessarily a trait one looks for in a country. Sometimes the little imperfections make a country/city and ultimately contribute to how much one likes/dislikes a location.

A mirroring glass building with high-tier ornaments and the most advanced interior layout and decoration does NOT necessarily mean one would prefer it over a chipped away and somewhat dilapidated structure tucked away in a alleyway.

Monaco was quite expensive at the time of visit and is a very high-end city, the luxurious yachts and high-tier mobile vehicles set a very high bar and paint a picture of how posh of a lifestyle Monaco embodies.

As 2019 draws to an end so does the second decade of this millennium and what a decade it has been. I wanted to end the decade and year with a sense of accomplishment and improvement - hence I embarked on this challenge to visit a new country every month throughout 2019.

I tried to document a bit of my experience when visiting these countries and hopefully these posts can serve as inspiration to others as well:

Have a jolly season and a happy new decade!