Decisions, Decisions...

After an exhausting 10 hour train ride I finally made it back to Nice.  I left most of my luggage here so I had no choice but to return.  I'm definitely not complaining, now that the sun is out, this is a great place to be.

Before leaving Florence, I was happy to dicover that it's after dark, that the real magic happens in that city.  I decided early on in my travels, after one scary night it Paris, that I shouldn't go out at night alone, but Florence is so full of tourists that it felt safe.  I'm so glad I took the risk... it was so beautiful, there were musicians  busking everywhere, all of that stunning architecture lit up against the night sky, it was so much more impressive than during the day. 

I sat for dinner in a charming restaurant next to the Duomo, my favourite building.  The waiter there, Leonardo, was very chatty and friendly and he introduced me to another girl sitting alone.  We ended up joining tables, and it turned out she was a very talented classical pianist from Russia.  She was only in her early 20s but she was brilliant.  She showed me one of her concerts on Youtube where she was playing Rachmaninov, her favourite composer.  

We shared our stories and our love for music and both agreed that it has brought so much to our lives and that we couldn't imagine a life without it.  Her story so far seems to be unfolding like a fairytale and she was about to move to Texas to study under a master Pianist there.  She was so excited about this opportunity.  

It makes me so happy to hear about peoples dreams coming true.  It gives me hope for my own dreams, although, I don't think I've ever worked as hard as she does, she practices for 8 hours most days.  I guess the saying is true "Good luck comes to those who work hard"...I think I've been pretty lazy so far, but I have to say, this travelling experience is making me feel more determined and more focussed.  I'm actully looking forward to getting back to Toronto to work on new songs and to play more shows.

My last night in Florence ended at a at cool bar called BeBop where there was a live band playing Beatles tunes.  Leonardo the waiter came with me.  The band was great, they were dressed up as the Beatles and they sounded just like them.  The bar was packed and was quite noisy and rowdy so I found myself imagining that this was what it must have been like for the Beatles when they first started out, and i was pretending like it was the 60s and I was hearing them for the first time. Sounded so good, no wonder they got so famous :)

So now I'm in Nice, trying to figure out my next move, but it's not easy, I don't have much money left and I somehow have to make it last until the 3rd July, that's the day that my flight returns to Toronto.  I'm going to go and hang out at the beach and see if the answers come to me :)  

(The beaches here by the way are made of rocks, not sand, which at first was a novelty, but I dicovered yesterday,  in reality it's very uncomfortable and quite painful if you want to lie down Best to stay completely still so you dont get hurt! )

xx