Nice and Bastia

I didn’t have many hours in Nice before I had to leave for Corsica, but I did get to walk around the vielle ville and port area some.  Josh: I saw some awesome yachts that I took photos of!  Nice seemed…well, nice (ahh, overused travel cliches).  It was fairly busy and urban though, which was not exactly the environment I was looking for after hours of hectic travel, but still interesting to explore.I took the ferry in the afternoon to Bastia, Corsica, which is on the northeast side of the island, facing Tuscany in Italy.  The boat that took me there was more of a cruise ship, with multiple bars, restaurants, and game rooms, than what I would normally think of as a ferry.

view of Bastia from the citadel

Five hours later, I found myself in Bastia, the second-largest city in Corsica, with a population of 40,000.  Over the next 24 hours, I was able to get a good feel for the town, which was crumbling and delapidated at times, but in a charming, old-world sort of way.  Some of the buildings surrounding the port are still damaged from WWII.  I was able to check out all of the sights in Bastia on foot: several churches (including one that depicted a relief of one of the Bible’s lesser-known scenes: the circumcision of the baby Jesus), the old port, the citadel (which was once the capital when the island was ruled by Genoa), and the narrow cobblestoned streets that have tiny shops where stables used to be.