Five days in transit and still, I haven’t found the proverbial what I’m looking for, not that I am actively looking for it, but it sure felt like something was missing. I should know, the weight of not having it was there, and I have no clue how or why this sudden feeling gripped me. Must be the self-inflicted bday anticipation, I guess.
On a lighter note, I have been having good times in between my trips so far, especially when Nice happened – a place where niceness really abound. It all started at the airport moments after landing when an immigration officer nicely welcomed me back to France, which was the most un-Frenchly gesture I witnessed in the last 5 months that I had been here in 🇫🇷 . Not that I'm complaining. It just feels unreal, or more appropriately, uncharacteristic.
Nice, cloaked in the embrace of the French Riviera, effortlessly paints a serene picture. Waves lazily caress the shores as if it had all the time in the world, showing the art of slowing down. I gladly took it as a respite especially after days of fast-paced traveling around the Balkans, where I needed to move quickly to compensate for the limited time I then had. Meanwhile, I could not believe that I had already completed 75 percent of my master's degree requirements. Definitely no sign of slowing down. I couldn't be more grateful for this Nice side trip serving as an opportunity to pause and look around, to appreciate what I had been missing for allowing myself to rot in Lyon during the past few months. Glad that the universe was kind enough, deciding to seemingly slow down with me during that very hour.
Indeed, I exercised in Nice the art of taking things slow, reminding yet again, that sometimes, the best way to enjoy the show is to relax and savor the moment as it is. Here's an encore of how nice Nice was for me, styled in slow-mo.
