Monte Carlo Casino - Living the High Life
Trip Start
May 03, 2006
1
19
22
Trip End
Jun 10, 2006
Monaco, Monaco
Friday, May 26, 2006
If there was ever a place to feel like you don't belong.. this is it. I never saw so many Lamborghinis, Ferraris, gigantic Yachts and Sailboats ever. We arrived by train (20 min) from Nice for quick evening visit. We promptly got lost trying to get to the Palace... apparently people don't walk there. It is extremely confusing and the buildings are so high, you can't even orientate yourself with the ocean. Because the streets are practically almost on top of each other. So we gave up and eventually found the street that the Monaco Grand Prix drives on. It looked like it was getting set up, so maybe it is soon? We didn't know these things were coinciding with our travels at this time, or maybe we might have tried to co-ordinate it to go. The same with Nice... apparently the Cannes film festival had been going on for the week right before we came. I think it was still going on when we arrived, but we had heard from some American guys who had gone, that it was only okay, because they had only seen some B-Listers. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar. If Johnny was there, you know I'd be there in a flash!
So we took the Grand Prix road to the Monte Carlo Casino. It is... opulent... but smaller than you think. Maybe 3 main rooms. We paid 10€ to enter, and we weren't paying another 10€ to go to the high roller rooms. So first we hit the slot machines, and started the biggest cheapass roll ever. We both put 3€ in the .50€ slot machines... Jen lost, then I pulled the same one (3 lines) and won 30€!! Then we went to the blackjack table, where I watched an Eliminator dealer take out people who were putting 300€ down to play. It was a minimum 25€ per hand... so I fretted awhile whether to play the ONE HAND I could, and whether I could stomach more cheapass embarrassment. Well, after a new shoe, I did, and hit 21!! (or vingt-et-un whatever you prefer). I think the dealer knew I was going to bolt, so he tried to entice me to play another hand by offering a 5€ reward to play another hand (I'd get it if I won again). So I did, and I ended up winning again, so I tipped him the 5€ and left. I now don't care that I'm poor... all those people who lost all their money before me, didn't tip him anything.. and there was a guy beside me who put down 3000€ to start playing and didnŽt blink an eye. So all these richies didn't tip the dealer anything, but I, the Poor One, won and was nice. So Blah.
Then, according to a pre-arranged plan, Jen and I went to the roulette table (with a 5€ minimum per chip (insanity)) with 5€ each to put on a lucky number. Because 5 x 37 is 185€!! Unfortunately, this is where our luck ran out. Oh well, I still managed to parlay 3€ to 75€!! Feeling giddy, we left the casino to return by train to Nice.
Note: We kept playing the tables with the lowest minimum limits. There were other tables where we couldn't even touch. Like the 500€ per hand Blackjack table. And we weren't even in the high-roller salons. Yes. I'd like to be rich too.
Back in Nice, we returned to Old Town for a couple celebratory beers, where we met Marc, a local, and hung out for awhile. He had lived in Montreal and NY so he knew decent english and we kept practicing our childish French. He owns a massage parlour and had apparently been to Cannes for the festival to massage there.
After this late night we got up for our 10am train to Barcelona. But that is a debacle IŽll leave for the next post.
