Monday, August 8, 2016

Day 5 – Monte Carlo, Monaco – August 8th



I now understand Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Lindsey Lohan…….in all the wrong ways.  Arriving in Monaco was pretty awesome, but we noticed that it’s really really small.  It’s approximately 2 square kilometers total.  That’s pretty small – like super small…..as in you can walk the whole thing in no time at all.  And walk we did.  But back to that in a little while. 


As we arrived in Monaco we noticed a lot of yachts.  Large yachts.  Many yachts worth multi-millions of dollars.  Let that sink in for a minute.  In an area that is merely a couple of square kilometers, there were a very large number of multi-million dollar yachts.  Was Paris Hilton there?  I have no idea, but we caught a glimpse into their life.  And it was sad.  Really sad.  


What we noticed right away were the things of status.  If you didn’t have the right shoes, or the right $2,000 dress, or the right purse, or the most expensive sunglasses or the right imported car – you were overlooked as if you didn’t exist.  How sad is that existence?  An existence based off of what you have rather than the person you are.  Shawn noticed right off the bat that the people driving around in the super expensive cars looked miserable, truly miserable.  That begs the question, what is the meaning that we put on our lives?  What is this all about?


We discussed some pretty heavy stuff during our time in Monaco – something neither of us were expecting.  But it was very enjoyable nonetheless.  


As we got off the boat we decided that we wanted to go to the aquarium and the palace.  Both were pretty cool, but nothing really to write home about.  In fact, even though we had tickets to the palace we didn’t go in because there was a 30 minute wait, and neither of us were really interested in going there anyway, so we skipped it.


We then decided to walk around the town a bit and head to the famous casino where some movies were shot including the Ocean’s movies.  Seeing the casino was pretty cool, but I think walking around and observing the people there was more interesting.


Women in their 50’s walked by with their much younger boy-toys.  The same for the men.  Shawn and I must have repeated “wow, I hope that was his daughter” or “I hope that was her son” a few too many times.  Because really, this place might be beautiful, but it was all about status.  Who has the best (fill in the blank)?  And that’s your worth.  Far too sad for us to fully enjoy, but we had a good time being on the outskirts in our not-so-fashionable-clothing, cheap sunglasses (because I scratch the crap out of them constantly), and workaday existence.  We realized that we are some of the lucky ones who truly still enjoy being around each other, we like our lives for the most part and are able to get out and do things like travel.  We will never be the people who are overly concerned with ‘things’, and that’s more than ok with us.