I've been in Monte Carlo for the last few days covering the EPT Grand Final. I added a gallery of photos I took here in Monte Carlo at night. I'll write a different blog post explaining the process I used to make them.

Thoughts on Monte Carlo:

• Everything is very expensive, and that's exacerbated by the terrible exchange rate. No big surprise there. A 20-euro hamburger could never taste good enough to justify the cost.
• Two buttons on the toilet, one for number one and one for number two. The number one is just a quick flush. Great idea for saving water.
• Even at the Monte Carlo Bay hotel, where rooms go for 600-850 euros per night (that's approx. $1000-$1600 per night), they don't have hot water in the bathroom sinks.
• High-fructose corn syrup sucks. How do I know? There's no HFCS in European Coca-cola, and it DEFINITELY tastes different. And by different, I mean 237 times better. Americans are getting ripped off in this category.
• Most people speak English very well and are very accommodating and very patient with my non-franophone-ness.
• Motorcycles and cars run around these streets (very quickly, I might add) in equal numbers. Most of the motorcycles are two-stroke engines, which means they get great gas mileage, have a lot of horsepower, but are very loud. But when fuel is 1.55 euros per liter (around $10 per gallon) you take whatever measures necessary to use as little of it as possible.
• Buses (1 euro) are your friend.
• Baguettes here are amazing. They taste similarly to sourdough and have a great texture. Very tasty.
• The ham in Monte Carlo isn't cured using brown sugar. They use a much milder curing process and the ham is very flavorful, but not so damn sweet as ham in America
• French TV = boring. Three(!) fashion channels, at least eight news channels (that are frequently reporting on fashion shows), soap operas, American movies dubbed with French and a music channel. Boring. I had heard all of these rumors about how racy and sex-filled European television is. I've seen none of that. Makes me wonder if some kind of propaganda machine is at work behind that little myth.
• When you're crossing the street, you better be paying attention, because the margins for error are very slim.
• Evian water doesn't taste any better here.
• If I lived here, I would love the two-hour lunches.
• 64 degrees fahrenheit is warm enough for topless sunbathing for people in Monte Carlo.
• Hope you enjoy the photos! Let me know what you think of them in the comments for this post.

Tags: monte carlo, photography, poker, travel, europe