so do you remember that scene in shrek where they go to dulac, the palace of lord fraquat? heres a video if you don’t remember or haven’t seen the movie. that’s monaco in a nutshell. pretty, perfect but almost too much so. i may have been humming this song the whole time i was in monaco. it might have been the overcast weather or how empty many of the streets were but it was a little bit eerie there which was definitely not expected. i went once before when i was young but this time i got to explore many of the places i’ve always wanted to go. first stop was the casino which on the outside is far less impressive than i imagined it would be. we walked around the gardens and managed to sneak in the casino. or at least it seemed like sneaking in because we managed to make it in without getting our bags or passports checked and without getting turned away like some of the other tourists. inside, it is so stunning but all the modern slot machines really diminish its beauty and are dwarfed by the grandeur of the architecture. here’s a picture i found to show just how out of place the modern gambling machines look. it should be a ballroom or something amazing and not a casino but thats just my opinion. after we went to the casino, we meandered our way to the palace compound. it was beautiful there and like the rest of the city, very, very pristine. it reminded me of rodeo drive in la. there are hidden lush and exotic gardens around every bend and everything is so picturesque. this area was probably my favorite in the whole city even though it seemed a lot like an amusement park. we continued to walk around for the next few hours and we looked at some of the luxury stores but they were also much smaller than expected. i think i’m just spoiled with south coast plaza and los angeles stores. overall, monaco was very nice and beautiful but its not somewhere i would be rushing to go back to anytime soon. looking forward to visiting more of the other, less ‘hyped-up’ towns in the area.