My Take On Monaco – Rich People Wear White

Never wear white. It is not slimming and it gets dirty.

That’s what my mom told me since I was a little kid. And it t makes sense. Why would you get something white? It will just dull or stain, so you’re basically burning money. From that point on, I never bought anything white. Every time I thought about it, my practical side would kick in and say, “Be practical.”

When I went to Monaco last week, I found that there, the word practical means nothing.

To get to Monte Carlo, you have to fly into Nice, France and then take a helicopter, cab, or train. Luckily, a guy named Lucas who works for Full Tilt recognized my PokerStars back pack and offered me a ride. We’d landed at night, so on the way there I couldn’t see anything. I had a nice 16 Euro pasta with a 7.50 Euro water and went to bed.

I woke up at 5 a.m. Monaco time and decided to go for a run. I cautiously walked outside and down to the beach. I had some illusion that I was going to be able to run along the sandy shore and have my version of Baywatch, but I found that there were only private beaches and that the sand was more like gravel. With my dreams of bouncing boobies and flowing hair down the French Riviera dashed, I walked up to the street. I started running, and found myself stopping to close my eyes and take a deep breath to try and burn the gorgeous pictures into my mind.

I went back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for shooting the first video of the trip. I met up with Gloria (PokerNews hostess), Ash and Alexander (camera guys). We took a cab to Prince Albert’s castle. From there, you can see the entire city, including the countless million dollar yachts. The view was breathtaking, but we couldn’t stay long so we quickly snapped some pics and went on our way.

We then descended back through city by foot, and in the unforgiving light of day, I couldn’t help but recognize the differences between me and the locals who lived there. I had sequins falling off my brand new Guess zip up, and the bottoms of my jeans were worn from walking on them. If you ever wondered where the beautiful people from Dolce & Gabbana ads come from, it’s here. I never saw a loose thread, a lint ball, or a hair out of place on these people. I was also blinded by the bagillion dollar diamonds on hands of the women, the insanely spotless reflections from Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Aston Martins, and their blindingly white, impeccably clean, clothes.

That’s when I realized that rich people wear white. They can wear white head to toe because if they get a dirty, SO WHAT? They don’t have to worry about the color dulling in the wash, because it probably has to be dry cleaned anyway! Hmm either that or rich people aren’t clumsy.

Perhaps in rebellion or because I wanted to prove to myself that I could wear white, on the day of the final table, I ordered this dress from Bebe… this could be a disaster! I’ll let you know how it goes.

So throughout the week, I remained super jet lagged. That, on top of working inside the poker venue for 12 hours or more a day, there wasn’t much time to enjoy the city. Granted, there wasn’t much to do or much we could afford to do, so on the last day, I made up my mind that I was gonna drag my tired ass out. After the final table of the High Roller, a few of us PokerNews people (Elaine of the Nightly Turbo, Alexander, Chris blogger, Ash) and Benjo. We ended up at an Irish bar where I discovered that I LOVE Guinness. At one point in the night, I thought Chris said shots. He, in fact, did not, but after that we took two.

As we stumbled back to the hotel, Elaine decides that she wants to go to France. SURE, EF IT! Let’s goooo. So we walk back outside, and about 100 meters from the hotel, we enter France. The border happened to be next to some stairs near the water. In a moment that hit me so quick, I decided that I wanted to do something even more memorable in a place where I’ll probably never come back again. LET’S JUMP IN THE MEDITERANEAN SEA!!!!!
Before I knew it, this is what happened.

Ahhh good times. So all in all, I think Monaco is beautiful, but I probably will never go back there on my own accord. I had fun while I was there, and the last night made the trip great. I’m actually headed back overseas this Thursday to go cover WPT Grand Prix de Paris.

Love you guys!!

-Kris