so if i share my story with you will you share your dollar with me?

Cinque Terre

So last weekend i ventured out on my first trip all by myself.  Yes, my parents both probably had heart attacks. Yes, Craig also.  But i thought i managed quite well, making all my trains, finding nice places to stay, and eating all my meals.  There were a couple other girls from our group going to Cinque Terre the same weekend as i was, but they all had plans to stay in separate towns and hostels and not wanting to interrupt anyones plans, (if you know craig, you know he's gets tired walking from his car in the driveway to his house, so there was no way he was coming on a 10 mile hike, hauling ass over high set cliff sides for seven hours- especially with rain in the weather forecast) so I set off by myself on my great hiking adventure. The train ride was long but beautiful the skies were clear, and we were chugging quietly along the most blue looking sea i had ever seen. Not to mention craig had fully charged my ipod and loaded it up with Harry Potter, so i had something interesting to listen to.  After the train finally pulled into the final station, i found my hostel fairly quickly, located right off the main drag of the tiny little town Riomaggiore; and for only 15 dollars a night, i was in a dorm bed with clean sheets.  

     When i arrived in my dorm, the other beds all had luggage on them but no-body was home, so i locked my backpack to the bed, grabbed my camera and headed down towards the marina.  I think the only place i could really compare the beauty of cinque terre with would be the grand canyon, which is, i think, the only other place that has physically taken my breath away with how beautiful it is.  Right on the coast of Italy, the blue blue of the sea against the heavy grey sky, was some of the most gorgeous beaches you can imagine.  No sand, just large smooth rocks (like the kinds you find in red lobster parking lots) which would roll against each other as the waves came in and washed over them.

Soon enough i had met the other people staying in my hostel, two guys from New Zealand (kiwis), a guy from Syracuse NY, a girl from Jackson Hole Wyoming, a girl from Ireland, and a girl from Tazmania, and we all plunged into the sea for a goose pimple-y freezing swim.  Then we lay on the rocks for a while eating some olives someone had brought along, looking out at the water and talking about our travel plans and our lives back at home. I was tired, having gotten up at 4:30 that morning to make my train, and I had refused to let myself sleep on the ride down, for fear of missing one of my stops, and so after a while i headed back off to the hostel to take a nap; though not before my new friends had made plans with me for dinner at 7.  Back at the hostel, i dozed off, and awoke later in the evening to the sound of the two kiwis, who had showered and were heading out to go get dinner supplies.  For two euros each, we made pasta with fresh pesto (cinque terre is the place where pesto supposedly originated) a fresh salad, sliced some bread, and had a few bottles of dry cinque terre wine.  After some of us cooked, we all ate, and then whoever hadn't cooked, cleaned the dishes... we settled down to a fierce game of spoons, which was played with some forks also, due to the hostel not really having all that much cutlery.   One of the kiwis was particularly excited to play spoons because he had just learned it while he had been staying in Belgium the past weekend, and was apparently his newest favorite game.  In between the rounds someone would tell a story, and the loser of each round would wear a pot on their head, for no apparent reason, other than we had made that a rule. I got heaps of great travel advice, as all of these people, all around my age, had been traveling all over the world for the past months, and were generous with their advice "when in paris, make sure to lock everything up, and don't go out at night" "Norway is the place to be, don't miss it"  "when you stay in Rome, make sure you stay in the Alexandria hostel, the staff is very helpful and the board is cheap"  I said goodbye headed off to bed fairly early, with plans to hike the entire seaside trail the next day.

And so i did. Woke up at 8, checked out of my hostel, and started off on the hike with all my weekend stuff in my hiking backpack on my back.  Soon enough i met up with some random Canadians, my age, who were hiking the trail around the same pace as me.  Kelsey and Ryan became friends quickly, as we hiked the entire trail, all seven hours, together, swapping stories and pieces of fruit.  They were rather adorable, just two friends traveling europe for a few months while they took a gap year from college.  Ryan had just won the World Championship of Tai Kwon Do which had taken place last month, and was his real reason for being in Europe to begin with.  Both of them said lots of cute canadian words like "warshroom" and they loved that i had my name embroidered on my "runners." They too, were generous with their traveling advice, had been to over 15 countries in Europe, and were headed home next month.  The hike wasn't easy, but it was gorgeous.  If my camera hadn't been running so low on battery i would have had a lot more pictures to show you.  Kelsey and Ryan hiked with me all the way to the last town, the farthest north, Monterosso, where we all hugged before parting ways at the train station.  Then i was off to find somewhere to stay for the night, scouring my tour-book and settling upon a reasonably priced hotel.  Much more expensive than my hostel form the previous night, Hotel Souvenir provided me with a hot shower, a large double bed in a room all to myself, a great view, and shelter from the rain which had just begun to pound upon the roof, and the thunder and lightening which i was grateful had waited until i was inside to begin raging.  After a hot shower, it was still pretty early in the evening, so i put my raincoat back on, and ran along the little overhangs on the side of the stores on the main drag.  I dipped into a church,which was dry, open, and had several beautiful paintings hanging on the walls, stayed for a few moments, then dipped back out onto the main street.  I found a cute little wine shop to pick up a bottle of the Cinque Terre wine, a dry white, found only one place in the whole world... here in Cinque.  The owner was hosting a free lemoncello tasting, so i had a few small shots of lemoncello, some crackers with bruchetta, and bought my wine.  Then i headed back to the hotel, let myself into my room, and ate a sandwich i had packed before i left, while reading my tour book on Venice.

The next morning, dawned clear, crisp, and freezing.  I wasn't sure if there was a continental breakfast at the hotel, and for some reason couldn't remember how to ask in Italian, although i later remembered, and ended up checking out and heading down to the towns marina.  It being a Sunday, all the self respecting stores were closed, but i wandered around some tacky trinket shops before grabbing a cafe espresso and heading off to the train station to catch my train back home.  It was all in all, a once in a life time experience, and i'm pretty pleased with myself that i hiked the whole thing, with my heavy pack, and made some new friends along the way.  Very invigorating experience for sure.