I never thought I'd say this but... thank god for the rain forecast. I know I'll probably wonder why I ever desired such a thing when I am actually enduring said rainy weather during my last two weeks in Madrid, but with all this gorgeous weather and these pesky essays due early next week, I think rain is the only chance that I'll actually get work done. And it would be good, you know, to not fail my vacation semester abroad simply because the weather is too beautiful.
But anyway, the weather here really has been beautiful. Since last weekend it's been in the high 70s and today it was 85 degrees and absolutely gorgeous. I'm still puzzled, though, when the weather is like this and yet I still get weird looks from Spaniards for wearing dresses without tights. GASP. I clearly must be out of my mind. But as it's supposed to be a ridiculously hot day again tomorrow, I guess they will just have to get over my bare legs.
Today we went to a production studio to see a filming of a Spanish sit-com, Aida. Which sounds like fun. In fact it was, for the first few minutes. After about ten minutes of watching, I was convinced that working in TV production could be a pretty fun job. However, an hour in, I had changed my mind - it's actually a very long and repetitive process. We watched one scene get filmed approximately ten times. It was kind of fun to see up front though, even if we had no background in the show itself.
Craving of the day: bagel and cream cheese.
Other random facts:
The courtyard neighbors have sung "Happy Birthday" three separate times this afternoon/ evening.
My host "sister" is doing Spanish-style jazzercise in the living room (from what I can overhear).
It appears that the above neighbor can only play one ONE song on the piano. It is the only song that I have heard all semester long. Couldn't he at least play "chopsticks" just to mix it up?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's been awhile...
Only 3 and a half weeks left! Therefore I thought I should squeeze in another post or two, especially since I've been delinquent ever since spring break. So, here are some highlights and thoughts.
Two weekends ago Eric and Papa visited! The weather did its part and showered us (figuratively) with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for sunbathing in el Parque de Retiro, the largest and most popular (and manicured) park in central Madrid. I even got a bit of a tan in the little time we spent there! We stayed in Madrid for 3 days before heading to Barcelona, which was absolutely beautiful and had lots and lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed the tapas-style lunch; it was a delicious change of pace, since mostly my lunch consists of homemade sandwiches. After 3 days in gorgeous Barcelona [of whose metro system I'm a huge fan], we came back to Madrid for a final night and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bazaar, with my friend Paige's family. It was absolutely delicious, although not traditionally Spanish. [Although at this point in my trip, I'm starting to view that as a pretty good thing].
It's kind of unfortunate that at this stage in my stay I still didn't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to show off about "my city". I know I've traveled a lot and there's only so much to see in Madrid, but I regretted that I've spent so much time at school, traveling and at home that I didn't know "the best restaurant in town", but I was excited that their being here allowed for a lot of exploring that I hadn't really done since the first few weeks when I arrived. Also, the beautiful weather that's finally peaking through certainly increases my motivation to walk around aimlessly!
Anyway, after a fun week, they left on Monday morning, and very greedily, they seem to have taken the good weather with them! It's been showering (literally, with rain) ever since. (Today's looking up, though...).
So that also kind of killed my plans for my "first exciting weekend in Madrid in nine whole weeks!", in which I was going to explore! and eat out! and do lots of other unspecified Spanish things! But... I didn't really want to wander around anywhere with the spitting/pouring rain.
But on Sunday, Paige and I went to see Alice in Wonderland (or, Alicia en el Pais de Maravillas)! Spanish theaters are a bit different, since when you buy your ticket you also pick your seat, like a real theater. Upside: Ordering your ticket in advance means you don't have to show up 30 minutes in advance to get the good seat. Downside: Americans (me) forget that Spanish theaters act in this way, and when we try to buy seats 5 hours before the movie, we get seats in the second row! It actually wasn't that bad, though, once I got used to looking up. It was however, the only cinema in Madrid to screen the movie both in English and in 3D, so the crowd was mostly inevitable.
Other random things... I have 19 pages of papers due in about 2 or so weeks. All of a sudden my classes want to pretend they're real! And assign work! (Okay, so I got two of the assignments more like 2 weeks ago... but still.) I've also gotten back into running after getting my running shoes two weeks ago, and it's a lot different now that the weather's a bit warmer. Before, the only runners were die-hard athletic men who looked at women exercising as if we were aliens. However they have since been replaced by older men who probably needed to jump on the exercise bandwagon several years ago, younger average guys, and even some other girls! (Besides my roommate!) And, yes, the cute guys who now play tennis in the middle of the park don't hurt either...
I'm enjoying my time here, but nevertheless I'm still excited to come home in three weeks! I really am getting excited for drip-coffee and cottage cheese. I know the second craving sounds strange, but after looking all semester and failing... I've come to really want it!
Two weekends ago Eric and Papa visited! The weather did its part and showered us (figuratively) with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for sunbathing in el Parque de Retiro, the largest and most popular (and manicured) park in central Madrid. I even got a bit of a tan in the little time we spent there! We stayed in Madrid for 3 days before heading to Barcelona, which was absolutely beautiful and had lots and lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed the tapas-style lunch; it was a delicious change of pace, since mostly my lunch consists of homemade sandwiches. After 3 days in gorgeous Barcelona [of whose metro system I'm a huge fan], we came back to Madrid for a final night and went out to dinner at a restaurant called Bazaar, with my friend Paige's family. It was absolutely delicious, although not traditionally Spanish. [Although at this point in my trip, I'm starting to view that as a pretty good thing].
It's kind of unfortunate that at this stage in my stay I still didn't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to show off about "my city". I know I've traveled a lot and there's only so much to see in Madrid, but I regretted that I've spent so much time at school, traveling and at home that I didn't know "the best restaurant in town", but I was excited that their being here allowed for a lot of exploring that I hadn't really done since the first few weeks when I arrived. Also, the beautiful weather that's finally peaking through certainly increases my motivation to walk around aimlessly!
Anyway, after a fun week, they left on Monday morning, and very greedily, they seem to have taken the good weather with them! It's been showering (literally, with rain) ever since. (Today's looking up, though...).
So that also kind of killed my plans for my "first exciting weekend in Madrid in nine whole weeks!", in which I was going to explore! and eat out! and do lots of other unspecified Spanish things! But... I didn't really want to wander around anywhere with the spitting/pouring rain.
But on Sunday, Paige and I went to see Alice in Wonderland (or, Alicia en el Pais de Maravillas)! Spanish theaters are a bit different, since when you buy your ticket you also pick your seat, like a real theater. Upside: Ordering your ticket in advance means you don't have to show up 30 minutes in advance to get the good seat. Downside: Americans (me) forget that Spanish theaters act in this way, and when we try to buy seats 5 hours before the movie, we get seats in the second row! It actually wasn't that bad, though, once I got used to looking up. It was however, the only cinema in Madrid to screen the movie both in English and in 3D, so the crowd was mostly inevitable.
Other random things... I have 19 pages of papers due in about 2 or so weeks. All of a sudden my classes want to pretend they're real! And assign work! (Okay, so I got two of the assignments more like 2 weeks ago... but still.) I've also gotten back into running after getting my running shoes two weeks ago, and it's a lot different now that the weather's a bit warmer. Before, the only runners were die-hard athletic men who looked at women exercising as if we were aliens. However they have since been replaced by older men who probably needed to jump on the exercise bandwagon several years ago, younger average guys, and even some other girls! (Besides my roommate!) And, yes, the cute guys who now play tennis in the middle of the park don't hurt either...
I'm enjoying my time here, but nevertheless I'm still excited to come home in three weeks! I really am getting excited for drip-coffee and cottage cheese. I know the second craving sounds strange, but after looking all semester and failing... I've come to really want it!
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Rest of Semana Santa
Or Settimana Santa, as it's said in Italian. Let's see... the rest of the week was a little more action packed and with a lot more people around so I didn't really spend the time to write down things as they happened... but I'll try to recall as much as possible.
On Tuesday we walked around Venice basically all day. We didn't really have an itinerary so we wandered around basically the whole main island, visited Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), saw the crazy pigeons (people buy bird seed and the birds just flock and land on them). It's actually pretty disgusting in my opinion, but fun to watch from a distance. Other than that I kept being unimpressed with the food and gelatto though, which was a bit disappointing. The day was very tiring with all the walking and the rainy/cold temperatures. That night we decided we needed more of a plan, so we looked some things up and on Wednesday we visited the Palazzo Ducale, which was a really interesting museum, and took a water taxi down the grand canal (in lieu of a gondola tour) and visited another museum that I cannot remember at the moment. We also went inside the basilica and wandered around even more. The whole time I just kept being upset with the gelatto (this was a big deal to me, you can see.) No one else that I was with understood my frustration, though, not having had proper gelatto, and they had no idea that it was different from the ice cream that we kept being served. (It's okay though, because I enlightened them when we arrived in Florence.)
Thursday morning we took a 9am train to Florence. By this time I was much more of a train aficionado, so it was much easier than my Monday experience! Unfortunately our tickets had non-guaranteed seats so we ended up sitting in the passageway for the entire three hours (so no sleeping!) but it was fine. We got to Florence a little after noon and I directed us all to our hostel (about a 15 minute walk). That afternoon we braved the line for the Accademia museum and saw Michelangelo's David. We also visited the Piazza Signoria, which was very close to our hostel, and has a lot of sculptures. It was also here where I got really excited because I had finally found real gelatto! That night we went to a restaurant (Il Teatro) right on the same street as our hostel on recommendation from my friend. It was pretty delicious (finally!) and the waitress was extremely nice and ended up cutting 15euro from our bill!
Friday morning we awoke bright and early to get to the Uffizi museum at 9am (we were apparently extremely ambitious when we pre-booked the tickets!) The Uffizi is overwhelming with the sheer amount of art it has, but I really enjoyed it, and ended up going through the whole thing in about two hours. After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge with shops built right onto it) and headed up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is located on a hill overlooking the entire city. Sadly it started raining when we were up there, so we headed down to get some lunch and then head to the Duomo. We went inside the cathedral and the Baptistery, but unfortunately the actual dome was closed until today. We then headed back for a nap. After that we tried to visit the Bobali gardens, but it was already closed, but it made for a nice evening walk! Anna and her friend Julienne got in that night, so I moved my things over to the hotel (which was conveniently only five minutes away from my previous hostel) and then the eight of us went out to dinner at another recommended restaurant, El Gatto e Volpe. Also very delicious, and with an extremely friendly wait staff. They gave us all a free glass of wine(!) because we had to wait so long even when we had made a reservation. Only downside was that it seemed to be more frequented by American college students than actual Italians.
On Saturday, the group I'd been traveling with moved on to Roma and Julienne, Anna, and I went to Tuscany for the day! We started off with a horseback ride through the Tuscan fields, which were beautiful. I only wish I'd gotten to concentrate on the scenery a bit more; but my horse was not happy playing follow-the-leader and I ended up concentrating much more on him. We then had a delicious traditional Tuscan lunch/ wine tasting and ended by going to a small town in Sienna. We got back around 5:30 and wandered around the piazzas and bought some cheese and crackers to snack on. That night we went to ZaZas (a place that had been recommended by about 6 different people!). I had seafood pasta (with squid, clams, and mussels, yum!) that was absolutely amazing. I would definitely go back.
Sunday, Anna and Julienne got up early to go to 7:30 Easter mass in the Duomo and to go to the Uffizi. I chose to sleep in since I was feeling like I was getting a cold, and had already seen the Uffizi. We all met back at the hotel, and planned on seeing the procession and cart explosion (something involving fireworks that takes place in the Duomo Piazza), but we had been told the wrong time and arrived too late. We spent some time wandering around the outdoor markets/stalls and went to a late Easter lunch at a place called Nicoleto (or something close to that). I had pear-stuffed pasta with gorgonzola sauce (it sounds weird but it was delicious) and the best tiramisu ever. Afterward we went to the Pitti Palace (home of some of the gigantic Medici heirloom collection) and the Boboli gardens despite the torrential downpour and our superbly soaked feet/pants. That evening we bought some more cheese/wine/salami/ and pizza and had a little feast in our hotel, since the weather made it seem awful for venturing out. The pizzeria was delicious and they gave us free glasses of beer while we waited for our pizza!
This morning I got up bright and early to get a cab at 6:40... and catch a 7am train that connected to a shuttle bus that brought me to the airport. Luckily the connections went smoothly and I got to the gate with over an hour to spare. And I randomly saw a group of Colgate students on the train platform!
Now back and trying to organize and re-energize myself before an exciting week with Eric and Papa!!! And also to enjoy the gorgeous Madrid weather!
On Tuesday we walked around Venice basically all day. We didn't really have an itinerary so we wandered around basically the whole main island, visited Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), saw the crazy pigeons (people buy bird seed and the birds just flock and land on them). It's actually pretty disgusting in my opinion, but fun to watch from a distance. Other than that I kept being unimpressed with the food and gelatto though, which was a bit disappointing. The day was very tiring with all the walking and the rainy/cold temperatures. That night we decided we needed more of a plan, so we looked some things up and on Wednesday we visited the Palazzo Ducale, which was a really interesting museum, and took a water taxi down the grand canal (in lieu of a gondola tour) and visited another museum that I cannot remember at the moment. We also went inside the basilica and wandered around even more. The whole time I just kept being upset with the gelatto (this was a big deal to me, you can see.) No one else that I was with understood my frustration, though, not having had proper gelatto, and they had no idea that it was different from the ice cream that we kept being served. (It's okay though, because I enlightened them when we arrived in Florence.)
Thursday morning we took a 9am train to Florence. By this time I was much more of a train aficionado, so it was much easier than my Monday experience! Unfortunately our tickets had non-guaranteed seats so we ended up sitting in the passageway for the entire three hours (so no sleeping!) but it was fine. We got to Florence a little after noon and I directed us all to our hostel (about a 15 minute walk). That afternoon we braved the line for the Accademia museum and saw Michelangelo's David. We also visited the Piazza Signoria, which was very close to our hostel, and has a lot of sculptures. It was also here where I got really excited because I had finally found real gelatto! That night we went to a restaurant (Il Teatro) right on the same street as our hostel on recommendation from my friend. It was pretty delicious (finally!) and the waitress was extremely nice and ended up cutting 15euro from our bill!
Friday morning we awoke bright and early to get to the Uffizi museum at 9am (we were apparently extremely ambitious when we pre-booked the tickets!) The Uffizi is overwhelming with the sheer amount of art it has, but I really enjoyed it, and ended up going through the whole thing in about two hours. After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge with shops built right onto it) and headed up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is located on a hill overlooking the entire city. Sadly it started raining when we were up there, so we headed down to get some lunch and then head to the Duomo. We went inside the cathedral and the Baptistery, but unfortunately the actual dome was closed until today. We then headed back for a nap. After that we tried to visit the Bobali gardens, but it was already closed, but it made for a nice evening walk! Anna and her friend Julienne got in that night, so I moved my things over to the hotel (which was conveniently only five minutes away from my previous hostel) and then the eight of us went out to dinner at another recommended restaurant, El Gatto e Volpe. Also very delicious, and with an extremely friendly wait staff. They gave us all a free glass of wine(!) because we had to wait so long even when we had made a reservation. Only downside was that it seemed to be more frequented by American college students than actual Italians.
On Saturday, the group I'd been traveling with moved on to Roma and Julienne, Anna, and I went to Tuscany for the day! We started off with a horseback ride through the Tuscan fields, which were beautiful. I only wish I'd gotten to concentrate on the scenery a bit more; but my horse was not happy playing follow-the-leader and I ended up concentrating much more on him. We then had a delicious traditional Tuscan lunch/ wine tasting and ended by going to a small town in Sienna. We got back around 5:30 and wandered around the piazzas and bought some cheese and crackers to snack on. That night we went to ZaZas (a place that had been recommended by about 6 different people!). I had seafood pasta (with squid, clams, and mussels, yum!) that was absolutely amazing. I would definitely go back.
Sunday, Anna and Julienne got up early to go to 7:30 Easter mass in the Duomo and to go to the Uffizi. I chose to sleep in since I was feeling like I was getting a cold, and had already seen the Uffizi. We all met back at the hotel, and planned on seeing the procession and cart explosion (something involving fireworks that takes place in the Duomo Piazza), but we had been told the wrong time and arrived too late. We spent some time wandering around the outdoor markets/stalls and went to a late Easter lunch at a place called Nicoleto (or something close to that). I had pear-stuffed pasta with gorgonzola sauce (it sounds weird but it was delicious) and the best tiramisu ever. Afterward we went to the Pitti Palace (home of some of the gigantic Medici heirloom collection) and the Boboli gardens despite the torrential downpour and our superbly soaked feet/pants. That evening we bought some more cheese/wine/salami/ and pizza and had a little feast in our hotel, since the weather made it seem awful for venturing out. The pizzeria was delicious and they gave us free glasses of beer while we waited for our pizza!
This morning I got up bright and early to get a cab at 6:40... and catch a 7am train that connected to a shuttle bus that brought me to the airport. Luckily the connections went smoothly and I got to the gate with over an hour to spare. And I randomly saw a group of Colgate students on the train platform!
Now back and trying to organize and re-energize myself before an exciting week with Eric and Papa!!! And also to enjoy the gorgeous Madrid weather!
Venice: The Trip In/ Or, A Series of Unfortunate Events
I started off Monday with the expectation that I'd spend the morning walking to some of the other towns, and make it back to Riomaggiore with time to collect my bags from the hotel lobby and make it on to a train that would then connect to Milan and then Venice. Easy, right? I thought so, too, until I seemed to have the absolute inability to do anything on time or efficiently. I ended up getting a train ten minutes later than I originally intended, and just when I got to La Spezia (where I would switch for the Milan train) the Milan train was already boarding and set to leave in 5 minutes! And I didn't have a ticket. However, the ticket office was able to give me a different route with one extra exchange that would actually get me in sooner than I'd originally planned for. Crisis number one, averted. At least for the time being. This train is set to leave in 30 minutes, giving me plenty of time to get a snack. I go out on the platform about 5 minutes before my departure time, just as the train is arriving. I'm a little confused, since the track has two trains listed for two separate departure times (one is mine at 3:12, the other is to Florence at 3:40), but I at that point didn't really notice it. So I board the train... only to realize I hadn't validated my ticket, which is a 50€ fine. So I get off the train, validate the ticket, reboard. Now it's 3:25... 3:35, and I'm getting really confused. Of course there is no conductor or anyone else in sight. I'm also pretty sure the other train had not come through at all, unless it was early somehow and left before it's scheduled time. (Which seems unlikely as it seems to me that Italian trains either run on time or late.) Anyway, it turns out that this train also goes to the station I need to get to, so I stay put. Finally get to the station... (after accidentally getting off a station too early because of similarly named stations; think Newark Penn versus New York Penn), and it turns out that I am WAY too late for my train, which was the only one of the afternoon/evening. Of course. At least I realized that I would have already missed it even if I hadn't gotten off one stop too early by accident, so that mistake doesn't even count. Oh and I slept through one of my connections by accident (waking up and realizing just as we were pulling away). So basically I was really on top of my game on Monday. So I'm at this station, with no connecting train, so it's back to talk to the ticket window, where the woman behind the counter is extremely skeptical of my missed train situation. She's staring at my ticket and her computer screen for a long time without saying anything. For all I know, she's checking something that says that the 3:12 train (the original mystery train that I never saw) was perfectly on time. Which it could have been. Elise and I had trouble with the somewhat confusing train schedule when we first arrived as well. But finally another guy comes in, who tells her that its fine so she gives me yet another ticket with a new way of going (at this point I'm also pretty sure that I'm much closer to Florence than Venice... maybe I should just skip Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday and head straight to Firenze?) Good thing: I don't have to pay to get my ticket switched. Bad thing: my new ticket doesn't assign me a seat number, so I'm essentially standing for 90 minutes. Finally got in to Venice around 10:30. Luckily everyone else had already arrived so they were able to give me directions/ come meet me on my walk. Long day but all worked out! And I got to be a train pro... sort of. Not really. Actually not at all.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Semana Santa Part 1: Cinque Terre
Friday, March 26th
On Friday morning I awoke bright and early to catch my cab. (Scratch bright; it was still pitch black, actually). My cab arrived at 4:30am, being as it was the middle of the night I made it to the airport in less than 15 minutes. But crazy was I to think that just because it was still the middle of the night and Spaniards don’t seem to like to “madrugarse” that the airport wouldn’t be crowded. After all, even when I travel on Thursday and Friday at late morning or early afternoon times, I barely waste time in lines, and definitely not in security. But welcome to Semana Santa; the place was packed. I of course was flying Ryanair, the most dirt-cheap budget airline of them all, so it was of course situated in the least convenient location. I stood in line for about 35 minutes just to check my bag through but had to go to yet a different desk to get my travel documents approved because I am not an EU citizen (horror of horrors), which involved a couple more useless minutes. (Because, of course, it wouldn’t make sense for ALL the check-in desks to have the official document seal/stamp/what have you. That would be far too logical.) So, then I have to run all the way back to security, which for the first time ever actually resembles more of a EWR line than anything I have seen here. So I go through that… make it through by 5:35. [Note: my boarding time is 5:30; the plane is set to depart the gate at 6am. Note also: the previous statement about Ryanair being the cheapest and therefore most inconvenient airline ever]. As you can guess, the gate couldn’t possibly be anywhere close to the security check. So walking very fast for ten minutes I reach my gate, which is already mostly boarded, and I’ve broken a sweat, and it’s still barely light outside. Excellent. Now for some much needed sleep; no wait – the seats don’t recline and they make announcements every 15 minutes! Whoopee! Anyway, the rest of the travel was smooth, made all the necessary connections, and met Elise at Milano Centrale. Unfortunately we didn’t have seats together on the 3-hour train to Cinque Terre, but that was fine. Once we made it to La Spezia, one of the towns close to where we were staying in Cinque Terre, we had a little trouble with the train schedule, but we finally made it onto the correct train. (And then the conductor came by to check our tickets and told me it was a 50€ fine for not stamping my ticket. Luckily I was able to explain that I had had no idea and I avoided it – because the first stop was mine – but seriously, what a terrible system! A. How am I supposed to know to stamp it if no one has told me and there are no signs? B. What is the point? I’m already holding the ticket. Can’t they just print the time/date on the ticket itself?? Oh, Italy). Our hostel was nice but extremely cold!
Saturday, March 27th
On Saturday Elise and I slept in a bit and then got breakfast (Latte and omelets!) in our beautiful little town. (Which is literally one long street up an extremely steep hill.) The houses are old and a bit crumbling but all in bright colors. This town has no water access – it’s built on cliffs.) We began the hike through all the 5 towns. The first two connections were supposed to be easy and short, basically strolls, and then next two more intense. We were unsure whether the third or fourth was technically the most difficult (my online guide said the middle one, as did Elise’s mom’s memory; Elise’s guidebook and the km to average time to complete chart on our map said the fourth). We weren’t actually able to come to our own conclusion because the last trail was closed due to a landslide. It was a little gray, but the hikes and views were excellent. The first was a half mile on a paved walk way – part of it through the tunnel of love, with graffiti and murals inside and pad locks adorning the railings as a symbol of couples “locking in” their love. It overlooks the ocean the entire way. This path brought us to Manarola, a town also situated on cliffs and even smaller and unobtrusive than Riomaggiore (the town in which we stayed). On to Corniglia – the second hike was more on a nature path, but still fairly easy. Some older Italian women were walking it in heeled boots. Corniglia was also beautiful; each town is similar but has it’s own characteristics. This town was slightly bigger, and there were small twisting streets filled with pizzerias and foccacerias and a big tower at the top of the hill that we could climb and see the entire town below and the cliffs and oceans. Then we started the long climb (it ended up taking us about 80 minutes, although we stopped for a snack at one point and stopped many times to take pictures). This one was indeed harder, with lots of ups and downs, less old ladies in heels – less, not none – and paths through olive groves. Eventually we descended down down down into Vernazza. This was probably the biggest town yet, and still beautiful, and the first one on the water. There were lots of ocean-side restaurants and pizzerias and souvenir shops. We spent quite a while there before catching a train to Monterosso, the last and largest of the towns. We arrived in Monterosso around 5p and it definitely has a different feel from the others. First, there was much more beach. Second, there was a parking lot full of RVs. At first we couldn’t figure out what was so special about this town, we walked up and down the street and frankly didn’t see much of anything. Eventually, though, we realized there was a whole other section around a bend that we couldn’t see, and this led into restaurant/hostel/bar area. It was cute, but it actually took us a while to find a place we deemed suitable for dinner. We finally found one – and I had a steaming plate of penne with spicy tomato sauce and shrimps. Although I would have preferred my shrimps to be shelled for me! It was quite a chore. Mostly it was delicious because we were absolutely freezing. In fact, after we took a train back to our town (the warmest part yet), we stopped at a bar on the way up the hill to our hostel to get some steaming tea and hot chocolate.) Not much of a night life here…
Sunday, March 28th
Today we woke up a bit earlier – 8:30am. Actually, it was 9:30, but we had forgotten about the time change. We checked out of our hostel and I checked into my new hotel/hostel even further up the steep hill. Then we went to the train to take it to Monterosso where we planned on spending some time until Elise had to catch her train at one. It was on the train that Elise remembered the time change. We spent some time wondering about it, and asking our Canadian seat neighbors, who had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out she was right though, so we only had about an hour or so before she had to catch her train home, so we got an early lunch. (This time I got vegetable stuffed pasta in a cream/cheese “nut sauce”). Since it was finally absolutely gorgeous and sunny, I went back to Riomaggiore to get my swimsuit and book so I could lay out on the beach. The trains don’t run extremely often though, so in the time it took me to go back, change, and catch another train, an hour and 15 minutes had past and the sky was more hazy. I still spent the afternoon reading on the beach however. (And getting a hazelnut gelato!) Around 5:30 it started getting cold though so I have returned to my hotel to decompress, get some warmer clothes, and hang out before going in search of food.
This is definitely the type of place that you can be in and out of in a little over 24 hours – unless it’s summer and you have all the swimming/sunning/boating opportunities. I plan on having another lazy morning tomorrow – my train tomorrow is at 2:15, and I’m hoping that I will have an easy connection with the rest of my group when I finally reach Venice at 9:30 tomorrow night!
On Friday morning I awoke bright and early to catch my cab. (Scratch bright; it was still pitch black, actually). My cab arrived at 4:30am, being as it was the middle of the night I made it to the airport in less than 15 minutes. But crazy was I to think that just because it was still the middle of the night and Spaniards don’t seem to like to “madrugarse” that the airport wouldn’t be crowded. After all, even when I travel on Thursday and Friday at late morning or early afternoon times, I barely waste time in lines, and definitely not in security. But welcome to Semana Santa; the place was packed. I of course was flying Ryanair, the most dirt-cheap budget airline of them all, so it was of course situated in the least convenient location. I stood in line for about 35 minutes just to check my bag through but had to go to yet a different desk to get my travel documents approved because I am not an EU citizen (horror of horrors), which involved a couple more useless minutes. (Because, of course, it wouldn’t make sense for ALL the check-in desks to have the official document seal/stamp/what have you. That would be far too logical.) So, then I have to run all the way back to security, which for the first time ever actually resembles more of a EWR line than anything I have seen here. So I go through that… make it through by 5:35. [Note: my boarding time is 5:30; the plane is set to depart the gate at 6am. Note also: the previous statement about Ryanair being the cheapest and therefore most inconvenient airline ever]. As you can guess, the gate couldn’t possibly be anywhere close to the security check. So walking very fast for ten minutes I reach my gate, which is already mostly boarded, and I’ve broken a sweat, and it’s still barely light outside. Excellent. Now for some much needed sleep; no wait – the seats don’t recline and they make announcements every 15 minutes! Whoopee! Anyway, the rest of the travel was smooth, made all the necessary connections, and met Elise at Milano Centrale. Unfortunately we didn’t have seats together on the 3-hour train to Cinque Terre, but that was fine. Once we made it to La Spezia, one of the towns close to where we were staying in Cinque Terre, we had a little trouble with the train schedule, but we finally made it onto the correct train. (And then the conductor came by to check our tickets and told me it was a 50€ fine for not stamping my ticket. Luckily I was able to explain that I had had no idea and I avoided it – because the first stop was mine – but seriously, what a terrible system! A. How am I supposed to know to stamp it if no one has told me and there are no signs? B. What is the point? I’m already holding the ticket. Can’t they just print the time/date on the ticket itself?? Oh, Italy). Our hostel was nice but extremely cold!
Saturday, March 27th
On Saturday Elise and I slept in a bit and then got breakfast (Latte and omelets!) in our beautiful little town. (Which is literally one long street up an extremely steep hill.) The houses are old and a bit crumbling but all in bright colors. This town has no water access – it’s built on cliffs.) We began the hike through all the 5 towns. The first two connections were supposed to be easy and short, basically strolls, and then next two more intense. We were unsure whether the third or fourth was technically the most difficult (my online guide said the middle one, as did Elise’s mom’s memory; Elise’s guidebook and the km to average time to complete chart on our map said the fourth). We weren’t actually able to come to our own conclusion because the last trail was closed due to a landslide. It was a little gray, but the hikes and views were excellent. The first was a half mile on a paved walk way – part of it through the tunnel of love, with graffiti and murals inside and pad locks adorning the railings as a symbol of couples “locking in” their love. It overlooks the ocean the entire way. This path brought us to Manarola, a town also situated on cliffs and even smaller and unobtrusive than Riomaggiore (the town in which we stayed). On to Corniglia – the second hike was more on a nature path, but still fairly easy. Some older Italian women were walking it in heeled boots. Corniglia was also beautiful; each town is similar but has it’s own characteristics. This town was slightly bigger, and there were small twisting streets filled with pizzerias and foccacerias and a big tower at the top of the hill that we could climb and see the entire town below and the cliffs and oceans. Then we started the long climb (it ended up taking us about 80 minutes, although we stopped for a snack at one point and stopped many times to take pictures). This one was indeed harder, with lots of ups and downs, less old ladies in heels – less, not none – and paths through olive groves. Eventually we descended down down down into Vernazza. This was probably the biggest town yet, and still beautiful, and the first one on the water. There were lots of ocean-side restaurants and pizzerias and souvenir shops. We spent quite a while there before catching a train to Monterosso, the last and largest of the towns. We arrived in Monterosso around 5p and it definitely has a different feel from the others. First, there was much more beach. Second, there was a parking lot full of RVs. At first we couldn’t figure out what was so special about this town, we walked up and down the street and frankly didn’t see much of anything. Eventually, though, we realized there was a whole other section around a bend that we couldn’t see, and this led into restaurant/hostel/bar area. It was cute, but it actually took us a while to find a place we deemed suitable for dinner. We finally found one – and I had a steaming plate of penne with spicy tomato sauce and shrimps. Although I would have preferred my shrimps to be shelled for me! It was quite a chore. Mostly it was delicious because we were absolutely freezing. In fact, after we took a train back to our town (the warmest part yet), we stopped at a bar on the way up the hill to our hostel to get some steaming tea and hot chocolate.) Not much of a night life here…
Sunday, March 28th
Today we woke up a bit earlier – 8:30am. Actually, it was 9:30, but we had forgotten about the time change. We checked out of our hostel and I checked into my new hotel/hostel even further up the steep hill. Then we went to the train to take it to Monterosso where we planned on spending some time until Elise had to catch her train at one. It was on the train that Elise remembered the time change. We spent some time wondering about it, and asking our Canadian seat neighbors, who had no idea what we were talking about. Turns out she was right though, so we only had about an hour or so before she had to catch her train home, so we got an early lunch. (This time I got vegetable stuffed pasta in a cream/cheese “nut sauce”). Since it was finally absolutely gorgeous and sunny, I went back to Riomaggiore to get my swimsuit and book so I could lay out on the beach. The trains don’t run extremely often though, so in the time it took me to go back, change, and catch another train, an hour and 15 minutes had past and the sky was more hazy. I still spent the afternoon reading on the beach however. (And getting a hazelnut gelato!) Around 5:30 it started getting cold though so I have returned to my hotel to decompress, get some warmer clothes, and hang out before going in search of food.
This is definitely the type of place that you can be in and out of in a little over 24 hours – unless it’s summer and you have all the swimming/sunning/boating opportunities. I plan on having another lazy morning tomorrow – my train tomorrow is at 2:15, and I’m hoping that I will have an easy connection with the rest of my group when I finally reach Venice at 9:30 tomorrow night!
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