Cinque Terre, Italy

On my way down to the Cinque Terre, I stopped for a night in Milan. I had been there before when I traveled Italy with my sister several years ago, but for only 5 hours. This time, I only spent time near the train station, which was a pretty seedy area. I found seemingly the only hostel in the area, which was a bit stange and more like a hotel with a couple of dorm rooms with doors that didn't lock, but at least my roommates were all girls. As I was settling in there, I put away my valuables in the locker, and later went to retrieve something from the locker. I pulled out a bag, forgetting that my camera was on top of the bag (I couldn't see it as the locker was at about my waist), and before I could stop it, my camera fell to the ground! I sat down on the floor, horrified, praying that it was ok. Two small curved plastic parts fell to the ground when I took off the lens, but thankfully the lens itself was still intact. I took a couple of pictures and was thrilled to see that it still took normal pictures! However, those small parts that broke off are important to hold the lens on, and so since then I have had to hold my lens on as I take pictures, and walk around, so that the lens doesn't fall to the ground and shatter. It makes it hard to hand it to someone else to take a picture then as well, because I would have to explain to them how to hold it right so it doesn't come apart. I am just glad, though, that it is still working and I can continue to get good pictures! I have it insured, but am having a hard time getting the form that my insurance requires from a camera store, specifying the difference in cost to get it repaired versus fixed. I am still hoping to find a camera store here in Berlin to ask at, but it is possible that I will continue the rest of my trip with a semi-broken lens. So, that event was a big bummer to me, and I couldn't believe I was careless enough to let that happen. My dad was going to let me borrow his lens when he left here, but I knew I would miss the automatic features on mine too much, so he took his back home with him.
The next morning, I headed to the Cinque Terre. I had always heard about this area of Italy being so beautiful, and hadn't had a chance to go when I was there with my sister. Also, being so close to Italy, and the fact that it is my favorite country ever, I couldn't pass up the chance to go! The Cinque Terre is a small section of coast along the Italian Riviera, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is made up of 5 small villages built up into the cliffs along the sea. The towns are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. I had decided to stay in Riomaggiore, which seemed to have the most budget accommodation choices. After a couple of transfers, I stepped off the train in Riomaggiore, and was met before I even left the tiny station by a small white-haired lady who started speaking to me in Italian. At first I thought she was asking me for directions, because she was holding up a piece of paper to show me. I started trying to tell her that I didn't speak Italian, but then I realized that she was telling me that she had a room available for much cheaper than the hostels that I was going to check out. So I went with Mama Rosa to see the room, which was next to the train station. Honestly, the room was pretty bad - I don't know if the sheets had ever been changed, or if the floor had ever been swept! But I was so intrigued at that point by the prospect of a private room, as well as the cheap price, that I accepted her offer, but only for one night. As it turned out, I was happy that I only promised her one night because as nice as it was that I had a room to myself, I didn't sleep well since the walls were paper thin and a group of people came in next door to me at about 1 in the morning and talked for hours. And let's just say I was pretty happy to have my sleeping bag to protect me from those sheets as well! After I checked in at Mamas, I went further into town to check out the two hostels that were there, and was put off by both of the owners, who were really rude to me when I asked if I could see the dorms, and one of them told me that if I had been staying at Mama Rosa's then his hostel would seem like a 5-star hotel. Despite that fact, I ended up seeing one of the dorms that night anyway because I was sitting on a bench and watching the sunset, and stuck up a conversation with an older lady who was sitting next to me doing the same thing, but with a glass of red wine. Of course I thought that was a great idea, and so we started talking, and it turned out she was staying in one of the dorms. We talked for quite awhile, and ended up getting food together after the sunset and took it back to her dorm, where she shared some of her wine with me. I ended up staying in that dorm for the next two nights, with my new friend Barbara from Canada. So on my first full day there, I moved to the dorm, and then went for a hike that involved a large amount of steps, around the town and up into the hills, where I had sweeping views of the town below and the ocean, along with vineyards, fruit trees (mostly lemon), olive tress, and flowers blooming everywhere. It was beautiful weather, and a great day, followed by another gorgeous pink sunset over the ocean. This time, I brought wine and chatted with a girl from New Zealand and just enjoyed the view and life in Italy!
The next day, I wanted to do the famous walk between the 5 villages, so I took the train to the furthest town of Monterosso, which I think is the biggest of the villages. There was a nice beach there, and I walked through the cute town a bit first. Then I bought my ticket for the hike (I was disappointed to find out that I had to pay for the walk, but it is in a National Park, so it does make sense) and did the first leg of the trail, from Monterosso to Vernazza, which was interesting and apparently is the steepest of the trails. It was super narrow in places, where it was hard to pass another person going the opposite direction. There is also a surprising lack of guard rails or fencing in many areas, especially given that often there is a cliff right next to the trail! Despite all of that, it was an amazing hike, with beautiful views of the ocean, as well as the town of Vernazza as I approached it. When I got to Vernazza, I treated myself to a gelatto and sat by the water for awhile. Then I attempted to do the next leg of the walk, only to meet other people on the way up who told me that that section was closed. They said that it was possible to hike around the closed area on another path, but that it was pretty difficult and that they wouldn't recommend doing it in my flip flops (one of the girls had them on as well, so I trusted her advice), and that it took a long time. I hiked up as far as the ticket checking station anyway, where the guy confirmed the closure - they often have to close sections due to mudslides or other generally unsafe reasons. This was especially disappointing to me because I knew already that one of the other sections was also closed, so that left only one other walkable section out of 5, and I had paid for this walk! So I turned around and went back down and took the train the short distance to the next town of Corniglia. I still wanted to see the town, so I followed signs from the train station to the town, which ended up (not suprisingly) requiring a lot of climbing of steps to reach. I kept looking for a good place to get a photo of the whole town, but I never did find one. I went down a lot of steps to the very small rocky seaside area, had my lunch, and then walked back up all of those stairs, and back down the steps to the train station and on to the next town, Manarola. There I found a lovely little park that was mostly deserted, so I read my book for awhile and then watched the sunset before doing the final stretch of the path. That stretch is called the Via Dell'Amore, or Lover's Walk, and is a large and easy path to walk. I ended the evening with some pasta and wine with Barbara, who had fallen while hiking on her own and had developed quite the shiner, not to mention a swollen knee. Since we are both nurses, we did a good job keeping RICE on her injuries:)
The next day, I started my very long journey to Madrid, Spain. Since I know that the Spain post will be long, I will just briefly talk about my trip through Italy and France now. I was happy to share the first leg of the train trip, from Riomaggiore to Geneva, with Barbara, and we met some nice people on the train and had some good conversations. We then had a coffee at McDonalds in the train station there before we parted ways. I had two more transfers then until I arrived in Nice, France, where I was going to spend the night. On the first train had been an older couple from San Fransisco that we chatted with, as well as a nurse who used to work at St. Joe's in Denver before I did, and surely knows many of my friends there (small world)! The couple from San Francisco was also going to Nice, and we met up again for the last leg of the trip. When we arrived, they offered to buy me a beer, and to let me keep my big pack in their hotel room while I looked for a hostel bed. Bob was sweet enough to wait for me while I waited in line to secure my ticket to Barcelona the next day, and then we went down the street to their hotel. They ended up sharing a whole bottle of red wine with me, which was so awesome! After I got back from getting a hostel, they said they wanted to buy me dinner, because I should have at least one nice meal on my long trip! So the three of us walked to the main area of town with restaurants, sat outside on a patio and watched street performers doing capoiera, and I had a delicious meal thanks to them. It is really one of my most happy memories of the trip regarding the kindness of strangers:) It continues to amaze me, how generous people can be. The next morning, I walked along the boardwalk and the rocky beach (which was familiar to me as I had been there 4 years earlier) and then boarded one of several trains I would take that would eventually get me to Barcelona late that night. (I really wish I could get the pictures to work, as I know these posts would be so much better with them! Please continue to be patient and I hope to get them up soon!)