Our Incredibly Long Catch-up Post

Barcelona to Italy

On Thursday (our second day in Barcelona), we starting out by going to a house designed by the funky architect Gaudi. Our guidebook said a tour of the house was only 5 or 6 euro for students, but the price had jumped to 16 euro so we took a few pictures of the outside and went on our way. At this time we experienced our first rain shower at an inopportune time- bummer- we had made it nearly two weeks with perfect weather! We bumped some of our outdoor plans to the afternoon and decided to go the Picasso museum instead. The directions to the museum from the metro stop were a bit tricky, but on our roundabout way to the museum we saw the Barcelona Cathedral, another town market, and several other Gothic buildings. The Barcelona Cathedral was a neat find, as it was not mentioned in our guide book. The Cathedral had a really pretty courtyard with a small flower covered fountain. The courtyard was complete with its own set of Catholic geese and a goose egg suspended at the top of the water in the fountain (hard to explain- we'll try to add a picture sometime). The second town market was not quite as large as the one we visited the day before, but it was still interesting to look around and again, you could buy just about any animal part you wanted – whole skinned rabbits and cow brains were new features today. By the time we actually made our way to get in the ticket line was incredibly long and moving very slow. We looked in the window, could see a few paintings, and called it good enough. You can tell that we are really becoming die-hard art fans on this trip.

By this time the weather was starting to clear up a bit, so we stopped by one more cathedral before heading to Park Guell. As we were on the way out of the cathedral a small Spanish woman came up to us and starting sticking carnations into our shirts for some reason- We think she was explaining to us but it's not like we could understand a word she was saying anyway. After we were decorated with flowers, she promptly notified us that it was time to pay her. Nick tried to dump all of his one and two cent coins on her, but he only succeeded in offending her greatly and she took her flowers back and walked away.

Nick was soon overcome with a sneezing fit and realized that he had left his travel pack of tissues in the hostel. Lucky for him, as soon as we walked out the door there was another little old woman selling tissues and lighters! Fate. Nick picked up his 'souvenir' pack of tissues from a very grateful old lady, and then we headed towards the metro.

Funny story (please stick with us): We decided that we should go ahead and by the pack of 10 tickets to use for our remaining time in Barcelona which costs 7.20 euro. By this time, we had also collected a large amount of change and were also out of paper money. We thought buying metro tickets would be a great opportunity to use up all of our change. We put our money together, added it up, and discovered that we were 25 cents short. This total was not including all of our 1 and 2 cent coins that the machines don't take and are consequently worthless. After adding up every single one of these coins we had exactly... 25 cents- success! We managed to use our newly refined Spanish skills with an older woman selling hot dogs in order to swap for change that we could actually use, bought our tickets, and were on our way. Yes moms, we know what you are thinking... we were in fact running around Barcelona Euroless for a few hours- but it was OK : )

Our next stop was Park Guell, a really unique park in the northern part of Barcelona designed by the big man himself- Gaudi. The buildings and general design of the park are a mixture of Candy Land, Dr. Seuss, and fine art. The park basically a system of trails that go up one huge hill. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see all of Barcelona, the surrounding mountains, and the ocean. Of course, the weather was beautiful by this time. Earlier we had planned to purchase tickets to take a cable car up one of Barcelona's mountains to admire the views it would offer, but hiking to the top of Park Guell ended up being a good substitute (and good exercise).

After making the easier hike down and Laura taking a few (hundred) pictures, we were tired and hungry but could not find any good places to pick up a filling and inexpensive late lunch, so we went for another McDonald's meal – anybody counting how many times we've been to McDonald's on this trip? Sadly, it really is the best deal we have found- and 'Big Mac' is universal! After lunch we took a siesta in order to prepare for our evening Tapas y Flamenco tour that was organized by our hostel.

We knew we were in for a late night because our tour didn't even begin until 8:30. The group we were with was a lot fun and included a brother and sister pair from Peru (now living in LA), a guy from Holland, 3 Canadian girls, a girl from London (who grew up in New Zealand), a German couple, Allejandro from LA (who happened to know the girl from Peru), and 3 Asian girls who were deathly afraid of every dog we passed on the street. Our night started with a traditional dinner of tapas and sangria. Tapas are basically little appetizer sandwiches that are commonly served with drinks at a bar. The meal was pretty good, and we were both able to try new things (although we both stayed far far away from the cow blood sandwich).

After dinner we walked over to see a flamenco show. Flamenco of course is the traditional dance in Spain. The show included one male and one female dancer- both were incredible. It is hard to describe, but we were able to take a few good videos with our camera that we will try to include somehow.

Next, it was time to experience Barcelona nightlife! Our tour included entrance into two clubs. We ended up going to five clubs altogether, although none for too long. The Peruvian girl was an excellent bilinguist in Spanish and English and she helped everyone navigate from place to place, getting group deals for entrance. The entire group was a lot of fun, although we had a pretty tame experience because the drinks were so expensive – 10 Euro each! By 2:30 am we decided to head back and get at least a little sleep before we caught our train at 8:30 the next morning.

Overall, the night was a LOT of fun and we met a lot of nice people. So many people we meet are in the same situation as us – just graduated and are treating themselves to the trip of a lifetime in Europe. It has been fun sharing our experiences and travel tips and comparing the quirks we have noticed across Europe compared to the US, such as a severe shortage of public restrooms and drinking fountains, and funny stories about overcoming language barriers.

On Friday, we woke up in time to shower and grab some breakfast to go from the hostel. We then made our way to the train station to go from Barcelona to Montpelier, France. From Montpelier, we were catching a connecting train to Marseilles. Although our train arriving in Montpelier arrived a bit late, the train to Marseilles was also an hour late and that gave us time to get a little lunch. Only one place with decent food was close to the train station – McDonald's! That's right, we had fried American goodness for the 6th (or 7th??) time on the trip. Again, we vowed to steer clear of McDonald's for as long as possible after this latest venture. We'll see how long it can last.

After finally arriving in Marseilles, we met another group of backpackers from Illinois looking for the same hostel as us. After some rough exchanges in French with an official in the train station we finally found it and checked in. Marseilles is just a midpoint stop for us on our way to Italy from Spain to breakup the trip. We did not explore the city much, but instead went to the supermarket and got lasagna to warm up at the hostel for dinner, picked up food for Saturday's long train rides and did laundry. We were exhausted from the night out and we decided to go to sleep as early as we could, but this didn't end up being until about 11.

Our first train Saturday morning departed at 6:20. We had several stops on our journey to our first destination in Italy. We went through Cannes – home of the famous film festival, Nice, Monte Carlo, Genoa, and La Spezia (Note: we have been in 4 countries in the last two days!!). It made for a long day of about 10 hours of traveling altogether. However, the great thing about the trains that make the rides worth it are the spectacular views. The tracks we took today were all built to ride along the Mediterranean coast so we saw ocean and mountains the entire way across the southern border of France and into Italy. This made the trip enjoyable, although we both dozed in and out frequently.

Eventually when we arrived in La Spezia to catch a regional train that is just 8 minutes from our destination town, Riomaggiore of the Cinque Terre, we saw that there had recently been a fire on another train at the station and so the place was a little bit chaotic. Lots of announcements were blaring over the speakers in Italian and English regarding consequent delays and changes for departures and arrivals. We were confident though that we had found the train we wanted that would take us to Riomaggiore, although it was delayed 20 minutes. When the train finally arrived it was already 4:15 and according to the conditions on our hostel reservation, in order to not lose the reservation we HAD to check in by 4:30 – we were cutting it close but had faith that we would make it. When we hopped on the train, it began going very fast, almost too fast for a regional train. Then we saw the Riomaggiore train station sign approach, but the train wasn't slowing down! We realized we must have boarded the wrong train in all the confusion. No way we were going to make it to the hostel by 4:30 now. We had no idea where the train was going, but it was going fast. We watched from the window as we passed station from station and quickly passed the Cinque Terre. There was another couple behind us who had made the same mistake. After about 20 minutes the train finally made its first stop and we hopped off. Turns out about 20 other people did the same thing as us as well. Luckily, another train arrived in just a few minutes and took us back the way we came (only much more slowly this time).

Nearly an hour later we FINALLY got off at the correct stop and went as fast as we could to find our hostel. Apparently they aren't really as strict about the 4:30 rule as implied, and we had no problem checking in and getting our room. The real challenge was actually getting TO our room. The main office of our hostel is located right on the main street in Riomaggiore, but they have a few different locations for rooms across the city. A nice Italian woman who spoke no English at all took us to our room. Over 350 stairs with our 30 lb backpacks later... we stumbled into a really nice room on the side of the mountain. The view from our building is SPECTACULAR!!!! We can see all of the town and have a great view of the ocean.

After our long day of traveling we took it pretty easy this evening. We hiked back down to the village and ate huge authentic Italian pizza- delicious!! Tomorrow we plan to explore the city we are staying in and probably hike to a few of the other villages as well. We don't have internet access here so this will probably turn into an incredibly long post. Hope you are still enjoying it! Chao!


Cinque Terre

Sunday morning we slept in until 8:30 and felt refreshed to explore what appeared to be an awesome area. Rather than climbing down the 350+ stairs to get to the village, we went down part of them and then walked the longer way down the main road. Along the way, we stopped at the office of tourism and picked up Cinque Terre passes that gave us two day access to the parks and hiking trails between the five towns.

After a couple breakfast croissants we went out to explore the town. Riomaggiore is really just a very small town with a single main road, Via de Columbo, that steeply makes its way up a hill. As a side note, our hostel is one of the higher buildings in the main cluster of the village, offering spectacular views of the city and the ocean. You can clearly see where we are staying in all of the postcards sold around here!

We then took some pictures of the coast from the edge of town and decided to hike to the second city along the Cinque Terre line, Manarola. The walk between these two towns did not take long, only about 20 minutes, but they have a paved boardwalk that winds itself along the mountains, overlooking spectacular views of the ocean. At this time, it was raining lightly, but it would soon clear up. Manarola was another village about the size of Riomaggiore. Most all of the shops and people here are entirely dedicated to tourism. The sides of all the mountains are terraced where the locals grow gardens of lemons, grapes for wine, olives, and other Mediterranean fruits and vegetables, but the towns themselves are all mostly for tourists. Still, they are so small, it has the feel of old Italian towns and we are not overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the big cities. The good thing is that most of the signs are posted in English and all the food looks safe and delicious to eat!!

We did not stay long in Manarola before hiking to the third village, Corniglia. The hike between these two cities took about an hour and a half, and although the path was no longer paved, it was very accessible and walking-friendly. The views were once again amazing. We arrived at Corniglia around 1:30 and stopped for a little rest and another slice of real Italian pizza – again it was very very good. We decided to take the next leg of the journey to the fourth village, Vernazza. It would be another hour and a half hike, but this time, several signs warned that the hike between these two cities would be much more strenuous and treacherous than the first two. Decidedly adventurous, we embarked. The trail was absolutely amazing. The views it offered of the mountain coasts, the blue water, and the waves splashing against the rocks hundreds of feet below were incredible. All along the trail, beautiful Mediterranean vegetation grew in and many flowers were in full bloom. Much of the trail here was rocky and narrow, with no guard rail – just a stumble away from toppling to one's unfortunate end in the cavernous sea below. Luckily, we ended up being just fine and made it to Vernazza, albeit a bit worn and tired for the day.

We then got some water and famous Italian gelatto (ice cream) and sat and rested by the beach. We did some more amusing people watching, observing some of the more interesting figures in Italy. So many of the guys here are not ashamed to be seen in their Speedos! After a little rest, we decided we would tackle the final trail from Vernazza to Monterosso the next day.

We returned to Riomaggiore on a regional train. The train that would stop at each of the Cinque Terre towns only came once an hour, and since it was around 5:30 then, hordes of people were ready to load the train to get back to their own villages and get dinner. Laura had to fend off an incrediby vicious old Italian women who ran up to board the train and pushed us out of the way to make sure she was the firs to get seats – even Nick's mom wouldn't go to such extremes (haha)!

Back at Riomaggiore, we went out to eat at a local restaurant in a belatedly owed birthday dinner for Laura and each had some pasta. However, the servings were relatively small, and although we each had cokes, they were small and there were no refills (common in Europe). There were also no bread, salad, or other side dishes and we were left hungry still, so after eating there we bought some bread and headed back to the room where we had some bread and cheap wine to fill us up.

Monday morning, exactly two weeks since we arrived in Europe, we slept until 9:30 and then prepared for another day in the Cinque Terre. It was a sunny day and hotter than what we've been used to, but still very nice. Great day for being by the ocean. For breakfast we ate bread we had bought the night before, but this particular loaf had the hardest outer crust you could ever imagine, and we could barely finish it because our jaws were too tired chewing. We then made our way to the train station and got to Vernazza where we would continue our hike to see the fifth town of the Cinque Terre- Monterosso.

The hike was a full two hours and was similar and as gorgeous as Sunday's hike between Corniglia and Vernazza. At some parts of the hike, we walked over ledges not more than a foot wide, with no guard rail and and a sizeable cliff on the side – scary! The best (or worst) parts was when traffic came in opposing directions and one party would squeeze tightly to the wall on one side as the other would carefully pass. It was definitely a lot of fun though, and the views and vegetation we saw made it worth it. We can also say we've hiked between all five towns! Between our time here and the walks we've been doing each days in the cities we've seen thus far, our legs are certainly going to be in shape this summer.

After the hike, we spent a little time in Monterosso, bought our train tickets we would need to get to Florene, Rome, and Venicce, and then quickly caught the next available train to Riomaggiore, and headed back for a late afternoon siesta. By 5, we were starving, and we went down to buy another huge Italian pizza from the same place we had eaten at Saturday – it was incredibly good. We brought our computer with us, but could find no wireless networks in town, and so we are now sitting on the rocks on the edge of the town watching the waves and the sunset, and typing this blog into a Word document. This will be posted as soon as we can, probably tomorrow in Florence. Until then, chao!