Hello all my friends and family members! Just to forewarn you I am in a goofy mood. This post might be slightly odd. I blame a lack of sleep mixed in with the sugar high I'm on right now. Diet coke and white chocolate m&ms (Delicious by the way. I will have withdrawals upon my return to the States). Could life get any better? So anyway. Spring break!
I had a beyond amazing time in Cinque Terre, Italy. It was gorgeous. We relaxed, we hiked, we took in some sunsets, ate fantastic Italian food, and just pretty much had a ballin' week. (Why yes, I have picked up lame slang since being here. I now say things like 'legit' and 'ballin'. I blame Kayla. God willing this phase will not last much past the duration of my time in Europe. But I digress...) It was the most relaxing vacation ever. Everywhere you looked you got smacked in the face with gorgeousness. Cliff views, the Mediterranean, charming little pueblos painted bright colors...sigh. I would kill to go back.
Okay background info: Cinque Terre is an Italian national park and consists of a string of 5 little towns and the land between them. My friend Claire and I flew into Milan and hopped a train to Cinque Terre. We stayed in Corniglia which is in the middle of the 5 so it was a perfect location. There were 2 towns south- Manorola and Riomaggiore, and two to the north- Vernazza and Monterosso. All gorgeous, all with incredible food- and believe you me, this post will center around the food. But first the hikes.
South was an easy route. The trail from Corniglia to Manorola was okay. There were lots of fun places to climb down and get right be the sea. We had to be kind of careful though because in winter the waves are huge and like to try and kill you. We decided death was not on the agenda, but still had fun exploring. From Monarola to Riomaggiore was a cake walk. It is known as the Via del Amore and is completely paved. People clip locks to the fencing to signify their eternal love for one another (cough...excuse me...had to swallow a little bile there...). Some are engraved with names and dates and you can buy one for the low, low price of 10 euros! Like $13. For a lock. That you don't keep. And that's not even one of the fancy engraved ones.Maybe I missed the day they were handing out the romance gene. Any who. It was gorgeous. The hike north, while equally gorgeous, was designed by sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people suffer (thank you Juno, and props to whoever got the reference). Corniglia is pretty high up in the mountains. Vernazza and Monterosso are at sea level. Well that's not so bad you might think, but then you might be thinking oh so very wrong. You go up and then down and then up some more. And then down. Then up. Then around because there are 80 million switchbacks in the freaking mountain. The whole thing is stairs designed to make you wish you were handicapped and had an excuse not to take them. And just when you think you're going to level out, just when you see that light at the end of the tunnel, that last little slice of hope that allows you to make the last 200 stairs (that is not an exaggeration FYI)...you turn a bend and have to go up more. At one point the ledge, and I do mean ledge, was about 6-8 inches wide. One side was a sheer drop-off- the kind that kills you. Which is one thing if the ledge is smooth. But oh no, it was rugged and uneven and there were all kinds of loose rocks just waiting for you to step wrong and plunge to your rocky, watery doom. Round trip from Corniglia to Monterosso and back was about 7.5 hours. Yeah.
But it was all worth it and now Claire and I can say we hiked the Cinque Terre in its entirety. Oh and side note- there were a few people running it. Running. They were running the up and down and twisty, uneven path. The uneven stairs and the things that were supposed to be stairs but I'm pretty sure were just strange dents in the rock. Not to mention the ledge of terror. Yeah. Nutcases. Suicidal nutcases.
Now the food. Oh good lord the food. First of all it was actually pretty cheap so we were pretty happy. We did picnic lunches because it was cheapest. Baguettes, cheese, blood oranges and pesto- OH MY GOD THE PESTO. Okay let me break this down.
Baguettes/Cheese: Baguettes baked fresh daily and full of deliciousness. For cheese they would just cut a chunk off of a wheel and it was also absolutely delicious. And cheap. Way cheaper than in the States so I am saddened.
Blood oranges: Sounds gross, but they are amazing. Take the most delicious orange you have ever had in your entire life then times it by like 4000 and you will have a mediocre blood orange. They're red inside (hence the name) and juicy and oh so freaking fantastic. I will find them in the States. I know they're there. I will find them.
The Pesto: OH MY GOD THE PESTO. I don't think I can even describe it the Pesto (it deserves to be capitalized at all times). A friend touring through Italy who stopped to visit us in CT describes its as thus: People say that on the 7th day of creation God rested. Really on the 7th day he made Pesto and then realised he couldn't make anything better so he just quit. Pesto is like heroine, but good for you. I have a recipe and I am going to try and duplicate it. First I need to buy a mortar and pestle though. A marble one. Apparently that's one of the keys to making it so amazing and I'm not going to take any chances. I wish I could put it in words, but alas- it can't be done. The traveling friend, Ryan, met some guy randomly in Venice and told him about the Pesto and very generously allowed the guy to try a tiny bit of his Pesto. The random guy changed his trip plans to side trip to CT just to get this Pesto. It's that amazing.
Pesto Pizza: Some genius one day thought to himself "Now how can I make the most amazing thing ever and make it even better". And BAM! Pesto Pizza was created. It's the amazing Pesto on a thin-crust, marinara and mozzarella cheese pizza. So much goodness should be illegal.
One afternoon it was raining and we didn't have much to do so we ducked into this little wine store. There was a wine tower from the top of the bar to the ceiling. It was probably about 7 feet tall and all I could think of was how that might actually last the Pralle family like 2 or 3 get togethers. There was this guy in there playing the guitar and singing (apparently he's mildly famous), but by the time we got there he was drunk so he was making up some crazy song in broken English about the Sahara Desert. It was so cool. We sat and listened and had a couple glasses of wine and chatted with a few other people- a couple from from California who just got engaged and a couple from Italy vacationing for their anniversary. It was great.
Okay. So after CT we decided to change our plans a little and side trip to Florence. It's a beautiful city. We walked around for a few hours and grabbed some gelato. It was a pleasant day. Then we went to Pisa for the night. Pisa really only has the tower so we were glad we were only there for an evening and early morning. Then we flew out of Pisa International Airport back to Madrid...or so we thought...
Now, my friends, here is where you all get to call me a dumb blonde and make fun of me for the rest of my natural born life. And I will gracefully take the criticism because I deserve it. Oh boy do I deserve it. While waiting for our flight from Pisa to Brussels (our route was from Pisa to Brussels and then Brussels to Madrid) Claire was looking at the tickets. Suddenly she asks me, "Why do these say March 26?" We were flying out on April 1st. Yeah. Our Pisa to Brussels tickets were fine, but I, your one and only incredibly moronic Angela, bought tickets to Madrid for the wrong day. We ended up stuck in Brussels. We had to sleep in the airport and buy new plane tickets to Seville (which cost me 400 euros, but I did deserve it for being so stupid) and then had to buy new bus tickets to Caceres because we were no longer going there from Madrid. Yes. I am a moron. We were stuck in Belgium for hours. Freaking Belgium! And my card wouldn't work to buy the plane tickets (either of them) so poor Claire had to buy them. I will insert here that I am in no way making her pay for my stupid mistake. I am paying her back all 400 euro for the plane tickets and I purchased the new bus tickets as well. I am at least owning my own stupidity. I really don't know what happened. See, with Ryanair (shitty airline by the way, don 't ever fly with them) you can't just buy the whole round trip. They make you buy each ticket separately so you have to go back to the home page and do everything a million times. The only thing I can think of is that the default date must have reset and I didn't realize it. Which I should have. But whatever. What's done is done.
So there you have it. My break, with the exception of my epic mistake, was fantastic. We had an amazing time. And for all of you who are worried that while backpacking by myself I am going to get lonely you can relax. I met so many people at my hostel in CT. I even invited a few to stay with me in Iowa. One girl, Sarah, is from California and is studying in Israel for a year but was on a break backpacking through Europe by herself. She said she's met so many people and had such an amazing time. So no need for any of you to worry about me! I'll be fantastic.
So now that this has turned into a book, just a couple more things. I'm going to Lisbon this weekend and am looking forward to it. It's supposed to be a beautiful city and is one more country I can add to my list! Next weekend I am going to Paris and I'm really excited about that one. I'm dying to see the Louvre. And, again, another country I can add to my list. Then the next weekend I am going to spend in Caceres because it will be my last weekend in Spain. I'm kind of sad. I can't believe how fast this trip has gone. I'll fly to Switzerland May 1 and start my backpacking trip. It's less than 2 months now until I go home. I'll be sad to leave Europe, it's been such an incredible experience, but I can't wait to see all of you.
I will be doing a separate post of pictures later this evening because right now it's my siesta time :) And it's just easier to do a separate post rather than make this one even longer. I miss you guys tons. Love you all!
P.S. Please feel free to comment, even just to say hi. I haven't talked to some of you in ages! You can comment without an account or facebook (okay Aunt Nancy? :P).
This ranks right up there with the diet wagon story!
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