Europe Trip Part 4 - Cinque Terre, Italy

Getting There -

After leaving James at around 4:30AM to get on my 5:30AM flight, I was headed to Milan. As soon as I stepped in, I hear the pilot testing his systems inside the cockpit (the door was wide open): "Right engine on fire. Left engine on fire." After the initial split-second adrenaline-rush of hearing these words on an airplane, I just thought to myself, "I'm not in the USA, I'm not in the USA." Despite the alarming welcome, I slept the entire 2-hour flight. I love that. You fall asleep after take-off and then wake up to the pilot telling everyone to prepare for landing. Now why couldn't my flight from Chicago to London have been that way?

Anyway, I landed in Milan Malpensa airport and bought a bus ticket to the Milan Central Train Station, where Megan and I planned on meeting at 10:00AM at platform 14. I got to the train station a little after 9:00, so I had some time to kill. I was super-hungry, so I stopped by a sandwich shop to get some food. The food-case was piled high with sandwiches filled with pork. Yuck. I asked the dude behind the counter if anything was made with turkey. He gave me a puzzled look, so I said "turkey" again, because repeating the word more clearly will certainly make him understand (yeah, right). Nothing. I was going to start flapping my arms to mimick a turkey, but luckily he caught on and said "Chicken!" I said "Yes! Chicken will be great!" The chicken sandwich actually wasn't that great, but it was decent and I was hungry. I sat on a hard, metal bench eating my sandwich while people-watching until Megan arrived. At about 10 minutes past 10:00, I heard a "HEY!!!" and turned to see Megan's smiling face. It was good to see her.

Off to Cinque Terre!

Traveling by train is pretty cool. It's fun, fairly comfortable and predictable. And, fortunately, having studied in Italy on different occasions, Megan is used to the train culture of Italy and knows what she's doing. We left Milan by train, switching trains just a few times until we were at our destination, Manarola, Italy. If you aren't familiar with Cinque Terre, it's 5 small towns stretching across about 18km of the coastline in Northern Italy. The towns include Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Riomaggiore and the town where our hostel was located, Manarola. The towns are just a few minute train ride from each other, but if you want an adventure, hike between the towns! Which, of course, we eventually did. We got to Manarola at about 2:30 and had to wait for our hostel to open (there is a lockout during the day until 5pm, which kinda sucked), so we ate a late lunch and had some gelato.

Our Hostel -

Despite all the lame rules (lockout from 10AM until 5:00pm, curfew of 1AM, etc...) I loved our hostel! The guys running it were such characters. There were the two that worked the desk including the smiley one that made sure everything was in order (he's the one in the picture) and the one that always seemed like he was a little bit confused about everything. There were also two cooks, including the one with big hair and the grumpy one who never smiled at anyone except me (he decided he was in love with me). Ahhh, yes. I had a fan. And I quote, "I don't usually pay attention to women, but you are different. You move me." Of course, you must read this with an Italian accent and imagine the person saying it holding a cigarette. Constantly holding a cigarette. At one point, he took a drag off his cigarette and blew me a kiss with smoke billowing out of his mouth. Uhmmmm....yeah. It was less than attractive. At any rate, all of the people there were fun and it was a really great place to be.

Activities and Fun -

Our time at Cinque Terre was spent exploring all of the quaint towns, of course. We spent time on a beach in one of the towns the first day, which was not super comfortable. Big-ass rocks everywhere. And then the second day we hiked the trails connecting the 5 towns. It was beautiful. Century old footpaths about 500 to 1000 feet above the sea winding through grape vineyards, olive groves, lemon orchards and more. Despite the horrendous effort it took to climb up some of the hills, it was well worth the five-ish hours it took to complete. We then beached some more on the third day (we found a comfortable sand beach in one of the other towns). Oh yes, and I can't forget the wonderful gelato that we had every day (sometimes twice in a day). Every town had at least one gelateria. After purchasing gelato from them all, we thought they were all pretty much the same. That is, until the last place we tried, Artigianale Gelateria in Vernazza. It was *awesome* gelato. I bought a two scoop cone with mint and chocolate and immediately bought another cone with two scoops of mint. It was SOOOO yummy. And we got to hear a complete history about the man's gelateria and his family. His son used to work at the gelateria and now has his own gelateria in Australia. Apparently, his wife (who is from Australia) was on vacation in Italy. She came to the gelateria and loved it so much, she bought three cones in one visit, getting to know his son quite well in the process. They ended up getting married and they now live in Australia carrying on the family tradition. How cool.

Meeting New People -

One of the great things about traveling with Megan is that she has absolutely no qualms about striking up in-depth conversation with anyone around. I wouldn't have met nearly as many people or had as rich an experience without that. We made new friends and learned a lot about their travel experiences. At the hostel, we met people from around the world. A woman traveling from Germany, two US college-students at the end of their travels (and money) after spending a semester in Spain and two Canadian brothers (Drew and Greg) that we ended up eating dinners and gelato with. It was such a fun time! Oh, and the Canadian brothers didn't say "eh." I was a little disappointed.

The End of my Travels -

After bidding Megan farewell at the Milan Central Train Station, I took a bus to the airport and a taxi to my hotel, where I would be spending one night before my departure flight from Milan. All the hotels close to the aiport were quite expensive and so I chose a place that wasn't the most expensive, but not the least, either. The room was SUPER swank. I loved it. Vaulted ceilings, skylights in the bathroom, a big-ass bed, flat-panel TV (although the only channel in English was CNN....what a waste), etc. It was a nice place to sleep my last night in Italy. Then the next morning I was off on planes heading me back to Indianapolis. All the flights back went smoothly and I was picked up by Terralyn that night. It was nice to finally sleep in my own bed after being away for over 3 weeks. And my cats were most happy indeed.

Check out my FlickrPhotos soon. I'll have all my pictures up from the entire trip.