Day 37: Saturday
Elli made English breakfast aka beans, fried eggs, and chips (aka fries) and it was dericious nomnomnom. We realized we did not have a lot of time and had to rush to do our dishes and make the train. We made it though, and we settled in for the two hour ride. We arrived in La Spezia Centrale, waited in line to buy our tickets to Riomaggiore, and waited a couple minutes for the train. The ride was only about five minutes, and as we went along, we could see little flashes of ocean through the window. Finally, we arrived. The stop was in a tunnel, and as soon as we stepped out we saw a beautiful view of the sea. Elli and I just laughed at how ridiculously amazing our weekend was about to be. We filled our water bottles, and I tried to take some money out of the ATM, only to realize that I was out of money in that account, so I would have to survive the weekend on the 50 euro that I had. Then we walked through a tunnel toward the center of town. On the other side we were greeted by a gigantic hill which we had to climb up to find the office of our hostel to check in. We finally made it up the hill, swiftly realizing that anyone who lives in Cinque Terre is obviously fit. The woman in the office told us our rooms aren’t ready yet and to go hang out by the beach and come back at 7. We did just that. We walked down toward the marina, saw some cute little boats and a beautiful view of the town, then walked along the path by the rocks until we found the “beach.” It was very much a beach European style, and most Americans would’ve complained. It was all rocks, no sand. It was already pretty crowded, and the rocks were very hot, and I stupidly forgot my towel. We found a spot, and immediately changed and ran into the water. It was too hot to wait. Getting in was a bit difficult because the waves come in and push you against the rocks, so I just started swimming as soon as I could to avoid being pushed over and getting a face full of salt water again. We swam around enjoying ourselves beyond belief for a bit, until we decided we should probably go back and put sunscreen on. Getting back to the shore was also a huge struggle, and I’m sure all the Europeans were judging the clumsy American girls. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to open the sunscreen, we gave up and just took the entire top off. We applied our sunscreen, opened our Bacardi Breezers, and laid out to enjoy the sun. We couldn’t enjoy it for very long, however, before we got too hot to bare it and had to go back in the water. We floated around in the water a bit more until we decided it was about time to head back to our hostel office to get checked into our room. When we got there, we were led by a man to another man, who then led us through an alley, up some stairs, and into our rooms. He showed us our sleeping arrangements and quickly explained the bathroom and a few rules. When we asked whether or not we needed keys he responded, “No keys, the five lands are safe.” We felt nasty from all the salt water, so we decided to rinse off quickly before going to find dinner. The shower was better than the one we have in Florence because it actually had water pressure and it was actually hot. It felt very nice. We met a couple of our roommates after our showers, Alice from Australia and Russell from California. Then we wandered down the big hill street to a place to eat, and it was actually very nice. Our waiter was extremely attractive, and I had delicious panna cotta for dessert. People around us were eating fish, which is understandable in a sea side village, but they all had the heads and eyes and it was too scary for me! After dinner we wandered around Riomaggiore a bit more. We arrived at the marina just in time to see the sunset over the mountains, and it was honestly one of the most perfect moments of the entire trip. After that beautiful view, we decided to try to find how to get to the clock tower, so we simply climbed every flight of stairs we encountered, climbing higher and higher until we finally found it. Then we went back home to grab our bottle of wine to enjoy sitting by the water, and we found a spot on the rocks and drank our wine as we chatted about random things. After drinking half a bottle of wine, we wanted to see the stars, so we wandered further down the path where it was darker so we could get a good look. Finally we were exhausted and ready for bed, so we returned home. There were two rooms. Elli, Russell, Alice, and three other girls were in one room, although they were short one bed, and me and a French couple were in the other room.
