If I told you the stories of what has happened in the last few days I honestly don't know that you would believe me. Siena was great. We found this nice little wine tasting bar in the center of town that was more wine AND tasting than wine tasting. Every time we ordered a glass of wine we received a plate of appertivo (appetizers), but I'm not talking potato skins and fried cheese. We had prosciutto and bruschetta (both of which I know I just spelled wrong) plus endless amounts of cheese and pasta. After one night in Siena we headed to Cinque Terre. I can't even tell you how amazing this place is - you have to see for yourself. So go there, along with EVERY other American tourist in Italy. That was actually the only thing I didn't like about the place. All the Americans!! I guess I can't really complain since I was one of them. We lucked out and had some really amazing roommates. One guy, Damien, was from Melbourne and travelling on his own for a few weeks until he began a tour in Egypt and then Israel. The other two people in our room was actually a couple who got engaged earlier in the night. It was so exciting to hear about how Ben and planned everything for Kim. He apparently hid the ring in this disgustingly huge watch that he bought specifically for that purpose and she complained the entire time about how big, ugly and obnoxious the ring was...little did she know. It was fun to be a part of that moment. Andrea and I took the 12k hike from Riomaggorie to Montorosso. It was uphill the entire hike and was by far the most exercise I had had the whole trip so I guess I didn't really mind the sweat. But just when I couldn't take anymore I heard Celine Dion. Where was it coming from??? This guy had made this little hut out of the side of his land that we were hiking though (most of the hiking was through the middle of peoples vineyards and farmland so we weren't trespassing) and was selling fresh lemonade, limoncello, and wine from his vineyard. All for one euro. It was sooo awesome and completely unexpected!!! We spent the next to days lounging on the beach with our roommates. We made dinner the last night in and drank one euro boxed wine. It was great!
We decided since we were having such a great time that we didn't want to go to Lake Como so we used the train ticket we bought to go from Lake Como to Venice instead for our trip from Cinque Terre to Venice. It was kind of stressful since we had the completely wrong ticket and had to look like we weren't breaking the law for about 4 hours. Italy tends to run on its own time, not the time that trains and busses are scheduled for so it was kind of a nightmare of a journey aside from the wrong ticket. Our second train was an hour late arriving so we missed all 4 trains after that. Then when we FINALLY arrived in Venice, we missed the last bus to the campsite, the train had stopped running and information was about to close. After a 20 minnute conversation in broken english we were finally given the number to the campsite so we could figure out how to get there. After about 12 hours of travelling we arrived at the campsite in time for a few drinks.
We headed into Venice the next day. Venice is a beautiful city. There were so many canals and even more dirty flying rats...I mean pigeons. Seriously though it was really pretty. There were lots of glass and masquarade shops. Kind of a weird combo but...
The next day I took a train to Florence where I met up with a someone special I had met on my tour. We had an amazing night and had a Floretine steak by candlelight. It wsa amazing, he was amazing and I am only sad that we only got to see each other for that one last night. The next day I got up and did yet another 12 hour hike up to Milan to meet Andrea so we could fly to Athens. We got to the airport in Athens and OF COURSE our luggage didn't make it. I was practically in tears. I was so exhausted from the day - mentally and emationally and this was the last thing I wanted to deal with. We had travelled in this order: bus, train, bus, flight, bus, train - all in and around 14 hours. We spent all day today trying to figure out what to do if our luggage didnt show up since not only did we not have our stuff, but I broke the cardinal rule of travelling and left my ticket to Bangkok in my bag. Luckily enough we got back to the hostel and our bags were there. YAY! So, after all that we are off to Bangkok tomorrow. We booked a really nice hotel at a whopping $77 a night. After all we have been through in the past week we felt we needed a nice place to relax for a few days before hitting the hard road. We will be in Southeast Asia for about 6 weeks before I head home and Andrea goes back to Spain. I can't believe this trip is half way over. I can't believe the amount of fun and the adventures I have had and I can't wait what's to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment