early on the morning of the 12th (happy brithday to me, happy birthday to me...) we headed to the train station for a full day of travel. We made it to Basel, which is right inside the border of Switzerland, where my dad changed a lot of money, only to discover that Switzerland is not, in fact, part of the EU, and does not operate in Euros. (whoops, way to forget basic european politics) after changing all the swiss francs into euros, we were ready to go. The train through the alps was simply breathtaking, it's a unaminous decision that going back to the interlocken area in the summer is a must. Crystal clear blue water full of boats and people, snowcapped mountains in the horizon. We transfered trains in Milano, and once again in Monterossa, finally ending up in Riomaggiore at 9:55pm, the southernmost town of Cinque Terra. (For those who don't know, Cinque Terra is a national park on the coast of italy, facing Corsica, and there are five towns located in the reserve: Monterossa, Vernazza, Cornigla, Mantorola, and Riomaggiore)
We get off the train and head up the hill toward our hostel, only to find it's lights off, and locked up for the night. With the help of some wonderfully nice kids who were staying there for the weekend, we learned that the man who owned the hostel had booked all the rooms, and had apparently forgotten our reservation. Dad went down to a local gelatria and started asking around, and eventually found us a room with Antonio, who is my stereotypical italian grandpa figure (just picture that, i'm sure it'll be close).
The next morning, my parents went back to the hostel, to try and figure out what happened (and if nothing else, to at least get the security deposit back), while I slept in a little bit more). From what they told me, the guy who owns the hostel completely blew up at them as soon as they said who they were saying things like "you fucking Americans, you think you can go anywhere, buy anything, you fucking americans bombing everything, always wanting your own way..." and more of the same stuff. my parents just dealt with his wife, and remained as civilised as they could. eventually they got their money back, and we had a great stay with Antonio. So, moral of the story - if you're ever in Cinque Terra, NEVER STAY AT THE CINQUE TERRA HOLIDAYS HOSTEL.
The rest of the our stay in Cinque Terra was wonderful, full of hikes between the villages, swims in the beaches, and exercizing on the "Cinque Terra Stairmaster", or the many, many steps everywhere, because all five towns are carved out of hills. All of our calves could tell that we'd been climbing, and they were all protesting :)
After a couple days of fun in the sun, we headed to Florence...
-Bisoux!
PS: Italians may have the upperhand when it comes to ice cream, pasta, and pizza, but the french win out big, big, big time when it comes to bread, pastries, and meat dishes (compare a tuscan style steak with boeuf bourgineon, you'll see what I mean)
PPS: GC2k7 has been continued, and is still going strong....
PPPS: Pictures will be up at some point.
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