Cinque Terre

We woke up early to catch the bus to the national park. The weather was cloudy and looked pretty grim but since we had heard from so many travelers how incredible Cinque Terre was/is we didn`t let it kill our excitement. Right when we got to the backside of the mountain range we were struck with the dramatic coastline and the shimmering blue Mediterranean.
There are several different options for hiking Cinque Terre including a 12 hour trek that zigzags inland and by the coast. Not really up for 12 hours straight we opted for the more scenic and quicker sea side route. This path takes you right along the coast and it is just absolutely beautiful scenery. The water was not the only cool thing to look at as there was some of the more interesting vegetation along the trail such as cactus(?). Riomaggiore was the first of the five towns within the national park (from our direction) and we started off towards Manarola. This leg was easy, no major inclines or declines but a nice steady introduction to the course, offering chances to climb down to the sea and explore the rocks, which we absolutely took advantage of!

This little expidition eventually led us to an impassable cove and we had to turn around. Also on this leg is the along the trail are padlocks on a fence and under the tunnel. They are placed there by young lovers to "lock" in their love forever. Unfortunately we forgot to get one on the way out of the hostel. boo
The trail gets significantly harder after passing through the second town and lucky for us, sunnier as well. We ended the day in Vernazza, which is the second to last town leaving something to accomplish for the next day, also we had heard it was the hardest of the trails. Back to the hostel we went and negotiated a cheaper rate ( half price!! )with the owner since it was pretty vacant.

The second day we were greeted with sunshine walking out of the hostel and enjoyed it throughout the whole day. The trail lived up to its reputation as being the most difficult, and took us about 2 hours to complete without any major breaks. OMg it was sooo hard...i was panting after the first few minutes haha! BUT...it was so beautiful and worth it! 0o0o and im thankful Brad is alive!! The trail was so dodgy in some parts and in one place brad stepped, the ground just gave out beneath him where he almost fell to his death! Phew! The last stop in the national park was Monterosso. This town was split in two with a tunnel connecting each with the better beach on the far side. Since we worked so hard at climbing we rewarded ourselves with some lounge time while we waited for our train. Damn it felt good to be a beach bum! I was in HEAVEN!! The sun felt so good on our skin and the water looked so beautiful! (but freezing!!)

Sadly..it couldn't last forever, and we had to take the train to La Spezia, where we caught a train immediately to Verona to meet Maura, or so hoped! Turns out...because of the crazy volcano eruption, Maura was stuck in Greece and all over the place, so when we arrived in Verona (at night), we didn't know where to go! Luckily there was a room with couches that tons of other travellers were waiting and sleeping in, which looked good to us...until they decided to kick everyone out after midnight!! We decided to try and find Maura's residence, but after walking around the empty town for a couple hours, decided to head back to the train station, where ahh....like bums..we slept on the ground! Please Mum (and mom) don't be mad! We wouldn't have do it if we didn't feel safe and before we knew it, we were joined by several other backpackers who were also stuck! Finally morning time came, and we took an early train to Venice!