Cinque Terre

I'm sorry San Francisco but I have definitely left my heart in Cinque Terre!!! a perfect little sequence of 5 terraces perched on the clifs overlooking the sun soaked mediterranean.. awww bliss.
Things in Cinque Terre started out a little rough for us though.. our train from Milan was taking much longer than anticipated so I called the hostel to let them know we would be arriving 30 minutes late.. the grumpy man said "NO, we close at 7" and hung up on me!! sooo knowing that we were esentially homeless in the tiny town of Riomaggiore, Noelle and I started going from hostel to hostel asking if there was any vacancy.. everything was booked. We arrived at this last hostel and they too stated that all was full for the night but the very very kind man said he would call some friends with hostels and see if he could work something out. We are walking with him as he is about to put 3 guys into their hostel before attending to us and one of the guys turns to us and says that if worse comes to worse we can sleep on the floor of their hostel... We are later walking with the owner of the hostel and he is taking us to his last resourt which he is warning us about and strongely encouraging us to inspect before agreeing to staying the night at this place... uuuhh.. we're starting to worry about this place so i mention the offer the other guys made and he stops in his tracks and says "I've been in this business for 30 years, I know what's going on... but because you were honest, if you pay me 10 Euro each you can sleep on their floor because this other place i am taking you to is NASTY".. needless to say we turned on our heels and started searching for the guys that had so kindly made the offer. After searching for them for 40 minutes we finally see them wandering up the street.. we try and put our most helpless faces on and ask if the offer still stands.. luckily they were sweet sweet guys and agreed! They turned out to be 3 very nice guys from Louisiana. We hung out with them for the night with our bottles of wine in hand, out on the rocky beach of the beautiful Riomaggiore and then spent hours wandering the TINY maze like alleys of this city which lead us to a small neighborhood gathering up in the hills. It was a great night and we were ecstatic not to be homeless!
The next morning Noelle and i woke up nice and early, so happy to be able to move into our own hostel, take a shower and get situated! oohhh but of course things wouldn't be so easy.. we went to our hostel's office and gave them our names.. they said they had CANCELLED our reservation because we didn't show up........... we tried to stay calm as we explained that we had called and let them know our situation the night before, they said "ok ok, we will let you stay.. but your reservation is only for one person" ...... WHATTTT!!!?!?! we tried to explain how this can't possibly be correct because we've had this hostel booked for over a month, the man apparently felt threatened because he started personally insulting us.. telling us "i know how people like YOU are"... umm excuse me?! it took every bit of effort i had not yell back but we bit our tounges and left.. homeless again.
we went back to the owner of the hostel where we had previously stayed in order to give him his 20 Euros and we explained our situation.. being the extremely nice man that he is, he said he would move some other guests around so that we would be able to spend our remaining nights at his hostel! awww sigh of relief, our homeless days were over!
despite this hickup at the beginning of our trip, I must say.. Cinque Terre is my favorite place I have ever visited; it was so gorgeously picturesque.
We spent much of our time exploring each of the 5 beautiful little towns and lounging on the different beaches. Cinque Terre is actually a national park and is known for its hiking (and delicious pesto yummmm). We hiked from Riomaggiore to Corniglia, a 3 hour hike that started with 45 minutes of stairs.. yes that's right.. straight up to the top of this mountain like hill! as if the stairs weren't enough, the spectacular views were definitely capable of taking one's breath away. We hiked on narrow paths through vineyards with phenomenal views of the sea and the towns beneath us until we reached Corniglia, a quaint town with a beautiful little swimming cove to rest our tired feet and take a swim. We spent that evening with a bottle of local wine and watched the sunset together. pefection.
Another day we ventured out a bit further into the mediterranean with kayaks!! it was SO much fun, kayaking happens to be my favorite water activity and being in such a great location just made the day even better! That night we met up with our friends from Louisiana and had another great night of wine drinking..annndd they invited us to come visit them for Mardi Gras!! considering I am dying to see more of the US, I'm really hoping we can keep in contact and make it happen this February!
Sadly Noelle and I had to part in Cinque Terre, she was heading back to reality :( and I was thus traveling on my own again.. next stop: Florence