Thursday, May 31, 2007

My birthday in Cinque Terre

It was a fantastic idea to have "the birthdays" in Cinque Terre. My birthday is May 28th and Ans's birthday is May 29th, so it worked out super well that we were traveling together at the time!! We started off the day by taking a big hike up to the Madonna de Monterrosso cathedral at the top of one of the walking paths starting in Riomaggiore. This was really cool because it was a special weekend called the Pentacost, and they had opened the church at the top of the hill with all this gold that was donated by people to the church. Very cool!! There was aparantely some kind of feast but when we got there I just got Apple Pie and Ans got a sandwich.

After the nice hike we went down another path and got some beautiful views of the ocean!! It was sooooooooo cool. We ran into some awesome people on the way back down to Riomaggiore who shared our love for the ocean and the awesomeness of Cinque Terre!!

We then checked out the ocean, just watching the crazy waves crash against the rocks for hours. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO coooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good times. After that we went to a super nice restaurant and I got Salmon Pasta and then I ordered Fish... but when you order fish in Cinque Terre, they bring you an ENTIRE FISH!! This was hilarious and nuts. I think I looked sufficiently nervous, so an old man there came to de-bone the fish for me and sung italian songs while he de-boned the fish. Amazing!! For dessert we got Tiramisu and Tartuffo and we also got Lemoncello, an italian lemon liquer. Sweeeeeeeeeet!!

Then we went for a walk and ran into Bex (Rebecca) from Waterloo, a friend of mine who I did frosh leading with?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!! I had NO idea she was traveling (let alone in Riomaggiore) so that was nuts. We sat with Bex and her friends and chatted for a while and then went to bed, getting a good sleep before our huge trek along the 5 Villages the next day for Ans's birthday.


Omlettes and coffee for breakfast


Haha "Thank You?!"


Heading to the path


Cool farms and vines along the way


Sweet view


The church at the top of the hike


Views of the Meditteranean


Ans at the top of the hill


Me


Riomaggiore from the top of the hill


Wooooooooooord!!


Mmm... Pie


The water rooocks


Down Path 3a back to Riomaggiore


Nice houses along the way


Sweeeeeeeeet


Flowers and water


Crazy waves


Ans on the hike


Massive waves crashing over the rocks


Rockin'


The Riomaggiore shore


New friends we made


Our friends from Toronto/Colombia


Lots of food we bought, fresh mozzarella, pasta, homemade pesto, olives, wine, fresh parmesan


My old boss Guido's favourite cookies


Ans on our new balcony for the dorm room


Word!


Lemoncello to start dinner


Salmon Pasta for me, Gnocci with Pesto for Ans


I got Fish and Ans got a seafood dish


Tartuffo Ice Cream and Tiramisu for dessert


More waves at the shore


Sweet deals


Hey look, it's Bex from Waterloo VOC, in Cinque Terre?!?!!!!!!!!!

1st night in Riomaggiore

We decided to stay in Riomaggiore, the south-most of the Cinque Terre (5 villages), carved into the rockfaces on the West Coast of Northern Italy. Super AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Our first night was cool, just dropping off stuff and chillin' out and finding weird and tasty stuff to eat.


Mmm... Foccassia


Me at the Riomaggiore shore


Sweeeeeeeeet


Grapefruit Fanta and something weird called Chino

Finishing in Nice, off to Cinque Terre

It's been quite a few days since I posted, so here we go. We left Nice for Cinque Terre last Sunday but not before a bunch more partying with the great people we met in Nice. It was nuuuts, the night before we left, we went out until 4:30am again, and then got up around 8am and headed off. We were pretty tired on the train but super excited for Cinque Terre. When we got to Cinque Terre we LOVED the view, since we got upgraded from the dorm rooms to a SUPER AMAZING Studio Apartment for 1 night!! It was SO awesome and we could hardly believe it.


Haha, me trying on French clothing


Some cool people we met from Toronto


Ans at our favourite late night wine and snack purchasing dude (the only guy open past 11pm!)


Friends on the beach


New buddies from Toronto!!


Bustin' a move at a dance club


haha


Best photo ever


On the way to Italy


Ans at the Genoa staion, where we transferred on the way to Cinque Terre


Sweeeeeeeet upgraded room


View from the window 1


View from the window 2


View from the window 3


View from the window 4