French Finale

My final train ride in France went without error. After leaving Alpe d’Huez at 7:30am, I arrived in Paris at around 1pm.

I was again CouchSurfing, but as it was a Friday my hosts had to work so we had arranged to meet at the Hoche metro station at 6:30. This gave me five and a half hours to kill and after wandering lost around the complex Gare du Lyon for about half an hour, I finally found the luggage check which turned out to be incredibly expensive. Welcome to Paris.

I checked my bags, checked the tourist information centre, then checked my new map. After ripping the map in half by mistake, I grabbed another which showed the routes which the tour busses take. I figured that I’d leave the main sites ’till the next day and so set off to find the French National Library. This, I gathered, is supposed to be a modern architectural centrepiece, and it was very cool. Four seperate buildings in L shapes donned the corners of the structure (in the middle was great public space and a large cluster of treess), the passage between them underground.

French National Library

After the library, I ventured back over the river via a bridge which I guess was specifically added when the library was built. On the otherside, opposite the library, was some kind of sports centre – a crazy geometric building covered in grass, skylights, and bright blue metal framing.

Sports Centre

This also appeared to be a popular youth hangout as it was crawling with teenagers who I thought should have been in school. I passed these kids and began to walk back towards the train station. I was walking along thhe river, under a bridge, when I spotted a very nice homeless set-up complete with tents, tables, chars, appliances (I’m not sure how they got power for them) and even a christmas tree!

Homeless setup

When I got back to the station I still had a lot of time until I had to head west on the metro so I began to walk towards Bastille, a very large and famous round-about.

Bastille

Now I had to make the decision. What to see. I decided on making a brief appearance at Notre Dame but trying not see too much of it. And after walking down a street which I thought was the right one for a while, getting lost, and then getting reorientated, I spotted the small island on which the cathedral was located.

Notre Dame

I then crossed on to the island, but kinda tried not to see too much of Notre Dame itself – I wanted to keep it until I had more time – so just passed by and went on my way. About an hour later I was back at the train station and ready to take the metro to Hoche.

This was crazy, it was rush hour and here I was trying to take the busiest metro in the world with two bags full of junk! I even had to change lines. But it was OK, I made it to Hoche faster than I thought (with enough time to take a little walk around) and soon met my CouchSurfing hosts, Clair and Francis (who was actually from a French owned island off the south-east coast of Madagascar called Reunion). We walked back to their place, had dinner, talked about all sorts of things and had a pretty good evening. Both Clair and Francis were amazingly hospitable and were offering me things left, right, and centre. It turned out that I was the first person that they had hosted!

From this point of my time in Paris, I must be honest, I was a bit lazy! I think I was just tired from all the partying I did in the alps. But I made sure I saw all the big sites. the next morning I got my self out of bed and headed back to Notre Dame to get a proper look. And after all the cathedrals that I had seen in this trip, I have to say I was a little disappointed. This one gets talked up by everyone, but in some ways it dosen’t even compare to many of the others I’ve seen, especially the Italian ones. Here is a picture of it anway:

Notre Dame

From here I headed towards the famous gallery, the Louvre. Again I was lazy, I decided not to go inside. Partly because of time (two days to see the whole thing!) and partly because of money. It’s becoming rather skint and I can’t afford 9 Euros to go to an art gallery, as much as I would have liked to. The buildings and the glass pyramid were especially impressive though! I hadn’t realised that it was so big.

The Louvre

From the Louvre I headed through the massive gardens which extend in front of it. At the other end of them was a small christmas fair with a pretty large ferris wheel. It was here that I caught my first glimpse of the famous Eiffel Tower, and it was then that I though “yeah, I’m really in Paris”.

It was beginning to get dark so I decided to head back. I was supposed to text Clair when I returned to the apartment block so that she could let me in. I was late and my phone had decided to run out of money and not let me top up the credit. So I headed to the apartment and snuck inside with another resident. I got up to level 7 and realised that it was the wrong building! So back down I went and over to the other building. There was no one to let me in so I just skulked around the entrance until a group of people opened it, not thinking twice about who I could be or what I was doing there. I then headed up to the right level 7 and Francis let me in. That night we were going to go out but in the end decided against it as Francis was sick, Clair was getting sick, none of their friends could make it and I was tired.

The following day Clair and Francis had said they would take me out to Versailles so around lunchtime (after a good sleep in) we got in the car and drove out there. The main attraction in Versailles is the palace which has been home to many a French king and queen.

Palace at Versailles

Inside the palace’s grounds and also inside the palace itself were a number of sculptural works from American artist Jeff Koons. The first one which I saw made for a pretty cool photo with the palace refelected in it.

Royal Reflection

The inside of the palace was pretty cool, but to be honest, for the price that you pay it was definitely not as good as the palace in Brussels which was free. There were many dark rooms with large numbers of paintings of past residents, historical beds and furniture, and a terrible audio guide which really didn’t tell you anything you couldn’t read on the signs. The highlight of this palace was the gardens which I hear are very popular and much more beautiful in the summer.

Gardens at Versailles

That evening was another quiet one. Apart from a trip to a street which houses a huge amount of electronics stores to get some things for Clair, we spent most of the night trying to get the French television system to allow us to watch a French film with English subtitles. This  did not end up working, so we began to watch 300 but soon all of us were pretty sleepy and we ended up turning it off and headed off to bed.

The next day was a Monday and Francis and Clair had to go off to work. It was time again for me to see some sights, so mid-morning I set off to make sure I didn’t miss the sights that Paris is known for. My first stop was the Arch de Triomphe, set in the middle of a huge round-about and extremely expensive to visit the inside of. I took a few photos  and then started to make my way towards the Eiffel Tower.

Arch de Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower is big. It was even bigger than I thought it was and it was very cool to finally see it in all it’s glory.

Eiffel Tower

I then headed down towards it. The metal framework is amazing and it made for some pretty cool silhouette photos.

Eiffel silhouette

After a little bit of decision making (time was running short), I decided to ascend the tower. The line took about 25 mintues which was a pretty good amount of time considering people queue for hours in the summer. I chose on of the legs which only offers the stairs and just under 400 stairs later I had made it to the first level. Over 200 stair more I was at the second level. The view was pretty cool from here although the day was rather overcast. This low cloud prevented me from spending further money and taking the lift all the way to the top (which was in fact in the clouds).

View from the Eiffel Tower

By the time I got back down it had started to rain so I got on the metro and began to head back to Hoche. That evening was an interesting dinner. I had told Francis that I had neve eated escargot before, so in no time he had whipped up an appertiser and I was eating some sort of pesto roasted snails – not bad at all really but I found it a bit hard to stomach them, something most probably psychological. After this we had hotdogs with salad and “French” dijon mustard which actaully almost killed me. I put way too much on thinking it was like American mustard and it felt like I was drinking vodka infused with chili peppers – I was crying and sniffing annd Francis thought it was funny!

The next morning I was off again. An early train to the airport and a flight for just over an hour saw me land in London. It was Christmas time!

Missioning to the Snow

What a freakin’ ordeal!! I thought the French train system was  supposed to be one of the best in the world!

The plan was to take the train from Cannes to Grenoble, then get on a bus to Alpe d’Huez to visit Adam once more (he’s now cheffing up there). This is a three hour journey.

After a series of untranslated French messages and a whole lot of waiting I was in Grenoble, five hours later than I had expected. The bus station had closed. Grenoble doesn’t have a youth hostel. The cheap hotels are not exactly cheap but I stayed in one anyway (after walking around a lot trying to find a cheapest one).

The next morning the bus didn’t come, and I had to wait and wait for even longer. And finally I made it to Alpe d’Huez, twenty-four hours later than I had expected!

The view was looking great!

View from Alpe d'Huez

Adam was living in an apartment with eight other people, all from the land of Britannia. They were all on contract from a company called SkiWorld, and along with nine others, they managed and ran a small hotel and a number of chalets in the town which catered to British skiing tourists.

I was here to catch up with Adam and to hopefully snowboard! Little did I realise that 1) the weather wasn’t all it cracked up to be, and 2) everyone who works here is in a constant state of boozing. They get up to be at work at 7am, work ’till 10am, ski or snowboard ’till 4pm, work again until around 10pm, then  go out drinking to 3am almost every night! So the first night I was there I was whisked off to various bars around the village and everyone ended up frightfully drunking pretty fast – even though the beer was very expensive. That night ended with everyone eating these horrible takeaway dishes called the Americana which is basically a foot long b agette stuffed with meat patties and covered in fries, which in turn covered the floor of the apartment. Filth!

The following morning we awoke and after work, Adam and I set out to fix the bindings on his board so I could ride it. This turned out to be a right mission. We wandered up to, perhaps, the only place that does Burton gear to find just a single screw – they didn’t have it. We were able to, though, get a cool view of the ski field which is amazingly huge!

Ski Field

Soon it had become 2 o’clock and it seemed like no one had the screw and it wasn’t going to be economically viable to buy a daily ski-pass for just two hours. So we flagged it and headed back to the apartment to hang out. And that’s about how it was for the rest of the evening. I spent it watching Peep Show on DVD and the others went to work. One guy got 2nd degree burns from picking up a hot pan, another had ruined his ankle on the slopes! Horray! Hopefully the next day I would be getting out there!

The next day came, the weather was marginal to say the least. This was Adam’ss day off, too, but we just spend it hanging around again. I guess that it is nice to have a break every so often though. Later that afternoon I was getting restless, so I decided to make a break for it and walk down to Huez, the town lower down the mountain.

After walking down and around about 5 corners of the Tour de France hillclimb, I made it.

Tour de France!

Huez was a tiny little old fashioned town. Unlike Alpe d’Huez all the buildings were small, close together and old. The roads were snow covered and icicles hung everywhere. I was sliding all over the place, but was happy. It was an amazing place to explore around.

Huez Town

On my way back up (as it had taken about an hour to get down), I decided to take a shorter route. Jumping off the road I began to follow a path I found in the snow. Surely if someone else had walked up here then I could also. It started off okay but got increasingly deeper and less predictable so soon I had to get out of it and back onto the road.

Snow path!

That night it was back to drinking again. And there was hundred of people out. The craziest part was being in one bar and going to get a drink, being swallowed into the crowd of people on the dance floor and suddenly realising they were all mimes! There was about 100 mimes in full costume dancing away – so very strange!

The next day was beautiful. I was adament that I would get out on the slopes, so I flagged trying to get Adam’s gear to work and rented a board and boots, bought a ski pass and set off up the mountain with one of the girls from the hotel, Alice, who had her day off. And WOW what a mountain. New Zealand has nothing like this at all, it’s huge and the runs are perfect. We skied and boarded for a few hours then met up with Adam who was on his midday break and also his other friend.

Skiing the Mount

We had a few marvelous runs, Adam pushing me way too far, and then headed for the top of the mountain. The view was absolutely amazing, although the wind was out of control. It was like being in the snow version of a desert sandstorm!

View from the top

This was the beginning of what I was told is the world’s longest pisted run. 16km of pure down hill (well, a little bit of annoying flat at the end). It just went on and on and on and it was oh so steep, but absolutely amazing! The weather was brilliant and once we got passed the windswept ice, the snow was lush!

Giving The Gogs a real sporting time

After this run we were all totally knackered and headed back to the apartment for another easy night of nothing. I sat around watching The Mighty Boosh, then the others came back and we watched No Country For Old Men. Then, amazingly, everyone went to bed.

The next morning I was up at 6:30am to catch the 7:30 bus back to Grenoble for I was off to Paris.

Goodbye Alpe d’Huez, I’ll miss you!

View of Alpe d'Huez

France and the Beach

I ended up in Cannes because I couldn’t find anywhere to stay in Nice. I arrived on he train from Bern at around 7:30pm and, following the instructions, made my way to my host, Franck’s, place.

Franck was cool. Extra friendly and hospitable and after a long chat about everything and nothing, he suggested that we go and get some kebabs and a drink with his friend Marco, a Dutch guy living in Cannes. So we headed out, only to find that the kebab shop which Franck wanted to go to was having it’s one week of closure for the year. We then headed down towards an Irish pub (they have these all over the place!) and had a few drinks which continued into the night back at Francks, despite the fact that both he and Marco had work the following day. At about 3am, we decided to call it a night.

The next morning Franck poured both him and I a coffee and left for work. It was a beautiful day so I got ready and headed out to explore Cannes. After stopping by the tourism information centre and grabbing a map, I headed down towards the beach only to get distracted on the way by one of those shops which sells hippy clothes, incense, and blankets and other items from various Asian countries; Tibet, India, Malaysia, etc.

I got stuck in this store for about an hour and half. The guy who ran it was half Chinese, half Tibetan and born in Borneo, and a motor-mouth extrodanaire. He talked and talked and talked, and gave me coffee and talked some more. It was ridiculous. But finally I got out, phew!

Me and the shop owner

Then I headed down the main shopping street, passing a cinema which had a small film festival playing French films, and another playing old films in English. They were playing the 1979 version of Planet of the Apes, which incidently I had thought about seeing recently, but unfortunately it wasn’t at the right time. So I kept on walking and ended up at the beach!

Cannes beach

While I was there I saw the real thing, French kids flipping all over the show practising Parkour!

Parkour!

I started to walk along the beach in the direction other than what is seen in the photo above. Soon I had to leave the beach because it turned into a marina full of large, expensive, launches and the theatre where all the films are played during the Cannes Film Festival each year in May.

Film festival theatre

Af ter this I made my way over the Cannes’ old town. I wandered around though this for some time, checking out all the old buildings and old people, then made my way up the hill to where a clocktower and church looked over the city of  Cannes. The weather was beautiful and it was a great view from up there.

View over Cannes

As the sun began to set I made my way back down to the beach and began to walk. I walked for a while along the beach. It was good to smell and feel the sea spray. Soon the beach ended but I continued to walk further along the shoreline with no real objective other than feeling like walking. As I walked the sun began to set behind the hills in the distance.

Cannes Sunset

Once the sun had set, I began to head back. As I approached the Old Town again, I noticed a fun fair which I hadn’t seen on my way out. I spent a little while checking it out, not being able to tell if it was being set up or down, being yelled at by random carnies, and trying to avoid spending any money.

Carnival by night

I soon left the carnival and headed back to Francks where we decided to have a quiet night –  both of use were still feeling the gin from the night before.

The following day I planned to go to Monaco but the train workers were on strike. The shortest amount of time it would take for me to get there (usually a one hour or so train ride) was 5 hours so I decided to flag it. Isn’t the French train system supposed to be one of the best in the world? This is ridiculous. I ended up heading back to Francks and we just hung out for the day, listening to music and watching crazy French TV.

In the evening we set out for Marco’s house for dinner. Franck promptly reversed his car into another parked car then drove off, got lost, went around in circles and arrived at Marco’s about half an hour late. Another friend of theirs was also there and that evening we sat around and ate far, far too much food and drank even more wine, which Marco told me I had to do as I was in France.  He also told me that I had to eat several cheeses after dinner, so I indulged and ate some crazy cheeses which I would never have dared eat before – they were not half bad either. By this time I was bloated, drunk, and it was 3am so Franck and I headed back to his place. No late night gin this time!

(This post is rubbish! I’m starting to get lazy I think. Sorry my fair readers.)

Bring on the Cheese!

I hadn’t really planned what I was going to do after travelling through Italy, and at the last minute I decided to go to Switzerland in search of snow, and to begin my treck towards Paris, where I will be just before Christmas. So the morning after the Cinque Terre adventure, Carmen and I parted ways at the train station, her to Rome and I was heading to Zurich.

Eight train-filled hours later I was there. My first mission was to get to a town about twenty-five minutes out of Zurich called Winterthur where I would meet my host, Lia. Finding the train was the easy part, finding an ATM to withdraw Swiss franks was not so easy. Finally I figured this out and soon I was travelling north to Winterthur where I found Lia waiting for me.

That first night we did not do a lot, we were both tired and had decided to have an earlyish night so she could show me around Zurich thee following day. In the morning we ate and then headed into Zurich, there was much to do! Unfortunately it was raining, but this was not to stop us. First of all we headed out of the train station and down the main street, appropriately named Bahnofstrasse. This was a street filled with expensive clothing and watch stores, intermingled with douzens of different banks promoting private bank accounts. On the way down this street we stopped to check out various churches.

Church clock tower

We ate roasted chestnuts, talked and took numerous photos of Zurich dressed in it’s best Christmas attire.

Christmas pinecones

We then passed the Zurich lake and headed towards a secondhand bookshop which we both wanted to check out. The English section was not so large, but I managed to find Catcher In The Rye and Dracula for 3 franks which is a damned good deal. Lia bought a collection of 13 huge photography books that she would have to collect later as they were much too heavy to carry around.

But before we hit the bookstore, we stopped by:

Google office Zurich

This was pretty cool to see. Apparantly the inside of the building is amazingly well equipped with meditation rooms, aquariums, a gym, and much more. Outside the office was parked this Google bike! I hear that the staff are given them to use.

Google bike

After we left the bookshop, we headed back towards the centre of town, where we crossed the river and checked out another church.

Zurich's riverside

Twin church towers

And now was the exciting part! We decided to head up the local tall mountain of which I forget the name and climb the view tower. We took the train and when we arrived I was thouroughly excited to see a snowy path leading to the top. I could barely contain myself and was running around like an over excited child.

Snowy path

When we got to the top we headed up the tower and found the view of the alps in all directions. It was amazing!

View over Zurich

The sun started to set so we headed back down the the tower and began to construct a small snowman on a park bench which I was actaully able to pick up and carry around with me until I picked him up off of a chair and he lost his balance, his head falling off.

Snowman!

By this time it was getting pretty late and we had a dinner date with 100 other CouchSurfers out in the countryside. This event was run by the Zurich CouchSurfing group and was basically 100+ people in a big cottage in the countryside eating over 20kgs of cheese fondue and drinking too much wine. It was a whole heap of fun! There were heaps of Swiss people and many others from all over the world there too. One guy I talked to had even cycled from Belgium to Serbia in 4 months, crazy!

the CHEESE

This went on ’till the early hours of the morning and when Lia decided that she has drunk far too much, we headed home.

The next day the weather was terrible, it was raining something atrocious, so instead of checking out any more outdoor sights we planned a scenic train trip. This would be from Luzern to Interluken. So we got on the train and headed for Luzern. When we got there we had some time to kill, so went for a short walk in the city, over the famous bridge:

Some old bridge

and past some very cool decorated buildings:

Decorated house

Soon it was time to get on the train, so we headed back to the station, boarded the train and we were off. In no time you could feel the pull of the train heading upwards and soon enough we were engulfed in snowy forest and paddocks. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before! We opened the window of the train at one point when it stopped to get some photos and the woman sitting infront of us ended up covered in snow! It was snowing like I’ve never experienced.

Lotsa snow!

In what seemed like no time at all, the night fell and we were headed back to Zurich to meet the CouchSurfers again for their monthly meeting which just ended up being a number of people drinking in a bar. It was good to see some of the people again from last night and meet more new people. I can’t keep track of all the people I’m meeting everywhere, there are too many!

That was my final night in Zurich, it really felt like it had gone much too fast but it was definitely a great time. In the morning I was off to Bern.

5 Terre

My final Italian stop saw me heading north again, this time towards the famous national park of Cinque Terre, five tiny villages set into the valleys and peninsulas of the Italy’s northern west coast.

This was only a two night trip, and as there were no CouchSurfing hosts in the area, I had to stay at a hostel. I had picked one called Mar-Mar in the Cinque Terre’s first town, Riomaggiore. I arrived at around 6 o’clock to find that the office was closed but there was a note on the door with the key to the dorm and some exciting instructions as to how to find it. Soon I had found the place and it was nice. It was more like living in an apartment with a large number of beds in each room.

Also here was Jen from Vancouver, David from Tasmania, and Dan and Brad from Colorado. That night we all sat around and ate and talked until late. There really isn’t much to do in Riomaggiore after dark, especially in the low season. This was okay, ‘though, as I knew it was going to be a long day of walking the following day – I wanted to see all the towns in Cinque Terre, hopefully by walking the cliff top paths between them.

In the morning I woke up bright and early to a beautiful sunny day – I had my sights set on heading to the top of the mountain in Riomaggiore to find the sanctury of Monte Nero. After packing my bag with food, clothes and water for the day, I set off up what can’t really be called the “main road” as it’s the only road which cars can go down. At the top of the road I found the visitors centre and went inside to have a chat with the lady. She told me that the only path closed today (previously the entire track had been closed due to bad weather) was that between the second and third villages of Manarola and Coniglia, I would have to take the train.

It was then time to find the hilltop church and I set off along a road that seemed like it might go there. I could see it up the mountainside to my left, and when I found a little overgown staircase a few minutes along the road I decided to take it.

Stairs

This was not exactly an easy climb. The stairs were made of rocks which had been shoved into the hillside in every which direction. The blackberry was overgrown and prone to attack. The mud was slippery, my arm was bruised. Depsite all this, I soon made it to the top of the path, hitting a main road which lead towards Riomaggiore. The church was further up so I began to walk up this road. Unfortunately I never made it. After walking around for what seemed forever, I could not for the life of me find any other way to get up without walking along the main road for what would be far too long. So I headed back down, but not before admiring the view.

Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre coast

It was time to head to town number two, Manarola. The sun was still shining and the path between Riomaggiore and Manarola was open and easy. It was the kind of path which mothers could walk along with prams. It was great to be back by the sea, hearing the waves crash against the cliffs, smelling the salt blowing around.

On the track to Manarola

In around half an hour I arrived in Manarola. I’d been told that this was the most picturesque of all the villages so decided to give it a good dose of exploration. It turned out to be very small but like Riomaggiore, it was filled with little alleys and passages leading to cool views.

Little Manarola view

I kept walking further up the main road and on my left I came to a staircase. Curious, I walked up it and found a path which led along the terraces of olive trees and grape vines growing on the hill. I walked for a bit, and came to a funny looking railing which I realised was used as the track for a small motorised train to haul the produce up and down the hills. Climbing over this put me deeper into the orchardlands, but soon I was in a bit which seemed a bit dangerous so I turned back and headed up the hill further. This gave an amazing view over Manarola.

Big Manarola view

After this it was time to head onto the next town, Corniglia. The path between Manarola and Corniglia was closed to to bad weather the previous week, so I had to take the train. Soon I was there and about five minutes later my camera ran out of batteries. Stupidly, I had not brought along my second battery. I do have pictures from the rest of the adventure, but they were all taken on the Russian Vilia so I will have to develop them when I get home and I don’t know if they will even come out. I hope so!

Anyway, Corniglia starts with a huge zigzagging staircase and up I went being followed by two dogs. Halfway up the analogue camera ran out of film. Luckily I had another roll! Once I got to the top it was pretty apparent that this town was very small and there was not so much to do there, so I quickly looked around, skipped up and down a few alley ways and began the journey to the next town.

This is where the adventure really started. The track here was not pathed like the track between Riomaggiore and Manarola, this was proper bush walking and it was great (aside from the light rain). The path twisted it’s way around the rugged coastline, alternating between grape and olive groves, and Italian forest. About half an hour along the path, I came to a halt. There was a rock which had written on it “free beach,” and an arrow pointing down the cliffs towards the sea. This was interesting. I had to see this free beach. As I stood there deciding what I should do next, a head popped out from the track leading down to said beach. A familiar head of a girl that I had seen walking around earlier.

Upon enquiring about the beach, she said that she hadn’t all the way because it was a little dangerous, she was on her own, and there was an ominous looking tunnel that she’d just have to go in to if she made it down. Next thing we were both on our way down, scaling the perilous cliff, holding on to old rope to stop ourselves from falling to certain maimment (is this a word?).

Her name was Carmen and she was from Torquay in Victoria, Australia. This was good, we both understood the need to get to the beach so there was no turning back now. Decending the cliff, engulfed in bush we came to a presipice which looked a little ugly. Not to worry, ‘though, there wasn’t time for wimping out. So, with out weight towards the land, we scurried across the gravel which fell under our feet. Soon, out of the bush we emerged into an olive grove. Also included in this area were two abanodned houses and one which looked lived in, though I have no idea how anyone could get the things there to live. There was also a man wandering around, apparently according to Carmen. I never saw him. Soon we had made it to the bottom and it looked tricky to get to the actual beach so we decided to check out what seemed like an old train tunnel. It still could have been, but when we go inside it just stopped. Maybe it was a train house, who knows. At the back there was light streaming in, so we headed towards that and luckily for us, it lead us to a path down to the beach – one which haden’t collapsed in some kind of land slide.

Down at the beach the swell was pretty fierce but we were both glad to have made it. The heavy swell pulled the rocks along each other, creating an all too familiar rumbling sound, and the sand looked like the black sand of home. Soon enough we had our shoes off and were running around in what little sand there was. It was good to finally be on a beach!

After a short time there, we decided to head back up the cliff, a journey which seemed to take about half the time of getting down, even though we went a longer way. At the top, we advised a man who looked about 70 that is was probably not a good idea to go down there. And then along we walked, further along the path through the olive and grape groves. Then there was the sound of mewing, and out pops a cat from the forest. Meow meow, one breadstick, and a lot of us following him brought us too a crazy picnic table with a bucket full of cans of cat food, and about 4 other cats all going crazy. There was a sign on the bucket which asked people to use the food to feed the cats, so that’s what we did. Yum, yum, yum, jelly meat and an old haggard spoon. But the cats were happy.

Onward we continued and soon enough we had made it to the fourth town named Vernazza. This was definitely my favourite town and I’m pretty annoyed that my carmera had run out of batteries because the afternoon sunlight was amazing. Here we did not spend so much time because we knew it would get dark soon, but we did have a rest down at the waters edge by a man made sea wall, filled with local fishermen. I stood upon the wall, feeling the waves crash against it as Carmen sat down below. As beautiful as the town was, we soon decided that we better get going soon as it would get dark pretty fast and shortly we were back on the track, this time through proper forest with no orchards or groves of any kind. This track went up and up and up and we were both knackered pretty soon from the constant staircase walking, especially at the pace we were making to try and beat the sunset.

The next thing we knew we were decending the hill again, back down towards the final town, Monterosso. But on the way down we were distracted by a man sitting in a little hut. “Ciao!” we greeted him and saw that we was selling drinks, including his home made mulled wine which we bought and both thoroughly enjoyed. He told us that we were the only people who had walked past that day, and we sat and had a crazy conversation with him about allsorts of topics, mostly travel and his exwife and son in Vienna. He said that he had lived his whole life in the Cinque Terre and spoke English, German, Spanish and Italian without one lesson of any of them. Now that’s enouragement for the rest of us! While we were sitting and talking, darkness fell and he was offering us a ride up the hill on his little motorised train/motorbike thing which ran on a rail to the top of the hill. So in we got and off he went, only getting stuck for power in one place. It was steep and crazy, but heaps fun, holding on for dear life so neither of us would fall out of the trailer.

Once at the top, he was off down the hill on his Vespa, and we were walking down towards Monterosso on the road. When we made it to the village, we passed a wine shop which was still open and were called inside by the same man who had given us the drink and the lift for free pesto and wine tasting. The red pestro was absolutely amazing (sorry Mum, I couldn’t bring any home).

We caught the train back to Riomaggiore, and just when we thought the day’s craziness was over, we met a 67 year old lady who had just retired and “exploded” was artistic produce, mostly performance art. She the showed us many photos of her in action, including many of her in very litle clothes which were a little disturbing, especially seeing I could not understand a word she was saying. Carmen managed to have a full conversation with her in Italian which I though was very impressive – she said it was the first time this had ever happened too!

Soon we were back to Riomaggiore and the adventure was over. Neither of us could stop thinking about how crazy it was, but we needed to relax, so we headed to Carmen’s apartment which she was staying in and cooked some pasta, drank some wine and watched a terrible B-grade vampire film dubbed into Italian. It was terrible. And that was that. Crazy, crazy, crazy, awesome! I hope all of you reading this get to go to Cinque Terre, it’s an absolutely amazing place!