Alrighty. Episode three of my travels is finally complete! It will be quite long, because as I was going through pictures to put on it, there were a lot, and I'm terrible at culling photos because to me they are all awesome and hold wonderful memories. But anyways, here we go:
The end of the last post was in Pisa, and the next morning I took the train to meet up with my Switzerland U of C friends in Riomaggiore, which is one of the five villages of Cinque Terre. For those who haven't heard of this beautiful region of Italy, Cinque Terre ('Five Lands') is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was a super fun weekend hiking along the phenomenal Cinque Terre walking trail, eating copious amounts of gelato, kayaking along the coast, and cliff jumping, all with a great group of people.
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| The group minus Remi, with Vernazza in the background. This part of the trail, from Monterosso to Vernazza, was steep and a bit rough in places, but it winds through olive orchards and vineyards and offers the best view of the bay. Lots and lots of stairs too! |
After dropping our bags at the hostel in Riomaggiore, we took the train to Monterosso and hiked the whole trail back to Riomaggiore. The walking trail is known as Sentiero Azzurro ('Light Blue Trail'), and is more than 10 km in length although the section from Corniglia to Manarola was undergoing construction so we opted to hike the upper, more arduous trail which is twice as long instead of taking the train. The view from the top of the trail was absolutely amazing, so definitely worth the extra effort!  |
| Part of Cinque Terre's charm, besides the stunning views, is the fact that cars cannot reach the villages from the outside, and the only way between them is by paths, trains, or boats. The village in the foreground is Corniglia, and behind it you can just see Manarola. |
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| Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. |
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| Manarola reflecting the setting sun |
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| Watching the sunset from Manarola |
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| Pure bliss :) |
The next day, most of us rented kayaks and meandered south along the beautiful coastline.
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| The railway track that runs along the Italian Riviera coast, a ride that is mostly tunnels with the occasional glimpse out at the ocean; and a super-power waterfall that some of us had a refreshing, but also slightly painful shower under. |
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| Me and my kayak :) Felt so good to be back on the water again! |
After a short but sweet time with the Swiss crew in Cinque Terre, I got a ride in their rented van to La Spezia where we parted ways, them heading back up to Switzerland and me TRYING to get to Tuscany. Trying, because as luck would have it, Trenitalia, the Italian national train company, was on strike that day. What is both great and a problem about Trenitalia striking is that they don't cancel all trains, so a few of the long-distance, high-speed trains still ran but they don't let travellers know which ones are running and which ones they are going to spontaneously cancel. When I got to La Spezia, I was a bit tired and sunburnt so I sat down on the cool floor inside the station and pulled out my laptop and voila, free wifi! I hung out for about 2 hours amusing myself watching all the frantic travellers trying to get to their destinations as the train schedule board kept popping up with 'canceled' beside the majority of the trains. I figured I would wait until 9pm when the strike ended to get a train to Tuscany before noticing that there was a train leaving for Florence, which is where I had to go first, in 10 minutes. While I was a bit stunned that a regional train was running, I hopped on anyways, figuring that I might as well try to get as close as I could to where I wanted to go. The train got as far as Pisa, hung out there for an excruciatingly long time, then we, the passengers, discovered that it had been canceled, mid-journey. I spent a frustrating hour trekking back and forth between the train station and the bus station trying to find a way to the hostel I wanted to stay at in Tuscany, but to no avail, so in the end, I opted to stay at the same hostel I had stayed at two nights prior, then continue on to Tuscany the next day.
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| Vine-covered walls at the hostel in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa |
Tuscany was absolutely beautiful, and very peaceful and non-touristy compared to Cinque Terre and basically everywhere else I've been. I only spent one night there as the day that I was going to meet Surya in Bari, Italy to take the ferry to Greece was fast approaching and I also wanted to fit in Rome before heading to the east coast.
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| Picturesque, rolling green hills of Tuscany :) |
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| On my one afternoon there, I walked to the nearby town of Barberino along a winding trail through olive trees, with gorgeous views like this one. |
Following my short stay in Tuscany, I made my way first by bus, then on a train to Rome, after waiting for a trillion years in the ticket line-up (having an InterRail or Eurail pass in Italy doesn't really help you for the longer distance trains because you still have to wait in line to get a reservation, which is mandatory for all but the very local trains). I also spent an annoying amount of time doing laps around the Rome station as I tried to find somewhere to book my ferry for the following day (turned out you can only reserve them at the port...). By the time I got to my hostel, it was 3:30, and since I was leaving on a train the next morning at 8:20, I only had this one evening in Rome... Rome in 5 hours, can I do it? Yes I can! (Well not totally, I didn't get to the Vatican, but I managed to see almost all the main attractions!)
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| First stop was the Colosseum, epic as promised, although the throng of umbrellas below sort of detracted from its awesomeness (they were removed from this picture). |
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| Trevi fountain and I |
As I was about to turn off towards St. Peter's, I saw a grand-looking monument at the end of the street I was on so curiosity took over and I continued down the street, soon coming upon a huge swarm of people gathered around the Athlete's World. After standing in confusion for a little while I finally figured out the reason for the gathering: beside the Athlete's World sign, it said 'Meet Usain Bolt'. May 24th. 5pm. I checked my watch and sure enough, it was 5:30 on the 24th. While I was in a bit of hurry to see everything and still get back to my hostel before dark, I figured I'd hang around for 15 minutes to see if Bolt would show up, because how many times will I get to see the fastest man in the world walk by me? Well, sure enough, at 5:45, guess who strolled around the corner:
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| Usain Bolt, with a full security detail surrounding him, camera not zoomed in :) |
I didn't have time to hang around and get his autograph as there was a huge crowd, but even just seeing Bolt was pretty sweet.
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| Next stop was St. Peter's Basilica, quite the impressive sight.. |
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| Then to the Pantheon, delicious gelato in hand. Strangely enough, I met a couple from Castlegar (half an hour away from my hometown) just before taking this picture! They noticed the Canadian flag on my backpack, or maybe the fact that I was taking a picture of my beautiful gelato as they walked by gave away the fact that I was a tourist.. |
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| Last stop of the day was Circo Massimo, which is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium. The sun was just setting as I wandered the site, so perfect timing for the end of my Rome tour! |
After a long train ride to Bari which is on the east coast of Italy, a joyful reunion with Surya, and a 15 hour overnight ferry ride, we made it to Greece! However, it took us (me, Surya, and two Americans that we met that were also heading to Athens) a long time to get from the ferry terminal to our hostels. First was a 4 hour bus ride from Patras to Athens, then we were dropped off at a random spot in Athens, and none of us had a map of the place. Surya had been dropped off at the port as she was headed for Ios, one of the Greek islands, so I would have been alone but luckily the two Americans were headed to near the same place as me! We wandered around for a while searching for an internet cafe and finally found a Macdonalds where we Google Mapped our hostels. On the walk to the hostels we came across this amazing billboard:
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| Both Nick (one of the American's) and I did a double take as we read this billboard in passing. |
On our first full day in Athens, Marlies and Annalea Zimmer (joining up with me after traveling down through the former Yugoslavian countries on the start of their epic Europe tour) and I did a walking tour along with about 10 others from ours and two other hostels. I was a bit hesitant about the tour at first because it cost a bit, and we would have limited time at each place, but I'm very glad we did as we had a great tour guide, learned a lot, saw basically all of Athens, and met some great people!
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| First stop of the day was the ancient Agora of Athens. This is the Stoa of Attalos, built around 150 BC. |
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| The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a stone theatre on the Acropolis, built in 161 AD, with a capacity of 5000. |
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| The Parthenon! |
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| View of Athens from the Acropolis with the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the centre. |
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| Athens sprawling out in all directions behind me. What a huge city! |
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| The Erechtheum, an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis, built between 421 and 406 BC. |
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| The Acropolis from below |
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| Temple of Olympian Zeus, up close |
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| Fifteen columns remain standing today, out of the original 104, with a sixteenth lying on the ground where it fell during a storm in 1852. |
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| So many dogs hanging around all over Athens! |
Our last stop of the day was the changing of the guards in front of the royal palace at Syntagma square. This was quite the ridiculous affair. Lots of stomping of their funny-looking boots, waving of their guns, and twirling of the long tassels that hang from their hats. Oh and don't forget the high kicks..:
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| Changing of the guard in Athens |
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| The Zimmers, Anikke from Australia, and moi |
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| Baklava = heaven |
We managed to walk into the middle of a protest in front of the same government building where we saw the changing of the guards the day before... Needless to say we got a few dirty/weird looks from the Athenians as we took pictures of the immense crowd around us.
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| Protest in Athens. From what we gathered by asking people around us, the Greek government borrowed money from various countries and is now in serious debt... Not sure how accurate or detailed that is though, so don't quote me! |
After 3 days in Athens, Marlies, Annalea and I took a ferry to Santorini, then backtracked on another ferry to the island of Ios, 40 km in the direction we had just come from. (Long story, but in short we had to get to Surya to give her back her backpack which had not made it onto the ferry with her, and she was on Ios).
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| On the ferry to Santorini on a beautiful day. Gotta love the amazing blue of the ocean! |
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| Greeeeece, I miss you! |
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| Cliff-side villages on Santorini |
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| The view from the beach at the Far Out Beach Club where we stayed on Ios. |
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| And to think I spent only 5 euros a night to stay here! Looks like a resort! |
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| Sunset |
After a crazy night of partying on Ios (Ios has a reputation as the 'party island' for travellers), we spent a day on the beach then headed back over to Santorini.
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| Gorgeous, picturesque church on Ios |
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| Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion that destroyed the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island and is now six islands. This picture shows the 300m high cliffs surrounding the caldera. |
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| Surya and me :) |
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| Doesn't get much better than this.. |
On our first day in Santorini, the four of us plus our dorm-mate Angelinda rented ATVs and toured around the island. It was a blast!
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| The girls and their ATVs |
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| Perissa |
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| :) |
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| Black beach in Santorini, where we spent a few hours on our last day on Santorini |
On the evening of me and the Zimmer's last night in Santorini we went for a hike with Surya, Angelinda, and our other dorm-mate Mike from Australia basically up to where we had ATV'd to that morning, although exploring around by foot was way cooler!
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| We checked out some cool caves and crevices in the mountain above Perissa. |
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| We were nearing the top of the mountain around 8:15 which is when the sun sets so it was a race to the top, but due to a thick layer of clouds we couldn't actually see the sun itself. Gorgeous colours anyways! |
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| Mike, Surya and me in a sideways self-timer at the highest point on Santorini at sunset of my last night on the island. What a way to end my travels! |
So that's it! Apologies for the length of this post, but it was totally necessary. Just a quick shout-out to everyone I met or traveled with or stayed with this past year: thanks for making this the best experience of my life, love you all! Another post to come just summing everything up, including the culture shock it was to come home.
Thanks for reading!
Sonja :)
- Cinque Terre with the Swiss crew -
