So to continue the story ...
After watching the sunrise, the group got ready for the day and we started our hike. We had a short easy hike of 20 mins along a paved path along the coast. We arrived in Montarola where we bought train tickets to skip over to Vernazia. We had a bit of a wait till the train came so we bought some pastries to tide us over. After taking the train we got to Vernazia.
For the sake of documentation and a funny story I share with you the following:
So before starting our hike we decided to use the public restroom at the train station. It was one of the squatter kind. With the toilet bowl in the ground. This was the first we had come across so far in our study abroad so it was a new experience. Not a good one, but new. There was no toilet paper, so we had to use up the travel pack of kleenex I brought and since there was no soap either we passed around Sharissa's purell. It was a bit traumatising for some of our group who had never before laid eyes upon such a bathroom before. My previous experience with such places had me prepared but not particularly happy touse a bathroom like that. But so is life.....
After shopping a bit in the the town we began our trek to Montorosso. It was an arduous trek up hundreds of unever bouldery stairs. Eventually we hit the top and it was a bit easier the rest of the way. After some time we made it to Montorosso and the beach. The beach there is not really sandy so much as gravelly, but we had a grand time swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.It was blue and clear and gorgeous.
After a few hours on the beach we took a ferry back to Riomaggiore. I had my first proper seafood and pasta. Dad would be proud of me. It had prawns and mussels and clams and shrimp. Brittany had to teach me how to deshell all of these things. It was a delicious dinner and I learned that I actually like real seafood. :)
The final enstallement will be coming shortly as will more pictures.
After watching the sunrise, the group got ready for the day and we started our hike. We had a short easy hike of 20 mins along a paved path along the coast. We arrived in Montarola where we bought train tickets to skip over to Vernazia. We had a bit of a wait till the train came so we bought some pastries to tide us over. After taking the train we got to Vernazia.
For the sake of documentation and a funny story I share with you the following:
So before starting our hike we decided to use the public restroom at the train station. It was one of the squatter kind. With the toilet bowl in the ground. This was the first we had come across so far in our study abroad so it was a new experience. Not a good one, but new. There was no toilet paper, so we had to use up the travel pack of kleenex I brought and since there was no soap either we passed around Sharissa's purell. It was a bit traumatising for some of our group who had never before laid eyes upon such a bathroom before. My previous experience with such places had me prepared but not particularly happy touse a bathroom like that. But so is life.....
After shopping a bit in the the town we began our trek to Montorosso. It was an arduous trek up hundreds of unever bouldery stairs. Eventually we hit the top and it was a bit easier the rest of the way. After some time we made it to Montorosso and the beach. The beach there is not really sandy so much as gravelly, but we had a grand time swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.It was blue and clear and gorgeous.
After a few hours on the beach we took a ferry back to Riomaggiore. I had my first proper seafood and pasta. Dad would be proud of me. It had prawns and mussels and clams and shrimp. Brittany had to teach me how to deshell all of these things. It was a delicious dinner and I learned that I actually like real seafood. :)
The final enstallement will be coming shortly as will more pictures.