We arrived in Cinque Terre yesterday at 4pm via train from Nice. While it was sad to say goodbye to Nice after such a short time it was definitely time to go. The city doesn’t have that much to do when you’re traveling with your sister (vs. a significant other). Sunset walks by the beach are just a bit akward and I think we have the unwritten agreement that we want to downplay any opportunity for continuing assumptions that we’re a couple It was almost funny for the first 2 days, but now we manage to work in the words “my brother” or “my sister” in every conversation to clarify our relationship. Remember my goal was to find a wife in Europe right?

Cinque Terre is absolutely gorgeous. upon arriving off the Train, we ended up right in Monterosso wwhere we tok an immediate train to Vernazza. We opted for Vernazza to find accommodations based on recommendation by a few people saying it was the most charming and low key. They were definitely right! Vernazza is tiny compared to the other towns, but definitely a great place to stay. No soone rthan 2 mins after getting off the train in Vernazza, we were approached by an unshaven Italian man who tried to convince us he was a close personal friend of Rick Steves and was offering accommodations for the bargain basement price of 75 Euros a night. We kindly refused, walked around for 5 mins and found a 50 euro a night room. The room has no sea view, but we agreed it wasn’t the extra 25 euros a night since we’d barely spend anytime inside.

While negotiating and finding out about the room, it was seriously eye opening how difficult the remainder of the trip might be compared to France. Although I’ve lost my fluency in French, I can still read relatively well and get by on spoken word. Time in Nice was a breeze since I was able to make out signs and menus, and actually have a reasonable conversations with locals. In Italy, this is a tourist nightmare, in Cinque Terre especially. The man offering the accommodations to us barely spoke a word of English, and thank goodness for our “Europe Phrase bok” that we got as a freebie when we bought our railpass. I was able to negotiate the room with extremely poor Italian with book in hand. It was straight out of a bad TV sitcom, but hey, it’s the end result that counts Even the train ticket machine is completely in iItalian, which you are forced to use after 7pm when the manned ticket counter closes. I had to get a local to buy tickets for us, but I think we’re safe since I’ve learned a few more italian words and memorized the menu sequence

We spent the remainder of the day checking out Monterosso and having wood fired thin crust pizza at an outdoor restaurant in Vernazza. Let me tell you, pizza hasn’t tasted better

This morning, we woke up bright and early and hiked from Vernazza all the way to the remaining 3 towns — Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We picked the trails rated as “slight” and “easy” but wow, I can’t imagine was “difficult” would be. The trails were pretty rocky and had a fair amount of elevation. We were shocked to see so many people on the trail wearing fliip flops and some women even in bikinis. However, later on we realized that the other trails between Manarola nad Riomaggiore were MUCH easier, being mostly flat and paved, wich explained the footwear and clothing choices of the people going in the opposite direction. These people were in for a rude awakening on the later trails!

The views on the hike were amazing, despite it being a bit hazy and overcast today. It made for great hiking weather, but not ideal for photos. Damn!

After getting to Riomaggiore at the end of the hike, we took a train up to Monterosso where I got to swim on the beach. This was definnitly the highlight of the trip so far! There’s nothing like the sun shining down, the Liguiran coast at your back and breathing in warm salty air. Yes, it sounds corny but it was really breathtaking. After I first jumped in, I suddenly realized that this was teh first time I’ve swum in the ocean since I was a kid, probably 10 years old. The salty water in my mouth brought back so many memories from my childhood. Crazy how smells and tastes can bring back so many memories.

We’re at an internet kiosk now in Monterosso figuring out our next stop in the trip. It’s either goi to be Rome directly, or perhaps Lucca or Pisa.

Let the adventure continue…

We planned on waking up early today to hit Nice and the surrounding area. But “early” ended up being 10am We’re in a 9 bed mixed dorm, with a 10th bed shoved in the middle of the room for Colene. It’s actually pretty funny since she’s situated right in front of the bathroom door.

We spent today in the small town of Eze, which is some medieval town with some heritage of the area. Frankly, it was so boring I can’t even remember the historical tales. Just our luck, today was totally fogged in at Eze, so the promised picturesque views ended up beign views of cloud cover and fog. So we were left with a medieval town tourist trap trying to sell us perfume, olive oil and expensive sandwiches.

After the eventful trip to Eze, we took a short bus ride to Monaco so we could pretend to be James Bond at the Monte Carlo Casino. Well just like the rest of this day, the famous Casino was nothing but a disappointment We’re told that it’s better at night, but the only the only 2 highlights in Monaco were:

1. The doorman at the Monte Carlo telling our Australian companion for the day, Adam, to speak english to him. Insanely funny becasue the dude was speaking english and repeated himself 4 times asking when the Casino opened. I guess this makes Australian’s harder to understand that Canadians. Eh?

2. Doing the “precise” calculation of whether it was economical to spend 4 euros on a bus “day pass” for unlimited travel. Our precise calculation ended up just a bit off We opted against the day pass and ended up spending over 8 euros. Damn, there goes the budget.

We finished off the evening eating dinner at a restaurant recommended in the Frommer’s Europe guide called Eclat de Cours. While the appetizer of Fish Soup was excellent, the rest of the meal can be summed up in a single word — meh. Nothing spectacular, butjust like Paris, the bread was fantastic. Could have saved a bundle of money on dinner by just going to a local bakery instead

We’ve decided against staying another night in nice and instead heading to Cinque Terre tommorow morning, after which will be Rome then to Florence. We’re both excited about Cinque Terre which should provide for some great pictures and relaxing nights.

We screwed up on our Eurorail pass by only getting a 3 country pass for Italy, Germany and France. After we leave Florence, we were plannign on taking a night train from Florence to Munich, but it turns out that Austria is between Italy and Germany. Who knew? It’s our own fault for not even looking at a carefully enough when we bought the Eurorail pass. I just wish the travel agent in Vancouver gave us the heads up about Austria basically sabotaging our plans Luckily it will just cost us about 30 euro to pay the difference in the segment prices.

Even though Nice wasn’t as excitign as we expected, we definitely don’t regret coming here. The hostel has been fantastic and the people we’ve met here are great. We’re even planning on meeting up with a few of the Auzzies in Prague and Germany while we’re there for Oktoberfest.

After nearly 24 hours in transit, we finally arrived at our hostel in Nice. All it took was 2 flight delays, 1 missed connected and forfeiting 128 pounds in airfare. Phew, what a day.

Today was simply one big blur. The combination of hunger, exhaustion, jet lag and frustration made for a brutal, brutal day to get to Europe. The hostel, Villa Saint Exupury, is much nicer than expected. That’s the good thing about having low expectations — you’ll never be let down The hostel is within an old church which makes for an interesting setting.

This is the first time either of us have stayed in a hostel, and the experience so far has been great. Met a group of people tonight from Australia, Scotland and Tanzania. Nothing like getting drunk with a bunch of foreign tourists in what used to be a chapel.

Tomorrow we’re planning on hitting a small town called Eze followed by a trip to Monaco then back to Nice in the evening. We’re planning on only spending a day here before moving onto Cinque Terre to ultimately meet up with Gillian and Sharon in Florence. I’m looking forward to some great photo opportunities and food tomorrow combined with massive sun and heat. Apparently it’s been 42 celcius here the past few days!

Our Europe 2006 trip started at 8:20am with a flight on American Airlines leaving Seatac with a 3 hour layover in New York before continuing onto London. 

…well it was supposed to be a 3 hour layover. It turns out that some crazy oxygen mask and video project malfunction caused us to be delayed by exactly 3 hours on the runway, which caused us to miss our connecting flight from Heathrow to Nice.  Since it wasn’t an officially booked connection through a single airline carrier, we forfeited the cost of the second ticket.. ouch.  Kiss 120 pounds goodbye!  We had to book a secondary ticket foranother 128 pounds each through Easyjet.  Not a good start to our Europe trip.

We just paid 4 pounds for 20 mins of internet access… time is running out..

As of today, I’m officially on vacation.. no meetings, no phone calls, no specs, and most importantly, no work email!  My 4 week trip to Europe begins with an 8:20am flight from Seattle to London, with a 3 hour layover in NYC.  Upon landing in London, we take an inter-Europe flight to Nice where all the fun begins. 

I’ll be blogging periodically, but don’t anticipate posting any photos until I return.