Today we woke up feeling as well
rested as we could have after a night of drinking, but ready to walk. We
decided to take the ferry to Riomaggiore and check at the hostel if they had a
room available for Saturday night. The ferry ride was amazing. It took about 15
minutes to get their from Monterosso. We sat on the top of the ferry and it was
just the most beautiful thing ever. After we got to Riomaggiore, we had to walk
to Manarola because that is the town that the hostel was in. We stopped at a
few stores along the way in Riomaggiore and I bought some cute white
Birkenstock sandals. I knew I had to buy something when I saw the store because
it was called Hakuna Matata. And yes, we did all start singing it when we saw
what the name was. All the Italians probably thought we were crazy
Americans…which we were. We continued our walk and found the hostel which was
closed but was also up this huge hill so we decided to cheat the Italian system
and all just stay in one hotel room. After walking around Manarola for awhile, we
took the train back to Monterosso and just headed for the beach. We got some
foccacia sandwiches from a little stand on the beach and just ate in the sand
and sun. The beach is amazingly beautiful. We went in the water a few times and
it wasn’t super cold, definitely warmer than Hilton Head. We stayed at the
beach until around 6 and met Chiara to get our train tickets. We decided to
stay an extra night and we got an apartment style hotel room which was perfect
because it had extra beds and a couch outside to sleep on. We were getting
ready in our room when we heard a knock at the door. Morgan and I freaked out
because we thought the hotel discovered us. We were technically the two out of
the six that went home since we only were getting a four bed hotel room. When
we opened the door… da da da…it was Nick from the other GSE group! We were totally
weirded out/surprised but he ended up staying in our room that night (since it
was really an apartment and there was a lot of extra room). This is also the
night of grappa (which I did not take part in because the smell made me want to
puke), but still it was a fun night! We of course spent it at the “American
Bar” because there is nowhere else to drink in good ole’ Cinque Terre! After we
came home and drank all the grappa, someone decided it would be a good idea to
go for a late night swim. It was probably me because I was the first one in her
bathing suit and the only one running around our apartment room telling
everyone to put their suits on. I just remember being really mad that we didn’t
stay in for longer because everyone was whiny about how cold it was!
