Hiking in the Cinque Terre

l wish I could stay in this region of Italy forever. If you look beyond the tourists and see the everyday life of the people who live here-the simplicity, beauty and not to mention the quiet-it's tempting to want to find a house on the side of the mountain and live here forever....maybe one day. 

We woke up before the sunrise on our second day in the Cinque Terre (CT). This region is made up of 5 small towns and each one is known for some individual good (seafood, anchovies, olive oil, etc). Years ago the only way to get from one town to another is to hike along the mountain-and that's what people did. Now there's a train that takes you from town to town or you can choose to hike. The trails have become a National Park and people from all over the world come to hike here. Some of the trails are closed due to landslides and our as luck would have it only the challenging trail from Monterosso to Vernazza was open. All my research said to get to the trails early. So even though most of were sick or tired we woke up at 0640 to catch the 0715 train to hike. 

Waking up before the sunrises has its benefits-I took this picture from our balcony before we left. 

Waiting for our train ride-the ride from our town to Monterosso is about 6 minutes. Most of the people in our group were still half asleep on the ride over. When we arrived we stopped for some coffee. 

A view of the beach while drinking coffee. 

Once we were awake we headed out to find the trail. Some of the people in our group have never hiked before. Ever. They were going to walk the hardest trail as their introduction to hiking. I had been preparing for this hike back home. I just desperately hoped that it wasn't harder than potatoe chip rock because I barely survived that hike and my lungs aren't doing well since I'm sick. I was worried about having an asthma attack midway through the trail. As soon as you start hiking you come to a an endless hill made of steps. Online I read that this trail has 700 steps. That might be a little exaggerated but not by much. Everytime we thought we could see the top of the stairs we were wrong. There were more stairs. 

You think Shane is at the top of the stairs but the trail curves and there's more of them. 

Hey look more stairs. 

Will we ever get to the top?!

When the stairs ended we all had to stop and catch our breath. Then we lost our breath again when we saw the view.

I guess all the stairs were worth it. 

This was the backdrop to the rest of the hike-amazing stunning scenery. The rest of the trail was pretty mellow. There were parts that were very narrow without any rail and you're right on the edge of the mountain. Other then that fear factor it was a great hike. 

Super narrow trail

A bridge made out of rocks. 

Crossing the bridge. 

There are houses built into the side of the mountains. 

The town we started in gets farther away. 

Halfway point photo with Josef's selfie stick. 

We did a good thing by starting the trail early. The sun came out for the last part and we were already dripping in sweat. I kept my merino wool icebreaker base layer on to test out its ability to keep me cool and warm as I needed it. It really works! I stayed cool the entire hike and my sweat was wicked away from my body so I didn't get cold. 

As we came around the last part of the trail we were greeted to this view of Vernazza. We stayed up there awhile to take it all in. The town was waking up so I saw shop keepers bringing out goods and restaurants hauling boxes of fresh ingredients to the kitchen. There are no vehicles allowed in the town so people have to carry everything by hand. 

This hike was way easier than potato chip rock but the view is much better. 

It was Super Nel's idea to come back to the CT. I didn't need any convincing. I already want to come back again. 

As we come down the last part of the train into the town we could here music playing. Some of the locals play for the hikers. Super Nel poses as he walks up. 

The musicians. 

Everyone survived the hike (just barely for some) but we loved every minute of it. 

Cinque Terre

We took at 4 hour train ride from Rome to the Cinque Terre. We were staying in an apartment booked through booking.com. However, when we arrived in our small town, Riomaggio, no one-not even the locals knew of the location. Finally, an elderly Italian women of about 85 said she would show us the way. If I didn't already know that Cinque Terre translates to five towns I would think it means a lot of stairs. We followed the elderly lady up endless amounts of stairs and she was like an alpaca-fast! While we were huffing and puffing way behind her. We arrive at this apartment with a HUGE balcony and the view was worth the stairs. 

This is what you can see from our balcony. 

We quickly dropped off our bags and hopped on a train to Monterosso-the town that is farthest north. They have the most accessible beach and you can eat/drink right over the ocean. 

The view while enjoying a tasty drink in Monterosso. 

Then we caught the local train again and went south to Vernazza. Miss Delia and her group were staying at this town. 

Miss Delia is more than a friend. If I were to have a sister this would be her. We met while working at the Rec Center a decade ago. Since the day we met we just clicked. We're very different but we recognize something special in one another and it's something that has cemented our friendship. Years ago a coworker at the rec center told us about her trip to the Cinque Terre and we both talked about wanting to come here. The fact that we are both here together is extra special. I always like to tell Miss Delia "if we live to be a 125 we'll remember this." This is true about our time at the Cinque Terre. 

We found a yummy dinner place in Vernazza that supplied us all with wine and food. Also, they have wifi. In Cinque Terre this is a rarity. You have to use it when you can get it. Which explains why I'm doing multiple posts in one day. 

We found this cave that leads to the ocean! 

The last time we were in a tunnel/cave we were scared out of our minds. This one was much nicer. 

Our group minus Pedro (he was out exploring) 

Our little superheroes enjoy the waves. 

After dinner we went back to our town. Most of the towns shut down around 8pm so we bought a few bottles of red wine and went back to Pedro, Shane and Josef's place. 

We all slept well that night. Read about our early morning hike in the next blog post. 

Getting to Rome...

I'm The train ride back to Berlin was long and hot-emphasis on hot. 

Here we are crowded by a window that was cracked just a little. It was the only fresh air we had. 

Rhianna passes the time doing some beauty regimens. 

The night before Dana gave herself a mask to help moisturize her skin. 

The view out the window of our train. Poland is beautiful and we will definitely come back. 

And all the locals refused to let us roll down the windows on the train. Imagine a 9 hour train ride in a sauna with no wifi. 

Our last train ride from Szczecin to Berlin. 

Needless to say we were all pretty cranky when we arrived. We checked into our hotel and had high hopes of drinking our last German beers at the indoor pool. This idea was vetoed when we learned it was closed. We ended up in one of our hotel rooms with beers from the store. This was our last night with Darius and Freddy. They would head out to Spain the next day and we were heading to Italy. Funny enough we were kinda sad about it. Darius and I haven't spent longer than a few weeks apart since we met in nursing school so many years ago. But we were excited to have some adventures to share later. 

The next morning those going with us to Rome met in the lobby at 07:30. Our plane was leaving at 0920 so we had to catch a train to take us there. The hotel employee said the next train would leave in 15 minutes. As we prepared to go outside we realized it was SNOWING outside!!!!

By the time we added our layers we had 10 minutes to find our train. 

It was cold outside and we couldn't find the train station. We looked and we asked and finally found the station but the platform didn't have any ticket machines! We had to run down to the main area (lots of steps) and buy tickets. By the time the tickets printed the train was pulling up. I ran as fast as my legs would go up the stairs and desperately tried to validate our tickets in the stamp machine. I wasn't fast enough. The train left without us. The next one would arrive in 15 minutes which means we would be cutting it close to our flight. 

Poor Miss Delia was really sick and the running was making it hard for her to breathe. She had a coughing fit all the way to the airport. We also noticed the snow was coming down harder as we left the city. When we arrived at the airport we had to run a long distance outside to get to security. I kept telling everyone to run and whoever got to the gate first would stall the plane. I said bend down and tie your shoe or unzip your bag and pretend everything fell out-anything to stall the plane. 

Super Nel stayed behind to help Miss Delia with her bag so that she would make it to security. When Super Nel made it past the boarding pass check point I realized he was alone. He said that when the security officer scanned Miss Delia, Pamela and Rhianna's ticket it turned out they had bought tickets for the wrong day!!! They were stuck in Berlin!!

We were still desperately trying to get to or gate. After security we ran to the gate and then the attendant informed us that the plane was delayed. Sigh. This meant time for one more German Beir and we could try to help our friends get on our flight. We were sending them texts but they said our flight was full. They were trying to catch a flight through another company. 

Our airline informed us that we would be delayed for an hour because the landing gear tire was broken and required fixing. I told the mechanic to take his time and that we were willing to wait. I'd rather be safe than rushed and unsafe. 

When we finally landed in Rome it felt so good to remove our layers and enjoy the sunshine. While we checked into our hostel for the night we learned from our friends that they had found an alternate flight that would land in Rome in the evening. This was after waiting in lines and using their phones to purchase tickets (which proved to be difficult because the websites are in different languages and kept deleting their info. 

We were only Rome for one night. We would meet up with Shane, Pedro and Josef (they had arrived a few days earlier in Rome) and together we would all go north to Cinque Terre in Italy. I was extremely bummed to have missed a much wanted tour. I had obtained tickets for an underground Scavi tour. Only 200 people are taken under St. Peter's Basicilica. It was a tour I was looking forward to immensely. Our friends who were already in Rome were able to go due to my planning. I might have been a little bitter about it. Especially when Josef kept telling me how amazing the tour was. 

We enjoyed some lunch outdoors by a beautiful Basicilica called Santa Maria's. 

Dana outside Santa Maria's Bascilica

After lunch I was feeling cruddy so chose to go back and nap. Super Nel and I had toured Rome on our last Eurotrip and since I was getting whatever Super Nel and Miss Delia had I chose to rest and try to boost my immune system. When I woke up Miss Delia and her group had arrived!!! I'd never been so happy to see them. The told us all about their adventure in getting to Rome while we walked to dinner and tried to find the Trevi fountain (which is under construction). 

Miss Delia outside Santa Maria's

Rhianna in front of Santa Maria's. It's more beautiful at night. 

You're bound to get lost in Rome-it's part of the experience. But our short trek out that evening ended up being an hours long walk back to the hostel. My calves and shins were burning from the cobblestone streets when we got home. 

Trevi Fountain 

Ancient ruins at night

At this point Dana was starting to get sick too. I think all the cold weather and travel strain was catching up with us. We all fell asleep and woke up ready to travel to the Cinque Terre. 

Bus Ride Home

We had to leave Auschwitz by 15:00 in order to arrive back in time to check into our apartment. Plus, we still had to take the bus ride back to Kraków which was over an hour long. 

minutes.

Last photos before we leave. 

We sat at the bus stop and ate our picnics while waiting for the bus.

Some time had passed before the bus came and we started to worry that we were at the wrong spot. Freddy said he would run back to the main entrance and see if we're supposed to catch the bus there. In a few minutes the bus came to the stop we were at so I shouted to Darius to call Freddy to come back. Darius shouted back "I can't call him, I don't have a phone!" I kept forgetting he had broken his phone in London. So Darius gave me his backpack and set off sprinting to find Freddy while the rest of us did our best to stall the bus. Darius and Freddy came running up and as a joke I said "Sorry guys the bus is full." When I told them I was joking Freddy exhaled and said "I'm gonna kill you." Sadly, the joke was on me. When I boarded the bus there were no more seats available. So I had to sit on the floor in between two seats. My shoulders were scrunched and my butt barely fit. Poor Freddy had to stand the entire ride! 

Now this wouldn't have been so bad, except the bus driver kept stopping at bus stops and more people would get on! Freddy kept getting pushed farther and farther back until he was pushed up against me. It got to the point that if anyone else got on he would have to straddle me. Luckily no one else got on the bus. However, it was so stuffy and hot and it was hard to breathe. I fell asleep and hoped when I woke up we would already have arrived. I woke up the last fifteen minutes and had to do meditation. I was so uncomfortable and it was so hard to breathe. However, I couldn't help thinking of all the people that were crammed into trains for days while being transported to Auschwitz. That bus ride put everything into perspective. 

Auschwitz

When we disembarked in Kraków we dropped off our luggage at our hotel which was a condo complex that also rents out as a hotel. 

Next we had to find the bus that would take us on the 1.5 hour ride to Auschwitz. It's not a regular bus-more like a large van (those of you that work at the rec center imagine our transport vans-these just fit more passengers). There are a few stops along the way and at every stop more and more passengers got on board and people were left standing. 

Once we disembarked from the "bus" we were just outside the gates of Auschwitz. There's no cost to go into the memorial/museum but no large bags/backpacks are allowed so we had to check bags for 3 zlotys ($1). Also, we chose to participate in a guided tour for an additional fee-worth every zlotys. Our tour didn't start for an hour so we took the time to explore the camp on our own before our tour. 

I ended up in a building that had the history of how Poland was invaded and how the Nazi's systematically worked to remove the people of power in order to overcome the Poles. The people of Poland worked together to fight back-even civilians who were not in the military joined in the resistance. There was a photo of girls outs digging trenches to keep out the tanks. 

The Nazi's used fear, secrecy and lies to suppress anyone who stood in their way. This is a photo of teachers in Poland being led to their death (they were executed in front of everyone). The Nazi's eliminated people of power first-this included politicians, teachers and religious figures. 

There were more gruesome photos of killings and executions but the hardest ones to look at were those of the children. There are photos of children being hung by their necks and the gruesome angle of the necks made my stomach churn. Then I saw photos of children laying in mass graves and the emotions I felt are hard to describe. It was a mixture of sadness, disgust and disbelief-as much as anyone wants to believe that this is not real it's impossible. These photos speak nothing but truth and the truth is dark and terrible. At the bottom level of this building I was in, there were prisoners uniforms (real ones) that had been placed on wire mesh replicas meant to look like bodies-except there were no heads. The uniforms, some ragged and torn and others so thin you can see right through them, we're hanging on the wire mesh in such a way that the bodies looked hunched over-like most of the prisoners did when they lost their body fat from lack of nutrition. I walked down this hallway with the mock-prisoners in line two by two and no one else was nearby. It gave me a very creepy feeling that had me racing back outdoors. It was almost as if I had to be reminded that I was not trapped in this horror movie and that freedom was just beyond the doors. This really set the stage and emotional tone for the tour we were about to take. 

The beginning of our tour brought us here to the sign that says "Work will set you you free." Auschwitz was surrounded by an electrical wire fence and there were lookout stations where soldiers would shoot prisoners immediately for trying to escape. Many prisoners committed suicide by running to gates knowing they would be shot. 

Our tour guide was amazing and really did a fabulous job of telling us the history and stories about Auschwitz. At one point she took us to a board with numbers. She said the numbers only represented the people the Nazi's kept track of. Then she pointed to a photo of people coming off a train and hundreds being led to the gas chambers. She said that all those people were not given a number so they are not represented in the total count. The numbers we do know of, 6 million, are low compared to the actual number who perished. 

Ashes taken from different people who perished at Auschwitz as a memorial to everyone who suffered here. 

We went into a room that was filled with hair. Hair. Human hair. The Nazi's didn't waste anything that they took from the people they terrorized. After a group of people went into the gas chambers (700 could fit in one crematorium at one time) they sorted their clothes, shoes, glasses and shaved the bodies. The same was done with the people who were chosen to work in the camps. The hair (all different shades, 4 tons that were found after liberation, some were long braids) was used as textiles and there was an exhibit showing that it was used to make cloth. Human hair cloth. 

They saved and sorted baby clothes. Our tour guide said "What could the Nazi's possibly want with a 3 month olds sweater? They did not waste anything." I couldn't get past knowing that a 3 month old died in that sweater. 

The wire gates were endless around the camp. 

Another hard moment was walking down a long hallway with photos covering the walls of prisoners. Our tour guide told us to focus on the dates at the bottom-when they arrived at Auschwitz and when they died. The average length was a month. She told us about horrible experiments that were performed on prisoners. One thing that stood out was when she talked about the sterility experiments on women. Women were injected with poisonous drugs intravenously to make them sterile. Those women that survived and were liberated were forced to miss out on the chance at motherhood. This made me very sad. 

We all had our individual moments where we felt sad or emotional. One person in our group remembered when our tour guide showed us a picture of a family walking to the gas chamber. The family looks calm and is carrying suitcases. There are children and a mother. The tour guide said the Nazi's deceived people by telling them they were going to start a new life in a new place. When the people were asked to walk to the gas chamber they were told it was time to go see their new home. This eliminated any hysteria or screaming. Deceptive. 

The Nazi's tried to hide the evidence of the gas chambers by blowing them up. However, one crematorium survived. Our tour guide took us inside and asked that we be silet and no photos be taken in respect for the many lives that had perished in those rooms. Inside we could see numerous scratch marks from human finger nails trying to claw their way out of the chamber. It took 20 minutes for a person to die from the gas that was used (Zyclon B). 20 minutes of agony for the people inside. 20 minutes of torture. I could feel the despair and agony these people experienced as I walked through the chambers to the next room where their bodies were burned to ashes. 

This experience wasn't meant to make people feel depressed. I came here because the purpose is to remember that this happened in our history. People tried to eliminate an entire race. We shouldn't forget that this happened. Nor should we forget to honor those that died during this terrible time. This place to me reminds me to embrace differences, to keep an open mind when it comes to humanity and above all else it reminds me to love. 

Read about our adventure on the bus ride back into town next.