Cinque Terre: Bandanna D-Bags, HELL YEAH!

Location: Northwest Coast of Italy
Saturday, April 10, 2010- Monday, April 12, 2010

Saturday consisted of about 10 hours of traveling, 4 metro rides, 3 train rides, and a plane ride. Allora...

Finally arrived in Cinque Terre and the car that was supposed to be picking us up was no where to be seen. Called them and they said they would leave in 5 minutes. We play some volleyball in the parking lot of the train station and Alex tries to show off and knocks the ball on the roof resulting in him climbing on top of the train station to retrieve it and scaring the crap out of all of us, except Maggie who egged him on for her own entertainment. A half hour later, we call again and turns out they forgot to pick us up, again. We finally make it to our bungalow and it feels like summer camp all over again. We raid their onsite dinning facility and I learn first hand why Genoa is known for its pesto. Maggie and I split a pesto pizza and a mushroom pizza and I think I have died and gone to heaven. We decide to stay up and do what everyone who is staying in a secluded woodsy area wants to do, tell scary stories. The stories range from real to not real and back to real again. I told a story from when I was younger and someone broke into our house and cut our phone lines. That legit is the end of the story because we found them cut and called the cops and nothing happened but hey, thats not that scary is it? So I tweak the story with some bloody knives, broken door handles, a dead dog, and a creepy ringing cell phone when the truth is my dog is still alive and kicking and I didn't have a cell phone at the time. At the end of the story I sum it up with "and that girl was me" cueing everyone to freak out, then I let them in on the little joke. I listen to everyone else's stories and then come up with a totally 100% made up story that about a girl in my high school who had mysterious pictures of her left on her doorstep and then more pictures left a couple days later of her standing there looking at the pictures followed by more pictures taken out of frames in her own house. Gives you the heebie jeebies right? Haha, then I laughed and told them i made the whole thing up. Later, Joanna and I huddle together in the front room of the bungalow for warmth (this is now the second time we have opted to share a bed when there was a free one available) and someone starts tapping on the windows. Not scared at all but when I ask the girls in the other room if they can hear the tapping, the tell me to shut up and stop trying to scare them prompting me to utter the infamous line out of pure frustration "Courtney.... fuck off!" Courtney senses my frustration and we laugh until we fall asleep.

Wake up early to hike the next day. We all wear our bandannas (Court's idea) and stupid outfits (our idea) and high sock's (steph and tina's idea). Now we have just come from Greece which was shorts and swim suit weather and no one considered the fact that northern Italy may be a little more on the chilly side. Well when we stepped off the train to hike to the first town and literally saw people in parkas and winter jackets, we knew we were fucked. We bought some hot chocolate and sucked it up including all the glares and confused glances we received as was our intention with the bandannas and goofy outfits before factoring in the 20 degree temperature drop. We now officially not only look like major d-bags but freezing d-bags. Cinque Terre is somewhat of a natural park consisting of 5 towns that are rather touristy and trails leading between them that range from 40 minute to 2 and half hour hike. The towns are built into the side of a cliff and the hikes are literally some of the most breathtaking views I will ever see. We hit up the first 2 towns on the prowl for sweatshirts and shelter. But then right after the second town a miracle happens, and the sun appears and suddenly we still look like d-bags, just slightly warmer and less inappropriately dressed d-bags. We stop in each town for a pausa as needed including pesto pizza, gelato, and more pesto pizza in that order. The hike between the fourth and fifth towns was the best because it was the longest and we played some interesing games including "if you were an ice cream flavor" (stracitella), "if you were a boy" (Alex Roth), and "what actor/actress are you" (Anna Ferris). The hike was actually a little bit more intense than what we were thinking and then out of nowhere a man in a chicken wire shack appears selling fresh squeezed lemonade- only in Europe does this seem legit to buy lemonade from a man in the side of a cliff in a hut made of chicken wire. We buy some, of course. We finally finish the hike, and did all 5 towns in 1 day and 7 hours, go us.

Back to the camp site, and our bungalows. Settle in for a chill night with some Vino and drinking games. One of the games exemplifies why I am so obsessed with these people. We play a game where you have to mimick someone's sounds and if you can't you lose. Now the sounds people make are ridiculous and require one to feel very comfortable with the group, which of course we all are at this point because we have slowly and surely become obsessed with each other. At the end of the game, we make Mia do her famous high pitched "VEEEEERONA" followed by Maura's man voiced "Hell yeah" and we mimic both. This is officially the moment I fell in love with the people traveling with me that week and realized that I now had 18 new soul mates.

Ain't life funny....

Ios: Hey, do you guys think this lady is a pimp?

Wednesday April 7, 2010- Thursday, April 8, 2010
The last minutes, we decided to cut our trip to Athens short and instead jump over to Ios, another greek island about an hour away from Santorini by ferry. Got on the ferry, and instantly regretted not planning ahead and bringing that Dramamine my mom had so cleverly packed away for me knowing my stomach’s aversion to any kind of movement. Spent most of the time in the bathroom wearing my goofy hat and looking like a train wreck while trying to nurse both my motion sickness and the hangover accompanying it. The minute the ferry pulled in, I raced off the boat to be greeted by a 20 something British guy who worked for our hostel and was there to pick us up. Honestly, one look at him along with his British accent and I knew someone was going to BOMO him by the end of the night. I also think he saw a group consisting of 18 girls and 2 boys and new he had hit the lottery for the night. Roomed with Courtney at the hostel and headed out to find a beach which was about a 20 min walk, or atleast it was supposed to be. After following the signs, we find our selves on the side of a mountain following a path that doesn’t look like it’s been used in the past 200 years. Realizing that it was too late to turn back, we forged forward and eventually found a beach, later to be christened “Magic Beach”. It was a gorgeous beach between some huge rocks that looked like it had been left there especially for us. Being that we were the only ones within 5 miles of this beach, we take the opportunity to do what anyone would do if they found themselves and all their friends on a secluded beach far from civilization; we hold the first Verona Olympics consisting of sprints, high jump, and rock toss. Maggie and Joanna find themselves victorious. Kaitlin initiates a sand castle which after people join in becomes the most epic sandcastle I have ever been a part of complete with stone walls, a mote, and a draw bridge. Then we thought it would be a good idea to build a four tier pyramid behind it as we took a picture, it wasn't. Maggie, Joanna, and I swim out in the freezing water and climb a rock to jump off. Hiked back up the mountain, encountered HUGE goats with large enough horns to make me fear goats for the first time in my life.
Dinner consisted of 2 euro gyros and 2.50 cokes. Went to the bar downstairs of our hostel where some 30 year old Canadian lady named Julie (or Judy, we’re not sure) served us up shots. The 60 year old owner showed up and bought us more shots. 10 shots deep and I was feeling tipsy so I’m going to go with the shots were not actually shots, but sugared water. Then she tells us that she has some friends that are excited to meet us. She fails to tell us that her “friends” are actually 40 year old burly greek men who stare at us creepily. The first bar, it’s just us on the island, because it is the low tourist season and we do “TICK TOC”, of course. “Celebration” comes on and Courtney runs into the bar and loses it. Julie Judy pushes us on her friends and it is incredibly awkward. We now wonder if she is some kind of pimp trying to whore us out to these men. Some of us go on to another bar afterwards and now Julie Judy is insanely persistent and we have a conversation that goes a lot like this.

Jj: Who do you want to fuck tonight?
Me: (looking around at the 10 greasy men gawking at me). My boyfriend.
Jj: (continuing to push) He’s not here is he?
Me: No, but he’s been there for 2 years. (stare her down and walk away)

She left me alone but continued to push my single friends who were about to cry lesbian so she would leave them alone. Finally, my friend Erin had to set our madam straight.

Jj: Who do you want to fuck tonight?
Erin: No one.
Jj: What! why?
Erin: Hey come in a little closer, let me tell you a secret “I DON’T FUCK RANDOM GUYS!!”
Julie Judy left us alone for the rest of the night.

The next day, we dragged ourselves out of bed and follow the signs to the actual beach. Halfway down the long windy rode, a van stops and offers us a ride to the beach. Climb in and wonder what children safety classes would say about this one. The driver is Australian and I am starting to wonder if anyone around here is Greek. The beach is really nice and there is a beautiful pool/lounge along it. I show off my killer volleyball skills (sarcasm) and we get ready to catch the ferry to Athens.

Athens:
Got into Athens late Thursday after a 5 hour ferry ride that wasn’t nearly as bad as the ride to Ios. Kaitlin, Erin, Courtney, Meg, Lily, and myself all roomed together. Our hostel was awesome and our room had a kitchen, living room, and flat screen so I’m pretty sure we got the upgrade that was supposed to go to the other group. Whooops. The next day, we took a walking tour around Athens and saw all the usual sites. The tour guide was slightly eccentric but it made the tour more interesting. I was surprised at how nice Athens was, I expected it to be kind of dirty and scetchy but it was actually very clean and pretty. Unlike Santorini, Athens tags all their strays with collars but it is still sad to see so many dogs without owners. The tour lead us to the Acropolis where we flashed our Erasmus id's and got in for free. Seeing the Parthenon was incredible, I still don't understand how it can still be standing. There was a great view of the entire city from up there too. We took a ton of pictures and when they started to get goofy, we started to get yelled at by the poeple working there. Joana took a picture just holding Tina, and this woman hisses "please be serious". We responded by giving each of ourselves an animal alter ego that we had to act out and take pictures of. More dirty glares, and it was time to go. Hung out on the "Rock of Democracy" for a while which is apparently where the founders of democracy came up with the idea, very nice. Later, we hit up the street market with 5 euro ray ban knockoffs, 1 euro pounds of strawberries, and 1.80 euro gyros. That night, the group all choose to different things. We pregamed in our suite and half of us decided that we would make the trek to where else: McDonald's. On the way there, we buy some beer form a street vendor and spot a club called "Lollipop", someone points out that it looked like a strip club prompting the only boy in our group to pull a u-turn and beeline straight for it. Mia, Kaitlin, Erin, Lauren, Kalyn, and myself give each other awkward looks and decide to follow Matt in. Turns out it was not a strip club at all but instead a dance club with approximately 5 other people in it, including the bartenders. Not a problem, I feel a fun night coming on. We decide to be bold and carry in our beers and to our shock, the bartenders say nothing. We dance, we drink, and we still want McD's. Finally make it at 3 in the morning and run into Americans we had met earlier in Santorini which seemed weird at first until you considered the fact that it was he only 24 hour McDonald's in the city and Americans are predictable. Order chicken nuggets for the first time in years and call it a night. 8 hours of traveling the next day to get back to Italy.

As for the strikes and riots in Greece, we were lucky not to encounter any of that.

Arrivaderci Grecia,

Ciao Cinque Terre

Santorini: That donkey just KICKED me!

Saturday April 4, 2010- Wednesday April 7, 2010

To sum it up, the week I went to Greece and Cinque Terre with 20 of the funniest and craziest people I have ever met was the best week of my life.

Day 1: After somehow surviving a 5 hour layover from midnight to 5 am in the Athens airport or rather the McDonald’s coach in the Athens airport (yes, this is the second time I have slept on a airport McDonald’s coach), I landed in Santorini at 6 am, just in time to witness the sunrise to top all sunrises. I literally had one of those moments where you have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming. A lovely man named Stelios picked me up and took me back to the hostel consequently named, Stelio’s Place where my room was not ready yet because well it was 6 am on Easter Sunday. Got put in a room underneath his garage to hang out for a few hours until the room was ready. It had no windows and smelled weird, but it was an upgrade for the McDonalds the night before. Emerged around 10 am to find all my friends who had gotten there the previous day and were relieved that solo me had arrived in one piece. Jumped on an atv, no worries, I wasn’t driving and all 20 of yes sped off to explore the island for the day. First stop: Red Beach, a beach with rocks that are well, red. Hike down some intense rocks in my sun dress and flip-flops. Swam out because the water wasn’t nearly as cold as expected and the sun was much hotter than expected. Made it to a cove that looked like something out of a movie. Still pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Back on the ATVs, lunch at a pastry shop, and take some more pictures that will never do the island justice. Six brave souls decide to carry one to Thira (the main city where pictures while thinking of Santorini) to go cliff jumping. At this point, Matt asks me if I want to drive. I tell him straight up: I was voted worst driver in high school. How lucky are you feeling today? He smiles and hops on behind me, makes an inappropriate comment, and a half hour later we are ready to jump off a cliff (literally). Now we’re not really sure if we are in the right place and as we are walking and looking off every edge to see if it’s right, I realize that we should really ask someone if we are in the right place before we JUMP off a FUCKING CLIFF. Eventually hike down to the right spot and instantly change our minds because the cliff is far out and the water is cold so we do the most anticlimactic thing possible at this moment. We lay down and take a nap. Wake up 40 minutes later and ride over the Thira to go sight seeing. I buy 2 post cards and the women gives me a third for free just cause Greeks are the most hospitable people ever. Now it’s night time and I’m hungry and cold and hungry and just want to get back to the hotel to shower. Of course, cue getting lost on the opposite side of the island for 2 hours. Then cue the ATV running out of gas. Allora…..

Day 2: Wake up hung over. Dear vodka and tequila, I hate you. Go on a boat tour of Santorini. Stop at a volcano and climb it. Hung over incline #375 since coming to Europe. The tour guide was nice but it was hard to understand him and I lost interest when he started drawing pictures of tectonic plates in the dirt. Next stop were “hot” springs which should have been called “tempid” springs. I jumped off the boat and was paralyzed by how cold this water is. Hot springs my ass. Next stop, the most primitive island in all of Greece. Only way up is via the most winding steepest stairs I have ever seen or donkey. I’m not ready for hungover incline #376 so I opt for donkey. We try to negotiate with the man for the price of a ride b/c our tour guide told us 5 euro was too much. Joanna is the queen of bargaining and I think she may have been wearing him down until she pointed out that if he doesn’t let us ride them, no one else will and he will lose money. She said this right as 5 people lined up behind us. We paid the man our 5 euros and jumped on our donkeys which were tied up this point. He starts to untie them one by one and one by they TAKE OFF like they were trying to cross the border for freedom. Luckily, I was one of the 3 who he tied to his donkey. I will never forget the site of my friends taking off on these wild donkeys up a literal 80 degree incline rock path screaming “STOP! PLEASE HELP US HELP US”. It was the definition of a fun donkey ride gone terribly terriblywrong. Things took a turn for the worse when one of the donkey’s knees buckled while on a step, and he lost his footing. All of a sudden, I hear Joanna scream “the donkey kicked me!” and sure enough after looking at her foot, it was clear the knee buckling donkey in front of her had in fact kicked her. She handled it like a champ though and didn’t complain even though her foot was swelling like a melon. The donkey man yelled at all of us (a change from the monotone “hella” he had been repeating over and over again since we started- translation “GO”) made us get down like this was our fault and the worst part: we still had to climb the rest of the path which after arriving at the top, our friends informed us everything was closed. Next, the boat dropped us off at Oia for the sunset and we took a 2 hour pausa. Our American was showing as 20 of us all wrapped in beach towels literally passed out on a pier in the middle of the day. Climbed yet another incline, bought some honey- sesame covered peanuts, and watched the sun go down over the Adriatic Sea in a spectacular show of purple and orange.
That night, dinner at a place owned by a woman from guess where else, Chicago. Random. Stray dogs everywhere and we made friends with Wild Thing and Kinder who followed us everywhere, even back to our hotel. Let them sleep under the table and fed them off our plates, our moms would have a fit if they saw us. After dinner, hit up a bar for Kalyn’s big 21st, lucky girl. When we walked into the bar, there were literally 3 bartenders and dj sitting there doing nothing. Empty bars are not a problem when there are 17+ of you everywhere you go. The bartenders were so thankful (or maybe they were drunk) that somebody had actually come in that they instantly poured us free shots. Well I don’t know how this happened but by the end of the night, every male in the bar had his shirt off including all the people who worked there and the 3 boys who were with us. In 2.4 seconds, it went from quaint Santorini bar to gay male strip club and I was waiting for Boy George to pop out from behind the bar and start singing “its raining men, hallelujah” at any moment. Happy birthday Kalyn!

Day 3: Wake up and hang out at Perissa beach, a 2 second walk from where we stayed. Kinder and Wild Thing join us, of course. On the way there, we stopped at a corner store for something to drink, and tried on these ridiculous looking hats and took pictures in them. The owner thought we liked them and gave them to us. The Greek hospitality strikes once again. Sat on the beach all day, got snaked by Jake, learned some new riddles, passed out, and woke up buried in the sand. Perfect day. That night, we went to meet up with some friends from Milan who were staying in Fira. Went out, danced on the bar for a free shot, and tried to trade my free shot when Alex got kicked out of the bar for falling asleep on the DJ booth. Joanna bargained for a sandwich and we caught a cab home.

Next Stop…..
IOS