We were running out of daylight. So instead of hiking to Manarola, we took the train from Corniglia. And since we'd spent most of our time hiking, we decided to explore this town more. It was a pretty wonderful adventure. And during our exploration, we found a trail of blood. Leading to a guy who had somehow lost his finger. Talk about excitement! After all of the climbing of stairs and hills we headed back to Riomaggiore for dinner.
Most of our time had been spent hiking so far. So our stop in Corniglia was pretty short. It took a million steps to get there. But we peeked around a bit. Then we went to our last town in the hike by train: Manarola.
After Monterosso we arrived in Vernazza. Definitely my tied for my favorite town in Cinque Terre. It was lunch time by then, so we stopped and ate at this restaurant on the sea. We watched the waves crashing into the rocks and everyone playing on the beach while we ate. This was where I had the best pizza of my life. The sun decided to come out so I enjoyed that while we ate. When we finished eating we explored the tower. Then, it was back on the train to the next town: Corniglia!
The first stop on our hike was Monterosso! After taking the train from Riomaggiore, we explored the town a tiny bit. There was a small looped trail up through some houses that we walked along. The houses were gorgeous. Then we enjoyed the view of the sea and had our first snack of some fruit. Alec and I wore our swimsuits just in case, but the weather couldn't seem to make up its mind that day.
Alec and I both celebrated our birthdays on this trip. We're a year apart in age, but only a week apart in birthdays. I chose to be in Cinque Terre (pronounced Chink-Wa Tehr-Ay) for my birthday. If you don't know where this is, google it before you even see this post. I wasn't on a boat, so I couldn't capture beautiful pictures of the colorful buildings on the coast. But the pictures that are out there are fantastic!
We arrived in Nice in the morning and set off to check into the hostel. Unfortunately, said hostel was not so close to the train station. And my suitcase was definitely broken, but still as heavy as ever. It was too early for check in so we dropped off our bags and changed into some clothes that were much more appropriate for the new climate.
After a massive rain storm, we took a little "day trip" over to Monaco while we were staying in Nice.
Before we left Paris, we made a quick side trip over to Versailles. I had always heard so much about the amazing grounds, so I was excited to see for myself.
In the previous post, we started exploring Paris. While we were so central to everything, we decided to see some of the main sights. Which meant starting off with a better view of the Eiffel Tower in its entirety. So we crossed headed across the Seine. Then, we decided to hit a few more well-known sites while we were in the central area for it all. Which meant accidentally coming across the Arc de Triomphe. How were we even stumbling across these massive landmarks?? Right before our second stumbling it started to rain. And then, it started to pour. Which made me smile pretty hard because one of my top three fave movies of all time is Midnight in Paris. In the film, Owen Wilson's character talks about how much he loves Paris in the rain. And I gotta say, it was pretty awesome.