Finally!!! Another actual blog.

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Well good afternoon everyone!

So I finally made my way back on this thing for you guys. I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to get another entry up. I don't have internet available to me all the time (unless i want to pay 1.50 euros for a half hour of service - ie.. crap. ha) Today I got lucky... i spent a good hour inching around my apartment, laptop open and in hand, searching for ONE tiny spot where my Brick (the given nickname for my worthless, 45 lb laptop haha). As you can see, the frustration paid off for here I am! haha. On top of that things have been awful hectic, as I'll get to later.

So I'll take you guys through the last few weeks events chronologically.. :::cracks knuckles:::


The weekend after I put my last written entry in our whole abroad group went on a trip to Cinque Terre, a city made of 5 towns- Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The city is right along the coast, and I was privied to what I would say were the best views I've ever seen in my life. We too the train to Monterosso, did some quick looking around then headed off on this path to Riomaggiore called "Via Dell'Amore"- which means Basically the street of love... it was really cute, the symbol for the path were these two little cutout people (like the ones you see on signs for the mens and womens restrooms) stuck face to face like they were kissing. I have a picture of it that youll get to see next, it was pretty precious. haha. This Path went right along the water and was cut into the cliff. It was pretty cool, I felt like I was offroading, but mannnnnn that was NOTHING even CLOSE to the adventure I wound up taking the next day! We wound up in the town of Verazzo for lunch and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. We had an insane like 6 course lunch, then Kat, Kirin and I went over on to the cliff area. We first made a quick beer run (of course haha) and climbed up some craazzyyy rocks where plopped down for about an hour. We just sat on these rocks and watched the water come in and crash on the rocks. It was pretty incredibly relaxing. Now while the coastline is incredibly beautiful, the beaches there are either non-existent (as its all cliffs) or covered in extremely painful rocks. I didn't think we'd really get a chance to go swimming until I saw all these people just jumping off these huge docks and into the ocean. It looked a little dicey, considering the waves were pretty gnarly, the jump was pretty steep and ure pretty much then surrounded by giant rocks. But you know me.. i couldnt resist!! I somehow talked my friend Kat into coming with me to the dock. At this point there was no one swimming. But I just told her I was gonna go for it! So i ran and dove straight in!! Kat gained a bit of confidence and jumped in right after me. I swam in the Mediterranean! It was great too cuz right after we got in it seemed we started a trend, cuz everyone just started piling in after us. Old and young, we were all in there having a blast. The water was incredibly clear too!.. I could see my toes from the top of the water.. I could see the sea floor for that matter (well when the waves werent all crazy anyway).

So on to the crazy mess we managed to get ourselves into…
SO.. Kat, Kirin and I decided we wanted to have our Sunday a little bit different than the rest of the group. The boats we were supposed to take to the day’s island were all docked for the day due to the weather… so we were stuck going to an exreemmelllyyy ritzy town. It’s cool to see.. but for a lady like me.. its just a day of being surrounded by things I can’t afford. I was looking forward to the weekend being a little bit more rugged anyway… so a full day of window shopping was not really what I wanted out of the city. So we decided to venture away from the group for a hike up to the village called Corneglia, which is allllllll the way up on this giant hill.. or for the rest of us Ohioans.. basicallyyyy a big ‘ole fricken mountain. Haha.

The three of us decided to make the trek up to this place not realizing how absolutely insane we were for ever thinking this was a rational idea. Haha. We followed our little map and eventually came up to this path that wandered thru a gate… with a very stern looking Italian man standing in front of it. None of us ever expected this, but I spoke with him and he told me the path (that we were planning to take the whole time) was a paid path. Us cheap asses had not a single Euro to our name so we shrugged him off.. figuring he was just trying to talk us into coming on his little commissioned path.. haha. …. Note to self- Italian trail men do not lie. NEVER TAKE THE RED PATH. Haha. We trekked up a super long, windy road that took us to about half way to our destination.. and I swear to God.. they were the most breathtaking views of the world I have ever been privileged to see. Honestly.. no words can do this blessed section of the world justice. It was honestly, like, a stun to all of your senses… your eyes couldn’t focus on one point because everything around was just as equally gorgeous. You’d take a breath and close your eyes.. breathe deep just trying to gain your footing in such an incredible, simple, yet overwhelming place…. then be struck with salt-water in your nostrils and an incredible breeze on your cheek and you simply couldn’t help but tear open your eyelids just to get even a glimpse of what was making your brain work so hard to sort out.

The actual hike itself.. oh boy. Haha. Well….. we had absolutely nooo idea what the hell we were getting into. We’re being Americans…thinking.. well you know.. like Metropark style paths with nice wide, cleared out paths.. lots of people.. good fun. Yah.. fu*k that. Haha. The rain started to come down.. we could barely find where in the hell this other path was.. it was only signified by a red and white line placed horizontally on eachother (apparently this is the international sign for the path… thanks girl scouts of America for spending years on the incredibly naturist teachings of how best to beg my dad to sell cookies…u have helped in no way. Ha.) This path we wound up digging thru… yahh.. it was pretty much about a foot wide. Apparently that 5 euro for the paid path went toward a MASSIVE industrial weedwacker- because our path was in now way quite as blessed.haha. Yah that foot wide path I just spoke of.. it never got any wider.. for the entire 2 mile hike. And no no.. this was not ohio. This path LITERALLy was carved into the side of the mountain only that FOOT I spoke of. It wasn’t flat, it wasn’t paved or filled with gravel… it was (at this point) muddy earth, surrounded by ridiculous plants and thorns and barely wide enough to walk on. ….. Did I mention I made this 4 hour hike in $3 Old Navy sandals? Haha. (funny thing.. during this whole trip we only passed one group of people.. a group of Germans. They spoke a little Italian so I was able to speak with them a bit. But there realllyyy wasn’t too much speaking actually going on.. it wassss more so my feet getting pointed at and laughed at. Haha.) Most of the talking they did to us was trying to convince me to turn around and go back, because I simply wouldn’t make it with my shoes, or lack there of, on. Haha. Either way… after an incredibly frightening yet BEAUTIFUL adventure.. we finally made it to the other city, Verazza, found our way to the very same rocks we did the day before and sat and enjoyed a victory beer. We lived.. and a beer on the rocks was our pot of gold at the end of the shit brown rainbow haha. But honestly.. it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in the world. I felt so on top of the world after that experience. Words cannot even describe.

We’ve done a few visits with my culture class, like I was talking about in my last blog (Dante’s House- aka the worst museum EVER) and Michelangelo’s house. We recently went to the Bardini Garden and visited the museum inside. The museum is mostly fashion, and houses something like 140 pieces from the 1980’s made by this Italian designer, Capucci. This guy was formerly an architect and decided to take silk and basically construct the most INSANE dresses ever. He made them not to be worn, but more so just to be admired… aaandd just to say he COULD make them haha. The Garden out back was kind of like a smaller version of Boboli. You climb up the hill surrounded by really beautiful statues and pieces of art up to a big terrace that overlooks the city, instead of the countryside like Boboli does.

We also made a visit to an American cemetary from World War II. The cemetary is right in a little hill in Chianti. While it was of course incredbly sad to look at all those graves, I can’t imagine a more peaceful resting place. The tour guide we had was wonderful as well… reallllyyy showed passion for his work in the military and for each and everyone one of the people buried in that land. He made it a point to contact as many families as he could and learn the stories of each of the soldiers. The reality of it all reallly sets in when their personal stories are shared. I was telling a couple people just how great and actually hopeful that experience made me, sounds funny to say I know. But really.. unfortunately in my life, and I’m sure in many of your lives too, I’ve seen and experienced people being truly selfish, heartless and ignorant. As many wonderful people you may meet everyday, you can only handle so much cruelty before your view of the world’s people becomes a little negative. But when I stood there and looked out at all of the thousands of graves… I got a feeling of happiness.. and of hope. All of those people, plus countless more, risked and wound up giving their lives for something they believed in. It wasn’t selfish gain.. they sacrificed for the defense of every single person’s God-given rights and for the protection of the liberties and freedoms every American has. I couldn’t help but think… if all these people were willing to give up their lives for others.. there has to live good inside of each and every one of us. It gave me hope that this good can always outnumber the cruelty. It gave me hope and faith in mankind again.


Well since this entry is already incredibly long and my fingers might fall off.. I'm going to stop this entry here! I don't wana give anyone an annurism while trying to read this thing haha. But I will post another blog about the last couple weeks within a few days here! I PROMISE ill be more on top of this!! haha. But until then, I've got all my pictures (well at least the good ones) uploaded on here for your viewing pleasure!! I miss all of you..

NOW BUY YOUR PLANE TICKETS AND COME VISIT ME!! (tickt prices have gone down immensely! :D)

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