Tuesday April 12th ~ Its Raining Drunks

After being lost for hours in Florence the other night wehad seen a tiny adorable boutique, which we were determined to find again. We decided the best way to find it was to try to get lost the same way we had been lost that night. This was a simultaneous failand success. We definitely got lost, but we did not fun our store. Instead,we were the great kind of lost where we come across a huge amazing market. Browsing through market stand after market stand occupied our entire morning as we planned all the things we would buy our friends and fam and ourselves if we had the money and the room. The leather here is amazing and the people are friendly and lively. We are seriously just soaking up the vibe and loving it. Lonely Planet says we have to eat gelato here, so we did. As we indulged in pistaccio flavor topped with a mouintain of sweet mousse, we sat in the sunshine in a big plaza here and watched children on the beautiful carousel and listened to a guitar player seranading the busteling area. Making the most of cultural week we walked to the Uffizi museum, very cultured of us, we know. We stood by a seriously oddball Irish family whose trip looked like the father and daughter ganging up on the mother...awkward. Although the line was long there was plenty of peopole watching and evesdropping to keep us occupied, especially when aSpanish woman erupted on the museum employees about how long she had been in line for...we thought that was how lines worked but what do we know. Museum summary, the building was beautiful, Renaissance art is def not our favorite...madonna after madonna painted in similar styles...but at least we feel cultured. Jen is starving (huge surprise) and so we stop for sandwiches and we munched as we made our way back to the hostel, wandering out of our way still on the hunt for the missing boutique, which had obviously vanished. It had to be nap time by now so we checked back into our hostel, decided we needed more time in Florence, and took a snoozer. Then it was out for a slice of unbelievable italian pizza on the steps of the Duomo. We have never seen so many people unconcerned with the presence of other people or drunk shenanigans in one place. Hammered students, mostly American, screamed and yelled and Spanish girls stumbled down the street trying to carry their collapsing friend before giving up and all deciding to lay rightin the middle of the road. Football fans shouted and danced through the plaza after a win, couples turned on the PDA, people were introduced to friends, goodbyes were had, crazies strolled by, men escorted their dates, all the while we watchedand munched on the most delicious pizza we can recall. As the rain started pouring down all these people scattered and Kelly gracefully bit it on the slippery Duomo steps before we headed home, drenched but super happy. We have some epic life talks and a kind of friendship that is more sisterly than anything. Just another thing on our list of things to be grateful for.

Monday April 11th ~ 80s Revival

Today was about sightseeing in Firenze, loving Italia and excited to see more. Obviously we want to go into the huge and beautiful Duomo here. Apparently we weren't the only ones with this plan as there was a lengthy line wrapping around the people-filled plaza. We stood in the awesome warm sunshine reminissing about freshman year of college and all the nutters and drama of Hess Hal. We, and the people in line with us, presumed we were entering the Duomo to walk around and stare up at the pretty ceiling. Upon entering we went through a turnstile directly leading to some very narrow steep concrete spiraling stairs...460 steps to be exact. If we had eaten only a few more tapas in Spain there would be no way we could fit in this spiral staircase. We guess the Italians were pretty literal as entering the Duomo meant actually being inside of the dome structure itself looking out at the entire city and the Tuscan hillside beyond. If you ever go to Florence, this is well worth the climb! We stayed up there for at least an hour admiring the sorbet collided buildings with their terra-cotta tiled roofs and the white tents of the markets below. Back on solid ground after a seriously scary climb down all of these stairs, we decided it was market time. Jenny temporarily forgot we have no room in our backpacks or money and bought enough for both of us today. Florence is known for it's quality leather so we were in purse heaven. Beer time led us to a random Irish pub for a pint as we jammed out to the awesome mix of 80's tunes blaring inside. Thanks to Spain siesta time now follow beer time so we made our way back to Plus Florence for a little snooze before going to the restaurant patio for some pasta and a bottle of wine (free thanks to Gustavo! Italians seem to be totally okay with giving things away and we don't mind it one bit!). We talked to Sam about her day wining in Chiani as part of a tour and we decided to add this to our Italy to do list. We are reallyyy digging Florence so we booked another night in our hostel before bed so that we could enjoy more of this Firenze living tomorrow. Boring blog post, but a most delightful and enchanting day. Florence is our shit yo! We are really needing our pictures to describe all of the great things we are seeeing and doing here but we dont have the time or means to upload them. Sorry guys!

Sunday April 10th - Vol Pizza

We wandered and wandered around the city of Florence. We both LOVE it here. The city has a feel that we can't describe but you really get caught up in it. Our first stop after all the plazas and roads we discovered was The Academia Gallery, most famous for Michealangalo's David. Luckily we were entertained by great people watching and the ridiculous street vendors carrying prints of identical paintings. One of them told Jen he would give her a Venice painting for free but after grabbing her hand and trying to drag her to a nearby cafe we decided that nothing is ever really free. The David statue was worth it. We stared in awe of it's size and detail. It really is an amazing sight. Plus, it's cultural week in Italy! Luckily we have time to kill instead of money because all museums are free, just long waits. But we dont mind; some of these places you just have to see. We strolled around all the winding streets and stopped for a falafel (there's a shocker) before getting right up by the Duomo. From here we walked down the famous shopping street, where We (as always) windowed shopped at all the awesome boutiques. In the late afternoon we found ourselves near the river and famous bridge ponte vecchio. This historic bridge is lined in jewelers and loads of people. We sat and listened to a man play covers of jeff Buckley and coldplay. This whole town smells like the best Italian food, sounds like a dull roar of conversation as people wander in delight, and looks like a picture you imagine painting in your mind. The best word we can come up with is enchanting. Friendly people, mellow vibes, busy streets, and history oozing from every untouched building and cobblestone. Trying to describe Florence seems to be impossible, so we'll just say the vibe is an A+. We walked to another bridge to see ponte vecchio at sunset like in so many famous pictures. Nothing like the amazing sunset in Cinque Terre but the couple a few feet from us seemed to find it romantic enough. Shoving your tongue down your loved ones throat in the most public of places must be Europeans way of saying "I love you"...makes us pretty queasy though. Apart from the barf-inducing PDA this was a really delightful time of night to take in Florence. The view was absolutely amazing as we stated down the river. We decided to climb the steep hill up to Piazza de Michealangelo for the best view of Venice at night. Groups of people, mostly young students we guessed, sat on the steps sharing 3€ bottles of vino and laughing and chatting. We have totally fallen for Venice, and the pizza and glass of wine we had for our late night dinner really dotted the i on a perfect day. We realized how much we liked the city when we got wrapped up in conversation and were lost for hours making accidental circles through the city streets on our way home. In many cities this would have bothered us but we didn't mind a bit here :)

Saturday April 9th_ Oh look, a talking squirrel!

We awake in Pisa. The Leaning Tower of Pizza...the tower does indeed lean, but no pizza in sight. However, we did find the world's most delicious and enormous grapes here. We highly recommend them. We, and our grapes, headed to the train station to go to Florence. We arrive to find hostel heaven: an indoor pool, steam room, sauna, gym, rooftop terrace and bar, huge restaurant, full English breakfast offered until noon, fluffy towels, blowdryers, nicely decorated dorms catered to girls, and a welcome pack of necessities. First things first, book another night here, giving us 3 nights total in Florence. We made a friend, 20 year old Sam from California who has been studying in Rome. She is a sweetheart and we drank plenty of red wine (thanks hostel employee for giving kel a free bottle) over pasta dishes from the hostel restaurant. It was Saturday so we figured we should explore some nightlife so we polished off our wine in our dorm as we put on makeup and Sam complained about feeling grungy and having nothing to wear despite the fact she was adorned and accessorized to the nines and has a huge apartment in Rome....if she only knew. We were ready to go but our discussion about good spots to head to in Florence turned onto a mini book group and we ended up sharing good and bad books and talking about our favorites for hours...nerd alert?! By this point it was a little late for nightlife but the right time for our red wined peepers to close for a great nights sleep. Can't wait until tomorrow when we will venture out into FLORENCE :)

Friday April 8th - Holy hiking

Today we would hike Cinque Terre through all 5 towns (Riagimmore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Montorosso) a 5 hour hike in all if taking the coastal paths...most of these were closed due to recent landslides so we mapped our journey up on the longer mountainous and much more challenging trails instead. Our hostel owner told us that it would take 3 hours to hike from our town, Manarola, to the next one, Corniglia, and we would have 3 more to navigate to after that. He told us that although the coastal paths were officially closed, we could most likely use them from Corniglia to Montorrosso, although he said they were "a little eeeh," not sure what that means in Italian but it's probably okay... Our paved walk from our train station to our hostel last night had not been a good indication of our hikes today. We embarked on our journey and faced a shocking uphill incline straight from the start - our bums were going to be more sore than anticipated. We can't explain Cinque Terre. It is the new love of our lives, crisp salty fresh air and gorgeous blue sky meets crystal clear aqua water meets gorgeous rocky cliffs and sprawling meadows and forests upon steep mountains. It is the quintessential point where sky land and sea come together on the unbelievable world that we are all a part of. We never want to forget this day, what it meant to us, and what it represents in our world. Beauty aside, the hike we took was insane, and we mean iiiinsaaaane! Leaving Manorolo we began by climbing 400 steps (if you can call rocks jutting out of a green mountainside steps...) up to the mountaintop town of Veronza, on the way to Corniglia. Up in the tiny village of Vernoza we entered an empty church built in 1204.It was silent and peaceful (well except for Kelly putting her pipes to use as she envisioned an echoing choir singing here) and we both lit a candle and stood in reflection for a moment before it was back to the hike. Bums burning we were surprisingly dying to continue, we could not take in enough of this place. Every time you think you have seen the most beautiful view of your life, you hike around another mountainous alcove and find an even better one waiting. It is literally like walking around in a postcard. As a pair who are no strangers to exaggerating, we can tell you without an ounce of truth stretching that our hikes took us up enormous mountains above the clouds where the paths were unfenced and just wide enough for a typical person. Looking down at birds flying hundreds of feet below was a reminder of the fact that a trip or stumble would be less than funny up here. After hiking for just over an hour, finding incredible vantage points where we sat overwhelmed by our surroundings, we were edging around a particularly narrow part of mountain trail when 2 American boys came up behind us, knowing their country of origin from the totally epic USA bandana that one of them sported around his mop of hair. Zack and Jonny were quite the pair and we ended up in a lengthy convo with them as we all climbed further and further up this mountain wondering when we would be heading down. The guys were studying in Rome and were really using every spare second to explore Europe. They were as infatuated with Cinque Terre as we were...well except maybe for Jonny who was more focused on the possibility of plunging to his death at any moment and the potential need for the first aid kit he carried in his backpack. Since we felt the need to stop and take pictures as we hiked down to Corniglia, Jonny and Zach beat us down. We stumbled back across them at the bottom where they sat munching on pringles and chocolate. Since we were all headig the same way, the four of us decided to hike together. We were stuck with these stage 5 weirdos! Just kidding guys :) Vernazza was our next destination and 4th town heading north. The coastal path we hiked here was nothing like the paved sidewalk from the train station last night. This was no joke of a hike, but still breathtaking. We managed to run past a few groups of older folks and kids on the narrow trails, flipping coins and making guesses about which direction to go every so often. Part of what made this hike so cool was stumbling down right into the next busy little town off a rugged path and out of the woods. This was a cool town and we decided to take a snack break and enjoy the view. We sat with our new pals, on giant coastal rocks, munching on pesto covered foccacia. we had one more town to hike to, where we would finally be on a sandy Mediterranean beach! Monterosso was a ways away but we had managed to climb a few barriers and make use of the landslide paths so far. 2 crazy French woman with a tuny dog had been hiking at about our pace and disregarding the signs saying the paths were closed. We decided to follow their lead as they headed toward the closed path to Monterosso. After hiking it uphill for a while we came to a huge pile of bags that were full of boulders. The crazy French ladies managed to climb over this so we did the same....this probably should have been the time we decided to turn around. A Canadian and his American girlfriend were attempting to get on the closed hike as well. We hiked straight uphill for abut 20 minutes through the forest growing on the mountain until we got to a barb wired barrier blocking the rest of the trail. Zach decided he didnt like the way this tragedy sounded ....5 Americans, 2 French women and a Canadian die in landlside after ignoring the clear warnings of danger" and we all agreed and hiked back down to the train station to get to Montorosso. Train it was, and we made our way to the beach in the first of the 5 towns, Montorosso. We were determined to take a dip in the super clear ocean but after sticking a toe in we decided we would remember it more fondly if we didn't. Instead we simply lay in the sand, zack and Johhny bitching about not having a towel (wimps) soaking up the sunshine and breathing the gorgeous clean air of Cinque Terre with the amazing cliff and mountain views around us...heaven on earth. We had consulted our lonely planet book before we ventured out and it raved about a family owned place in Montorosso that made 15 kinds of amazing foccacia daily. Johnny consulted his phone to try to find it and we of course just put our wandering skills to work. We found this place and were not so impressed with the focaccia selection (bogus rec lonely planet) but the pesto lasagna looked delicious! We all got some to go and sat on a park bench scarfing down before the 2 of them were off to Rome and we were off to find somewhere to live (homeless again as our hostel was full for tonight). We left and said see ya, loving the simplicity of random travel friends, a great day together and then no fuss with the goodbye. We took a train to Riommigore and hiked the last part of Cinque Terre, the coastal path to Manarolo before getting back to our hostel and remembering we were homeless for the night. We managed to catch the last train to Pisa so we could wake up and see the tower and head to Venice. We were honestly both heartbroken to leave Cinque Terre. We know this is somewhere we will both see again and we cant wait for that day!

Thursday April 7th The one where we learned not to bunk above a witch

Ooh sweet travel day, how we have grown accustomed to thee. 3 trains later (one of which we was the wrong train that we accidentally got on) and zero euros (thanks eurail pass) we find ourselves in....drumroll please....ITALIA!! Holy wonderfulness, we are like 2 kids on Christmas morning who just got a puppy and a lifetime supply of chocolate. We feel totally rejuvenated and are so excited for this leg of our trip. Our first stop is Cinque Terre, 5 Italian villages on the Mediterranean coast that have remained essentially untouched since they were first inhabited by farmers who managed to grow olives and grapes on the steep rocky mountains and cliffs here. We stepped off of our train into a dark stone tunnel and we quickly walked the tiny footpath with one side of our backpack grazing the wall and the other side almost touching the train that was about to depart...scary, and definitely not like any modern train station or platform we have ever encountered.

The train did not go directly to the town with the Lonely Planet recommended hostel so we embarked on our first hike, which was really more of a walk...a coastal path "Via del Amore" between Riagimmore and Montoroso with fingers crossed the hostel would have room.


We stared down from our very high cliff paved path in awe of our surroundings. The clear dark blue water here puts any other beautiful ocean we have seen to shame. From the top of a cliff you can stare down at every rock on the bottom of the sea floor. The rocky cliffs and mountains above with a crisp blue sky made for the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. We literally gasped as we turned each curve at the view that awaited us. We will get more into the scenery tomorrow but it is literally indescribable, we understand why Jenny's friend Christie said she still has dreams about this place. We made it to our village and got off the coastal path for a steep steeeep climb up the one road of Manorola to the old church square. Behind this church we found the Eco friendly hostel Lonely Planet had told us about. Hostel success! They had space only for tonight but that was better than nothing...we would figure it out tomorrow.

Our room here has some real quirky Canadian characters. A lady from Montreal lay in her bed and told us about all of her greatest rebellions from never paying for trains to working illegally in Australia to cutting lines in the Vatican...she was not our fave and Jenny decided she was obviously a witch, she did have a gnarled walking stick. Her redeeming factor was when she told us she ate at a world famous gelato shop and 15 minutes later went back for another cone.
"It's the worlds best gelato, it would be dumb not to have it twice," she said...and this witch had a point afterall.

We walked through our quaint seaside town and along a cliff path to the seaside. Up on a cliff we discovered an empty wooden playground and hopped on a seesaw. As we flew up in the air we laughed and laughed thinking about the whim that has brought us here and how it is the most amazing thing that we are in Italy atop a cliff in an empty old wooden playground in Italy. We knew that we were in the right place at this time in our lives.

Sunset, reflection, there is so much more to life and the universe than just us. We want to capture this moment and keep it forever. We sat seperately on the stone boat dock surrounded by beautiful mountains with tiny towns on them gazing out into the vast deep dark blue ocean with an aqua rim at the horizon as the giant orange sun slowly fell and disappeared. As the sun vanished a huge distant mountain range appeared on the horizon...we know this sounds strange (and it was as we had been staring at this spot in broad daylight and taken dozen of pictures and not been able to see this huge area of land) but it was the most amazing and epic sunset ever. We were captivated by this appearing land, we just couldn't wrap our heads around it and neither could our cameras as we can't see it in our photos. We smiled a we remembered the last amazing sunset we saw on our last night in Samara - how circular things sometimes feel.

As we walked back up the cliff to the village, we decided we are proud of ourselves. We feel accomplished and happy. We mutually agreed that backpacking and it's struggles and triumphs has been our biggest accomplishment of our lives in many ways.

Pesto is famous in Cinque Terre so we decided to share a bowl of pasta and pesto and a caprese salad in an outdoor covered restaurant full of locals and visitors from all over the world with the bright pink and orange and indigo sky as our backdrop. It was delicious!!

Kel experienced some awkward eye contact with a woman a few tables away at dinner. The staring lady then approaches Kelly and says she is just so beautiful and would like to take a picture of her face in order to paint a portrait of it. We wish we could see the finished masterpiece but we realized we have no way to ever contact this woman again. Keep your eyes peeled for a painting of K.P.'s sexy mug guys! That bad boy is priceless for sure! Kelly, who is always awkward when complimented must have reacted strangely because the woman later apologized for embarrassing her. Oops!

Back to our hostel well before curfew...yes, we have a lights out heads down curfew here, which we don't mind a bit as Cinque Terre is a place for the day and as it is reminiscent of being at a summer camp. We each used our shower coin, which provides exactly 5 minutes of water showers. As the old church clock outside out window struck midnight we were already half asleep.

Wednesday April 6 The one with the pirate shart

It's strange, because now that we wake up to alarm clocks, in rooms full of snoring smelly boys, we kind of miss the roosters in Samara. Our bodies were on natural clocks with the earth there and we took it for granted, so note to selves: we loved that. Anyway...

Erin woke Kelly up this morning requesting her clutch back- again, what a sweetheart. To which Kelly woke up Jenny. Once again we were a bit foggy as the 4 young Asian guys in our bunks and all around us, along with the still creepy Lithuanian, had been some of the loudest move-arounders possible all morning! Strange lives we lead, waking up with strange men speaking chinese sleeping above us. Nonetheless, we set off on a train to Cannes. This is the place where Cannes film festival takes place in one month and we wanted to see celebrity signatures that line the staircase to the famous spot.

Cannes is really lovely. Immediately the vibe was different from nice; much more posh and Beverly hills. There was a huge conference happening by the festival sights for MipTV...? We don't know either, but it turned out to be blocking our access to the signatures... Booooo MipTV!

We took a turn down the port hoping to find a way to our destination and ended up on jealousy-island. Parked in this harbor was yacht after yacht, where people sat on deck lunching and drinking wine. It looked like a great day, but then we remembered we were having a great day! So we admired a few more sailboats and lavish decks, all the while picturing the film festival celebs sitting along here soon, and walked over to the public beach. This crowd was much more seedy and watch-worthy...much more our style. We took off our kicks and ate our packed lunch of... You guessed it- pb sandwhiches! It was awesome. Then two men, one middle aged and the other older, stumbled drunkenly passed us, Weaving around and plopping down right by us. Homeless? No. Pirates? For sure. The older one watched his friend head in for a swim so he then decided to walk down the long Pier for what geared up as a great jump. In actuality it was a painful bellyflop, so of course we were engaged. As his friend came back up, he must've decided to swim off his embarrassment. At one point we thought maybe he was taking himself out (literally) or thinkig he could "jack sparrow" a ship that wasn't too far out. He must have swam 200 yards out to sea! All the while his friend (camo pants and lots of tattoos) piled on all his extra bling and multiple watches. Very piratey. He then ate some weird and sandy snacks as we all watched his older friend (captain? Boss? Dad?) swim back in, lost and stumbling to gain land legs. He found his way back over near us where his wet boxer briefs gave us much more of an old man show than we ever want to see... Then it happened. Standing, feet away from our heads, papa pirate let out the sickest shart we've ever heard. Stunned, Kelly looked away awkwardly and trying not to laugh while jenny quickly gathered all our things and moved us down the beach. We sat back down a little ways away, crying and shaking with laughter and disgust. We gave him a quick look and he gave us a thumbs up! WHAT! Down the road people were lunching on yachts... We were getting sharted on by pirates. Just another day in the life of a homeless nomad I suppose...?

We decided we should head back for our backpacks since the last train to Italy was at 5. Once we got to our hostel in Nice we would make a snap decision about where we would stay and some other details. Well this was becoming extremely stressful... Costs, timing, homelessness. We suddenly felt overwhelmed by our lack of planning. We either had to wing it like normal, getting somewhere late and in the dark, paying a ton to sleep somewhere random, or....not. We were over France, but Jenny suggested we eat some dinner and plan our Italian adventures like smart travelers, staying an extra night in the cheap nice hostel here. So we did. We ate some big pizzas, people watched as everyone else enjoyed happy hour and chain smoking (all the while judging our giant & early dinner), and planned as best we could. We made lists of places to stay, places we want to go, routes to Greece and then got to bed early and quietly (in a girl dorm:). It was a great decision and smart idea on Jennys part. Plus we needed a hot shower, dont forget about the all to recent pirate pooper pants incident. The two of us have wanted to visit italy since we met, it can wait one more night...