(no subject)
September 21:
a bit of a rougher day but not by much!
we let ourselves get up nice and slow today. I got a little annoyed with my mom in the morning b/c I wanted to go eat breakfast and she CANNOT go out of a hotel room or her house without putting a full face of makeup on and im like mom it literlaly does not fucking matter no one cares what u look like and you’ll never see these people again, but it doesn’t matter. she still won’t leave a room without full makeup on. BUT SHE’S MY MOM I love her anyway
got another gr8 breakfast
we were very quiet today tho until the night not much talking
so on our way down from the hotel to the train station, we met this older couple from Canada who were riding their motorcyles all over Europe. we got to talking to them b/c the lady said how sweaty she was, and my mom laughed as we walked by, and the lady goes OH DO U SPEAK ENGLISH and we started chatting and then the guy goes
hey do u like wine
I am suspicious but I say yes, and they say “well we’re on these motorcycles, and we don’t have room for this bottle of Chianti, do you want it” heck yes???????????? AMAZING
anyway, we took a ferry (b/c the trains are on strike) to Monterosso, the last village. again the day was very pretty - a little cloudy but that was good because we planned to hike
so we got a tiny little pizza in monterosso, and started the hike to Vernazza, the next trip. it was about the prettiest hike I’ve ever gone on - thru the woods (kinda) but the woods were right next to the cliffs leading down to the ocean and oh man it was gorgeous!!!! I took a picture of a very cute little bee
we got into vernazza around 3:00 VERY TIRED and we wanted to go to this little restaurant on a hill. turns out they closed at 3:00 for lunch but they were like “aw heck cmon in we’ll keep the kitchen open for u guys” and it was mega sweet especially since me and my mom looked like very sweaty hobos
we split a plate of pesto pasta and the greatest water I’ve ever tasted and then struck out from vernazza to corniglia
not as pretty of a hike, but still VERY VERY PRETTY all along the ocean. we met a very sweet older couple and their daughter from Ireland for the last 20 minutes and kinda walked with them…I guess their daughter worked at FIFA in Switzerland and they kept being like YOU SHOULD APPLY TO FIFA!!! MENTION STEPHANIE FROM CINQUE TERRE!!!! AND I WAS LIKE yes u are very nice but my mom would kill me if I moved to Geneva
so in Corniglia my mommy and I got some gelato and sat and watched a tiny dog bounce around its owner for a while and then went to the train station
shit got stressful
the strike was supposed to end at 5pm. it had not ended at 5pm. we got to the train station around 6 and all the trains were cancelled except one train leaving (ostensibly) at 6:25
these two gals from Denmark came over and were talking to us. both older, maybe around 50? and they were like - hey, our husbands are driving over from manarola to pick us up, this train will probably be cancelled, do you want a ride
now understand
there is ///no way/// out of Corniglia besides by train
it’s up high, so there’s no ferry
no taxis
no bus
if we could not manage to get a train to Riomaggiore, we were stranded in Corniglia for the night. so my mom was gung-ho to hitch a ride, but I was very suspicious b/c I am suspicious of people in general and I was also suspicious of the fact that they seemed to single out me and my mom (two single women travelling together) to offer us a ride
so eventually some guy yelled out HEY THE TRAIN’S COMING IN FIVE MINUTES so we made our apologies to these women, and said nah we’ll catch the train, and once they left I explained to my mom that I was suspicious of them and that they easilycould have abduected us
she had no idea
she started crying on the train because she was so freaked out, if she was alone she would have absolutely gone with them and never suspected any foul play or danger, and that scared her really bad that she was so easily manipulated
she was very clearly thrown off the rest of the night for a long time
so we got back to Riomaggiore and my mom was very quiet and we weren’t talking much??? we didn’t talk most of the day but like…we’ve been together 24/7 for an entire week so I think that’s to be expected
anyway, we went back to our hotel, and decided to take a shower, and then go to dinner, and we went to the restaurant (very nice) right next to our hotel
we didn’t talk much and I ws just like this has to change so I got a bottle of wine and started talking to her about this book series she’s reading, and just like that it was ok and we gabbed the next three hours and ordered this big cheese plate and some fish and pasta and just gabbed and gabbed and drank wine and we are in the greatest mood now <333 mom's pasta was this specialty called trofie? it was so good and god the pesto is perfection here
so everything’s okay!!! just a lil blip on the vacation radar that really freaked my mom out. and everything was probably on the level with those ladies but u just never know and my “creep radar” was pinging so hard
but anyway now we are very tired b/c we hiked SO MUCH today and I drank a lot of wine!!!! back to Florence tomorrow