Cinque Terre!

This place was beautiful!! We started our journey from Rome to Cinque Terre around 5pm without a place to stay when we got there. I was excited for the "adventure", but soon began to desire a place to put our stuff and lie our heads as it started to rain on the fourth of July. Luckily, everyone knows everyone in the small town of Riomaggiore so people were calling around to see if their friends had any rooms open. We landed a very nice room with an amazing view of the city and ocean.

We started off our time in Cinque Terre with a very long hike. We only skipped one part of the hike because it was closed. The hike started in Riomaggiore and ended in Monterosso, totaling about 6 miles. It was a tough hike because the trail would go up and down the mountain side as we arrived and departed from each town. It took us 6 hours to complete, but we could have done it much faster because we stopped a lot to enjoy the spectacular views.





The next day, we wanted to relax a little more and head to the beach. The trek to the beach wasn't as difficult as the hike the previous day, but it was no cake walk either. We ended up at a small marina-like beach. This sufficed for us because we were dripping with sweat and just wanted to get in the water. This place, Cognilia, ended up being a great find because they had cliffs that were perfect for jumping off! We saw a couple locals jumping off the nearby cliffs and decided to join them. This was something we all have talked about wanting to do so we were very excited to follow along. The locals, Simon and Lorenzo, were about 14 years old and reassured us it was deep enough by jumping first. We had such a good time in fact that we decided to go back the next day before we had to be on our train to Firenze! Simon and Lorenzo were there again and joined US this time! If you look close, you can see me about halfway through my jump!



There were tons of Americans and Australians in all the towns, so it was easy to meet people and hear about their adventures. We met a couple guys from Boston and I had to let them know about my love for basketball and the Lakers :) Our time in Cinque Terre has sadly ended, but all three of us are determined to get back there in the future.

We are currently on a journey, attempting to finish in Munich. We are just going with the flow and hoping for some open seats on a train from Firenze.

This picture was taken about a quarter of the way through our hike.



-Sangu

Location:Riomaggiore, Italia

Life in Lisbon and Madrid

We apologize for the sporadic blog posting! In each city we have had different availability to Internet. This entry will cover two cities, although it mainly focuses on one. From Barcelona to Madrid, we took an overnight train. It was not the best decision looking back as we didn't have beds and it was rather uncomfortable, but you live and learn. Madrid was the dirtiest city we have been in thus far and it was also the hottest! I think these two things may have tainted our opinion of Madrid as it was our least favorite city thus far. In spite of this, the best thing we experienced was a bull fight in an old bull fighting plaza. It was an incredible sight to see with the raging bull in the stadium being antagonized by the single matador in the ring. There was a certain sense of history and art that we felt a part of while witnessing this traditional sport. Well worth the price of admission!













We took a train from Madrid to Lisbon next. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I fell in love with Portugal and it's people while visiting Lisbon. It is a beautiful country with the friendliest people. We stayed in downtown Lisbon in an apartment we rented from a local. We used airbnb which is a website that allows people to rent apartments, rooms and houses to travelers. Matt found the website and it has worked out incredibly well for us.

We rented from a person named Pedro who is our age and turned out to be an awesome host! He gave us a ride to the beach the fist day we arrived. It was an amazing beach with lounge chairs, umbrellas and a little restaurant area. We had lunch and drank the best white sangria. We felt like we were in paradise!







After we headed back to the city. We were surprised by how clean everything was. It has been the cleanest city we have visited so far. There is minimal graffiti, clear skies and a clean metro system.

Some of our favorite nights in Lisbon were spend having a late dinner (around 10pm) as the sun is setting in an area of town called Barrio Alto. In English this literally means high neighborhood. It is a neighborhood set on a hill with narrow cobble stone alleys winding upward. At night the streets are filled with people talking and eating at restaurants and pubs that line the alleys. We had some unbelievable seafood! Some of the best meals we have had so far were in Barrio Alto.


Other places that we experienced while in Lisbon were Caiscas and Sintra. Caiscas is a small fishing village just north of Lisbon while Sintra is the former vacation spot for Portuguese royalty set atop a hill. While at Sintra we toured the castles that kings and queens formerly inhabited. There were some spectacular views!

All in all, we found the people in Portugal to be incredibly kind and cordial. Most people spoke English which was very convenient. Pedro, our host, introduced us to his friends and made us feel right at home. We certainly made a friend in Pedro and will keep in touch with him. We were all sad to leave Lisbon, both the place and the people. We are off to Rome next but, I think I speak for all of us when I say that if given the chance, I would go back to Portugal in a heartbeat! More stories of the journey to come soon.

TCR


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lisbon, Portugal

Last day in Barcelona

We have done a lot in our time here in Barcelona! We went on a bike tour on the first day that showed us the famous parts of the city. This also gave us a nice base for understanding where things are and allowed us to not get lost too often.




People were protesting in one of the main squares in the city. There were hundreds of people camping out and sleeping in the tents! Our guide said that there is so much wrong with the political and economic state of the country that the people are basically just protesting against everything at once. The protesters destroyed the center. Matt and Taylor suggested trying to spend the night with them. Haha




During the bike tour we saw a lot of cool things, but my favorite was Sagrada Familia. This picture does not show it's true beauty, but it was fascinating. It was designed by Gaudi and started construction in the 1800s. They stopped construction because of his sudden death, but began again in the early 1980s. They have been working on it since then and have plans to keep building until 2040! It is very intricate and the outside of the church tells the story of Christ. The church now shows his birth and crucifixion. They have yet to build the scene of the resurrection. I can only imagine how beautiful they are going to make this scene look! I really want to see it if they ever finish.




We saw a lot of other cool building designed by Gaudi in the gothic district too.

Since there were no futbol, games we could attend during our stay, we decided to take a tour of the stadium. My favorite part was walking from the locker room on to the field. The same place that Lionel Messi walks every game!!





The food has been good, but expensive. Tay and I are going to try and figure out a cheaper way to eat. This is a picture of some mini cheeseburgers I got. When the Spanish say mini, they mean mini! Haha. Definitely got a good laugh out of these little guys.




There were many other funny stories, bit I'm just going to share one more. I got yelled at pretty bad when we were at park Guell, which was beautiful. There were probably about 30 people taking pictures of this lizard thing right when you walk in to the park and Matt looks at me and says, "hey, you should go sit on that so I can take a picture." Of course I did it, and once I got on top of it this guard started blowing his whistle like crazy and yelling at me in Spanish. I had no idea what he was saying so I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said lo siento. Matt told me he said, "how would you like it if I came to your town in Italy and say on your monument?" So, at least I didn't bring shame to the U.S.! Haha

We are washing our clothes right now and then heading to the beach to relax. We are leaving for Madrid tonight in an overnight train. We weren't able to get a sleeper car :( But it'll be fun still!

Location:Carrer de l'Hospital,Barcelona,Spain

Barcelona Bound

I'm writing this on the train from Beziers, France to Barcelona. It is June 20th. Taking the train is great because it allows us to view the beautiful countryside of both France and Spain. We have been able to see the mountain range that separates Spain from France, the ocean and some cool rivers.

We all had a good time relaxing in Beziers, but we are excited for the four nights we're going to spend in Barcelona! I don't know much about Barcelona, but I do want to take a tour of the fútbol stadium. Everything else will be a new experience that I am very much looking forward to. Being able to speak Spanish instead of French will be very nice. Since we were in a small town in France, there were no English speakers anywhere. We used a lot of pointing and smiling. Needless to say, we are relieved to be able to use the little Spanish we know!

-Sangu

Location:Barcelona, Spain

New country

This is the view from our next stop, Beziers. It is a nice change from the craziness of London. We figured we were going to be going to a lot of huge cities and wanted to see a different part of France than most people experience.

It is beautiful here. There are mountains, ocean, and anyywhere there is open space there are vineyards. This place reminds me a lot of SLO because of the weather, position near the coast and the wine country.

The people we are staying with are very nice. The husband, frank is a classic New Yorker who has been involved in horse racing his whole life. He and his wife, Judy, retired about ten years ago and started a bed and breakfast. Judy is super nice and they both said it felt like they were picking up three of their sons. (They have 6 sons and 3 daughters!)

We are going on a run today and hopefully finding a way to get to the beach. We will be leaving tomorrow morning for Barcelona! We are already getting ready to guard our belongings very carefully.

Happy Father's Day!

Location:Place de la République, Puisserguier, France

Touch Down in London Town

We had a smooth 9 and a half hour flight landing us at Heathrow airport just after noon local time. It was drizzeling as we got off the plane, but as Nate said it sure makes this place green! We found our way to the tube with full packs and ended at St Pauls. As we stepped out of the underground we were greeted by the largest cathedral I have ever seen! It is the highest point in London and is a spectacular sight! We walked in the door which read "here you enter the house of God. Here you enter the gates of heaven." We heard the beautiful sound of the choir singing and explored a bit. We checked into the hostel and went out for some fish and chips. Not to bad for English food! There we ran into some travelers from Texas on a trek of their own. We ended up at Hyde park and rented some bikes and did some more exploring. We are all pretty tired but we are trying to stay up to acclimate to the time change as soon as possible. More stories of the journey to come soon.

TCR

Finally heading out

We have arrived at the airport and are pumped and ready to start the adventure! Our flight is set to leave at 6 and arrive in London at 12 their time. We are planning on checking out some local futbol stadiums when we get there. I really want to see the British library also because Kristi told me it was awesome.

-Sangu

Location:World Way,Los Angeles,United States