5 towns

11/1/2009

Today I woke up right before my alarm went off, which has not happened in so long. I had such a relaxing restful night last night, and it was so nice to sleep in a clean feeling bed and be able to get up in the middle of the night and not bother anyone. Im surprised I have not had more issues with that staying at hostels, but it really does make you realize the luxuries of regular life. I got up around 8 because I had a call scheduled with my cousin Ted, who lives in London at 9. Then it occurred to me that London is not in the same time zone as Italy so I actually had more time on my hands before the call than I thought I would.

I went down stairs for my free breakfast and was absolutely amazed by the spread of delicious food the hotel had out. It was by far the best free breakfast that I have come across. I am talking a bunch of different sweets, cakes, multiple types of stuffed croissants, meats and cheeses, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, all sorts of different types of coffees, juices, toast. It was practically everything I could ever ask for in a free breakfast. I took full advantage of this situation and filled myself to the brim and then grabbed an apple, banana, orange, two croissants, and a ham and cheese sandwich to take with me for the rest of my food for the day.

I went back to my room, got organized and started getting ready. Since I was in a private room and had more time on my hands than usual, I decided to shave my legs for the second time on this trip. The first time was in Salzburg and my legs were starting to become unbearably itchy. I took a wonderful shower, got dressed, and BLOW DRIED m hair (another luxury I had forgotten how nice it was).

At this point it was time for my phone call with Ted. His secretary worked it out so that I could call a free number from an Italian land line and not get charged for the phone call or have to use up minutes on the prepay phone I have with me (in case of emergencies). I talked to Ted for a while. He gave me a bunch of great pointers and advice for the phone interview I have on Tuesday for a position with Goldman Sachs. Hopefully I can get it set up so that I can do the interview the same free number way. I really appreciated Ted taking time to help me get started in preparing for the interview. These next two nights I will be in a small town where there is not much going on at night and will use those nights to get fully prepared.

With the free phone call, awesome breakfast that will feed me for the rest of the day, private room for a moderate price, and hair dryer, I was thoroughly pleased with my hotel room and definitely think that it was worth the extra money and actually think it paid itself off in benefits. It allowed me to have by far the most luxurious morning I have had in a long while.

I made my way to the train station, got my seat reservation (another 10 euros for the train to Florence…I am so over paying for these reservations), and got on the train well before it left the station. Unlucky for me, they never checked my ticket on this train ride, so I could have gotten away with not paying for the reservation, but I guess it is better be safe than sorry. I had to make a connection in Florence for the La Spieza train, which I had plenty of time to do. It was a beautiful day that made for an enjoyable scenic train ride. On the second train, I saw the second whackest thing I have come across so far on this trip. A woman was breast-feeding her baby out in the open. Please, nobody wants to see that. The number one whackest thing I have come across was in Milan. I was an Asian man with about inch and a half long hairs coming out of a chin mole. I was extremely curious as to why he grew them out so long.

I got into Corniglia, which is the third town of Cinque Terra coming from La Spieza, around sunset. It was beautiful. I opted to take a bus up to the town instead of climbing up 360 stairs. The bus driver was extremely nice and let me pay less than exact change for the ticket because he didn’t feel like breaking my 50. The bus dropped me off right in the center of town and as soon as I got off the bus, the old Italian woman jumped up to help me and pointed me in the right direction. My hostel was literally only 15 feet away, which I was thankful for. When I was picking out a hostel for my stay in Cinque Terra, the pickings were not very good. I finally settled on one and so far it has proven to be very nice. It is clean and the woman at the desk gave me free access to the Internet even though she wasn’t supposed to. At last I can finally get all caught up with everything. Breakfast is three euros but hopefully I can snag some stuff to take with me on my hike tomorrow.

It is going to be a mellow night and then a busy day tomorrow followed by and even busier day on Tuesday, Mom flies out on Thursday and I am so excited!