Corniglia, my bad weathered friend

11/2/2009

Today I have traveling for exactly six weeks. Tomorrow I will get on a train to Rome, which will be my last solo stop and I have two and a half more days until I see my mothers beautiful face.

So as pleasant as arriving in Cinque Terra last night at sunset was, things continued to move downhill during my stay. Last night I had my first bad meal in Italy. I went to a seafood restaurant that was down the street from my hostel. I figured, why not, I am right my the sea, so things couldn’t be but so bad. I was wrong. I ordered shrimp scampi and what came out was not at all what I was expecting. They served me the entire shrimp, which after talking to my mother today I realized is the way Europeans serve shrimp. I do not understand this practice because it is a complete waste of space on your plate and energy eating. There is not much meat in a shrimp to begin with. The only worthwhile part is the tail, the bodys taste like sandy mud and there is pratically no meat in their claws. So why bother serving the entire shrimp, shell and all. That is an answer I will never know, and will always think this practice is silly. If that wasn’t pad enough. The sauce that they served the shrimp and pasta in did not taste good. Now folks, I am not a picky eater and this sauce was bad. The only positive of the meal was that the restaurant served really good homemade bread, which I proceeded to wrap the remains up in a napkin and take with me. I was pretty bummed out when I returned to the hostel.

There are only three other people staying at this hostel with me, which could be an eerie situation, but all three speak English and are very friendly… a huge plus. Two of the three are brother and sister and the third guy, I did not see until tonight, name is Kyle and he is from Chicago. He said he took the train to see all five of the towns today, which while not as bad ass of an idea as hiking to them is, but in the end made him a lot smarter than I was.

So for my daily activity, I was planning on doing the walk/hike between all five of the towns. I have heard that the views are just breath taking and each town is cool in its own right. I am staying in the third town of Cinque Terra, Corniglia, which I thought put me in a good position for breaking up the hike throughout my day. When I checked the weather forecast for today last night, the outlook was grim, but I said my prayers before I went to bed and hoped that the weatherman was wrong.

Low and behold, the weatherman was dead on and my ambitious outdoors plans for the day were washed out. I woke up to nasty, drizzle, windy weather. I thought that the hostel served a breakfast for three euro, but it turns out that they only do that on request. So in the morning I went in search of a market, with some very vague broken English directions that the lady at the front desk gave me. After wandering around for a while in the midst. I finally asked a very nice man, who understood what I was saying and pointed me in the right direction. Apparently the village of the town is one alleyway off the a little round about that makes up the town center.

At the market I bought two bananas, an apple, an orange, a chunk of delicious homemade cinnamon raisin bread and a big thing of orange juice. I felt like I was coming down with a bit of a cold and wanted to pump myself full of vitamins, especially because after battling off a couple of colds this trip, I have started rationing my over the counter cold medicine. I have put in a request for my mother to bring supplies when she comes over. Also these items should get me through breakfast and lunch today and tomorrow, which is good for my wallet.

I was hoping that the weather would die down in the afternoon so I could do a portion of the walk, so I spent the morning reading and sleeping to help pass the time. As the afternoon came the weather got worse. Go figure that all of the times I have wanted to do outdoorsy activities on this trip are the only times that I have encountered bad weather. Today was probably the worst weather I have come across. Maybe it is God telling me something? And wouldn’t you know it, but when I looked up the weather forecast for tomorrow, it is nothing but sunny skies. Just my luck that I am taking an early train to Rome tomorrow morning.

The bad weather really could be a blessing in disguise. Being forced to hang out today is good for helping me fend off my cold. I got to catch up on sleep and read a lot. It also gave me a lot of time to prepare for my interview. I have never done an interview like this before and am keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly, with all this preparation, I feel as confident as I can be not really knowing what to expect.

The hostel closes from 1-3 for a siesta, so they kicked us out into the rain. We knew this ahead of time so it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was pouring at this point, so we ran into a little café. I had an espresso and worked on my notes for the two hours. The café played good music, so I was content being where I was. My favorite song they played was purple rain. Unfortunately at three they didn’t open their doors on time and we all got drenched waiting for them to do so.

For the rest of the day, I just hung around and got a lot of stuff done and straightened out. I probably should have shown some more initiative and done what Kyle did and saw all of the towns by train, but now that is all water under the bridge. I still dig the vibe of Corniglia and Cinque Terrra in general and could see how in good weather this place could have magical qualities. Hopefully I will get to experience that at another time in my life… maybe from a boat?

For dinner the four of us staying in the hostel went to a small restaurant in the village and had dinner. The menu at this restaurant was written up on a chalkboard and was all in Italian. I was able to decipher a little bit and ended up ordering this homemade pasta and mushrooms. The pasta was unlike any other pasta I have ever seen. It was square inch bites of pasta that had little holes in it like lacy Swiss cheese. It was good, nothing extraordinary, but very pleasant nonetheless. Kyle and I split a bottle of wine, dinner was served with delicious bread and olive crustinis. WE all ordered tiramisu (my new favorite dessert) and while it wasn’t the best I have ever had, the sweet treat hit the spot.

I got all packed and ready to walk out the door so that when my early wake up call comes, I can just get up and go. Despite the bad weather, I have enjoyed my time in Cinque Terra. I am extremely grateful that the three other people staying in the hostel were cool and friendly. I made some great progress in my book and completely distressed, which I think is a good way to be before an interview, but who knows, I have never done one before.