Day 51: Cinque Terre and getting tired

I am back with you at 130 km/hr. You might have guessed that I have been busy. What with the noticeable absence of blogs, along with the obvious importance of who I am, and then there is that little fact of being on vacation in Italy. Have I mentioned that I am on vacation in Italy? At various times throughout the day, I smile, hop up and down, and remind my traveling partners that we are in… (fill in where we are.) Today it was Cinque Terre.

It first started in Venice, the hopping thing that is. I was so excited to be in Venice with Jim, Mandy, Juliana, and the rest of the crew. (Like how I threw that in? Inside joke.) I still can’t believe how wonderful this vacation has been. At times, I just get so giggly and start acting like a kid in a candy store. I know giggly isn’t a very manly way to be, but I proved my manliness today so I can afford to be a little giggly. Giggly yet manly at the same time all because of this glorious vacation.

The glory of this whole adventure was made particularly evident this afternoon while waiting for train to take Jordan and I from the fourth of five CT cities back to city two. Sitting next to Jordan and I at the train station were three co-eds. They were just finishing what appeared to be a “discussion” about their travels together when I sat down. One of the girls, the apparent leader, was trying to explain that this is the way college students travel. She made some comments about how you have to put up with things like this. (Being a late entry into the “discussion, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to butt in and ask what those “things” were.) “You can’t have that kind of vacation until you are older and traveling with your husband.” (Again, I didn’t know what “that kind” was.) The two went back and forth; the third more passive girl didn’t say anything except that she wanted to stay out of the “discussion”. The “discussion” ended well though. I have never understood this about girls. They argue and argue and then make up. A “discussion” always ends with affirmation of their friendship and that they still love each other. All this without a resolution. Those two just stopped arguing, said they weren’t mad, and that was the end. Girls are weird. Guys would never do that. A man’s “discussion” either ends in one of the guys submitting and agreeing with the other, or death. It is usually death. Wars are started because of men’s “discussions”. These girls’s “discussion” reminded me that the five of us are doing great.

We are doing great, not perfect, but great. In the car today, we had a little bit of a “discussion”. It ended like a girl’s argument and I am not going into details. Let’s see. It is Friday so we have been together for a week, seven complete days. Seven days and only one “discussion”, that is awesome. In my family, if all six of us are together, we last about that same amount of time, seven days. No wait, sorry, did I say days, I meant hours. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. They love me and each other. It is just that four out of the six have very… strong personalities. When you put all of us together, things go smoothly until there is a decision to be made and then the “discussion” begins. Tiffany usually wins out these days, but that is a whole other blog. Back to Italy.

So things are going great. Cinque Terre, which means five cities if you don’t know Italian, is made up of… you guessed it, five cities on the west coast of Italy. They are nestled into the mountain sides right on the coast and are amazing. You can walk between each one; they are all about 2 miles apart, or you can take the train. We mostly just walked around and enjoyed the beauty. Jordan and I also exerted our manliness and jumped from the cliffs into the not so warm Mediterranean. (So I have now been in the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Mexico, only 1372 major bodies of water to go. Go me!)

There was one small dilemma today. It doesn’t rate the same exciting tale as mine with the Carabinieri. (By the way, I misspelled it on the last blog, consider this is my retraction.) Today, we parked the car a short walk from one of the cities. The plan was for everyone to meet up back at the car at the end of the day,assuming we separated. After walking down to the city, the moms decided that they didn’t want to walk back up so the plan changed to Jordan and I going back to the car at the end of the day and driving to pick up the girls at the train station, about 30 km away. The dilemma came when at the end of the day we, meaning Jordan, realized that we, meaning Jordan, had given mom the key to the car and forgot to get it back. That happened because of plan one, but when we activated plan two, we forgot to redistribute the resources.

Jordan and I then had to find the girls before they took the long train ride to the pick-up point. Jordan and I split up. I ended up finding the girls short of the pick-up point. But then to get back to Jordan, I would have had to wait almost an hour for the next train. I decided instead to run the 2 miles back. (OK, so maybe it wasn’t 2 miles, maybe it was only half a mile, but it felt like 2 miles.) I got back to where I thought Jordan was; couldn’t find him. I used my incredible powers of deduction to think of where I would be if I was Jordan and so I slowly made my way back to the car. On the way, I stopped for some wonderful Italian ice cream, Chocolate and Mint Gelato (my new favorite), and some post cards. Jordan was right were I would have been. We jumped in the car, picked up the girls and that brings me to now, 130 km/hr on our way to dinner.

Woops, I had intended to blog the last few days, but just got carried away with all the fun of today. I will try again next time to talk about Pompei and Naples, and the third day in Rome. In fact, I haven’t even talked about the second day in Rome. Oh, I am so behind.

Until then and tomorrow.

Jason