After being in Munich for 4 days, it was time to head off to my next city. Honestly, I wasn't that sure I wanted to spend that much time in Switzerland, seeing as it is so expensive, but I have heard time and time again how beautiful it is. So, per my mom's suggestion, I decided to prioritize the train ride. The train ride from Munich to Bern was gorgeous. Riding through the Alps is an amazing experience. I know that just the day before I had been hiking through the Alps, but being able to lazily sit there while you get such a great view was a completely different experience.
Unfortunately, once I was in Bern, it was raining. Since I only had the 1 day, I decided to tough it out and explore the city anyway. I brought my bag with me and saw the rose garden, the market street that is filled with fountains (one of my favorite things), and also the bear pit. See I don't know if you are aware (I was not) but Bern is famous for their bears! They have brown bears that are Bernese bears and that is the symbol of Bern. For that reason, they have a pit that is open to the public and on the side of the main river and you can go and see these bears for free! Finally, one thing in Switzerland that isn't expensive lol.
The next day I took the train down to Cinque Terra, Italy. This train ride wasn't as simple as yesterday's, as this time I had 3 changes. Each one went smoothly until the last, so I'd say it was a successful day. The thing I realized was that I spend about 1/4 of the time in tunnels. I never really had thought about it, being from the great plains, but we kept going through tunnels cause they were taking us through the Alps, not over them! It was really cool. Not only that, but the ride was great when we were outside the tunnels! It started with the Alps, then changed to more of tropical-looking mountains filled with flowers and colorful houses. Welcome to Italy!
Once in Cinque Terra, I was getting really excited. After 2 weeks of traveling alone I was finally going to see a familiar face. I met up with my friend Anna for 5 days in Italy. We would go to Cinque Terra and Pisa. Cinque Terra was gorgeous. It is a string of 5 fishermen villages and there is a hiking trail that connects them all. For the first night we were staying in the middle city: Corniglia. (For your reference, the order is: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore). Anna was delayed, so I went down to this 'secret' beach with 2 other girls in my hostel. Getting to the beach was about a 45 minute hike across and then straight down this mountain, but well worth it. It took us to my very first black sand beach! It was beautiful and very secluded. Lauren, Brooke, and I just hung out and enjoyed the serenity of it. After a surprisingly big wave that got us soaked, it was time to go back. The hike back was much less successful... We didn't realize how many forks we passed while hiking down the mountain. When going up, we constantly chose the wrong way and were lost for almost an hour. This beach was quickly not becoming worth the hike. After an hour and a half we finally made our way back to civilization and it was such a relief. I met up with Anna and we all went to dinner to enjoy gnocchi and wine - clearly a successful Italian night.
Anna and I didn't fully understand Cinque Terra before we went, so we booked different nights in different villages, thinking that they were very far apart. It turns out we could have stayed in the first hostel the entire time, but you live and you learn. The next night we stayed in Riomaggiore (the last city). Anna and I grabbed our packs and got ready to hike over to Riomaggiore. Normally, it would be a 2km hike on the easy blue trail, however due to a rockslide, the first half of the trail was closed. Anna and I decided to hike the red trail for the first half instead. The red trail however is much harder and weaves around the cliff taking 6 km, instead of 1. After we reached Manarola (the city between our start and final destination) we were exhausted. I have never sweat that much in my life, or been so proud of physical activity. When we had been 7 minutes into the hike, I needed a break, and Anna and I agreed to breaks every 10 minutes or so. Being the one with the watch, I was just staring at my watch while we hiked waiting for the next 10 minutes. At minute 7, Anna asked if we could break. I of course agreed and threw down my 40 pound pack. While we were catching our breath, Anna mentioned how at least we were 30 minutes in, I broke the news to her that it had in fact only been 17 minutes... It took a lot for us to finish, but we did and it was amazing! Best views, great workout, and hours of fresh air. I had not expected our 'vacation' to be so exhilarating, but I loved it. I highly recommend going on more hikes!
Which is what we did! We then agreed to hike the next day and hike the entire length of the path, from city 5 to city 1. We hiked from 5 to 4, and then due to the rockslide were going to take the train to city 3 and continue. We had forgotten about the train strike and ended up taking a water boat over instead. Then we spent the rest of the day hiking. It was beautiful and infinitely better without the bags, we left them at the hostel this time.
On our final day in Cinque Terra we finally embraced the vacation aspect. We went kayaking in the morning in the Mediterranean sea. I loved it and enjoyed giving the break to my legs. After that, we went to the beach and just laid out. It was hot and so we kept taking breaks and going into the sea. After a full day of sun, we realized we had succeeded in burning ourselves and were grateful we were leaving Cinque Terra so the beach couldn't tempt us tomorrow.
Finally, we caught the train to Pisa! I would spend a few days there before hopefully meeting Brian in Rome. Cross your fingers that he makes standby on the flight to Rome!
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