(haha, i had "NICE, ITALY" there for a bit.. i'm finally out of italy! aah)
aaanywho... last night, in cinque terre. i was making my pasta in the little kitchen deal of the room, and started talking to these 3 girls from sweden. although i wouldn't have even known it, as with all the swedish people we met while we were there, their english was probably better than mine. we talk for a while, and they invite me to go with them and some other friend of theirs up to a castle thats aparently in town, to drink wine and watch the sunset. i told them i'd meet up with them after my dinner and after i showered and got all the freaking salt off of me..
i follow the directions they gave me, or at least i thought i did.. ended up going the waaaay wrong way up a hill, for a few seconds i thought i was on a wild goose chase, but eh, what better did i have to do? then i spied something that looked like a castle (i could see it BECAUSE i had hiked up basically the highest hill around), on the other side of town. more walking, and finally i find them.
the diversity of the group that was just sitting around was amazing to me. the 3 swedish girls, 2 guys from turkey (although one has been going to the university of kansas for 2 years), a british guy, and 2 german girls. and me the sole american. first time thats happened in such a big group. sat around chatting and laughing and drinking wine, saw the sun set behind the cliff. i asked anna, the girl from stockholm about the DEER heads (look at my pictures from stockholm), they all thought i was crazy. i get that a lot when i talk about the deer, but i SWEAR, they were real and they were EVERYWHERE.
um, after we polished of a fair amount of wine, the lot of us headed down to the harbor for some nighttime swimming. as always, the water was sooo amazing, and was especially fun at night. there's hardly any lights, the town of riomaggiore where we were is rather tiny, so its just darkness. it was great. ended up then just sitting on the rocks out on the pier till who knows when. i think it was 4 when we got back to the room.
so, needless to say, i didn't make the 7:30am train this morning. although i woke up at 9:30 thinking that it was 6:00. nope. AND, my head hurt like hell. but not NEARLY as much as my FEET hurt. aparently, i had sliced them all up on the rocks whilst swimming. news to me. oh well, 1 million percent worth it. one of the best nights yet.
and now, after a rather interesting detour around the italy/france border, i am in nice. this whole area is very built up, its the french riviera after all. rode on the train with a girl from IOWA! and 2 colorado girls. we met up when all of a sudden you couldn't take a train, for whatever stupid french reason, you had to take a bus for like 15 minutes, then get back on a train for 15 minutes into nice. strange. hot. confusing. but alas, i'm here. i forgot to make a reservation, which sucks, cause i had to find something. and getting in this late, yeah. ick. i've accepted a room for 14 euro, although i haven't seen it, the guy had lost the key. something about it being a dungeon though, so we'll see. i'm out of here in the morning, and i'm off now to meet up with my iowa friend to sit on the beach.
tomorrow, montpellier.