Euro Trip '11

Great food, great weather & great friends made for one heck of a 10 day, mini backpacking Euro trip through Spain, Italy and France. This will be a long, detailed post mainly to put into writing everything I don't want to forget, so feel free to skim through the pictures! I'll post all pictures from the trip on facebook later :)

Friday, April 8, I flew out of Frankfurt airport to Madrid and met up with Jaclyn and down to the next terminal to meet up with Tiller, Kate & Kate's friend Abby. As always, it was great to see Jaclyn, we've done the whole "reunion in the airport" many times now. And to see Tiller & Kate after 7 months was better than words could explain...I miss my friends!!! We made our way into Madrid and caught up for a bit, felt like no time had passed between us but at the same time it seemed like ages since I'd seen them. We checked into our Hostel around midnight and were all starving so we found a place still serving food and had a Spanish feast at 1am!

Saturday was 80 and sunny, we went and saw the palace and cathedral, plaza mayor and ran into a market on the way.

Kate and I in Plaza Mayor

The Palace

Cathedral

All of us in front of the palace

The market was a great find! It was full of little snacks for 2euro -- anything from raw oysters to sushi to lobster bisque. Total highlight of the day (and we iced Jaclyn... when in Spain!).

Goodness 

Seafood!

Mmm heavenly

We went to the main park and sat around for a while just talking and enjoying some sun, seriously the perfect day. We stopped for lunch in one of the main squares and had a bunch of tapas to share & cervezas con limon. That night we went out for dinner at another tapas place and later went to a restaurant to have wine and watch flamenco dancers. It was intense!

What's left of our tapas from lunch

Waiting for the flamenco show

My new favorite thing

The next morning we slept in a bit and then went to have the much anticipated churros y chocolate! It was as good as I thought it would be and more!

Suppose to be a chocolate mustache haha

As you can probably tell, most of our time in Spain was spent eating or thinking about what we were going to eat, so we were on the hunt for a family size paella...we definitely found it! Paella for 5, more like 10, we hardly made a dent but it was soooo good.

Our massive paella!!!

After lunch we went to one of Madrid's many museums, Kate's favorite but I can't even remember the name of it, argh. Later that day Jaclyn caught her train back to Cuenca so it was Tiller, Kate, Abby & I for dinner. We went to have a drink in the main square before going on our restaurant search, and then ventured to the other side of town for a place Abby and Kate read about. It was a cool area, lots of young people and tons of bars and places to eat. We ended up going to this amazing place, the best tapas in Madrid hands down. Again, I don't remember the name but could never forget the food.

The best thing EVER

Last night in Madrid

Abby left around 4am so we said our goodbyes the night before (By the way, Abby lives in London and Kate knows her from home--she was awesome!) and the rest of us headed off for the airport the next morning. We grabbed a sandwich in the airport before parting ways with Kate who was off to Santiago. It was so good to see her for the weekend!!

Tiller and I flew into Pisa and got in around 4pm. On the flight over we sat next to a kid studying in Florence from Kent State (who knows Jeremy Hume--haha small world). We caught a cab to the leaning tower because we were short on time, got tons of pics, and attempted to walk back to the main train station. With lots of help from pedestrians and another tourist couple, we made it with 5 minutes to spare to catch our train to Siena.

After a 2 hour train with no air conditioning we arrived in Siena and caught a cab to our B&B. At first glance we were a little uneasy about our accommodations, but not long after we found that the place and the owner were amazing. The apartment was in the heart of Siena and the owner was a young guy who told us all the places we had to see and good food to try.

View from the room

After dropping off our stuff and walked along the streets of Siena to find the perfect little restaurant on a side street. We had a young waitress who was so sweet and read the menu to us in English after saying her english was "not so good." We had a good meal and went into the Piazza del Campo for gelato. We sat for a while, people watching and talking about life, just enjoying the moment before walking back through the cobblestone roads and up to our home for the night.

Dinner was on a hill & you had to sit on the same side of the table because it was so steep

Pici, a Siena staple, with mushroom sauce. They were like fat, doughy spaghetti.

Outside the cute restaurant 

Fabrice, or something close to that, had breakfast ready for us in the morning, cake, fruit tart, yogurt, breads, cheese, cereal, anything you could want. We went to explore Siena, which is pretty small so all we had on our list was the cathedral. By far the best part was the panoramic view from the top of the duomo.

Cathedral in Siena

Panoramic from the top

Afterwards, we went to the Piazza to get pizza and we ate until our plates were empty. With an overly stuffed stomach, we got on the most scenic bus ride through Chianti to Florence.

Piazza del Campo

Very scenic drive to Florence

A couple hours later we were in Florence and checked into Hotel Ester, good location, okay beds, horrible bathroom. We kind of zipped through the city, getting in all the sites including the bridge, which I thought was the coolest.

The famous bridge

Dinner that night was such a disappointment, I didn't think bad pasta existed in Italy!

Carbonara? Buzz kill :(

Florence hotel

But the next morning we went walking through the market, picking up a few souvenirs and stopping for lunch outside. This time the pasta was great, so I left Florence with better memories!

Market

Ravioli with butter and sage--was delicious

panna cotta with berries and choco

Train to La Spezia before passing out and catching some flies 

We later took an hour and a half train to La Spezia where our hotel was so nice! Just outside of La Spezia is Cinque Terre, 5 small villages along the coast a Italy all within minutes from each other or by hiking. We took a short 10 minute train into Riomaggiore, the first of the five villages and took the 20 minute walk to the next village of Manarola.

Our awesome place in La Spezia and the most comfortable bed ever

Orange trees outside our hotel

Path from Riomaggiore to Manarola called the "lovers walk" -- seriously beautiful 

Trying out the water in Manarola

After multiple tries with the self timer

This place is amazing

We walked around each town and found an awesome restaurant right on the water in Riomaggiore and had seriously the best meal ever--pesto bruschetta, seafood risotto, panna cotta with berries. Took the train back to La Spezia, had the best shower and a great nights sleep before an early morning.

Before dinner in Riomaggiore

I love all the fishing boats

Sun setting during dinner

Pesto bruschetta was sooo good! 

Seafood risotto for 2

Dessert!

Thursday we planned to get up early and hike through the villages. We caught the train 15 minutes to Monterosso, the furthest village in Cinque Terre and the only one with an actual beach.

After stopping at the beach it started to downpour, so we stopped and waited it out in a small cafe, then decided to take the train to Vernazza known to be the most beautiful.

Village of Vernazza

The sun came out so we had lunch outside with a great view and met a couple from Hudson (who know Joellen!).

Our waiter, the cutest little italian guy

Linguini with crab 

Since it was nice out, we decided to hike to Corniglia (1.5-2hr). Straight uphill, up tiny, winding, rocky stairs for a straight hour, we saw some of the best views I've ever seen. Then clouds started rolling in and the rain started and was not stopping. There were little tornados forming over the water as we hiked around the coast, finally reaching the next village. We were soaking and freezing when we realized he had to sprint to catch the next train back.

Beginning of the hike--the view made it all worth it!

On our way from Vernazza to Corniglia 

Literally on the side of a cliff 

Small tornados forming over the water

First site of Corniglia--quick picture before running away from the power lines!

Wet & cold trying to enjoy the view

Made it!!

Overall, Cinque Terre was the most amazing place I've ever seen! The pictures just don't do it justice. If anyone ever has the chance to go there you HAVE to go!

Our next leg of the journey was to train to Genoa, a halfway point to catch the train to France. We stayed at a B&B that was really cute, run by the nicest lady. There were two other girls from California staying there so we chatted with them while we ate our pizza from the pizzeria next door.

B&B in Genoa

The next morning we heard about an Italian Rail strike but Fulvia, the B&B owner said it wouldn't be a problem. We get to the train station at 8:30am, trying to get an early start, to find that our train is the only one not running due to the strike. A lady told us to take a train to Savona, at least heading in the right direction, and catching a train from there. Once there, we found all of those trains cancelled as well. We went into Savona to get lunch and pass the time and caught a train to Ventimiglia at 1:30pm, we were smooshed in there like sardines since it was the only train for the day. There were twin sisters, Kasey and Erin, on the train with us who were also on their way to Nice so we figured we stick with them and try and find our way. In Ventimiglia the trains were all cancelled so our only option was take a cab into France.

160euro later we were in Nice!!! 

We checked into Hostel Smith in Nice's Old Town and met up with Jaclyn. We had our own "studio" which was nice and quiet, bathroom was a little weird (had to hold the shower head while washing your hair...). 

Hostel in Nice--pretty bare

View from the room

We walked along the beach and found a nice place to have dinner.

Cutest little boy skipping rocks

Goat cheese and onion bruschetta 

Wine and dinner overlooking the beach--can't complain!

Saturday we went 10 minutes over to Eze, where we walked along the beach looking for what we heard was a really cool town. Never finding anything, we walked over to catch the train and realized we had to take a bus to get to Eze village. After going up a long, windy road up the side of a mountain, we reached the town of Eze. It was actually a really neat town on top of a mountain overlooking the sea.

Beach in Eze, the water was so clear

Loving life

View from Eze on top of the mountain. There were a bunch of these terraces with beautiful gardens or big pools

From there we took the bus into Monaco to see Monte Carlo, which was seriously crazy! Getting off the bus you can tell your in a totally new and different kind of place, really clean with palm trees, multiple fountains and beautiful landscaping all leading up to the casino.

Heading up to the casino

Out front are the most expensive cars, little girls with their louie bags, and young girls with their sugar daddies. We got gelato and stood out front just people watching and taking in all the craziness of this "rich and famous" kind of lifestyle (we even went into the casino for a quick look). Behind the casino is where all the yachts are docked, we're pretty sure we saw Diddy's.

Landing pad and yachts in Monaco 

There were tons of them

We went back to Nice to get dinner where we found a great restaurant where I had possibly the best pasta I've had in my life. To top it off, we were the last people in the restaurant and the waiter gave us shots of grappa!

Carbonara but it had mushrooms...amazingness!!!

Tills and her pizza

Last dinner together in France---well, in Europe since I won't see Jaclyn before she heads back to the states. Perfect meal.

The next morning we checked out of the hostel, did some shopping and had lunch (pasta, yet again), and went down to the beach before Jaclyn had to leave. We ended up laying there for 2-3hrs not realizing how burnt we were getting.

More seafood pasta. With how much pasta and carbs I ate this trip I'm sure you'll be amazed to know I didn't put on a pound! 

Relaxing on the beach. The beaches were rocky not sand and we were covered in chalk afterwards, but it was nice to catch some rays after months of not seeing sun!

Tiller and I grabbed a quick dinner, sushi, and last minute gelato before heading to the airport Sunday night. We said our goodbyes on the bus heading to separate terminals, Tiller went to London and I flew back to Cologne.

First sushi in...possibly 7 months unless I had it in London?

Finally got our backpackers picture. Great trip my little travel buddy!

Got into Germany around midnight and tried to find my way to the train station. I found a cute little German couple who helped me buy my ticket, took me on the train with them, and told me where to get off, they were so sweet. I checked into my hostel around 12:30pm and passed out in about 2 seconds.

Today, I had a 1pm train back to Lampertheim and caught the bus to Huttenfeld. It felt so nice to walk down a familiar street and into a familiar house and a familiar room.

I had some time before my train to sit in starbucks, write my postcards and journal about my trip. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to be over in Europe and get to see so many places I sat and googled from a little room in good old Ohio. I feel like I'm living this crazy dream, right now blogging from a little town in Germany, just after a 3 country tour and planning the next (of course none of this would be the same without the best friends to travel with!). I'm living the dream, well maybe not everyones dream but my dream at the moment and I may come home completely broke with no direction, but you only live once and right now I'm just happy!