...and it is exactly where I am right now- I am SO HAPPY. Today was a wonderful, hiking filled day in Cinque Terre; I will go into further details later. But here are some highlights (pictures to come!!):
1. The path closest to the water was closed due to falling rocks from Monteresso, the town farthest north, to Manarolo, the second to farthest south. Bummer. But since we are in Levanto, we were able to take a beautiful, and fairly strenuous, 2 hour hike to get to Monteresso. From there, we encountered the closed path. But, we met an awesome couple from Germany, who were maybe 10ish years older than Danielle and I but probably had more energy than we did, and a spirit of adventure that matched ours. We crawled under a fence (only to go back when it didn't lead to a path), climbed over a gate (with the same result) and finally snuck through the construction site while the workers were at lunch. We got separated from them, unfortunately, when we tried to go down through private terraced vineyards and fields- we fell behind and got caught. The part after that wasn't so fun; it included a 7km detour to get back where we started. Oh well.
2. High School Musical's "Breaking Free" playing at a train station in Italian.
3. Meeting a really nice couple from Florida, and then from California. We talked to so many cool people while waiting for the train.
4. THE BEACH!!! I seriously don't know if there is anything I love more than the beach. Put me on the sand, with waves crashing, the sun shining, and a cool breeze, and I will be content for days. Just SEEING it today gave me an overwhelming feeling of joy. At the end of our day, I sat out on some rocks and watched the sunset, and walked back barefoot in water ankle-deep. I could NOT stop smiling the entire night. Tomorrow, I will be there the whole day, most likely- both on the beach and in the OCEAN!!
5. Possibly the best highlight of all, and it has nothing to do with Italy, or spring break. Greg Mortenson (see my previous post) will be coming to Bucknell on October 25 to speak!!! I was in the most amazing mood after tonight; between hiking, the beautiful towns, the beach/ocean, the sunset, and 1 Euro nutella gelato, and then I logged onto bucknell.edu to check my email and saw that annoncement. *Update- due to the controversy with a possible fabrication/exaggeration of parts of his story, they are reconsidering having him come. I respect that deliberation for sure, and I still think Mortenson's work and life are incredibly inspiring, and it's awesome Bucknell ever considered bringing somone like him to speak!
This day could not be any better. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment