la brunette avec des lunettes

dearoldlove:

I don’t want you, and I’m not jealous. But I want what you have with her.

it’s sixty-four degrees here, with a cool breeze and some light rain, in other words, perfectly comfortable.

after research, some deciding and designing, tons of carving, wood block registrations, and plenty of patience, i finally ended up with two great prints….oh and a handful of not so good ones

thank you. for everything.

all my love,

caroline

sunday morning: croissant breakfast, shopped a bit more, mass at the duomo (absolutely incredible), and a fellow farewell to the group.

we (missy, lyndsay, and i) made it to the train station by noon, where we resided until the arrival of our fourth travel buddy, lauren. we waited, and waited, and waited…five minutes before our train’s departure, lauren appeared out of the blue. we rush to the nearest ticket kiosk, and before we could even finalize the purchase, missy told lauren and i to run to the train…soooo we did, with no clue as to where station 1 was. we caught the train..but by the time we arrived, the officer was blowing his whistle and we were stuck..ticketless, unable to board the train—missy and lyndsay appeared in the distance, running on the opposite side of the tracks, ticket in hand…we stared at them with worried faces, we stared at the officer with desparate faces…two minutes past the scheduled time of departure, all four of us boarded the train together. the officer personally validated our ticket, we walked through eight or nine cars to find four seats together. we took our seats, stowed our luggage, and talked/vented/laughed for the next couple hours..

we arrived in la spezzia in what felt like no time at all. we purchased our cinqueterre hiking pass, and began our hike to find the hostel. we walked up the mountain, we walked down the mountain, we through villages, and on through town (it wasn’t until later that we realized we just had to go around the corner and take the tunnel to find town). our smiles couldn’t have been bigger by the time we found our place, 94 via colombo..the office was tiny, and sketchy, and smelly..haha but we made it, all four of us together, so we were happy….that is until, she sent us on yet another excursion to our actual hostel..not the office. patritzia handed us a key, and instructed us to walk up some stairs to meet her husband..simple enough. falso! we walked at least a hundred stairs with an incline of close to ninety degrees. missy took the key and tried unlocking the few doors in sight..before patritzia’s husband appeared. he took the key and led us to the hostel..we never really know what’s going on in this country. the hostel was a house, like any other living accomodation in the village..except that we were sharing our room with two girls from minnesota, and the rest of the house with fifteen other strangers..

we changed, grabbed some pizza and pasta, and hit the beach. riomaggiore was gorgeous. we swam, sunbathed, climbed boulders, jumped off cliffs, made some french speaking friends from belgium, and then watched the sunset.

the night was rough. i hadn’t been feeling well all day, but just assumed it was exhaustion and dehydration..the night proved otherwise. i got terribly sick, and attempted to sleep through the night with a cold sweat and alarming chills. i rallied on monday—i wasn’t going to let this experience of a lifetime just slip through my fingers!

soo monday…we had to get through five towns in four hours. we packed our belongings, stowed them away in the luggage room, and caught the train for monterosso. ever inch was covered in tourists but the beaches were still beautiful. the next train was to vernazza, it was quaint and cozy…wish we had had more time to explore. next was corniglia. we hiked the last three towns along the mediterranean. i’ve never seen that color blue stretch for so long, absolutely breathtaking. we stopped in the town before ours for a quick dip. the water felt great! i convinced myself that jumping from the 35’ cliff would be a great idea, and if anything it might knock the fever out of me. it was one of the most terrifying experiences, ever.

the rest of the day was spent buying train tickets, catching trains, running from terminal to terminal, sleeping, reminiscing…hands down in my top ten most memorable trips.

we planned on friday night being relaxing, and uneventful—it was neither. we stayed in, but spent most of the night trying to wrap up some loose ends before our weekend getaway. the sculpture teacher executed a bronze pour, which was amazing to see..and proved to be the highlight of the night. the event was followed by a couple hours of drafting and a late night of searching for any form of accomodation for one night in cinqueterre—much more difficult than we ever imagined.

seven am, saturday morning, we left for firenze. the uffitzi museum was first on the agenda, but we, landie folk, had a bit of time on our own. we wandered and explored. the museum was overcrowded but still very interesting..i loved seeing the paintings that i’d learned about freshman year in art history class. it blows my mind to think that that’s how all of the art history students feel about three quarters of most of the museums we tour. i spent the next couple hours shopping through markets on my own…the arties left for their day of museums, and well, the landies were out of sight. by some miracle, i was reunited with the boys while as i stumbled upon il mercato centrale—an gigantic, indoor food market. the next couple hours consisted of a half-nap, more shopping, annnd the hunt to find our hostel. after an hour of solo searching, and zero contact with the others…on account that the walkies decided not to work….i finally located our place to stay, managed to somewhat communicate with the lady in charge, as well as track down the rest of the girlies. apparently, we were too far apart for the walkies to function, quelle barbe. we cleaned up, ate a delicious din din, drank some wine, hung out, went out for a bit, and then a couple of us turned in early due to sunday’s excursion…

there are two things i’ve done in my life that left me perfectly content, with absolutely no regrets…but i will never do them again:

-donating blood

-jumping off of a 35’ cliff into the mediterranean