I was gassed out today. Paddling was great fun, it was a lovely clear summer day for it. The mild rocking made me a little seasick two hours in, but it was not too bad. Thankfully, we stopped after the first long leg for a picnic lunch at a little grotto along the rocky coast. It had a little waterfall, which was a treasure to stand under and get a little shower. Despite Julian, our guide's, cautions, I still managed to slip on it and fall on my bum. Snorkeling from that little spot was good fun as well, the water was cool, clear and refreshing, with light currents. The fish darted about in little pockets, seeking food amongst the brown sea-grass and moss, the little blighters. Julian was great, actually. He'd lived all over Italy, and was now in Monterosso along the Cinque Terre, so he told us a little about its ancient history, its terraces, and its hardy inhabitants that had build stone walls and hamlets here over five hundred years, rock by rock. And it was nice to listen to a local talk a little bit more about Italian history, his thoughts on the catholic church, and so on.
I met a couple of friends as well, a Londoner and a Frankfurter. They were both travelling alone too. The German had seven weeks away from work, imagine that! We got along really well, so we went off to have a gelato, a couple of beers, where they also gave us pickled olives and something like a salty pickled pea-sized fruit, and we had a seafood pasta dinner as well at a nice restaurant near the water. It was nice and balmy in the evening, so we went out for another dip in the water right around sunset. Ah, it was beautiful. It was good fun talking about about travelling with them, and a very nice evening to have company for dinner, and on the train back. Dinner was pretty good value too, for what we were served with. Naturally, we dodged the conductors.
I decided to skip the train interchange into Firenze tomorrow, and just park in a paid garage. The whole train changing thing is too tiresome. Well, I've had a long day. Ciao!
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I spent (in EUR):
36 - car rental
2 - breakfast
100 - paddle tour in Monterosso
4 - gelato
15 - beers
20 - seafood pasta dinner
70 - apartment in Vernazza
