- Katie meets meg and shell in alcala at 4am! Take taxi to Madrid airport to catch plane to Bilbao
- bus to San Sebastian, pouring rain!, take taxi to city center
- tried to escape rain and kill time, ate our first pinxos!
- finally walked over to hostel in the cold windy rain (by the ocean) and met up with Jaime, the talkative and strange hostel owner
- Katie and shell siesta while meg hangs in Hotel Londres
- all meet up again at hotel, went to mall and had an American lunch (burgers), found Katie a cute bathing suit, and then went to the spa, La Perla!!
- spent 2 hours in the jets and waterbeds and steam rooms and underwater exercise pools and colorful walk through water spray things. Just lovely, and a tad salty!
- got some pinxos from place near hostel
- walked back to hostel with the stopped rain and SLEPT! (luckily we had the triple bunk bed room to ourselves)
5/22
- slept in a bit, went to McDonald's for wifi and yogurt, walked around San Sebastian a little (way less rain), meg was "bored" and over walking so she hung at hotel again while k and m hiked to the Jesus statue!
- at one point got expensive but very unique pinxos
- lots of tinto de verano!
- chinese food for dinner
5/23
- slept in again, meg leaves us and explores on her own for a little
- back go McDonald's for wifi, had to carry our backpacks all day
- go to Concha beach! Scammer bothers us, get soooooo burnt, drink tinto on the beach, and hang in the sun for a few hours. FINALLY SUN!
- catch bus back to Bilbao, back to Madrid, say bye to meg, chill in airport for 6 hours
5/24: Rome
- sleep in mcdonalds at airport and then catch early plane to Rome
- trapeze through Romes metro and train systems with our backpacks until we finally arrive at our campsite!!!
- so pleasantly surprised by the campsites amenities (pool, restaurants, market, cutest cabin, Internet, etc)
- hang at pool (water so cold and got reburnt) and just stay at campsite for the day, relaxing
5/25
- woke up early and caught shuttle to train and then into Rome
- first stop was Colosseum (breathtaking and huge and just wow. A little sunny and hot this day though)
- walked past roman forum and other ruins just hanging throughout the city
- got gelato and ate it on the steps of the Pantheon
- walked to Trevi then to Spanish steps (got another gelato, first one not as good)
- got groceries at some point
- after Spanish steps got the WORST dinner by trying to be cheap but spent 15 euro each on a worm salad and microwaved pasta
- caught metro back to campsite and hung out in the wifi area, watching the I love Rome people on the bull
5/26
- Vatican day!
- arrived to Vatican at around 11 and were very pleasantly surprised to see the Pope talking!! Sooo many people there
- stood in line to get into st peters basilica for more than 2 hours (people trying to cut, hot sun turning to rain, lots of waiting)
- finally get into basilica and are reprimanded for our dresses. Katie has to tie a sweater around her knees.
-"this isn't a disco ladies, it's the Vatican"
- go into extremely ornate church, so much gold!, feel stupid about Sistine chapel question, lots of pictures!
- send postcard from Vatican!
- book it over to Sistine chapel in the Vatican museum across the country, get handed 2 free tickets worth 15 euro each!, and hop on in.
- very, very, very huge with tons of people and cool ceilings and statues and way too much to see before actually getting to the Sistine chapel
-Sistine is magnificent, very strict about pictures
- starving and exhausted we eat at a little forno and get a great deal with a slice of pizza, a coke and an arancini for 5 euro
- go to really cheap grocery store, load up, and then are led to the best gelato nearby!
- get MASSIVE gelatos after waiting in a huge line for them. Scarf down with the nuns.
- slowly head back, souvenir shop, get caught in some rain, and eventually make it back by sundown!
5/27: Pompei
- wake up early, long train ride to Naples and then sketchy little train to Pompei
- check into or cute family owned B&B, ate an arancini and an entire yummy pizza each (stuffed) and then finally go into the ruins
- tour around the hot spots, are amazed, Katies favorite is the bathhouse, so nice to be there with so few people
- get back to our place and have the best, most authentic italian meal made for us by the B&B owners (wine, cheese and meat and bruschetta platter and then yummy pasta and berries for dessert)
- talk with our immature and annoying roommates for a while, Katie writes her essay while everyone sleeps (quite difficult on a phone/iPad)
- sidenote: we are kicking ourselves for not bringing our own iPad or laptop or other form of traveling entertainment!
5/28: travel day up north
- get paperwork scholarship stuff out of the way, nice hostel owners let us use their laptop!
- depart and get into Naples where we are seated across from mafia member for our 3 hour train to Rome.
-his code was M&M and he was so creepy and gross (always leaving to smoke illegally in the bathroom and talking on his phone suspiciously)
- train is super late so we have to SPRINT with our backpacks to our next train leaving in 5 mins (and buy tickets for it!)
-make it and we relax in our Harry potter cart, watch a movie, and look at the amazing view as we near La Spezia
- wait in la Spezia for an hour as our train is majorly delayed and then finally get to our campsite (they were so nice to pick us up way later than they were open)
- we got the CUTEST cabin ever with a fridge and sink and stove and everything! And comfy beds too. And lacy window curtains.
- then we sleep.
5/29: Cinque Terre
- a bit confused at first about how to do this hiking thing (awkwardly go into hotel and ask, decide to just train it all bc of our shoes too)
- major hunt for sunscreen, find it!
- first stop: riomaggiore. Sit on the rocks looking up at this amazing town, meg calls us, in awe of scenery, hike up the town to more amazing views and a cute elementary school, eventually get back to train station
- next stop: manarola. This was our favorite bc of the crystal clear water right off cliffs with easy swimming access. It was less touristy and more secluded than the others. We found a hidden spot and kicked ourselves again for not wearing our bathing suits! The water felt sooo nice. Spend a few hours here, eat another pizza to ourselves, and get brioche with gelato at the end.
-skipped 3rd city of corniglia bc of time
- next stop: vernazza. Still see damage from October flood, stores all revamping. Sit on cement harbor thing on the water and watch the little kids (moglie) trying to dish. The water is sooo clear!! Saw jellyfish too.
Last stop: monterosso. This one was really touristy with an actual "beach" that was very rocky. Very different from the others. We got drinks and snacks here and walked around the town for just a little. Caught train back to Deiva Marina
- had to borrow phone from bar sereno, luckily were able to be picked up, and were sad to realize all the grocery store options were already closed.
- ate our peanut butter and bread for dinner, got some wifi, saw a firefly!, and eventually slept
5/30
- cooked ourselves some actual breakfast, checked out of camping, and carried our backpacks to Monterosso in hopes of tanning on the beach
- the beach here was just too rocky and we couldn't kayak with our stuff so after about an hour we packed up and went to Manarola again
- in manarola we got pizza and gnocchi at a restaurant (so nice to sit down) and then went back to our hidden spot!
- the spot was perfect and we met such nice people and jumped into the wonderful wonderful Mediterranean! It was very salty but so clear and there were tons of fish around us. A nice lady even lent us her goggles! (and jellyfish, we had to be very careful about that)
- lots of nude people and sing songy hippies (and a kayaker who couldn't handle it)
- we sadly got our clothes and heavy backpacks back on, caught a train to la Spezia and then to Pisa, and spent the night at a really good hostel there. We made pasta in the microwave and talked to fellow travelers!
5/31: Greece
- currently on the plane to Kos, a small island in Greece!
- soooo excited for the food aka baklava kebabs fish hummus and pita and much much more.
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