June 30th - Cinque Terre does Canada Day!

We arrived in lovely Cinque Terre on the afternoon of the 30th and I was floored by the view (would be helpful if I could toss a picture up, but no dice). Imagine five fishing villages, where all the houses are built on top of each other and can barely stand up, with some of the best seafood and views I've had all trip. We found Troy as soon as we got there (yay, Dirty!), but of course, rather than taking the 2 minute walk through the tunnel through the mountain to our hostel, we decided (and by we I mean Bernard) to hike up to the top of the town, and all the way around. Good times with our 15 kg packs! But it was worth it in the end. Our 'dorm' hostel ended up being a four-floor, four bedroom flat with full kitchen, terrace, and ocean view. Say what?! We definitely lucked out! We stayed in the smallest and least touristy town of the five, called Riomaggiore, and although it didn't really have a beach, it had some nice smooth rocks and clean, fun water to swim in. Took in a little sun on the rocks, and met up with Reena and Puneet. We just told Kim to watch for two brown girls, and she actually found them!

Ate dinner at this great place at the base of our flat, and had some of the best seafood ever at a great price. Walked down the main drag to find some '1.85EUR' specials, and were blessed with 3.35EUR 1.5L specials! haha we are so classy! We actually got to meet three pretty cool guys from Ohio, Chad, Tyler and Ben, who had just come from Rome as well. They were also perusing the 3.35EUR specials.

Met Reena's friend Ben (who was totally crushing on her) from Cali who told us the pier was the place to be. Couldn't have been more right! There is where we met a key character in the Eurotrip...Anthony! Anthony from Regina moved to Cali for dentistry school moving to Kelowna of all places! He was the first to tell us that Canada Day was while we were in Cinque Terre, so we knew we had to rip it up. The advertising started right then and there for the party. But before the night of the 1st, we had to party for the night of the 30th, and did we ever. Met tons of people on the pier, and although bed didn't happen until 4am, the hike through all five villages is apparently happening at 9am? Oh dear...

9am on the 1st. Happy Canada Day! Not so happy campers ready to hike though - I think we were all sweating wine...! But we sucked it up and it was so worth it. Riomaggiore (#1) through the tunnel of love to Manarola (#2) for a quick gelato stop, then onto Corniglia (#3), which was far from #2 but a pretty cool place. You had to tae 370 steps up to the actual town, but we had to go through the town anyways so there wasn't any real choice on that one. Walked through some vineyards past Guvano Beach (nude beach down some steep incline), onto Vernazza (#4) which was at an unheard of elevation (at least it felt like it). Stopped for some pizza and a refresher, as we'd been hiking about 4 hours at this point. Then we plugged onto Monterosso (#5), where we got to soak in some beach and swim time. Of all the towns, Riomaggiore still seemed the nicest, and Monterosso still the most touristy. Happy with our choice.

Had to wait an hour for the ferry, but took it through all the villages back to our own, which was a cool way to spend the evening, and definitely got us even more amped for Canada Day festivities. We told a ton of people on the hike that there was a party in Village #1 for Canada Day, and the response was either hell yeah I'll come, or I've already heard about it! Word is spreading!!

****CANADA DAY****

Festivities were awesome! People came from as far away as Monterosso to party with us, and we had at least 100 people there to celebrate. Americans, Israelis, Spanish, Canadians, you name it, they were there. Everyone was partying hard, and Anthony, Troy and I got the anthem going a few times, and probably woke half the town up. Though it might not be the same as CDay back in TB or Van, it was definitely a wicked experience. Oh, Canada! Our home and native land!