Thursday, February 18, 2010 Hiking, hiking in the Cinque Terre!

February 18, 2010 (Karannina): We have to walk to breakfast (which is in a bar) made of filled croissants and steamed hot chocolate. We then go back home to prepare ourselves for some hiking! We walk to the steps – look, a cat! The steps are very steep. We climb and climb and climb until we get to the top. What a beautiful view! We look for the clover like plants (weeds) that Dad and Alex found yesterday. At home (in Canada) I like to keep this clover safe in my fairy garden before Mom or Dad pulls them out of the ground. That’s why we are eating the flowers. Along the way we find a mini rockslide – maybe that’s why they “closed” the path down. We “meet” a German family hiking, like us, and we pass them. As we walk over the slate steps, it crunches beneath our feet. After awhile Mom starts talking Pig Latin. I try my best to speak Pig Latin – boy, is it hard! Alexander keeps on stopping at the Yakka Yakka plants to “drink” the raindrops that it has caught. He stops doing it until he cuts his finger. Mom starts to sing “Always look on the bright side of life!” and I join in. I look at the marble veins in the steps. There are some Venus flytraps around here. The highest point was 214 metres altitude and 44 degrees latitude. You need your nose here or else you can’t smell the smells like herbs, flowers, sweet, earthy, and the Mediterranean Sea. We pass through Corniglia, a small town like Vernazza. I hear some singing of an interesting bird and find out it is a bird in a cage. There we stop because the path goes through a “field” of trees that were burned either by man or by nature. The “clover” is all over, birds are singing like they don’t have a care in the world. We keep on walking even though there is a beautiful little waterfall close by (I stop though). We stop at Manarola for lunch, looking for a restaurant that isn’t too expensive. All the restaurants are closed until 6pm so we continue on. We stop again to pay to walk on the Love Lock Walk. There are so many in one place huge, big, small, and tiny, all locked for good. Once you find a husband, you lock a lock together anywhere and throw the key/combination in the Mediterranean Sea. The Love Lock Walk stops at Riomaggoire. We looked for a Gelato place but almost nothing was open. So we stopped at a mini supermarket to buy some groceries. We bought sweet caramel nut torte, green veggie torte, shrimp/octopus salad, olive salad, lemon alcohol, sweet red pepper, and large juice boxes. We take the train home. Once we come home we have supper and hit the hay.