So, we took a train to Cinque Terre, which was a lot of fun. The trains in Italy are nothing like the trains in Ukraine. They are so clean, and spacious, and well lit! We stopped on the way to spend the night in Florence and to see Pisa. This caused us to arrive in Bonasola, the town we were staying near, in the afternoon. At this point we were supposed to call the man who's house we were renting, but none of us had working phones. We thought we'd be able to email the man, since he was expecting us, but the train station didn't have WiFi even though there were signs that said it did. So we were just sitting there at the station trying to come up with a plan or some change for a payphone when this man drives up on one of those comically small, 3-wheeled trucks. He comes over to us and asks if one of us was "Miss Cody King" which we all thought was funny, but kept from laughing since this isn't too uncommon of a mistake. Some names just seem to fit the opposite gender in different cultures. (For instance, if I mentioned my friend Sasha you'd probably think I was talking about a girl unless you knew that "Sasha" is short for Alexander and is very popular in Russian speaking countries.)
He asked us why we were late and why we didn't call him, to answer we all kinda shrugged and followed him back to his mini-truck. He directed us to put all our luggage and bags into the bed of his truck which we did, but then rethought and removed our purses/backpacks just in case we needed them(or something.) He told us that we'd follow him on foot to the house, but turned to Jordan and said "You will ride with me, because you're small." So Jordan climbs into his truck with him and we all set off to follow the first set of his instructions. Of course, you can't give AIMers instructions without them getting lost somehow. The town was really tiny and had only six streets maybe but we still managed to get lost trying to find the "centre." Upon arriving to our rendezvous a few minutes late we found our landlord was quite anxious. Nonetheless, he gave us the next set of directions that was even simper than the first. "Just go up this path. Don't turn left or right, just go strait and stay on the path. And I get to the top I'll send [Jordan] to walk you to the right house." It was all said in broken English, but the directions were unmistakably clear. Easy. Ok, it wasn't easy. The path wasn't strait in the first place. It was ridiculously curvy. With entrances to homes on each of the curves. And it was really steep. But we keep following it through this bit of neighbourhood, wondering the whole which place is ours. Suddenly, we're out on a big road! But we still couldn't see Jordan, so we figured we'd cross the road and go up a little drive. That drive levels out shortly, but ends in a little dirt track. And still no Jordan! So Cody goes to check out the little dirt track but comes back in a few minutes because it dead ends. Then Caleb runs back down the path we had followed up, to see if we missed something. He comes back with nothing. About this time it starts to dawn on us that we have done something really, really stupid in just letting this stranger drive off with Jordan! But the only thing we could do was to keep trying to find the way and hope this wasn't an elaborate hoax. Finally we find this little bit of trail,even steeper than the first, and follow it up a ways. And it keeps going and keeps getting steeper. Then just as we get to this junction that we never would have navigated, even if we knew we going the right way, Jordan comes walking down the trail towards us. We followed her the rest of the way, which wasn't as bad as the first part.
When we finally reached the house were we are staying the landlord has clearly been quite worried about us. He asks us what happens and why we didn't follow his instructions, and then shows us the house without letting us respond.
Now, the house was pretty small. There as a small living room with attached kitchen and a bathroom on the first floor and a tightly spiralled staircase that lead up to the single bedroom. Now we start giving each other looks trying to figure out how we're going to arrange five sleeping places off a couch and a queen sized bed and who's going to get the privacy of the upper room. So the Italian shows us how the couch pulls out, which took up almost all the room in the living room, and then promise to bring up a fold away cot and another mattress. The landlord then asks us if we brought any food and what we're planning on doing for dinner and the expresses concern for us when we don't know. When he comes back with the bed he's even more concerned because we hadn't eaten yet(we were waiting for him to bring the bed before walking back to town.) One of the best parts after getting to the house was when we asked about the internet that the ad promised. He said that there was none but we could come up to his house and use his if we needed it, but "you had better call first." We took that as a no...
The second day at the house, the lights suddenly clicked off with a loud snap and we were left in the dark. All day. We found a fuse box, but none of the switches had any affect. There was another box above that with a cord connecting, but it had a note that forbade touching. But the longer I sat there in the dark the more that little box troubled me. It had this power switch on it that was set to the off side and was the perfect kind for making the snap I heard when the lights turned off. I really wanted to hit that switch. Around evening, the landlord came by to worry over us a little more and we managed to communicate that the electricity was off. He didn't know the English words for light or electricity. He immediately went to that box and flipped that switch that had itched me all day and on came the lights!
We spent the whole time hunting for Wifi and grocery stores. Both of which were strangely absent.
One of the days, we decided to go to one of the other towns to find some kayaks to rent. We found them and got an extraordinary deal and spent several hours out on the water. Everyone else took turns jumping out of their kayaks, but I wasn't sure enough of my ability to swim in deep water(because all the places I've been swimming the bottom was close enough that I could push off it to get back to the surface if I had trouble) and also because when EJ was getting back into her kayak I spotted a small jellyfish. I didn't think it was the dangerous kind but I didn't want to risk it. I also didn't want to worry the others so I didn't tell them about it since they were done swimming. Later on we all saw a whole bunch more, and the others all winced at the thought. Afterwards, we took the train back to Monterosso (the town next to the one we were staying near) for dinner. But our train was delayed by an hour so we got there late. We then had trouble finding a place to eat dinner. When we returned to the train to ride home, we couldn't make the machine sell us tickets for the ride. The only other way home was to hike a rough trail up and down through the hill without light. It was midnight, we were tired, and we had no hope that the train would work out(since several had been mysteriously cancelled all that day). So we took to the hills and started walking/stumbling through the night to get home. We did have this really awesome moment where stopped and sang. And then the next day, Cody found a snake on that same path we had taken.Leaving that place was just as eventful. We had not seen our landlord in a couple days, and when it was time to leave we could do nothing but leave the keys on the table and close the doors behind us. Luckily we had already paid him. We got to the train station with just enough time to catch the train we needed (we had to run up the stairs and Caleb held the doors so that Cody and EJ could get on since they had had to wait for the tickets to print. But we forgot to get our tickets stamped, so Cody and EJ stood near the door at each stop to see if they could spot a punch machine at each stop. Eventually they found one and EJ jumped out and punched our tickets while Cody held the door open. Immediately after that, the ticket man came around to make sure our tickets were right. WHEW!
For the connecting train we needed, the 2nd class was all full so we had to buy 1st class(but it wasn't expensive). But the next car over was broken or closed off for some reason and all the people who had tickets for that car ended up in our car in our seats. So we stood for an hour waiting for the excess passengers to get off and vacate our seats.
Upon arriving in Rome, Cody and I spent a good deal of time trying to find Wifi(practically impossible for some reason) so we could email our new landlady and get into our next apartment. During that time, the others went to the Ukrainian Consulate to pick up our Visas as it was not necessary for all of us to go.
Oh, turns out all the trains were cancelled because of Earthquakes in the area. We must have slept through them because we didn't feel anything. >. >
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