MAJOR Picture Update: Genoa

Ok, here's a major picture update (click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture). They'll be another one coming soon, I was in Berlin yesterday. The last three weekends I've been in Vienna, then Genoa, then Berlin. Wow, I literally can't believe it. I'm so glad I bought a Eurail pass, it was a bit pricey to buy all at once but no way I'd be doing these trips without it, I can hop on any train I want in days that it's valid. I need a reservation for night trains, but as long as you book just a week (or 1 day as I found out!!) there's almost always a spot.

Ok, so Italy. Left on a night train Thursday June 22, arrived in Genoa on Friday. Wasn't at all impressed by the actual town, after walking around Friday afternoon I'd had quite enough and didn't see any more that it had to offer (ahem, I say that with a bit of sarcasm). The one really fantastic thing was a free concert on Friday evening in the Palazzo Bianco in downtown Genoa. Heard about it purely by chance, was inside the museum there during the day and some guy comes up and says "would you like a free concert?" Yea!! Ok, actually he said it in Italian but you know what I mean...


It was inside an absolutely fantastic room with mosaics and frescos covering every inch of the wall and ceiling. Truly amazing, one of those special things you have a 1/1000000000 chance of stumbling into.











Sabbath was spent in Portofino, just 30 minutes east. Amazing place again, but quite hot. Right on the coast on a bit of a peninsula that juts out into the northern Mediterranean. The entire peninsula is basically a mountain so you can only hang out on the coast. There's a great walking path a bit higher up that you can take as well, gives quite a view. The road wound itself along the water, absolutely gorgeous, very typically Italian as well, I love this picture with all the mopeds.



Quaint street.










People fishing in harbor.











Fantastic views at night as well, you could see shimmering nights miles away across on the mainland.











And I love playing with cameras at night!











So then Sunday brought Monaco. Really the pictures can speak for themselves. It was fantastically cheap to get to, 10 euro return ticket even though it was about 3 hours each way. Here in Germany I can get about about an hour down the track one way for that price, waaaaay too expensive.










This was the mall, not bad eh?











This is inside the theater, best part of the day. We stumbled into it looking looking for another building. There was absolutely nobody inside. Scattered on the floor were pamphlets from graduating ceremonies the night before for the international university in Monaco. And who better to have as a guest speaker than Prince Albert! We were standing there less than 18 hours after the event, very cool.













Me standing under the train station sign, just to prove I was there.













Me trying desperately to look French.











Then Monday thru Wednesday (was supposed to be Tuesday, I'll get to that in a minute) was Cinque Terre. Almost no one I talk to has heard of it, but it was gorgeous and the approximately 4.9 billion American tourists there had obviously also heard of it. Was still great though, the scenery was unbelievably amazing and there's plenty of room in the 5 little towns for everybody.

Nice, huh?










Looking the other way.










More of the beach and rocks in background.










Cheap pizza place.











The best pasta I've ever had, somehow made with egg. Very simple with just pesto, but oh so delicious.











So here's the story. I was supposed to take a night train back to Bonn on Tuesday night at a little after 21:00 (9pm). All I had to do was take a train back to Milan from the La Spezia station and catch the night train, easy right? Well, Elena and I were both taking the train up to Milan and since we got there a good 30 minutes early went outside to sit in the fresh (boiling hot!) air for a bit. And then this really Italian bus driver came along and it was too much to resist taking his picture, isn't he Italian?!










And then we're like, let's have him take a picture of US in front of the bus, cool right?

Well, it was quite cool but a little after that I happened to look down at my watch and the train was scheduled to leave in 1 minute!! Almost every single train I rode in Italy was at least 10 minutes late, but this one happened to be right on time and it took off about 20 seconds before we got to the platform. I checked the connections (thank you David Anderson!!) for the rest of the evening from Milan and the only trains I could have taken had multiple changes in the middle of the night and didn't get to Bonn till the afternoon. I called Zoltan (the doctorate student I'm helping for the summer) and he said no problem so I just stayed an extra day!

The only hostel that had space was in a tiny place called Biassa a quick 30 minute bus away. Fantastic town, went walking that night and again the next morning and just oooed and awed at every single street. Another one of those completely surreal little adventures, couldn't actually believe places like that exist, every single street was like a hollywood set that was painstakingly decorated to look Italian.





















Best part was being invited for a quick coffee by a couple we met on the street outside their house. They were so hospitable!! Here's to you Paolo and Adriana, if I ever go back we're definitely doing dinner.











So that's it, my weekend around Genoa. I'm just happy it wasn't a weekend IN Genoa : ) I got a ton of sun as well. During the winter I become a thin, scrawny, pale stickman. Now I'm a thin, scrawny stickman with a tan!!