Thursday 14th: Walking to Monterosso, Manerola, eating and feeling sick

[ pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110414?authkey=Gv1sRgCOm7_a_c7cyfvQE#  ]

Throughout the night I felt really sick. I woke up a few times and in the morning I felt a combination of great hunger and thirst, and the feeling that I could not eat anything. I got out of bed so that I could go to the kitchen and get some water. For some reason, when I got there, I also decided to try and eat the breakfast even though I had very little ability to eat. But I managed to very slowly force some food into me. I don't think the others realised how sick I was feeling, so I just tried to carry on because they seemed like cool people. I think I was feeling sick since the previous morning when I woke up in Venice. I think I must have eaten something bad a little before then.


Viri and Charlene are both leaving the hostel today, so we said goodbye to them.

Myself, Laurent, Charlene, and Camila. Viri left earlier.

Laurent, Camila and myself were all staying for an extra night, so we proposed to explore some places together for today. I was really not sure if I could, given that I was feeling quite ill. But I hoped that if I went out, then I would soon feel better.

We decided to walk from Levanto to Monterosso to begin with. Viri says this will take about 2 hours if we walk fast. At first we had some difficulty working out how to get from the town to the beginning of the track, but Camila worked it out for us by flagging down an italian driving along the road, and asking him. She speaks Portugese, Spanish, English, Italian and French. Really impressive I think. After she spoke with the italian guy, she translated back to us what he said. Laurent and I were very confused for a few moments because she was speaking to us in Portugese by mistake. It was very humorous.

The walk had some really nice views. But I felt more sick as we continued. Being sick made me feel much more fatigued than I should normally feel.

At one point it started to rain quite badly. There was even hail. So I stopped taking pictures at that point.

We finally made it almost to Monterosso! Great views were had from here.

At this point there is this old building. I'm not sure if it's a religious building or a castle. I think it looks more like a church. It's from the 13th century.

Then we had to go down a lot of stairs! We were all feeling a bit tired at this point so it was a little monotonous feeling. We were also feeling very hungry and wanted to be at the town so that we could eat.

Not sure what Camila and Laurent are communicating in this picture.

We made it to Monterosso!

In this town we got some food. All the restaurants seemed to be overpriced. We had almost resigned ourselves to the fate of expensive food when we found a place selling very cheap food. Not fantastic food cooked by a trained chef, but we were just hungry. This food eventually made me feel a little better, although it was hard to eat.

We caught a train to Manarola, but the train didn't stop at Manarola. It went straight through and stopped at the next town, Riomaggiore. We got a brief glimpse of Riomaggiore then took a train back to Manarola.

From the train station we saw tornadoes.

Great accidental shot. I was taking a picture of the great scene and Laurent is telling me how displeased he is at the weather, unaware that I'm taking a picture. It doesn't show very well in the picture, but there was quite a storm happening. In the sky could be heard thunder. I have not heard a storm in a long time so I really enjoyed this. There don't seem to be lightning storms in England.

Riding back to Levanto. I'm feeling pretty glad to be sitting down again. hooray.

We landed back in Levanto. On the walk back to the hostel we bought some strawberries! They were very good strawberries. Italians seem to really love growing fruit and consuming it. I think it is great.

When we got back to the hostel I laid down on my bed and fell asleep. I was feeling very much out of energy. I was feeling a little embarassed today for possibly holding up Laurent and Camila although I don't think I did too much.

They planned to go to dinner again. I wasn't sure if I could. After a couple hours of sleeping I finally felt like I could possibly drag myself out to eat.

I did manage to get to the restaurant, and I was glad. Laurent and I ordered the spaghetti ragu again. This time we asked him for a large amount. I think we asked him the previous night, and they didn't, so I was sceptical that they would this night. But they gave us lots! Laurent and I had over two platefulls each.

It was really great having some nice company for this day.