Lost in the Alps part Un and Deux

When I arrived at the hostel in Menaggio outside of Como, Italy on the edge of Lake Como, I was feeling a bit homesick for London. Fatigue from traveling for 7+ hours plus arriving somewhere where I knew I wouldn’t see a single familiar face really got me down. Once I showered I decided to grab a beer and sit on the veranda a bit to see if it improved my outlook.. I ran into a nice Aussie who was living in London at the bar and he invited me to join him with my drink. We were soon joined by Jessie, one of the staff members, Otto, a rambling Finnish inventor, John, an American photographer who relocated to the town about nine months ago, Victoria, Jessie’s friend from uni in England, and with Tim, the aussie, we made a pretty nice group. We sat around drinking and eating (a delicious 3-course meal from the hostel). A little after midnight I decided to head to bed.

My first full day in Menaggio began with breakfast, a book and this view Off to a good start, so I walked through town to a small public beach on the other side, mostly full of Italian tourist form the adjacent campgrounds, it was peaceful. I swam a few times and had a hard time dragging myself back out of the water.




With the sun leaving the beach I relocated next door to the towns Lido which is a club that offers a grassy place to rest, chairs you could rent, a pool, access to the lake, very clean toilets and music. But don’t worry Mom, with all that time in the sun I had spf 50 with me.

That evening was a quiet one, the sun really drained me so after a few drinks with Tim and our new Aussie friend Sally I headed to bed. I had to go to bed relatively early anyhow because after talking with them I had decided to go on a hike Friday. We’d been staring at the mountain across the lake wondering what was there and I decided it would be my mission to find out. Tim and Sally had been very inspiring with their talks of when they hiked Kilimanjaro, and Sally just got finished a month long pilgrimage in Spain.

With all this in mind I got up early ready for my day. I wished Sally and Tim well on their walk for the day and I went to catch the ferry to Veranna across the lake thinking this needed to be my starting point (mistake #1). I soon realized I was a town off and decided to walk to Bellena , the town I needed to be in, (mistake #2). Going through the coastal tunnels it became clear these were not meant for pedestrians, I flattened myself many times to the wall with approaching buses. Other then that it was a fairly pleasant walk along the coast. I reached Bellena, got the map and guide I needed, grabbed a bottle of water and took the bus a little up the mountain to Vedorogne to start with the guided trail.

Once I made it through the town only glancing at a trail map that didn’t seem to correspond with mine (mistake #3) I headed down the trail, past some pastures and out onto a road that lead me to the town of Noceno. After questioning if I was going the right way I asked the family who ran a little food stand how to get to Camaggirio, they pointed me in the right direction and told me to go up and up and up, a long ways. So I did, kind of. I took their directions and went up (mistake #4), I lost the trail a bit but kept going wherever I caught a glimpse of one. It was an incredibly hot day and I quickly realized I was very short on water and needed to conserve until I found a town or human life as there had been no signs since leaving the town.

I realized that I wasn’t on a real trail because there wouldn’t be an easy trail that would cause me to pull myself up steep hills with my hands. I had a moment of panic. Luckily I had packed my cell just in case and decided I would give myself another hour of going up before I called for help. My thought was that I couldn’t be that far off and luckily I was right.

About half an hour later I reached the summer fields, fresh manure assured me animals were nearby which meant people. Soon I found a dirt road. Feeling calmer knowing I wasn’t lost I headed for a higher peak to get an idea of where I was. I saw another hiker and between my non-italian and his non-english we established I was on the other side of Camaggirio from where I was supposed to be.








I headed straight for the town and their local fountain. After consuming massive amounts of water I felt significantly better and sat to rest. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the top so I took my time relaxing before just heading down.

I followed to signs that would lead me to Nonce to get down and came across a beautiful abandoned town in the woods on my way back. The path down was much better than the one I had created up and I enjoyed my walk through the woods.






I arrived safely in Nonce, I believe much to the relief of the family who help me earlier. They invited me to sit which I did gladly and bought a bottle of water. Between the little English they spoke they asked if I had made it and were quiet impressed I had.

Saying goodbye to them I headed off trying to see where I had gone wrong before. I figured it out when I saw an arrow with a #7 on a wall I had missed at the beginning of the hike. Investigating in Vedorogne my suspicions were confirmed, I had made a mistake at the very start of my hike.





I saw the bus to take me down the hill wasn’t due for 40 minutes and since I knew it would take 30 minutes to reach the lake I decided to see if I could beat it down. I hurried down and found a trail that took me off the road past old houses, through fields and down old town streets. I just managed to beat the bus down and was quiet proud of myself.

I caught a bus back to Veranna, then the ferry to Bellagio (unimpressive) and back to Menaggio where Sally, Tim and I headed into town for massive, delicious pizza and to exchange stories of our hikes for the day. It has been decided I am not allowed to hike on my own certainly not in the alps.





Saturday was an early day to catch the bus to the train to the other train, and so on. I finally arrived in Gryon. It is absolutely lovely up in the alps. The town is quiet a ways up the mountain but well worth the trip. It was a relaxing evening , I had dinner and watched a movie with the aussie girl who I’m sharing a room with.






Sunday I went to the grocery store before it closed and then walked about 45 minutes into the next town where a market was going on. I had planned on hiking up the mountains a bit but the clouds began descending into the valley below covering the mountain so I wouldn’t be able to see much. Instead I relaxed in the hostel watching a movie, reading a bit and doing some things for school, I love relaxing days. When I was making my dinner the couple next to me was fixing the same meal of spaghetti bolognase so they asked if I wanted to share. We had a very nice dinner together chatting about places we'd been and where we wanted to go. And since the rain was now in full effect and I had to get up so early I decided to go to bed early, what a good girl I am not staying up all night partying :)

Nice is nice

To start with I’m a horrible backpacker. My half-empty backpack soon became filled and barely made the 40lb limit at the airport, I actually think it was over by a pound and the lady was just being nice, or didn’t want a hassle at 4:30am.

So I have too much stuff, except how can it be too much when I’m still going to have to wear everything twice. I’d say that I regret bringing my computer but I know that isn’t true, I’m going to love having it to get online whenever and watch movies on my hours long train rides.

Besides all the stuff it’s off to a good start. Nice is a beautiful ocean city nestled in between the mountains. My hostel is up an incredibly steep hill but seems pretty nice and the tram is quick and easy into the city, the place is run by aussies, kiwis and americans with just a few other randoms thrown in, no real surprise with that.

Since I arrived before check-in the first day I threw my stuff in storage and headed down the hill to begin exploring. I walked straight to the beach first passing through the lovely Place Massena along the way. The ocean looks amazing and I walked down it a ways, saw a crazy lady who kept walking up and down the beach yelling something, it really made me wish I know French because everyone seemed fairly fascinated by her.

Cool fountain in the town square

Part of the beach

My beach view

Me being artsy with a shirt and what resembles a dress on a mattress on the rocks

In front of the bay

The bay of Nice

More artsy

While I was walking I noticed this stone structure of sorts in the hills and decided my mission for the day was to go see what it was.
I walked down the coast a bit and found some stairs that led me up, and up and up some more. The views made it completely worth it making me go a little photo happy.

Artsy view

On the way up

For Dad

From the top

It turns out the while hill is a park that used to be the medieval town, what I saw was this: part of the waterfall landscape installed on the grounds 100-200 years ago.

Once I made it back down the hill and caught my breath I walked through a flea market and then into Old Town Nice which is winding streets full of all sorts of different shops, even one dedicated just to spices with an untold number of colors and flavors of large crystal salt, Dad would be in heaven. When I got tired of all that, after 4.5 hours of wandering who wouldn’t be tired. I decided to sit for a while and rest since this is my holiday and I can do what I want. My only complaint is that the airport is just on the other side of the beach so every few minutes a plane is flying along the beach disrupting the sound and landscape.

I had a quiet night Monday night eating pizza and drinking beer at the hostel bar chatting with the staff and various other people as they moved through. I called it an early night round 10:30 and was pleased that I wasn’t the only one, made me feel less old. I crashed hard and woke early ready for my second day.

Day 2 in Nice began with a trip to the ocean where I saw 3 different groups of sailing schools, I could have watched the sailboats all day but figured I should be more productive. So I wandered through the fruit and flower market on the site of the flea market from the day before. It wasn’t as nice as the guides had made it out to be but interesting none-the-less.

From there I went to the photography museum where they had an extensive collection of older cameras

and a very nice exhibition by Peter Knapp, not someone I know of but it was very interesting.

I had decided to hit some costal towns for the day so I hopped the bus to Eze, which is a medieval town on top of a hill, the Prince of Sweden used to hold a villa there. After getting lost on the winding streets I managed to make it to the gardens at the top that used to be the old castle. A lovely set of gardens with a great view of the Mediterranean.

Eze from below

The meditation spot

Relaxing

Top of Eze

Looking down from the top

Sweet little streets

After relaxing for a bit by the water meditation area I headed down to get the bus to Monaco.

The hills between Nice and Monaco are lined with breath taking villas, I wouldn’t mind taking up residence. Anyhow, I started in Monaco by walking towards the casino. When I overheard two girls taking pictures speak English I asked if they’d take a photo for me. We struck up a conversation and it turns out they were both traveling alone and staying at my hostel. It went without saying that I would join them and away we went. We wandered all over the main bits of the city/country (it’s hard to tell where Monte-Carlo begins and ends), there was a good deal of hiking involved to arrive at the palace but it was very nice. And a definite plus to have people around to take my photo, we all took advantage.

The cathedral Princess Grace was married in

The palace

All the yachts, sickening

Reflection of the casino in the sculpture/fountain out front

We got back to Nice around 6:30 and went to sit on the beach for a bit since the sun was still very much shining. I had a quick swim since that would be my only chance in the Mediterranean the water looks very blue but is in fact very murky from the waves hitting the beach, it felt wonderful though.

Amy and Stephanie were going to have dinner in town and I opted to make some of the food with me to save money and get rid of some of the weight of my pack. I made friends with a Swedish girl on the way back to the hostel and she invited me to have drinks with her and her friends. I fell into bed exhausted yet again.

Today has been a day of travel and nothing else. My train left Nice for Milan at 10am. It was so crowded that people and bags were in the hall, we were all in compartments, and so hot at times that my eyelids were even sweating. But we were traveling next to the coast for half the trip so it was nice to watch, and the others in my compartment were very nice.

Getting from Milan to my hostel was horrible though, I had to practically run from the end of one platform through the station and down another platform in less than 5 minutes to change trains in Milan, then I had to wait ages for the bus to my hostel which was beyond crowded, I was standing and couldn’t even move, ended up getting yelled by an Italian woman who wanted to get off the bus and needed me to move right away even though we weren’t anywhere near the stop and she kept trying to shove me into this area where there was nothing for me to hold on to and I already was having problems standing up, not fun at all. At least after that the rest of the bus took pity on me, one man helping me take my pack off and maneuver around so I didn’t go flying all the time and a nice lady told me where to get off for my hostel. So it worked out ok. We’re more then a bit in the middle of no where at this hostel but it seems ok, the people seem nice so far, apparently there isn’t much to do besides sitting by the lake, hiking and such which doesn’t seem bad to me at all. We’ll see how it goes.

Before I go

Not too much to say about the week. Andrew and I both packed.
Tuesday night we met some friends for drinks at our local pub and then headed over to a little sushi place we'd always wanted to try. Andrew and Radi split a plate of 30 pieces of sushi, it was epic.

Wednesday Andrew and I had our last date in London, it was similar to one of our first dates in London starting with lunch at TGI Fridays. He finished it off by taking me to see the new Star Trek movie which I have been dying to see, it was so amazing for those who haven't seen it. It was a lovely way to spend our last day together.

Andrew left for Australia Thursday morning. I packed some more, had my last days of work, repacked again and am moving stuff to a friends place to keep until I get back from backpacking, yay. It's a lot of craziness and running around but I thought I should get a post out real quick before the backpacking begins.

Oh, and I have an image in the new issue of F-Stop magazine in the group exhibit titled "Amusement", the very bottom row 4th from the left, kind of cool.