The Italian Adventure Begins - A few days in Genoa

Greetings from Italy! Taking it back a few weeks to the beginning of my journey as I attempt to keep up with this.

Bright and early Tuesday morning I left London and headed to the airport to begin my 20 day adventure in Italy/Greece. I decided to leave before the guys I was with in London because by going on Tuesday afternoon instead of Friday my plane ticket to Genoa costed $12 instead of about $100. I figured a few days to relax in Italy couldn't possibly be bad. Having left a slow and steady rain, I couldn't wait to touch down on the Western Italian coastal city of Genoa, a major port city with, as I would later find out, a great deal of history. Unfortunately I was greeted by worse weather than when I left - just my luck!. Not only did I have to find my way to the hostel in the pouring rain but there was a midly serious thunderstorm for the first 3 hours I was there so I found myself stuck inside trying to keep myself busy. Fortunately MTV had some songs in English mixed in with the Italian versions of South Park and Scrubs. The sun eventually came out giving me some time to explore the rolling hills of the beautiful city of Genoa. With a population of 630,000 the city runs along a few miles of coast line and then is terraced along the hillside effectively fitting the city's inhabitants into a relatively small space. I really had no expectactions when I arrived so to see Genoa's beautiful pastel buildings and craggy coastline made me really excited to explore the next day.

While lying in bed reading in my hostel the first night, a slightly older guy came in for the evening who was stopping in Genoa on his way around Italy. We got to talking a bit and decided that we would walk our way down the winding roads towards the city center together in the morning. We winded our ways in an out of Genoa's quintessentially Italian alley ways, shared stories and talked about many rather significant issues. Turns out he was born in a very Catholic, Pleasantville-like, town in central Pennslyvania before moving to Mexico with his parents at a young age. He went to college in Mexico and then moved to Morocco where he has been teaching English for quite some time and converted religions to Islam in order to marry his wife of nine years. We were so busy talking and exploring the historic sites of Genoa that we didn't even exchange names until we hiked around for 6 hours! From religion to politics, international relations, current events and Wisconsin demographics we really talked about every topic under the sun. Turns out Nathan had been to about 70 countries and over 600 cities in his lifetime - absolutely incredible guy to spend a day with. I really learned a lot and expanded my horizons during our hike south along the Italian coast which ended up going for 12 hours and over 15 miles before we decided to take a train home. We really just kept going on the coast and never once failed to be astonished by the views we would come across. All in all, we hiked out of Genoa's city limits and to 3 other villages. Although I don't always like travelling alone, meeting cool people and doing these sort of thigns really makes me enjoy it!

Nathan and I exchanged email addresses and the next morning he was gone before I got up. Fortunately for me I found an equally interesting traveller from South Africa named Sean to venture with the next day. He had just graduated from a college a few hours west of Cape Town with a degree in business and was looking to take a few months off before heading into the working world. He was making a stop in Genoa on his way to a major port city in the south of Spain where he was looking to work on a yacht for the summer. What an incredibly cool way to spend a summer galavanting around on a multi-million dollar private yacht with all of your expenses paid and a free pass to see the world! We spent some of the day looking around the harbor so Sean could try to find a boat his friend was working on that he thought docked in Genoa the previous day. To no avail we eventually ended up looking at some parts of the city that Nathan and I had skipped the previous day to venture down the coast. Just like the day before, we talked about anything and everything under the sun and used each other as direct sources for information about each others' cultures. Having studied South Africa a bit, I always find it enjoyable to get "inside information" so to speak on the current political and socioeconomic situations. After finding a cheap lunch at a local indoor market that involved half a chicken and a roll to make a gigantic chicken sandwhich for 3 Euro, we went back up to the hostel for a nap so we could go see if there was any nightlife on a Thursday in Genoa. There most definitely was not and we ended up wandering around looking for a cheap pizza before catching a bus back up to the hostel. The bus ride home ended up getting invaded by a group of 40 or so secondary school students from Lisbon who were on their way to Florence and Rome for an art history trip. Must be a hell of a way to learn to actually go see the works of Titan, da Vinci, Michelangelo etc. instead of just having to ponder them in a text book.

Finally on my third day in Genoa the sun decided to come out and I headed to the harbor to get a tan before the rest of the gang from London got into town for the day. I used my previous few days knowledge to give them a tour of the notable parts of the city before we all headed to our bed and breakfast early so we could get up and catch an 8 o'clock train to the our next stop, the Cinque Terre National Park for two days of hiking the Italian Riveria! It was good to see familiar faces again but I had an amazing time in Genoa thanks to Nathan and Sean. Yet another series of eye opening experiences thanks to travelling. I may never see either of those guys again but I will definitely hold on to all of the things I learned from the conversations. What a wonderful beginning to my Italian adventure :)

Still trying to catch up with these posts and am a few cities behind but I am trying my best for those who are interested in what I am doing. I am also trying to find time to post pictures on Fbook soon because I really can't properly describe the grandeur of a lot of these places properly with words.

I hope everyone is adjusting back to the grind of school after SB and is getting ready for the home stretch...I can't believe that we will be seniors next year! Anyways, keep in touch and I'll try to reconnect with everyone when the travels slow down in a week or two. Until then I am currently on a train to Rome and will be headed to Athens on Tuesday I believe :)

Stay in touch and more will come in the near future :) Sorry for grammar mistakes!

Cheers,
Patrick