Spring Break III: Cinque Terre & Torino

This is the third and final chronicling of my Spring Break adventures through Italy. The final legs of my journey were the Cinque Terre on the coast of the Ligurian Sea and Torino in northwest Italy. We decided on these destinations for two very different reasons: Cinque Terre because the pictures on Google of the coastline looked absolutely stunning and Torino to enjoy the relaxing comfort that only family can provide. Here we go!

Cinque Terre:

The Chase (a train station story) The excitement of our Cinque Terre trip starts, not on the beaches of the Ligurian, but in bustling Termini Station in Rome. We were a little too relaxed in preparing to catch our train north. We slept-in, ate breakfast, and took our time getting ready that morning. Julie took some extra time to dry her hair, but as she put it, "When a hostel like this provides a hairdryer – you use it!" Anyway, we got to the train station with just enough time to print out our ticket before heading to the platform... except we had no idea where or how to print out our ticket. Cue the music; Flight of the Bumblebee in F-Sharp. We waited in line at Information as the minutes ticked by. Our departure time approached and we began to feel uneasy. Then we started to scramble. The music picks up. With 6 minutes until our train left we decided I needed to run anywhere to find a way to print out the tickets. So for the second time since arriving in Europe, I sprinted like a running-back (that's an American football reference), side-stepping and juking through crowds of people, hopping over suitcases and the crumpled bodies of anyone who got in my way. I ran across the train station to find a small terminal and, after putting in some information and cursing the machine to hurry up, it spit out our tickets. Like a flash, I was back to Julie and we headed toward the platforms. Running up the stairs, I may have heard whimpers behind me, something like, "Trav... slow down... please." I didn't look back. I was in the zone. Of course, I never would have left Julie behind... but thankfully I didn't have to decide. We made it onto our train like champions and left Rome behind in a disheveled, sweaty, out-of-breath stupor. Classic.

LOST + Bonus Reunion #2 For our stay in the Cinque Terre, we had decided to splurge a little for our accommodations. Rather than another hostel close to the train station, we opted to rent an apartment in the first of the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore, a short walk from the coast. We couldn't have been happier. The 1-bed, 1-bath was quaint and clean and we had it all to ourselves. It made it all the more tragic when we thought we might never see it again. You see, the buildings of Riomaggiore were built somewhat hap-hazard along the cliffs leading to the sea, making for many small alleyways and staircases that are almost indistinguishable from each other, especially at night. To put it plainly, for about 45 minutes on our first night, we couldn't find our apartment. We scoured high-and-low the tiny alleys along the main road certain it would be the next one, only to be disappointed and increasingly desperate. Finally, after almost an hour of searching and re-searching and amazingly stumbling across some friends from our study-abroad group (they happened to be visiting the Cinque Terre the same time as us) we came across the familiar door that led to our home-away-from-home by the sea. Sometimes it takes a few moments of misery to make the next ones so happy.

Hike and Be Rewarded The Cinque Terre is amazing no matter who you are or what you do, but in my opinion, the best way to see its beauty is to hike the trails along the cliffs, and the best way to eat there is to enjoy the fantastic seafood. I can safely say that Julie and I had our fill of both. We are not experienced hikers so we stuck to what we believed was a pretty short hike from 5th village, Monterosso, to the 3rd village, Vernazza. It was perfect – right alongside the water most of the way with gorgeous views of the seaside villages and the landscape. We climbed up-and-up until I was sure we would meet the low hanging clouds, then came back down some very steep sets of stairs. Julie was still getting over her cold. She trailed behind me most of the way up and we took frequent breaks to rest our burning legs, but there was a drastic change towards the top. It was like an enormous weight was taken off her back (I took her backpack and carried it the rest of the way) and her pace quickened 3-fold. After that I was struggling to keep up with her! As we trekked on we noticed the people passing in the other direction seemed more fresh and less sweaty so we knew we were reaching the end. We made it to Vernazza and found possibly the most exquisite bit of grub I've ever encountered. Making our way through the town we noticed lots of people with paper cones full of fishy fried goodness. I quickly discovered the origin of these creations from a group of satisfied customers and got the Grande. The beach was close by, so we found a nice spot in the shade, enjoyed our meal and relaxed on the sand watching the people and sea. Bottom Line: You should visit some time.


Torino:

I think visiting Torino was the best decision we made with this trip, because we got to see some of Julie's family from the Philippines. Aunty Melly, Mark Hill, and Franco were very kind hosts, and I couldn't thank them enough for letting us stay in their home. It was really nice to be able to relax after the stresses of travel, and so enlightening to meet many new friends in Julie's big family. We spent dinner with our hosts plus Julie's Aunty Salving and her husband, their sons Mark and John Paul, and Mark's sweet wife Glesie. It was a delightful affair despite the fact that I ate entirely too much. Easter Sunday we spent exploring Torino with Melly, Mark Hill and his girlfriend Sharon then we were taken to some more sites in the hills surrounding the city by the cousins and even more new friends. They were great fun to be with and the evening was full of laughs. All in all it was the perfect end to an amazing through Italy. It was a great time with even greater company.

Well that just about wraps up my Spring Break to Italy. It only took three posts and about three weeks to document. So, it had to be a pretty good trip to come out with all those memories, right? I hope you've enjoyed reading so far. I only have three more weeks left in Europe, so there will only be a few more blog posts left!

Thanks for reading!

The Gate

I'm not sure if anything could have fully prepared me to enter Auschwitz. Walking out of the visitor center towards Auschwitz - I, the fences are apparent. Layered, barbed and electrified, they are more than you would probably see at any normal prison, but this is not a normal prison. The guard towers loom overhead and around the corner is a most infamous piece of history – the gate, "Arbeit Macht Frei," "Work Makes You Free," stares straight through all the those who pass under it just as it did years ago, and just like that you're in the epicenter of the Holocaust.

In the past two weeks, our group has experienced a lot. Not all of it was as distressing as our time at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Before Poland, we went on two short trips to Terezín, another concentration camp, and Kroměříž, home to the old palace of the archbishop of Olomouc, both in the Czech Republic. In Poland we explored the jewel city of Krakow and some of it’s more interesting attractions.



Terezín is a saddening place just like Auschwitz. It was a dual concentration and transit camp, meaning prisoners were detained, starved, and often tortured there, but towards the end of the war it served as a camp which Jews were brought for a short time before being transferred to an extermination camp like Auschwitz. It also bears the mantra "Arbeit Macht Frei" on its front gate. The most interesting part of Terezín is that it was actually used as propaganda tool by the Nazis. In efforts to fool the international community of the realities within their camps and the ghettos, the Nazis cleaned up the camp in Terezín to look hospitable, built fake shops and restaurants, and bribed the Jews to act like they were living comfortably. They even shot a propaganda film there to throw the allies and the rest off their trail. After visiting the former camp we went to a small museum memorializing the arts and culture of the Terezín Jewish ghetto. Though sad, it was inspiring to see the paintings and drawings that artists produced in the Ghetto. In particular, I liked the work of Bedřich Fritta and Leo Haas.



Kroměříž was a vacation spot of the archbishop of Olomouc, so the palace was his summer home. It also seemed to be where he kept most of his stuff. Ornately decorated rooms filled the palace. Notable is the "game room" where the walls are covered in hunting trophies and ancient weapons all the way up to the ceiling. The banquet hall, though, is most famous for being featured in Miloš Forman's film Amadeus. Outside the palace are some beautiful gardens one of which is free to the public and filled with nice vegetation and some animals that roam freely. After the palace tour we visited the ancient wine cellar beneath it still in operation. Walking through the mold-covered stone foundations of the palace was a little disturbing (apparently the mold is perfect for properly aging wine) but the "tasting" at the end was very enjoyable. I say "tasting" because at the frequency at which our guide was opening new bottles it more or less felt like we were guzzling the wine. That's the Czech Republic for you.


Ostrava, Czech Republic was along the way on our trip to Poland. It sits near the border and was formerly the industrial center of the Czech Republic largely due to the large deposits of high quality black coal in its vicinity. While there we stopped by the remains of an enormous steel factory now a museum allowing visitors to walk among the enormous structures and even see the inside of one of the old blast furnaces. It was impressive to see this place and imagine oneself in the life of a Czech steel worker.

A distant factory in Ostrava, Czech Republic

 The four air heaters attached to the blast furnace.

Krakow, Poland is not quite what I expected. I had heard that it wasn't very big and that there wasn't much to see or do. This was completely wrong. Krakow is in fact a bustling city quite similar to Prague, though significantly smaller. Restaurants, cafes and traditional shops are abundant. Many buildings wave the Polish flag proudly, and icons of the city’s legendary dragon, Smok, litter the tourist shops around the main square. My favorite part of our time in Krakow was undoubtedly the Wieliczka Salt Mine just outside the city. I strongly encourage a visit if you have the chance. The second oldest salt mine in Poland, it produced salt from the 13th century until 1996 when the mine was closed due to low salt prices and flooding. Water in a salt mine is very bad news if you were wondering. Now the mine is open to tourists, but don't worry, the entire complex is outfitted with pumps and monitored daily to keep the water out. It's a good thing too because walking through the mine is a breathtaking experience. Rock salt sculptures and reliefs decorate many of the caverns, especially the great chapel, a huge hall which can now be reserved for weddings. There is also a cavern so tall that an it held two records for the highest underground base jump and first underground hot-air balloon flight. Public tours explore the oldest parts of the mine, the top levels about 400ft down, but the whole complex of mines is absolutely humongous – we only saw 1% of it on our tour. It was truly an incredible experience.

The staircase leading down to the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

Auschwitz was the final stop on our journey in Poland. As I went through that infamous gate, I began to realize that I felt – confused, and that feeling never really left me. This was odd. I thought I was pretty well acquainted with the Holocaust. I’ve read several books, I’ve been to the museum in Washington, I’ve listened to accounts of Jews that experienced it, and we were all well prepared for what we were going to see and experience at Auschwitz. But as I saw and listened and walked I couldn’t shake the questions: “why would anyone do this?” and “how could anyone do this?” I know the reasons, but I still couldn’t shake their utter unbelievability. I think I started to really understand how the Jews and the Allies and the international community – even though they heard what the Nazis were doing – still couldn’t believe what was happening at Auschwitz. The Jews didn’t put up much of a fight and the Allies didn’t immediately try to liberate the camps because they just couldn’t believe what they heard was happening there despite all the evidence. I was there, stepping on the same earth as millions of people who suffered and died as well as the people who committed such atrocities, and still couldn’t entirely grasp the reality of what happened. In fact, I felt even more baffled than I had before, and I’m not really sure why. Despite all of this, however, I did have some moments of clarity about Auschwitz. We walked as a group through Auschwitz-Birkenau down the same long stretch along the tracks that so many walked to the gas chambers and their death. Our guide had asked us to remain silent as we walked in memory of them and in that silence I heard the birds and I saw the trees that rose up from the demolished crematoria to a blue sky and sunshine. It felt peaceful. There were no ghosts there, at least not to me. I held onto that thought as we finished our tour. On the whole, seeing Auschwitz was sort of a conflicting experience and a little bit indescribable. I decided not to take any photos while I was there, but it wasn’t a matter of respect for the dead. I wanted to experience Auschwitz without any distraction but my own thoughts and it turned out I was distracted plenty by them alone. It’s certainly a place that must be experienced. I can’t say that I found understanding or even comprehension, but perhaps that’s too much to expect from Auschwitz.

Until next time.
Trav