Cinque Terre AKA paradise!

This place is absolutely beautiful. Green hills, rocky coastlines, colorful villas situated perfectly near the water. It is so great to be out of the cities. The village where my hostel is has one restaurant and a small convenience store. Not so convenient but the peacefulness makes up for it. Night one, football game of course. I meet Cassi, a 17 year old from Australia traveling solo for a year. And I thought I was crazy. I could never imagine doing something like this at that age alone for a year. She seemed to have it down and I give her a lot of credit for it. Also meet Rich and Alex, two Americans traveling solo and Bianca from Australia as well. We make plans to take the 9 km hike though Cinque Terre in the morning. 7am we are on a bus to the first town of Riomaggiore. Quick breakfast and we are on our way through the "moderate to difficult" hike. City one and two are easy. We are mocking the intensity of the hike, paved trails, an elevator option at one point. We meet a lot of people from everywhere as the sun blazes and the sweat is pouring. Ok, I take back all the jokes about it being too easy. We arrive at the 4th village and sit near the beach for a bit. We can see the next village and a big beach not far away. Jumping in that water will be our reward after the hike so we take off. First attempt, dead end. Second attempt, definitely a hiking trail but nearly straight up. The guys are long gone. Bianca and I take breaks as needed and question turning back. We are miserable, hot, tired and she is breaking out in rashes. "It has to flatten out soon" are my reassuring words every 10 or 20 minutes. Actually it doesnt. Two hours later we have came across 3 other hikers and we are still climbing up the cliffs. We later find out that we took the much more difficult 8b hike instead of the common 8a along the lower part of the cliffs. By far the most intense and beautiful hike I have ever done. After our near death experience(slight exaggeration) beers, food and swimming in the ocean were our much needed reward. This is exactly what I was looking for after big city traveling and minimal to no intense physical exercise for the past 6 weeks. The next day we switch hostels to be in the villages and rent kayaks. This place is so great! Have I said that already. I have been debating Switzerland or France for a while and decide that Interlocken, Switzerland is my next destination. Cinque Terre, I will be back!