Paris->Torino->Cinqua Terre

Whoa! Been a while since I've posted. To fill you in. I took a bus from London to Paris. As you might imagine this was rather a long trip. It was estimated to take eight hours...it took twelve. Apparently, our bus was chosen as the one French authorities cited as being the most hazardous to national security. This, however, due to our bus drivers language, was only the italian riders. To the rest of us, we stopped at arandom station as other vehicles drove by. After a while customs agents entered the bus and collected everyone's passport. Individuals were called one by one to be interviewed (not me thankfully). After this everyone was ushered into this small station and from following the lead of other riders we brought our bags along. Apparently this procedure brought up nothing unusual, and we were, after a long delay, aloud to head on our way.
Paris was a super short trip. I had six hours between my bus arriving, and my train departing. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Cathedral's, and the Louvre at a fairly rapid pace. My favorite part was the pastry I had on the way back. I walked into a bakery and pointed at what looked best. The women picked the item next to that one, but I didn't feel like (or have the capability without being a total neanderthal) to explain. IT WAS DELICIOUS. It was somewhat like a cream puff, but way better. I don't know how else to explain it.
From there I grabbed the train to Torino (Turin, the one with the olympics a few years back). I got in late and stayed at a small (cheap) hotel in the downtown. From the outside it wasn't much but it was the first time I'd slept in a real bed since May 14th. Blissful. After a day of wandering, drinking espresso, eating paninis and gelato I headed back to crash at the train station before a 5 am train to Riomaggiore. This was fairly inconsequential except for at around one in the morning a woman sleeping on a bench nearby stood up, recited some sort of Eastern European chant, pulled down her pants and relieved herself on the floor. I moved.
On the train ride to Riomaggiore I met a cute older couple from Denmark who were also going to tour Cinqua Terre. They were the sweetest things. They held hands on the ride. Just awesome, and actually it was the first English conversation I'd had with anyone since leaving London.
There's not a lot of words I can use to describe Cinqua Terre. Just google image search it.
ciao