Tuesday, September 25, 2012

La Città sul Mare (The City by the Sea)

Alas, we finally come to the third and final day of this vacation in the Amalfi Coast!
Upon waking up in Positano, my throat felt horrible and I had completely lost my voice. I was not in great shape, but I stuck it out. My glass of OJ certainly helped me out!

OJ overlooking the sea
Yes, that really is the patio of my hostel. I know, right?

Here, get a better view :)

Hostel Brikette
Here's a shot of the guys on the balcony.

This helps relieve a hangover
Upon getting some cheap food (this hostel really had it all in terms of pricing and fun) for breakfast, we decided to do the long hike back down instead of trying to take a bus. On our way, I managed to snag a couple great photos!

The Positanan Hillside
The houses are really just embedded into the hillside in this sea town. Seems like everyone has a great view of the sea!

Overlooking the Sea again
Just plain beautiful! As we got further down, we rounded a corner and suddenly this came into view! So picturesque!

Positano and Santa Maria Assunta
More on the church later. It truly seems impossible that such beauty could exist in urbanized parts of the world, but the Italians truly have gotten it right.

Finally we got down to the beach and relaxed on the sand, played in the water a bit, and I even walked along down the beach and found a rock to sit on and watch the waves roll in and out for a time.

The Italians definitely like to show off their butts -- this swimsuit was fairly conservative for the men on this beach!

Sexy Swimsuit
We decided to explore the town a bit, checking out the Church of Santa Maria Assunta.

Santa Maria Assunta
I really liked this church, but alas, I was not permitted to take photos inside of it, so this will have to do for you all! There was photos inside showing one of the Popes making a visit to this particular church and being kind to the children, talking to the local townspeople, etc etc... Very cool!

We continued on from the church, looking around in the shops that were hidden in alleyways about the city. I am not joking when I say hidden, they were in any little side alley that you looked down, but there was no real main shopping road except right at the front of the port.

Looking down on one of the side alleys for shopping
Unfortunately, this day was a bit too hot for the beach, so we decided to cut out a little early and get on our way back to Rome. However, on our way out I got a couple great shots!

I think everyone can appreciate "Albergo California" or perhaps more commonly known as "Hotel California"

Hotel California
And finally, perhaps the most beautiful picture that I procured on my entire trip was the last photo. Look at this gorgeous vista, taken from the bus stop in Positano.

Beauty Incarnate
We waited a longgggggggggggggggggggggggggg time for the bus. Remember that group of people that was massive and in the way of us going down the steps from Sorrento? Yeah, they were there too. And because of them, when the essentially full bus DID finally show up, our group almost didn't all make it on. The last member of our group was literally standing on the stairs to the bus when the driver closed the doors. Scary!!!

Let me tell you some more about scary. Our bus driver honked to let any other cars know that he was coming around every corner and in addition to honking, he would quickly cross his heart before every turn in case we all died. Yea, no big deal... just an ordinary bus ride right?

Despite being packed in, standing on a bus winding the small hill roads out of Positano and fearing for my life, it was a rather enjoyable bus ride as the entire time there were amazing views to look at. We eventually got to Sorrento, then took a train to Naples, where we stopped for some famous Napolean Pizza (mine was delicious and stuffed with ricotta cheese), and from Naples got a train back to Rome. By the time we got back, we were quite done with travelling for a time and ready to return to our comfortable beds and hot showers!

And there ends my story of my trip to the Amalfi Coast. Thanks for reading all about it!

Friday, September 21, 2012

L'isola e La Barca (The Island and the Boat)

Before I say anything. Here is the photo that I mentioned before of me and my buddy from Pompeii. What a champ! I couldn't help but give him some of that pastry after this perfectly-captured moment.

True Love
And so the story continues! As a quick reminder, we had just spent the night in Sorrento after a long rainy day. So... bright and early we got a move on because we had a big day planned: Capri!

After grabbing a delicious breakfast at the hostel bar, we started heading down to the harbor to catch the ferry to Capri. Instantly we knew it was going to be an amazing day...

Beauty in Sorrento
We had to hike our way down a like a hundred stairs to the bottom and then walk down that street to the harbor, which was great except for the ravenous pack of wild Americans that were in our way. They were totally hogging the stairs! Ironically enough, we ran into this particular group of travelers many times this weekend in various cities completely by coincidence, and every time they were extremely annoying.


However, we made our way down the lovely street into the harbor, which was also wonderful.

Looking back up the hill to Sorrento
On the ferry to Capri I had a lovely conversation with an Italian woman of about 50 who was with her husband trying to find a place to stay for the night. They noticed that I spoke Italian because they heard me on the phone cancelling our reservations for that night because we wanted to stay in Positano rather than Amalfi, which is where we were planning on staying. 

Upon arrival in Capri, I was absolutely blown away. I had taken one step onto the island and it was just incredible.

My first view of Capri
Yes, this is a real place. It's not just made on a green screen in movies. Of course we had to stop for a photo-op before we even left the dock!

La Bella Capri
We meandered about the harbor area for a bit, checking out the little shops and open-air market. As we walked, we found a sign that said Capri Centrale (Downtown Capri) so we started up a little flight of stairs. Little did we know that this "little flight of stairs" was in fact quite the hike (approximately 25 minutes up to the top) that required a bit of endurance. Along the way, we found out that the house owners don't take kindly to strangers...

"Pay Attention to the Dog and the Landlord"
Although the hike was tiring, it was well worth it. Check out the view from the top!

At the top of Capri
And here's a group photo :)

The Group at the top of Capri
Upon shopping around for decent prices on meals, we found a nice price and wonderful view overlooking the town and sea where we all got some rather delicious pizzas.

Lunchtime!
Although my pizza only cost 10 Euro, I ended up paying 18 Euro because of 3 things:
1) Service Charge (fairly standard in Italy)
2) EXPENSIVE 5 Euro .75 liters of water ( Usually 2 Euro for a 1 liter bottle)
3) Island Tax (Oh come on!)

Needless to say, we didn't exactly buy a lot of things up at the top of Capri. However, here is the wonderful view from our lunch table.

La vista del pranzo
During lunch, we were talking how cool it would be to get married over at the first area where we took our group photo overlooking the area. They have cool pillars and an incredibly open feel that just makes it a perfect wedding spot. You would never believe this, but guess what happened...

Moments after this conversation, these guys rolled up in their sweet car!

Wedding Couple
Of course I had to go up to them and say "Auguri!!!" which means Congratulations! It was such a beautiful moment to witness. 

After the seeing the wedding couple, we were truly loving Capri, but we had sort of seen everything. That is, until we walked around the harbor a bit and found out about a VERY inexpensive boat rental that allowed us to get a boat for 2 hours that fit all 8 of us on it and I got to drive it! No tour guide even came with us. Amazing!

Captain Jason
My first mate, Eric, and I drove us all around the entire Island! Wow, it was undeniably the coolest thing I have done in Italy, and it gets better!

First Mate Eric and I
Kara and I were baffled by the awesomeness of this experience, so we reveled in our enjoyment!

Kara and I
Here's a shot of the boys during our voyage in the sea.

Da Boyz
As we drove around, we came across this really cool lighthouse next to a beachfront resort.

Resort (Left) Lighthouse (Right)
Here's another angle on it, with a sailboat passing by in front.

Lighthouse and Sailboat
All around Capri there were houses on cliffs and in other strange and seemingly dangerous, yet totally amazing locations.

My dream home
We eventually found a perfect spot to anchor at and go swimming. Unfortunately I have no photos of it, but it was amazing! The sun was shining, the water was the perfect temperature. Not cold, but absolutely refreshing! We anchored near a little cave that we swam into and chilled in for a bit. Next to the cave was a bunch of rocks that I climbed up to the top of, and behind all the rocks and the cave was a little, cute, private sandy beach to hang out on. This was definitely the perfect spot for us to stop and relax.

Finally we ended getting back on land, where we hung out by the beach for a while, waiting for our ferry.

Beaching it
As we sat, we attempted to figure out our plans for hostel for the night. Fortunately, we found this perfect Hostel Birkette in Positano that had a bunch of fun young people staying there as well as working there, super cheap drink specials, and really amazing designs all over the walls everywhere. The lady working there when we showed up had promised us a room all to ourselves, but when we arrived it turned out she had forgotten that someone else had checked in there earlier. Fortunately, although we ended up splitting up, she gave a couple people in our group an upgrade to a better room without paying anymore, even though it should have cost more.

The main downside was the hike up to the hostel. The girl working reception didn't inform us of the bus to the top of the hill, so yet again we made a dreadfully tough hike up all the way to the top of Positano. It probably took us a good 45 minutes of extremely steep staircases to make it to the hostel. The shower that I took once we got settled in was much needed!

This is a 3 in Scopa
That night, I learned the very Italian card game of Scopa!! In this game, there are no numbers on the cards, but instead they have pictures that represent the numbers. I managed to pick up the game pretty quickly, playing against one of the Hostel workers who had only lost once. Normally when you play this game, the loser pays for a drink for the winner, but he wasn't going to because it was my first time playing. I told him that I was game to play for a drink anyways. I took him into double overtime and he told me that I did so well that he couldn't accept a drink from me. Here we are!

Giocamo a Carte (Playing Cards)
On my way out of Positano, I absolutely had to buy myself a pack of Scopa playing cards as a souvenir reminder of this fun night, and to show my friends back home the wonders of Scopa!

And so ends day two of my awesome weekend! I promise to finish this weekend very soon as I have more exciting things to tell you about already!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

La Citta Antica di Pompei (The Ancient City of Pompeii)

This last weekend was a real wild one! I went with a group of 7 other friends: Jacob, Jessica, Kara, Devyn, Ally, Meghan, and Eric to the Amalfi Coast. For the sake of my sanity as well as yours, I'm going to split this post into a couple separate ones. Yes, there's that much to tell!

I believe that the smartest place to begin would be Friday :)

Pompei

So.... the first stop on our weekend ferris wheel of traveling was Pompeii, the ancient city that was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in it's famous eruption in 79 AD. The amazing thing about the city is that much of it still stands despite its destruction and the consequential 2000 years. Upon entering the city, I was amazed by the amount of it that was conserved.

However, something that I truly loved about the place were the stray dogs who were so loving and friendly. Although there were signs informing me the danger of petting them, I couldn't resist, particularly with this friendly fellow :)

Friendly Puppy leading us to lunch
This whale of a dog hardly managed to get up and walk around, but he did when we asked him where we could get some food. Kindly enough, he obliged, leading us directly to the cafeteria, even pausing to wait for the stragglers of our group. I grew so attached to him that I ended up nuzzling him a bit and giving him some of my food, the picture of that will come soon enough, I promise :P

As we meandered around Pompeii, I managed to snag some really cool photos! For example, like this giant-sized keyhole in the ceiling of this building :P

Ceiling Keyhole
Or, of these cool statuettes that lined the walls of the same building without having been destroyed.

Statuettes

Continuing on our journey of exploring Pompeii, we found that you could literally just walked into any old house and kind of do whatever the hell you wanted. I climbed up and found a neat series of pillars that I could look down upon from a random house.

Hello, Pillars!
We even found this sweet bachelor pad of a couple of brothers who just partied all day and night because they were so rich. Here's their pool and outdoor lounging area. It's even got a center area to set your drinks down upon while you swim!

Bachelor Pad Pool

Exploring the pad further, I found that they built themselves a nice little rooftop terrace to look out upon the city from.

Rooftop Terrace

All day it was sort of gloomy and mildly drizzly, which would normally ruin sightseeing, but in the case of an ancient city full of dead people, it seemed rather fitting...

Gloomy, yet fitting
 Here was the local bakery, and those big circular things on the right are where men would stick wooden spokes in and hand-crank to generate energy. That'd be a rough job!

Bakery

Here was one of my more favorite rooms, the local tavern. Anyone down to go there for a drink sometime?

Tavern
Near the end of our exploration of Pompeii, I found this little gem of artwork on the ground. It was located, ironically enough, on the other side of those pillars I was looking down upon from a house earlier in the post.

Preserved Artwork
And the entire time we were walking about Pompeii, there was one thing that we truly wanted to see. Dead people. So here it is! The one, the only (well not really, there were a couple), the immortal (jk, he's totally dead), the famous Pompeiian Dead Guy!!!! Supposedly he was slain so quickly by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius that they were able to preserve his body and encase it in some sort of material that appears to be stone for the past couple thousand years.

Pompeiian Dead Guy
After finally seeing the dead guy, we had seen enough of Pompeii and decided to continue onto our next stop, Sorrento. Now, I don't have many pictures of this next part, but boy do I have a story for you.

Arrival in Sorrento
Our arrival in Sorrento was pleasant enough, as you can see from the photo above. However, we unwittingly had decided to book a hostel that in fact was really just a bunch of rickety cabins up in the mountains, away from the nightlife and anything interesting that we could want to do. In case you can't tell in the photo above, this had become a rather wet day, and staying in crappy cabins in the rain did not seem like the most appealing prospect for our group. In addition, we talked to some people who had already checked in and I would like to quote a couple phrases: "We didn't know what we we're getting ourselves into" and "Our roommate booked this, not us!"

Upon hearing these things and strongly desiring warmth and a hot shower, we tried to hop on the next bus back down into the city. The first bus we got on turned out to be a coach bus who, although initially allowing us to pay him, saw the very american looking Jacob and instantly started yelling at us to get off the bus. So back into the rain we went >>

A little bit later, the correct bus came along and we hopped on it going into town with no plan and nowhere to stay. After riding around for a bit, we got off the bus during the pouring rain and ran into a local shop that sold random items (umbrellas, bus tickets, cigarettes, etc) and I (the only italian speaker in the group) had to ask the shop owner where the closest hostel was. She gave me a number, which I then called and had to figure out prices and how to get there etc...

We kind of were unsure on where the hostel actually was, causing us to walk quite a bit in the pouring rain, getting our clothes and backpacks soaking wet! Then, after quite a long walk, we finally arrive at the hostel, only to realize that it was literally right down the street from the train station where we originally left to go to the campground. Irony, you truly are a cruel monster. Fortunately, the hostel was friendly and helpful, getting us beds at a fair rate. 

I didn't mind this hostel at all, but the rooms were a bit tiny.

Small room
However, on the plus side, they had really cool toilet seat covers!

Trip out while you let it out :)
Thus, upon getting settled into our hostel and changing out of our soaking wet clothes, all the members of our group strongly desired a release from the many trials of finding a place to sleep at night. So we went out to dinner, where everyone split a few pizzas as well as ordered some pasta and the wine flowed strongly all night! We had a hilarious little waiter who kept bringing us rounds of limoncello shots for the whole table and doing funny tricks with my hat! Also, we all got a cocktail. Honestly, this was probably the most enjoyable dinner I have had in Italy.

Din Din
After many an hour enjoying great wine, food, company, and warmth, we noticed that the rain had finally settled down and so we went out on the town.

At first, we just grabbed a couple drinks and chilled on the stoop right next door to the liquor store. We went by many a name, but this night, we were known as the children of the stoop...

Children of the Stoop
Many a people came out of that door-to-who-knows-where, but none of them cared that we were all just drinking on their stoop. Very friendly people in Sorrento :)

After the stoop, we ended up in the main piazza of Sorrento, where I snapped this photo of a cool road that appeared to be leading down to the beach.


Although you can't see it, on the wall of the left side is where there was a club and karaoke bar. I danced and sang my heart out all night long. Up on stage, Eric, some random Australian dude who was awesome, and I rocked many a song for the crowd. My favorite of the night was probably Sweet Caroline. Unfortunately, I think it was this karaoke night that sparked the loss of my voice. I still haven't recovered fully, but it's finally improving.

Here's a photo of a Kara and Jessica havin fun dancing :)

Jessica(left) and Kara(right) dancing
After I went back to the hostel, I was skyping Sloan when a couple of really drunk girls walked in and took one look at Sloan and then proceeded to tell me that she was very pretty and too good for me. Then, realizing that she could hear everything they said, continued to compliment her on her beauty, and then went to bed. Rather strange ending to the night, but alas I have to agree with them. Love you babes :)

Man, what a day. And that was only Friday.

Soon to come: Saturday in Capri and Sunday in Positano!