The Weekend Trip - Naples, Capri, Pompeii
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
10
20
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Friday:
Friday we had early classes so that we would have a longer weekend. Classes are boring, so there is nothing to tell you about that. After class, we all head back to the hotel. Some people left to go on their trips right away, and some of us waited until Saturday morning. Amber and I went back to the hotel and took a short nap because we were exhausted after the long week. We woke up and went to see the Boboli gardens before it closed. We met a bunch of friends there from our program and walked around with them. I was a little disappointed, because for being a garden, it sure didn't have a lot of flowers. It was basically a huge estate of bushes, trees and greens. It was very gorgeous, and huge, but I wish that they had more gardens. After that, we walked home and ate dinner at a Kebob place by the river. It was pretty good, but it was my second Kebob for the day, so not that exciting
view of the river in Florence
. (Amber and I stopped at a place that we've been wanting to go to for lunch and ate Kebobs too). We took our time walking back to the hotel, and hung out for the rest of the night. Since we had to wake up early, we decided to make it almost an all-nighter. We went out on the town with some friends, made a big dinner for the three of us when we got back, and packed until early morning. Saturday:
We had to wake up early on Saturday for a 6:40 train. Our alarm was set for 5:30, and after 1 hour of sleep, we were off to Naples. Amber and I made the trip mostly on our own because a lot of people wanted to stay back and rest, some people went to Milan, and some other went to another beach. Our train to Rome was a little late, so we missed our lay-over train to Naples. Ugh. Of course this would happen to us. So we exchange our tickets and get on a later train, but that gives us less time to visit Pompeii like we wanted. We ate at McDonalds while at the train station - you wouldn't believe how much we miss American food!!! I don't even like McDonald's, but some how I keep eating there. There is no Taco Bell, Wendy's, Arby's, or Subway. I'm lost over here. All of the restaurants sell the exact same thing. And I'm not impressed with hardly any of it. Each course is about 10 euros a piece, and it doesn't come with anything. So, it never fills you up. And if you want a drink (even water) with your meal, add at least 2 euro, but more likely 3.50 or 4 euro
Bobali Gardens
. The prices are ridiculous over here. Anyway, I digress. We got on our train to Naples, and of course I dozed off a bit. When we reached Naples, we walked to our hostel. I had heard that Naples was the ghetto of Italy, but wow. It really was. Trash was all over the streets. The buildings were all run down, and the sidewalks were covered with street vendors selling hot items, mostly purses and sunglasses.
Our hostel was on the 7th floor, and we had to pay a nickel to use the elevator. This place is so weird. You have to pay for elevators, bathrooms, internet, grocery bags. Everything. We dropped off our stuff and went out to explore the city. We ditched the Pompeii idea because we thought we wouldn't have enough time to enjoy it, so we put it on the schedule for Monday, and figured we would spend less time in Capri.
In Naples, we walked along the water, which was beautiful. We also got to walk around a Spanish Castle that was still in tact. Compared to the Roman ruins that we have had the pleasure of seeing, the Spanish could have been a little more creative. I mean, it was very plain for a castle. Still an awesome view of the sea though.
That tour didn't take long, and we were off to explore more of the city. We reached a plaza after a couple blocks that had some kind of stadium set up in the middle. We checked it out and realized that it was an international equestrian match, AND it was free, which was the best part.
some statue and green stuff
We hung out and ate some pizza while waiting for it to begin. It was a long wait in the sun, but we didn't have any pressing plans, so we sat and enjoyed the atmosphere. Mostly, I made faces at the little boy in the row in front of us. He was shooting some kind of deathly laser beam from his plastic coke bottle, and I was obviously very very scared. After watching a few riders, and seeing the US guy knock off a pole and miss a jump on the first run, we decided to go for some dinner. We returned to the hostel pretty early, made some friends with some other American students and watched movies in the common room until it was time to go to bed. Over all it was a fun, but relaxing day.Sunday:
Up early to go to CAPRI!!!! Breakfast at the hostel, and then we caught the ferry to Capri. It was a fun ride, although by the end, I was a little sick. We reached Capri and needed to ride a bus to Anacapri, but woah....look at that line!! After walking around obviously confused and asking various people about how we got tickets, we got in line and waited for somewhere between ½ hour and forever. The busses were packed like sardines, but they were smaller, so they didn't hold a lot of people. Some couple tried to cut into line in front of Amber. Of course, I wouldn't have that. The guy behind us started yelling at them, but they persisted. I deliberately, but slyly angled myself so that they could not get by and had Amber do the same. We successfully cut them off from cutting in front of us at least
pretty view
. When they realized that they weren't getting far, they actually got mad, left the line and threw their tickets on the ground. Mission accomplished. And we were on our way to our hostel.We were dropped off at the bus stop and had to walk to our hostel. Most of the streets in Capri are only walking streets. The were cobblestone and residential - very beautiful, and very different from what we are used to. Our hotel was very nice. We were served a croissant and the lemon juice that Capri is known for when we checked in. But we didn't stay long. We dropped off our stuff, changed into our bathing suits and headed out. First we stopped for lunch at a place that was supposed to be cheap and good. It was neither. We followed that we a trip up a chair lift to the highest mountain on the island to get a beautiful view. It was gorgeous and almost made me want to ski, except it was a little warm for that. It took 12 minutes to the top, and 12 minutes down. When we got back down, I was hungry for ice cream because the lunch didn't fill us up. Mmmm...gelato. I got two different kinds with chocolate in them - didn't really care what they were as long as they had chocolate.
With that, we were off to the beach. Another short bus that swerved around the sharp turns and made me sick. I've had just about enough of these bus, train, and ferry rides making me sick. They need to work on their transportation system over here. Anyway, we reach the "beach" by walking down about 100 steps to a very strange slab of concrete by the water
building at the top of the gardens
. Wait. Is this the beach? I thought I asked the lady at the hostel how to get to the beach? So Amber and I laid on some of the chairs on the cement slabs for a good 15 minutes before a man approached amber. "Excuse me - you pay?" What? Sheesh - these guys are getting out of control with all this paying for stuff. So I ask how much. Apparently its 20 euro to sit down on a chair. We take the second option and lay out our towels on the concrete slab by the water. For those of you who don't know the exchange rate, we would have paid around $30 a piece to use a chair for a few hours. Some beach. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our time there. I got a tan, and amber got a nice burn. The water was a little cold for me, but amber got in. The only way to get in was to dive off the rock into the water. It was constantly pounding against it though, so you had to jump at the right time or it could be dangerous. Amber got a little taste of this on her way out. She was going for the ladder to get out when a big wave came and lifted her towards the wall. She grabbed on and tried to steady herself. Too late though because that wave immediately receded and the water dropped a good ten feet, and she fell along with it. Luckily, she was ok, swallowed a little water when the next wave hit, but eventually regained her bearings and got out of the water. Again, I was not about to get in....
We returned back to Anacapri from the beach and stopped at a little restaurant in town that looked cheap and good
another view
. Again, it was neither. They apparently were shutting down the kitchen at around 6pm, so we could only get sandwiches and salad. I'm not a fan of either and she eventually agreed to let me get some pizza. We headed back to the hotel, and changed and decided to go for a walk.It wasn't dark yet, so we decided to head towards the water. There was also a restaurant sign that pointed the way we were heading, and we were intrigued. Yes, we ate several times already, but were yet to be satisfied with any of it. Apparently third time is a charm as far as restaurant choice goes. It was a beautiful secluded restaurant with a great view of the water. We sat and watched the sun go down, and Amber and I split some spaghetti and French fries. I know - a good combination - but you have to remember that the choices are limited over here. The food was delicious, we even got a free appetizer (first thing we've gotten for free over here!!!). And we got some kind of dessert that was just drenched in chocolate. Perfect. It was a great end to the day, and we headed back to our hotel. Early bedtime because we had an early start for Pompeii.
Monday:
Up early with breakfast at the hotel and a ferry back across to Naples. We then bought a ticket package to Pompeii that included entrance to the ruins. Since the bus ride, the ferry and then the train was a lot of travel it was after lunch until we finally arrived in Pompeii. That's right - the hottest part of the day
nice view, but ugly faces
. We went into the park carrying our bookbags because we had nothing else to do with them. The sun was beating down on us mercilessly, and we were exhausted. Apparently, we also missed the part where everyone in the city got a map except us. So we were walking around aimlessly trying not to get lost and kind of clueless to what we were looking at. We obviously needed to pay extra for a tour guide because signs are a rarity and information is costly. We got a little frustrated after walking around and seeing the ruins everywhere but with no idea what we were looking at. By this point, we had seen tons of ruins in Rome, Pisa, and all over Italy. This was a complete city of ruins, but we were hot, tired, and clueless. So we did some thinking and wanted to save some time to get to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, so we exited the park after a couple hours to buy tickets to get to the Volcano. Of course, after walking around to find the ticket booth (third times the charm again), we are told that we can only pay in cash, and we didn't have enough since we had to pay our hotel bill in cash also. What? Is this not a tourist location? Are we not in the 21st century here? I mean, just because the city ruins are from the first century doesn't mean that our method of payment has to be...
So, we find an ATM and get some cash. We go back and ask how much time it takes to get to the top and back. Three hours (but she can't count because it really would have taken four)
gate to the top garden
. And that would put us just over the time that we needed to be back to catch our train. Our plans fail again. But we now have all this cash, and we can't get back into the ruins, so what do we do? Shop of course. There are market-style stores along the streets, and we have money burning a hole in our pockets. Don't worry, I have this bargaining thing down to a science, and I've been teaching my young apprentice the art as well. Her methods are coming along nicely, and by the end of the shopping spree she somehow bought a 40 euro necklace for 10. nice work. After that, we caught the train to the train and then the train again until we finally reached Florence. Ahh, home sweet home? Whatever it is, we were glad to be back and ready for a good night's sleep.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was a return to the normal grind: boring classes that seem to never end and Florence food that just is not that good. We made dinner in the apartment tonight to save money and because we can obviously make better food than the Italians. We went for our favorite - tuna alfredo pasta (or something like that) with a salad and green beans. While that was cooking, I worked on dessert - a graham cracker crust, layer of cream cheese and a layer of chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top. At least I got rid of most of the ingredients that I needed to before we leave on Saturday. And it somehow tasted good too.
After dinner, we went with some friends to watch the soccer games at one of the local bars. They don't have restaurants like we do, so this is where you go to watch the game. It was Italy v. France - a big rivalry, and a very good game. Luckily Italy won 2-0. Good game. Good night. Good weekend. And we're back to the grueling week.
