The rest of Italy!

Addendum:
So one night in Civitavecchia after we'd had dinner, I heard some music coming from the old fortress thing near the port. So I looked in the gate and saw flashing lights and I just HAD to see what was going on. So we walked in there and it was a little local production of an adorable Italian musical! We stayed and watched a couple songs, but since none of us speak Italian we couldn't really be involved in the character development. the little bit of Italian that I know was not particularly useful for the understanding of the plot.

The place that Emily and I found to get internet while we were in Civitavecchia was called the Seamen's Green Turtle. It smelled really bad inside, like dead fish and wet dog. We quickly got our wifi cards and left to go sit on a bench in the nearby piazza.

So. Achilles is our Cabin Steward. He comes in and makes our beds, changes our towels, takes out the trash, etc. Except the past few days that he has tried to come in, Emily and/or I have been in the room! used to he would come once we went to breakfast, but then I think he got used to one or the other of us being in the room til lunch time so today when we were both out hiking mount Vesuvius, he didn't come at all! until we got back. and he decided to knock on our door after lunch. Silly Achilles. (really he takes good care of us and we like him :D)

On another note, in Rome, Trevi fountain is my favorite. I dunno if I said that already, but it is.

OH. here's an interesting story. in between Spain and Italy, I turned my phone off airplane mode so it could pick up some signal and maybe get the right time. Well, apparently that part of the Mediterranean is a time machine, because my phone said it was October 16th, 1999 at 3am! It was kind of ridiculous for a few days, lol.

Pompeii
There was an SaS trip that went to Pompeii, but Emily and I decided to go on our own. We caught the train out of Naples after walking to the station. Naples is creepy as mess. Its one redeeming feature is that it has some neat domes that sit atop the city skyline. It is dirty and sketchy in Naples and on the way to the station, Emily and I decided that nothing would convince us to go out there at night. even the taxis are kind of sketchy. I mean, I'm okay with you looking for business, Mr Taxi Driver, but please don't pull over on the side of the road because two pretty girls are walking down the sidewalk. That's a little excessive. Also, there's a lot of construction going on between the port and the train station. There are a lot of barriers and it makes navigating streets a little more complicated. and creepy.

Anyway, so we got on the train. I've decided that in Europe, the place to see the most graffiti is when you're on the train. They've got some cool stuff. 

Oh wait, before we got on the train, we had to get tickets right? obviously. (unless you just decide to hop a train anyway, which is easy in some places, as we discovered when we went from Rome back to Civitavecchia. o:D) well, we went to go get tickets and Emily was like "to Pompeii, 13:40." or whatever time it was that we left.  and the guy at the booth apparently didn't even speak that much English. so he called this other dude over, who was quite helpful and asked us if we wanted round trip and got us our tickets and told us where to go to get on the train, etc. And he took us to this room to get a train schedule and a map really quick, but to get in this room, he had to like, put a laser pointer up to a sensor to make the sliding glass door move. And apparently it's a little dysfunctional because it took a minute for it to work. So we walked in there and the door closed behind us, as sliding glass doors usually do. But when we were leaving, it didn't open again. >.> There's a button on the side to push to open it, but that didn't work. So the guy hit a button under the desk to open it, but that didn't work either! meanwhile Emily and I are standing there giving each other looks like "whaaaat is goin onnnnn?!" Finally he went over to the system thing in the next room and did something to make it open. and it opened, finally. at a snail's pace. We had to stand there for another thirty seconds just for the gap to be wide enough for us to get through!

That was an amusing anecdote for you, yes? good.

So anyway, at Pompeii, we walked out the train station, took a right, and the park is directly on the left. very easy. We walked around the ruins for about an hour or two. It was really neat, you should go. I mean, really there's not much to say, except there a LOT of ruins. There's some art left on the walls, the streets are pretty much in tact, there's an amphitheater, which is cool... It's a city. A really really old city that got buried by volcanic ash. For me, it was amazing to see the city because I kept thinking about how all of it had been excavated. I mean really, pretty much everything we saw had been painstakingly dug out of the ground. It's amazing the work that archaeologists have done, and are still doing.

I really wanted to see petrified people. But we didn't. we walked all over up and down that place and we somehow missed that one little garden where they have the plaster casts of the bodies. I was highly upset. See, we thought they were in a museum somewhere or something. They're not, apparently. I discovered this because when we came back around to the park exit, I asked the lady where the museum might be, and she replied that there isn't a museum, it's a garden in the park. on the other side of the park. needless to say, we didn't want to walk all the way down there and back again.

There are puppy dogs who live in Pompeii still. :) It was a happy dog town in it's hey-day, and the doggies still live amongst the ruins. It's so cute. and they're taken care of by the park, and you can also adopt a dog from Pompeii! that would be awesome. "oh, hey, that's a cute dog! where'd you get it?" "oh thanks, I just got it from Pompeii.. ^-^" yeah. awesome.

When I check my email late at night, I have to remind myself that it's only late afternoon/early evening where you guys are and that I shouldn't think that you just don't want to talk to me. (that's a plea for some emails, guys.)

Mount Vesuvius and Capri
It was surprising to remember that this was the 4th of July. woo, America! not really, I was way more interested in Mount Vesuvius that day. :P

This was an SaS trip that we went on, hiking Mount Vesuvius! we got up at 645 to get ready and have breakfast and be on the bus by 715! It was an alright bus ride, except for we had to stop at one point and wait like half an hour for some STUPID girl who missed the bus! we were all PISSED. if you miss the bus for an SaS trip, you are NOT supposed to be able to do that. freaking making everyone wait on you. there were some choice words and death glares for that young lady. Except for some of the guys didn't care because she was pretty -.- Seriously, there was one dude who said, when she got on the bus, "eh, it's okay, she's cute, it doesn't matter."  stupid. =.=

Also, I have decided that I HATE hearing Italian women speak English. Have you seen Phantom of the Opera? you know Minnie Driver's character? She adds an -uh to every other word. "yes-uh. You can-uh see-uh, here on your-uh left-uh.." Yeah, it's like that, but about twenty times worse in real life. It is especially unbearable when heard through a bus microphone droning on about unnecessary things. like how we should stick together and follow the guide up the mountain. (which, by the way, was not required.) And somehow it's just the women who are annoying. they have this way of smacking their mouths in between sentences, like a tsk but more exaggerated. and really obnoxious.

okay now that I'm done ranting... we took a bus up most of the mountain, which was a little disappointing because I was ready for some hardcore hiking! HOOAH! but even when we got most of the way up, it still wasn't real hiking, there was a wide path that zigzagged up to the crater. It was a nice walk, the view was gorgeous and there were flowers and butterflies all over the side of the mountain. In particular, shout out to Gramma Judy! I saw a bunch of Queen Anne's Lace and it made me think of going to gramma and papa's and walking with them as they showed me all the plants growing in the yard. :)

Seeing the crater was so cool, there is steam coming out of some of the crevices! Some idiots wanted to get closer though and climbed over the fences keeping us back. really? why would you do that? They got yelled at by angry Italian men and the rest of the SaS group felt embarrassed and apologetic.

There were three little souvenir shops along the way, beginning, middle, and end. At the end I saw this necklace, really really pretty. I debated about getting it for like ten minutes, and finally I did! It's really lovely, it's  a Grecian looking relief of 3 women in hand carved mother of pearl. :) I'm glad I got it.

So that's pretty much it, we walked back down, I managed to not fall on my butt, and we got back on the bus.

After we got back to the ship we showered and packed and went to the island of Capri! :D


Capri
We took the hydrofoil there, it's the fastest ferry across the Tyrrhenian! 45 minutes from Naples to the Marina Grande in Capri. :)

When we got there we didn't know a whole lot about where we were going, so we just walked around with our stuff on our backs.. that wasn't bad, until we started going to up to Central Capri - which is way the heck up the hill! I saw a sign that said Capri - centro, with an arrow, so I said "hey! let's go that way." not the best decision I've ever made. we went up some stairs and up a sidewalk up a hill with walls and gates to houses on both sides.. then we went up some more stairs and another sidewalk with a little tunnel over it. then we got to a street. and there was another sign directing us to the centro. oi. so we hiked up even farther. we saw some adorable little boys who were sitting on their gate step with some little toys and a colouring book or two, presumably selling their wares. it was so cute. Sam wanted to get a picture but the little boy was like "sorry, our mom doesn't like pictures." which makes sense really, I can't imagine my mom being okay with random tourists taking pictures of us either. So then we saw yet another sign directing us to the centro! at this point we were getting out of breath. we passed some girls who were speaking English so we asked them how much farther up it was.. they said we were almost there so we kept going. but those girls were dirty liars because it was still a ways up! more stairs and more hills and climbing upward the entire way! It was more tiring than Vesuvius! D:

When we finally got to the top, it was a bunch of fancy stores and expensive restaurants. -.-  It was a lovely view though, and good exercise I suppose, so it was worth it :) we took the bus back down though. waiting for it though was kind of a pain in the butt. oh, and it's a short bus. it backs into the little parking place and we board and put our tickets through the machine.. standing in line though you can see the back corners of these buses and they are all beat up and have paint scratches on them from where they run into stuff all the time! :O 

So. we got back down to the marina and decided to eat. I had a really yummy caprese panino. mmmm :)

We asked our waitress where a good hotel might be, but she never got back to us. So we decided to just go find one. There were a couple on the next street up (quite literally, up) so we went to the first one and it was 65 each, and the next one was 50 each, with breakfast! woo! so we paid and were immensely relieved to be unencumbered by our bags. There are two keys at this hotel. One unlocks your door and the other you have to insert next to the light switch to make the electricity work! it's amazing. and so efficient! So it's pretty much impossible to leave your lights on when you leave, unless you lock yourself out of your room. And if you go out for anything you have to return your key to the front desk instead of just taking it around with you. It's interesting. and the old Italian men who took care of us were really nice :) they were like sweet grandpas instead of the creepy old men we'd seen in Naples. I really like Capri, I'd definitely like to go back there someday.

When we got settled, we changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach! which was conveniently 20 feet from our hotel. The beach though isn't sand. it's rocks. It's one place where water shoes would be very convenient, even though I generally hate them. Once you're out in the water though it doesn't matter :) and the water is absolutely beautiful and crystal clear. When we were out swimming, it was so clear it seemed like the bottom was much closer than it was. I was like "I'm gonna touch!" and then I almost drowned myself. lol. But then I just put a little more power into it and I touched the bottom. It was only about 9 or 10 feet deep, but it looked about 6 or 7 haha.

Anyway so we swam for a little bit and I found some pieces of sea glass and we saw some other SaS kids and chatted for a bit, then we went back to change because the sun had gone behind the cliff and it was chilly.

After we changed we went back out for dessert and got some gelato and some rose wine at this teeny little wine shop, where they also had jack and coke in a can. it made me lawl.

We hung out in the hotel and played cards and talked for a while and then we went for a walk at night, it was really pretty. we walked down to where all the yachts are. I've decided I want a yacht to live on. It'd be pretty swanky.

Later on we found out that we just missed a bunch of SaS kids partying on the beach right under our hotel. They had left like 20 minutes before we decided to on our walk. boo. I was sad when I heard that.

OH! cool thing about Capri: the taxis! they are convertibles with like, awnings over them for shade. it's so neat! I took pictures. we didn't ride in one though.

SO. we stayed the night and woke up for breakfast, which was great. they gave us some chocolate filled croissants and we had blood orange juice! so delicious. The breakfast room was on the 2nd floor overlooking the water. it was really nice to eat with that view. There were some people out there doing water aerobics, teehee :)

Then we took a bus up to Anacapri, even higher than Central Capri! the bus ride was pretty jerky. and packed like a Japanese subway.

We went to Anacapri because there is this chair lift that takes you to one of the topmost peaks of the island and you can look out over the water and see pretty much everything. The chair lift itself is a one-seater wooden swing contraption without much of a seat-belt at all. I loved it! :D 

At the top there is a little pastry shop and cute places to sit, and some gardens to walk around in. Unfortunately, our decision to go in the morning was dumb, because the fog was still low around the island and we couldn't see ANYTHING down below. I kept looking over and just WILLING the clouds to move.. I could hear the waves crashing and the seagulls calling, but no matter how wide I opened my eyes I just couldn't see that blue water. Even so, Sam, Emily and I all agreed that that was the best 9 Euros we'd spent yet. It was really fantastic. 

We didn't see the blue grotto, but I did get a postcard of it.

The sad thing is, we don't get to see everything. There's just no way. But the things we do see - they're amazing.




and now we're back on the ship on the way to Croatia and I have a Global Studies exam in about twenty minutes!
I'll tell you about being back on the ship in my next entry.
love and hugs!