Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Pompeii Weekend

This past weekend was an interesting one. It definitely not what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting to spend the entire weekend on the beach, but that is not what happened. Get ready for a very good blog entry.

It all started on Friday morning. We had to wake up at 5:45am and left the apartment at 6:15am. We had to hop the tram and walk over to the Piazza to get on the bus, which left at 7am. It was an extremely early morning and I was tired and crabby. We were only 20 minutes into the bus ride when Bliss got motion sick. She puked up her breakfast (an apple). Then said she was feeling great. Not even 10 minutes later she puked again. We finally moved Bliss to the front seat of the bus. As in front seat I mean a little pull out seat next to the bus driver. This was the first time that I have felt home sick since coming to Rome. I would have given anything for mom or dad to be there to take care of Bliss.

After getting to Naples, we took the ferry to Capri. It was raining. And continued to rain. We were supposed to take a boat ride to the blue grotto once we got to Capri, but that was cancelled because of the weather. Stephanie (our tour guide) decided that we would take the bus to our hotel. The buses in Capri are about a fourth of the size of a normal bus. And you have to wait in line for a long time to get on the bus. The taxis drivers kept driving to get us to go with them, but Stephanie refused. However, after an hour and no bus showing up, she finally gave in to take the buses. Apparently all the transportation on the island is run by one family. So basically there was a caspiracy to get us to take the cabs (which are convertibles) and spend more money. At this point in time, it was still raining.

We finally made it to the hotel. It was in Anacapri, not Capri. Se we were on the outskirts of the main city. Capri is basically on a huge hill. Bliss and I got our own little villa. Which was kinda cute, but nothing special. The hotel was located a long distance from any food or shopping. And all the food and shopping was located on the top of the hill. Which was a really long hike up the hill.

We ate lunch at a pizzeria which was on the top of the hill. Transportation was not provided by our tour guide. So we had to walk all the way. And the food wasn't even anything amazing. After lunch we went to a shoe shop where I bought a pair of handmade sandals. We got to pick out a sole and the color of the straps. There were 45 different styles to choose from. We also got to taste limonchello. This is a lemon alcohol drink that is drank after a meal for digestion. And it is extremely strong.

After limonchello and shoe shopping, we did a little more shopping around Anacapri. When we walked all the way down the hill back to the hotel, Bliss, Tim, and I all took a nap. Then had to wake up to go to a group dinner down the hill. It was a three course meal. The appetizers included calamari, which had actual tenticles. It was disgusting. And my main course involved a steak which was cooked in tomatoe sauce. Which also was kind of disgusting. There was also rice with clams, shrimp, and more tenticles (puke!)

Now we move onto Saturday. Saturday started with breakfast at the hotel. Tim as told he couldn't eat because he was in a villa that wasn't associated with the actual hotel. We were all extremely pissed off about it. So we planned to sneak Tim food out of the hotel. But he ended up eating with the couple who owned the villa that he was staying in.

After breakfast, we took a shuttle to to downtown Capri. This area is known as designer heaven. We were given the opportunity to do some shopping, but of course I don't have the money to shop at Prada, so we skipped out on the shopping and got some donuts. We were charged a sitting fee to sit and eat our donuts. Before we got our donuts, we went to a park that had a nice view of the sea. Let me point out that it is still raining. When we were walking down the stairs from the park I fell down the stairs. My flip flop went flying all the way down the stairs and everyone laughed at me. Which is okay because I was laughing too, since I kept telling everyone I was gonna fall.

After we met up with the rest of the group, we took a trolley cart thing down to the port. Stephanie informed us that our ferry to Postiano was cancelled because of the weather, so we were going to take a bigger ferry to Sorrento instead. Our original plan for the morning was to go to the blue grotto, but that didn't happen either. Our plans have changed a ton of times already, and it was only Saturday morning. Again let me point out that it is still raining.

Once we got to Sorrento, we had to walk to the top of this mountain in order to get to the town. Again, transportation wasn't provided. I thought I was going to pass out and die before I reached the top. Once we finally made it to the top, Tim, Bliss, Tynisha, and I had lunch at Restaurant Aurora. In the dessert menu, it said "the trolley." Which instantly reminded me of Harry Potter, "anything off the trolley?" :) An Italaian woman asked us if it was okay if she smoked (where we were sitting outside the restaurant). She was probably the most considerate Italian person I have met.

After lunch we did some major gift shopping. Sorrento is a great area to do cheap shopping. We caught the last ferry ride back to Capri. We waited about an hour for the ferry to come. It was till raining and the weather was bad. The ferry that we took back to Capri was smaller than the one we took to Sorrento. The ferry ride was absolutely crazy. It was so wavy that I was flying out of my seat. There were a ton of people on the ferry puking. I was enjoying myself up until the end. The noise and smell of all the puke was really getting to me. I just got a little weezy.

Once we landed in Capri, we tried to take the bus again. We waited 45 minutes and finally gave in to get a taxis. At this point I had a terrible migraine. I thought I was going to die. When we got back to the hotel, I took some migraine medicine and attempted to take a nap. Bliss, Tynisha, nd Tim all went to get some wine so that I could have a little bit of quiet time. My migraine just continously got worse, so I took even more medicine and eventually passed out.

When everyone got back, we went to dinner. We had to hike up the hill to get to the restaurant. And again, I am not sure if it was worth it our not. I ended up going to bed right when we got back from the restaurant.

Our shuttle left at 10:45am Sunday morning for the port. We were supposed to take a ferry to Naples, but that got cancelled due to the weather. So we ended up taking a ferry back to Sorrento, where our coach bus was going to meet us. We had to wait an hour for the ferry to Sorrento to come. And the ferry was 20 minutes late.

Once we finally made it to Sorrento, we attempted to wait for our bus down by the port. However, the Sorrento mafia stood in our way. In Sorrento, the transportation is also owned by one family. The Sorrento mafia informed us that the bus wasn't allowed to come down to the port. They wanted us to pay to use their buses to get to the top of the hill to get to our bus. They informed us that we would get fined if the bus came down to the port. Apparently their cousins run the police station in Sorrento.

So we had to hike back up the hill with all of our suitcases. I literally thought I was going to pass out. I was huffing and puffing the whole way and could barely breathe once I reached to the top. Once getting to the top, we had to walk all over Sorrento to find our bus, because he wouldn't come to us. I was practically crawling on the ground by the time I reached the bus.

We were then headed to Pompeii. Where we would have the choice to tour Pompeii or hike Mount Vesuvius. On the bus ride there, we were informed that we could no longer hike Mount Vesuvius because the workers were on strike. So everyone had to tour Pompeii.

Pompeii is all about the penis. The penis is considered a good luck charm and also represents fertility. There are penis souvenirs everywhere. When touring Pompeii, the only exciting part was the brothels in the red light district. In the brothels, there are murals on the wall of different sex pictures. When a man came in, he would point at a sex position and that is what him and the prostitute would do on the stone bed.

After Pompeii, we took an hour bus ride to a mozarella factory. The place smelled absolutely disgusting. And I really didn't want to see how cheese was made. I was tired and crabby and just wanted to go home. We finally hoped back on the bus to Rome and didn't get to Rome until after 10:30pm. The bus driver had even taken a feew wrong turns along the way. The ride to Rome was the longest ride ver.

When we finally made it back, we walked to the tram stop and waited 20 minutes for the tram before we decided to start walking. We couldn't figure out why the trams weren't running. Luckily we caught a bus, but we were packed in it like sardines. The bus ended up going way past our stop. So once we finally got off, we had to trek all the way back to our apartment. We realized why the trams weren't running. A taxis had hit a person in the tram tracks. The taxis windshield was all smashed where the persons head had hit.

I have never been so happy to be back in a bed that wasn't mine. It was like heaven. I checked my email for the first time that weekend to find out that one of my flights I booked isn't really booked through the agency. They hadn't sent me a confirmation, so I emailed them prior to leaving for the weekend. They emailed me back to inform me that the confirmation number I had given them wasn't working. I had checked my credit card statement to find that they had charged me for the flight, but apparently my reservation doesn't exist. So now I have to deal with that whole situation.

And to top the weekend off, Michael's mom wrote on his facebook wall. She was asking if he was okay because she had recieved a phone call from Fort Campbell, but they didn't leave a message. And no one has heard from Michael in a couple of days. So now I am panicking about that situation. This is all way to much for me to handle. I just wish this past weekend didn't happen and that Michael would call me. I am stressed to the max and in dire need of some relaxation. Which is sad considering I am living in a vacation spot.