Catching up!

Sorry, it has been a hectic couple of days and I haven't really gotten to update.

When I left off, we were headed to Capri, right?


Well, previous Romers have said that the first trip you take on your own while in Rome is usually a gigantic cock-up.
This was not entirely true, but pretty close. It was expensive, that's for sure, and mostly due to lack of efficient planning.

When UD had finished with us in Naples, they had a bus drop those of us who wanted to travel that weekend off at the train station and the port of the bay of Naples.
Denise, Anne, Shelsea, and I had no problem whatsoever getting our ferry tickets and boarding the boat. It was a pleasant enough ride, though they don't let you go up on top of the boat...you had to stay below deck where the seats were arranged very similarly to those in airplanes. It was weird--like boarding an aircraft only...on a boat....hmm..

It only took us about an hour to get from the Bay of Naples to Capri. When we exited the boat we had to figure out how to find our hotel. We had with us some very bad directions written by someone whose first language was DEFINITELY not English, and followed them as best we could.

The busses in Capri look like matchboxes with wheels. It is shocking how many people you can cram into these things! It costs about one euro sixty to ride around in these things...insane huh?
We took the bus to Anacapri, exited outside of the church, Santa Sophia, and started walking in what we thought was the direction we were supposed to be going.
Each of us had a heavy backpack and a purse and we were all a little cranky due to hunger and sleep deprivation over the last few days.
We walked for a MILLION YEARS!
The streets in Capri look more like alleys, and they have absolutely NO layout pattern whatsoever.
Not long after we started walking, we were dead lost. I think we walked straight across the middle of the island clear to the other side before a bus came along and we flagged it down, asking the driver where the heck our stupid hotel was.

Eventually, we stumbled upon Bussola di Hermez, a charming hotel run by a very sweet Italian couple.
Immediately upon entering, they provided us with lemonade, a map, and four VERY COMFY beds in an extremely cute bedroom with its own bathroom. We were all in much better moods at that point.
It was getting late, however, and we wanted to get to the beach and catch some sunlight if we could. We rushed into our bathing suits and back out to the lobby where the hotel-owners told us how to get to a beach.

There are no sand beaches in Capri....actually, I wouldn't describe the beach we were at as merely a "rock" beach either..."Cliff beach" would be closer to the truth.
There were still some people left lying out on huge rock slabs or else paddling around in the small cove nearby, but I still don't understand how anyone could call this a "beach"....

Anyway, we all bravely took a dip--it was surprisingly cold for the Mediterranean. Eventually, the waves started smashing up against the rocks pretty violently, and we thought we had better get out if we didn't want to die.
We walked around the cliff--yes CLIFF for a bit, and had a few drinks at a small cafe while we watched the sun set. It was quite lovely :)

After the sun had set, we got back on the bus and made our way back to the hotel to change and ask the hotel-people where a good place to get some food was.
They weren't around, so we just sorta walked out of the hotel and made for the church again. Churches are in the middle of piazzas--piazzas have restaurants....this was our logic anyway.
We ended up running into a HUGE group of other UD-ers, who had just had dinner. They pointed us in the direction of a trendy pizzaria, and made us promise to meet back up with them for drinks after dinner.


The pizzaria was awesome. There was a soccer game on--Naples v. Geneva. Naples was winning, and all the Italian men on the island were there cheering and getting quite drunk. Don't worry, we never once felt uncomfortable, nor were we approached by anyone.
Denise and I split a bottle of wine, Shelsea and Anne had some Peroni (an Italian beer that I recommend you try), and we all got Pizzas :)
Pizza in the united states is crap. I see that now.

I know what you're thinking, and I definitely agree with you. I had drunk quite a lot by the time we finished with dinner. I don't drink a whole lot, but this trip was a definite exception to the rule.

We had tiramisu for dessert--did I spell that right?
It was the most delicious, light, fluffy thing I have ever had. We don't make that stuff correctly back home either.

After dinner, just like we promised, we met up with our friends from school at a bar. I split a beer with John Teresi---PROOOBBAAABBLLYY shouldn't have done that.
I was feeling fine, and thought "what the hell, i'm on vacation"

After THAT, Andrew and Dave told us about this bar/club/lounge place that was supposed to be pretty neat, so we all thought we'd check it out.
DEFINITELY a bad idea.
This place had no cover charge, but charged you 10 euro for your first drink and 8 euro for each after that.
8 euro is average for a cocktail in Italy.

After the walk to this place, I was really starting to feel the effects of that bottle of wine..."now mira",
myself said to myself
"this probably isn't a good idea. it is probably going to be really expensive, and you will get sick"

"shut up"
i said to myself.

only, i said it out loud, and Dave looked at me funny.

Despite what you are NOW probably thinking, the night didn't turn into the disaster that it probably should have.
Thank God for my Eastern European roots and high alcohol tolerance.

We had about two drinks each at RED--the name of the club.
They were delicious. This place has really perfected the ratio of sugar to alcohol. I thought I was drinking lemonade.

We spent a few hours at the club...and at one point thought it would be a good idea to get up and dance---nobody else was, but who cares!

After that we stumbled home and passed out.
Pretty uneventful, really. I was just so shocked with myself for drinking that much over the course of the evening that I think I expected something catastrophic to happen. I wasn't even hung over the next day.
sweet.

Regardless, I don't think I will be doing that again. It was a really pricey and slightly ridiculous evening.


The next day, we got up super early and ran to catch the bus, so we could catch the ferry, so we could catch a train, so that we could catch the metro, so that we could catch ANOTHER bus back to campus.

Class started at 2:15pm--and we raced through the door, panting and quite dirty (we ran out of clean clothes AGES ago) ten minutes late.
Everyone giggled.

On the whole, it was a good weekend.
Next time, I am planning better.