Weekend Adventures

This is going to be a long post, because it covers the rest of Friday up until Sunday evening, and it was a very eventful weekend. Also, don't click below the cut unless you're confident in your computer's ability to handle lots of pictures--and I really mean lots, I only managed to pare it down to thirty. They'll appear smaller than normal so that this isn't too abhorrently long (click for the full size image, as always), but be prepared for a possibly slow-loading page!

First of all, our silly group of adventurers:

I don't have a picture of the group as a whole, sadly. The top left picture is Mark and Maggie, the top right is Lauren, Brittney, and Sarah, the bottom left is Alex and some random person, and the bottom right is the most complete group picture I have. Starting from the back left is the back of Brittney's head, Kimia, Christine, the back of Joe's head, Lauren, Will (barely visible in the corner), Sarah, Drew, and then in front (sadly washed out by the flash) are Maggie on the left and Mark on the right. Alex is sitting across from me and thus not in the shot.

So, continuing on the story from Friday...yeah, we missed our train. By literally less than a minute--we managed to get to the station, sent a few people off to validate our tickets while the rest of us frantically ran to the platform with our bags, and actually had a few people on the train right before the doors closed. They had to hop back off to join the rest of us, of course, since the two people in charge of validating the tickets were still running toward us with all of our tickets in hand. The good news is that our tickets were good for any other time that our particular regional train was running that Friday...the bad news was that the next two trains were already completely booked, so we had to hang around for the 6:30 one and if we missed that one, then we would have to crawl back to the Centro in shame. Thankfully, we not only managed to get on our 6:30 train, we also got on early enough to get seats, so we weren't standing for an hour or so like some of the other travelers (the train clears out as it moves down the line--the actual ride to Naples was approximately 3 hours long, since it's a regional train and makes lots of stops). So we finally made it to Naples at a little after 9:00 and went to find the smaller train that would take us to our final destination for the evening--Sorrento. That was another hour spent on the train, and when we finally got to Sorrento (and promptly got lost, again, on our way to the hostel) and got settled in, it was about midnight. Some people went out to find proper food, I opted instead for a quick shower and dropping into bed to sleep like the dead.

Our hostel room--yes, there are actually seven beds in there. I learned something very important about hostels on this trip--the adage about getting what you pay for is very true indeed. We arrived at the hostel to find out that they had added in a seventh person to the six-person room we'd paid for. Our mysterious seventh person was very nice, but we were not expecting to have another person in the room. The hot water was broken by Saturday morning (and the shower water was far colder than any drinking water you can buy here!), and on Sunday morning we found that the lights had gone out as well. I think the group of us that were in the broken room were pretty glad to leave by that point. Of course, we hardly spent any time in the hostel anyway!

Here's the only real picture I have of Sorrento from this trip, taken from the harbor before we hopped on the boat. I really do like Sorrento, it's a nice little seaside town (if a bit touristy), but we didn't spend much time there on this trip.

One of the more interesting things about waking up on Saturday in Sorrento was actually taking a look at what I'd packed in my mad rush to get out the door on Friday. I had managed to bring enough shirts, which was good. I didn't have a swimsuit, but then again I didn't even bring one to Rome--I had something I could wear if we went swimming (which I didn't end up doing anyway). I had forgotten to pack any extra pants, so I just had the ones I was wearing, and a pair of shorts, which wasn't really a problem; but I had also forgotten to pack any extra socks, and that definitely was a problem. I have a very annoying blister now, had to throw the socks away, and I still haven't gotten my package from home with my new socks and moleskin :( I remembered to bring my Latin homework, which (of course) I never actually looked at while on the trip. I did get the historical readings for Monday done, though! ...and then when it came time to actually discuss what we'd read on Monday, I was so exhausted that I just about completely forgot everything I'd read. But I'm getting ahead of myself and I doubt you people care about my schoolwork anyway :P

Saturday, we headed out to our main goal for traveling that weekend--a day in Capri. For those who don't know, Capri is a gorgeous little island in the Mediterranean Sea, about a twenty minute ferry ride from Sorrento. Its main tourist attraction is a little half-underwater cavern called the Blue Grotto, where the light from the very small entrance reflects on the water to turn the (already beautiful) water an incredibly brilliant blue. Or so I've heard--I've never actually seen it myself; I couldn't justify spending the twenty-odd euros on this trip when I can just wait until my parents come visit me and go to Capri with them :) That's not the only reason people go to Capri though--there are supposedly some beautiful beaches, and the island itself is lovely (hence all of the pictures of it at the end of this post!) So naturally there are thousands of tourists all over the island, and the prices skyrocket accordingly. Thus it seemed, in my sleep-deprived, overly-enthusiastic mind, a good idea to avoid spending too much money, including the money I might normally spend on the bus or tram up to the main Capri town from the harbor. This wasn't too bad, other than nearly being run over several times (there's a lack of sidewalks and Italian drivers are frightening) and wheezing my way up the steep pathways. However, this desire to save money also led me to decide to accompany my fellow economically-conscious Centristi up to see Tiberius' Villa rather than the Blue Grotto.

Yes Magistra, apparently I took leave of my senses for long enough to think that willingly repeating the Capri Death March was, if not a good idea, at least an acceptable one. (Note to future self: IT'S NOT.)

For the rest of you, Tiberius' Villa, also known as the Villa Iovis, is the fairly well-kept remains of the leisure villa of the early Roman emperor Tiberius, who enjoyed Capri enough to build his villa there and rule from it for the last years of his life. And of course, if you're going to build an imperial palace on a beautiful island like Capri, you would want it with a wonderful view...so the Villa is about two kilometers of absurdly steep pathways from Capri town. Hiking enthusiasts might enjoy it--I think it's a disgustingly difficult climb, made worse by my breathing issues which mean that I had to stop and gasp for air about every five minutes. Alex, who was climbing with me, was wonderfully patient not only with my constant stops to breathe, but also my probable ADD manifesting itself in random chirps of "ooh, lizard!" or "ooh, pretty flower" or "KITTY!" every fifty feet we moved. Thanks for putting up with me, Alex--you're the best :)

I did manage to find the little path off to the side near the top that opens onto a fantastic view of the sea below...if I could overcome my mild fear of heights, exacerbated by the fact that there are no guard rails or anything, it's literally a tiny path that stops right at the edge of the cliff. Yes, I went out onto the cliff, oohed and ahhed a bit at the gorgeous view, then headed back to the normal path to hyperventilate for a bit. And because I love you all so much, behold the fruits of my labors:

Yes, it's a silly picture. That's my "oh gods take the picture so I can get away from this cliff face already!" smile.

Of course, I had to have a reason to make that hike (other than just wanting not to be left all alone in Capri town, which was really a pretty compelling reason by itself), and that reason was that Tiberius' villa is really cool. So naturally there are lots of pictures of it.

Here I am at the top of the mountain, right before we actually head in to see the villa. The views are gorgeous from pretty much anywhere on Capri, but they're best from the top.

 Some of my favorite pictures of the villa itself. It's a great example of Roman architecture and brickwork, and although I know the vegetation growing around it is very bad for preservation, I still think it's beautiful.

Now, just because it's an old Roman villa at the top of an unpleasantly long and steep climb doesn't mean it's currently uninhabited.

Yep, there are goats at the villa. They're pretty nonchalant about visitors, so they'll let you get pretty close for pictures. And yes, the second picture is of me grinning like an idiot while pointing to the goats. Alex was kind enough to indulge my overenthusiastic love of animals and take the picture for me. The conversation basically went like this:
Me: Oooh, I forgot about the goats! Hello goats!
Alex: (sarcastically) Do you want me to take a picture of you with the goats?
Me: Oh yeah, that would be fun!
Alex: I didn't mean that seriously, but you're actually going to want to take a picture with the goats, aren't you?

This little one was the more confusing visitor that we saw--I don't think I've ever seen a bird like that outside of a pet store. He was very pretty, and Alex had to drag me away from him too, so we could keep exploring and eventually trek back down to get lunch.

We headed back down to Capri town, and I sought out the restaurant that I'd been to last time I was in Capri, since I remembered the pizza being really good. As you can see, I found my pizza (and the wonderful view that I was also looking for). Sadly, the place was significantly more expensive than I had remembered, with some sneaky service charges that I regret not challenging. If you go anywhere touristy, be very careful about the places you eat--make sure you ask beforehand about seating, bread, and service charges. And, of course, make sure you're not unknowingly buying 5 euro bottles of water :(

We had been told that we had to try the Caprese torte on the island, but we were feeling pretty burned by the last restaurant and decided to walk back down to the harbor to wait for the rest of our group. I found a nice little tote bag that wasn't too expensive (I really didn't want to try to pack all my clothes back in my backpack like I'd done for the trip out--I forgot to bring a smaller suitcase for weekend trips), and we wandered around looking for a smaller and hopefully cheaper pastry shop to try the torte. One restaurant owner recognized us from the morning (when he'd offered us a map, since we were all looking a little lost and overwhelmed), and after being reassured that there was no seating charge, we sat down to some slices of cake and coffee.

I freely admit that that is a terrifying face and I promise never to do it again. Sorry! Our cake was very fancy, as you can see. It was also very tasty, along with the coffee (mine is the one with the heart on it in chocolate powder), so we didn't feel too annoyed about the (still exorbitant) price. It was an expensive weekend!

We eventually finished our coffee and cake, had time to browse some of the shops, and finally met up with the rest of our group and returned to Sorrento for the evening. We left fairly early Sunday morning, hung out at the Naples train station for a few hours waiting for the first cheap train, and finally made it back to the Centro at about 5 in the evening. Thankfully Monday is only classwork, no field trips--I was exhausted! All in all, it was a busy weekend, lots of fun even during the occasional stressful parts (which are all kinda hilarious when we look back on them, as we figured they would be). I won't be attempting a weekend out like that anytime soon, but I am glad that I went!

...you didn't think I was done, did you? :) These are a few of the pictures I took on our hikes up and down and around Capri, just to show off some of the facets of this lovely island. And if anyone can tell me what on earth those plants are in the bottom right, I would be ecstatic--those little bizarre plants stopped me dead in my tracks to get a closer look.

These really are the last, I promise. Just a few of my favorite overall shots of the island, and its phenomenally blue water. While I wish that you all could have an opportunity to see Capri for yourself, I hope you've enjoyed at least visiting it through pictures and stories!