Bruises are doing really well and disappearing. Last Monday (so two mondays ago now...) I went back to working out...I gave it 9 days, I thought that was enough, ha. I did fine, though.
Last week was pretty calm and quiet. One of the best things each week is having dinner with my host family. It's one of my favorite parts of the day. We are usually always all there together...we enjoy the amazing food and talk a lot. Laura and Baldo both have really great senses of humor, so it makes for interesting conversation when we all get going, haha.
Thursday, my friend Kelly and I left for Verona on a train. I actually had butterflies in my stomach before we left because it was the first time I was traveling without an organized group. It definitely was an interesting trip.
We got on the train and ended up sitting in a train room with two guys, around the same age as us. They were Italian and from Rome...traveling to Munich for the week. We spoke Italian with them, Kelly did a lot better with that thought...haha. I was so nervous. They even offered us to stay with them when we visit Rome again, haha. YEAH RIGHT. Maybe we could meet up at a bar but no chance of me staying with them. It was nice of them to offer though...ha.
We arrived in Verona around 12am and got a ride to the little B&B we were staying at. It was so adorable and really clean, Buddha themed which was very cool.
In the morning we got ready and out the door so we could explore Verona. Verona is so beautiful...very italian. We found one of their beautiful churches and paid a small student fee so we could go into all four of the major churches in Verona. They were all gorgeous. For some reason, the first one was my favorite.
We found Juliette's Casa, complete with the Romeo & Juliette Balcony. It was very pretty but the movie, "Letters to Juliet" made the courtyard seem much cleaner.
In the afternoon we got a taxi ride to the train station and hopped over to Venice...which should have it's own blog post about because it was so ridiculous...hahahah!
So Venice...
We get to the train station around 7:30pm. I realize I forgot to write the address down to the hotel, but I remember on the website it said it was really close to the station. We decide to call Kelly's roommate Lauren and ask her to look the hotel's address up. She gives us an address and we head to it. Well...little did we know we were heading to Venice...which is the island. Once we make it to the bus stop at Venice we ask a boat driver how to get to the hotel. He says it'll take one hour by boat to San Marco. We laugh and think he's joking with us. Well we were wrong...he was right. We ended up walking to Piazza San Marco with our bags and everything, which took us 30 min. on foot.
We finally find Piazza San Marco and an orchestra is playing outside. It was so beautiful, it made that walk worth it...plus being able to see Venice at night. We finally find what supposedly was our hotel after a nice Italian man helped us out. He came with us to the hotel and we found out our hotel was back where we started, mainland Venice Mestre.
We were pretty frustrated but at the same time had a sense of humor about it. The Italian guy walked us over to the water taxi for us to get back to where we were supposed to be. He gave us his number and invited us for drinks. We were very appreciative of his help cause otherwise we had been shit out of luck, for real.
We finally got to out actual Hotel and grabbed a late dinner around the corner. We went to this restaurant, sit down, and we re the only ones there except for two sets of couples. We order and are waiting for our food. Kelly tells me to turn around and one of the couples is in the middle of an intense make out sesh...I turn to my other side and the second couple is in an intense make out sesh as well. It was one of the funniest things I've seen...it was like right out of a movie. When we got back to our room, we got ready for bed...and if the night couldn't have gotten any better, a couple next door was having some LOUD sex...we joked around that it was one of the couple from the restaurant. We eventually passed out. It was so nice to sleep after that run around. In the morning we go to breakfast and who do we see? One of the make out couples from dinner...we still think they were the loud ones at the Hotel ;)
We headed to the island of Venice after breakfast, it was a beautiful day. We basically didn't have a plan and explored the whole city. It was a lot of fun this way because we came across cute shops and a bunch of other cool spots. For lunch, we found this whole in the wall pizza place with huge slices for super cheap. We ate the pizza by one of the canals and gondolas rode by us. It was gorgeous. The pigeons tried to invade but I shooed them away. Then, I fed them from my hand with some crust...haha so I defeated the purpose.
We headed to meet this tour guide so we could get a discounted gondola ride. They just organized it and there were 3 other people with us. While we were waiting to go we grabbed a coffee. Kelly had the idea of putting Bailey's in it...which was so worth it. YUM
When we got in the gondola we made friends with an older lady that is here visiting from America by herself. It was really peaceful on the gondola...at a couple spots the canal really smelled but it wasn't bad most of the way. I wish our gondola driver would have sang too but it was still amazing.
After the ride, we wandered around into different shops. We decided to wait to go to Doge's Palace until Sunday because it was going to close soon when we checked. Kelly found a sweet mask and I found some cool things also. Once it got dark, it started to rain pretty hard. I had an umbrella but it didn't help much. We found a cute restaurant to eat at. We started to speak Italian to our waiter and he said "Can you speak English? I'm not great at Italian." We laughed and said sure. We shared some gnocchi which was amazing. Kelly asked me if I minded if we added red pepper flakes to it, then she pulled a little jar out of her purse. It made it spicy good. The waiter then comes over and starts laughing at us, he couldn't figure out where we had gotten them!
We got our main courses and had a good amount of wine. After a bit of wine, the waiter comes to me and says, "You look tired" I started laughing and was like well I have been walking all day...and also the wine doesn't help, ha! Kelly and I thought it was so random, but just added to the crazy weekend.
We decided to take the water bus home because we were feelin' the wine. We had a lot of fun on the way and the land bus was SO packed. We passed out instantly when we got to the hotel.
Sunday...
We had breakfast in the morning, yummmm. It was raining, cold, and windy. I was really not looking forward to doing anything that day. We were going to go to the Island of Murano where they produce all of the Murano glass but it was too expensive to get there on such a miserable day.
We went to Doge's Palace because it was inside and everything. What a gorgeous place! We went back to our secret pizza place for lunch...soooo good. On the way back we stopped in shops and mosied along. I bought a pretty glass ring.
We caught the bus early and went to the train station to try to switch to the earlier train home. Well...that train was sold out. I was in such a bad mood, cold, tired, and annoyed. We ended up sitting in the hotel lobby (not big AT all) and I fell asleep in a chair. I felt a lot better afterwards.
No one was home when I got back because Holly's grandma took my host parents out to dinner. My host momma left me a homemade dinner to warm up. It was the perfect end to the weekend.
My week started off well while Monday I caught up on Grey's Anatomy. I'm lovin it, so thankful I'm able to watch it.
I wore my leather jacket for the first time this week too. I could fall asleep in it it's so comfy and the smell...SO good.
Tuesday I went to this hair salon I've been to before and got three strands of pink hair extensions, very subtle but I love them. I even made her redo one because it didn't match the color of the other two. I knew it would bother me otherwise.
I will update more about the end of the week and this past weekend in a little while. I've been studying for midterms up the wazzzooooo! It's going to be totally worth it though because I'm going to Belgium and Ireland for FALL BREAK!
WORK HARD, PLAY HARD!
<3Alex
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Can't think of a witty title
Today I was able to exercise again! Doctors orders not to work out for a week to rest my bruises so I followed...didn't want them getting any worse. I went to my second Italian pilates class today too. It was harder to understand but I tried my best and if I couldn't understand I looked over at the person next to me, haha. Nothing wrong with following a little example.
This past weekend was awesome...pretty much like everything has been since I've been here...but I was able to horseback ride.
Four hours of horseback riding...through the beautiful Chianti country side. After 2 hours we took a break to have a picnic lunch in the woods. We tied the horses up, and the owners gave them hay and water. Lunch was amazing...so plentiful with a wonderful food and wine. After lunch, I layed down on the blankets and fell asleep for about an hour. It was so relaxing. A little while after I awoke we got back on the horses and rode for another two hours. During this time I was able to canter a few times. My horse had a real smooth canter. At one point during the first two hours, I was so relaxed and happy I felt like I was going to cry. With all the stress of Poppa passing away and not being there, this is exactly what I needed to let go for a little bit.
Palo, the owner of his ranch and his wife, were so nice and made us feel like we were they're friends. Palo gave us a ride back to the train station and we caught the 6ishpm train.
My host parents were gone for the weekend and so was my roommate, Holly. So I went to the grocery store...bought some fresh parmesan, fresh bread, and peanut butter (for the morning, haha). I had a little european dinner. Dipped my bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while eating some fresh parmesan. It was wonderful, oh so wonderful.
Sunday, I slept in and was surprisingly really sore...actually for the rest of the week I was really sore.
<3 Alex
Four hours of horseback riding...through the beautiful Chianti country side. After 2 hours we took a break to have a picnic lunch in the woods. We tied the horses up, and the owners gave them hay and water. Lunch was amazing...so plentiful with a wonderful food and wine. After lunch, I layed down on the blankets and fell asleep for about an hour. It was so relaxing. A little while after I awoke we got back on the horses and rode for another two hours. During this time I was able to canter a few times. My horse had a real smooth canter. At one point during the first two hours, I was so relaxed and happy I felt like I was going to cry. With all the stress of Poppa passing away and not being there, this is exactly what I needed to let go for a little bit.
Palo, the owner of his ranch and his wife, were so nice and made us feel like we were they're friends. Palo gave us a ride back to the train station and we caught the 6ishpm train.
My host parents were gone for the weekend and so was my roommate, Holly. So I went to the grocery store...bought some fresh parmesan, fresh bread, and peanut butter (for the morning, haha). I had a little european dinner. Dipped my bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while eating some fresh parmesan. It was wonderful, oh so wonderful.
Sunday, I slept in and was surprisingly really sore...actually for the rest of the week I was really sore.
<3 Alex
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Do not follow the yellow brick road...
I had the best weekend ever. Chloe and I traveled to the Almafi Coast Thursday night. It was an 8 hour bus ride which was interesting but they played 3 movies in English. It helped pass the time, also, so does girl talk, haha. We met some other kids from Gonzaga which is in Washington state...I'd never heard of it but they're D1. We stopped once at an AutoGrill which is glorified, nicer gas station store...nice stuff though. We got to Sorrento at 2am...somehow we got lucky and were put in the hotel apartments. So five of us girls had our own apartment. It was so sweeet! So we basically just passed out for the night right when we got unpacked and everything because we had to be up pretty early if we wanted to go to the island of Capri.
Friday we got up and got ready to get ourselves to the Ferry by 9:15am. We rode the ferry over and a half an hour later we got to Capri. Capri was very cute once you got off the ferry. The whole city is basically built into the mountain. Our guides told us about this market near where we got off with the best Caprese sandwiches, I can't even explain how amazing they were. It was fresh mozzarella, tomatoes soaked in balsamic vinegar and basil, and also basil leaves. I had them add a little turkey on mine. The flavor was so amazing. Our guides also told us that if we wanted to see the Blue Grotto, guaranteed, it was probably a good idea to do it right away because sometimes the tide can get too high.
We had to make a decision because we originally wanted to do the intense hike up the the top of the island but I couldn't pass up the Blue Grotto. We debated on renting a private boat but we only had 6 girls and it would've been semi expensive. Instead, we took a smaller boat with other tourists and it was a lot cheaper. All of us girls took over the bow of the boat and chilled up there. Chloe and I tanned in between the sights. We boated around the whole island and the boat drove into different grottos. The way the light hits the water in a grotto is amazing. We went through the tunnel of love and before we hit that we drove by this huge boulder rock with a statue of a person waving at us. Our tour guide told us the story goes...to say "Ciao" and you'll make love tonight. I think he just made it up and he really wanted to get laid by one of the six of us. (All the other people on the boat were older...he could be into that though...ha)
As we got closer to the Blue grotto we came across a cave that had two outlets, I immediately asked if we could swim in it. He said "shhhh" and then let us jump in! It was SO amazing. The water was still warm on October 1st and so blue/ green. All 6 of us jumped in and were making a lot of noise, everyone was so excited.
After we climbed back in we headed to the Blue Grotto. We split up and got into small row boats...there were four of us in my boat. It's funny because they have a boat near the small cave entrance that housed 3 men. These men had a table on the boat and were there to charge you 11 euro each to go into the Blue Grotto for about 5 minutes...haha. I didn't care though, I had to see it. My mom and dad have been telling me about how they saw it on their honeymoon.
After we paid, our paddle guy told us the quickly lay down and we slinked are way into the grotto. It seemed like a roomy cave at first but as we road our way in the magic happened. The water was ELECTRIC blue...nothing I've ever seen before. Pictures that I'd seen before made it look cool, but actually being there was unexplainably glorifying. Our guy had a beautiful singing voice and sang us a beautiful italian song. It was perfect. I wanted to swim but there were a lot of those damn pink jellyfish that day. We got back to our big boat and climbed back in...I was all smiles. Everything was perfect. After we got back to the shore, Chloe, Olivia, Emily and I hiked up to the shopping center of Capri. We looked around for an afternoon snack since we ate a huge sandwich at 10am. We found a cute caffe with homemade goodies. We also found a limoncello store that gave out free samples, that was fun. At the caffe I had my first cannoli since I've been abroad. It was very yummy. Chloe and I bought some postcards and the four of us window shopped. We headed back down the island to take the ferry back to Sorrento. We hung out with the little time we had left and bought some touristy t-shirts that said Capri on them. The ferry was relaxing and gave us time to rest our legs. We found an amazing seafood restaurant that our guides recommended and went to dinner there. I had 'fish soup' which was actually a bunch of steamed seafood with seasoning and olive oil...the freshest seafood. I even was able to have squid! I loved it, and the prices weren't terrible. Dinner with the girls was a lot of fun. Olivia ordered crawfish which she didn't know how to eat (they were shelled).
Later on, we met everyone at the Old English Pub down the street which the tour company got us drink specials at. The bar was in a rooftop garden. Drinks were good and hanging with friends was fun but the DJ sucked. Seriously sucked. Other than that it was a good time. The four of us took a taxi home and our taxi drived played Lady Gaga's Alejandro for us...when we were singing he told us "No, no, no...we're in Italy...Alessandro!" So we were all singing that, it was hilarious. Then 'we no speak americano' came on and that beat pumped us up, ahhhh good memories. We all came back to Chloe and my apartment. We sat on the step with some wine and nutella (random but good). It was a good night.
Saturday, we got up a little later and took a taxi to the bus station. The taxi rolls up to pick us up and it's a Mercedes van. We get to the bus station and he tells us he'll give us a deal to take us privately to Positano, that was an obvious yes. The drive was super windy but really pretty. When we got there we had sandwiches for breakfast again and I had my favorite cannoli so far. By far, much better than the day before. The taxi had to drop us off at the top of the island which meant we literally walked down hill for about 30 minutes just to get to the beach. It gave us a chance to see a lot of Positano I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, so in all it wasn't a bad thing.
Once we finally got down there we met my friend Kelly and joined a group of people from the SUF program. We rented a private boat, 17 of us. We went out on the water and pretty much immediately went cliff diving (that's a story in itself). When we got to the cliff jumping spot, I hopped off the boat right away... I was so pumped. I went right up the the 40 ft cliff. They told me to make sure I did a pencil dive. I had that in my head but got to the edge and realized there was a ledge about 10 feet below me that if I didn't make sure my jump was far enough out, I could hit it. So now my mind was all on the ledge and making sure I jumped out far enough instead of the damn pencil dive. A guy behind me said, "Sometimes in life you just have to jump" and I just jumped. I remember feeling this rush of free falling which was amazing and at the same time trying to catch myself because it was my natural instinct. As I fell towards the water, my butt and legs slammed against the water. Hitting water from 40 feet up is basically like hitting concrete. I couldn't move my legs and used my arms to pull me towards shore. A couple of my girlfriends pulled me the rest of the way. I got on the boat and my legs were bright red. I was pissed. I wasn't pissed that I did it, I was just pissed at how much pain I was in. I sat there for about 15 minutes and then every one got back on the boat. We drove over to a beautiful grotto and I jumped back into the water. I wasn't going to let the cliff jumping scare me away. I swam through the grotto and then broke off from the group with 3 other girls and explored a grotto around the corner. We got "Gino" our cute boat driver to come in the water with us and he took us into an even smaller cave, it was amazing. To be in that tiny cave and look out at the huge sea rushing in, I will never forget.
The four of us and Gino got back into the boat. We hung out and talked for a bit before we picked up the rest of our friends while yelling 'Ciao' to them as we drove by like we were gonna leave them. We went to the next grotto which I quickly took my cover up off to jump in the water. I was the only one in the water and I was yelling to everyone to get in the water!! They finally got in and we same into this small cave that was FREEZING cold. I told myself to just deal with it because it was probably beautiful inside and it really was. Everyone was screaming in excitement of the cold water and the water was this gem colored blue green. It was really unique once inside because warm water was mixed with the freezing cold water. We stayed in there for a good few minutes. Everyone loaded the boat but I went to go check out this little opening I saw. I found a secret cave and swam in it for a minute. It was one of the coolest experiences ever because I didn't know what I was going to find inside.
When I got back on the boat Gino, the boat driver wanted me to drive the boat. Once I dried off I came over and sat next to him. I drove his boat ;) He told me, "You are a great captain, and you're very beautiful." I blushed, haha. We talked for a little bit while I drove us back to the shore. When we got to the dock, I was the last one off and he took my hand, said "Ciao Alex" and kissed both my cheeks. It was adorable, a perfect ending to a perfect day :-)
Once we got back on shore, I broke off from the group and bought a bathing suit. I also got some yummy gelato and went back to lay on the beach with Kelly. She left with her tour group at 5...Olivia, Emily, Chloe, and I left on the Ferry around 5:30. It felt so good to sit down...my legs were starting to bruise at this point. We stopped for dinner once we were back in Sorrento and had fresh pizza. A tourist was taking a picture of the Italian waiters and then randomly took a picture of the four of us girls. It was pretty weird but we all laughed...he was older and there with his wife, lol.
We bought a couple bottles of wine after dinner and were planning on playing cards back at the bungalows. Chloe and I went back to the apartment to take a 'nap'....that nap ended up not ending until 7am the next morning. I slept so well and was so rested for Pompeii....which ended up being a good thing because we had an adventure there as well, omg.
We got up pretty early to spend the day in the ancient city of Pompeii. We had to be back at the hotel by 4pm so we could hit the road and get back to Firenze. We got off the very rough and uncomfy train to Pompeii. I popped four advil because my legs and butt were killing me.
The tour company we traveled with told us the day before that we should grab a sandwich and fresh squeezed orange juice right outside the gates of the ancient city. We did that and I was obsessed with the orange juice. I want orange juice like that everrrrrry day!
Pompeii was SO vast and spread out. I've never really seen any type of ancient ruin so I was pretty overwhelmed by the beauty. After a couple hours, we found a fresco of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodites. I was really happy we found it because
1. I didn't know it's home was Pompeii
2. We had just talked about that Goddess and that fresco in my Classical Mythology Class
Later on we tried the find the brothels and horror houses. We had no idea where they were so I went up and asked a tour guide. He told me the directions. Afterwards, I realized how crazy of a question that must of seemed to him, hahaha. We ended up somehow follow a legit yellow brick road and left the ancient city. We still don't know how...
Anyways, we got lost in the residential side of Pompeii and the 'young' city. We had to slink our way down tiny streets and the locals kept beeping at us...scaring me many times. At first I didn't mind the detour but after a half an hour of walking my legs were starting to hurt from the bruising. I was not happy. I was determined to get back to the train station so we stopped people to help us with directions. Probably another 45 min. later we finally found the train station.
First thing was first, we needed water. After we got hydrated we stopped again for another fresh orange juice and amazing sandwich. We caught the train back to Sorrento with plenty of time to spare. When we got back to Sorrento we found a taxi to take us back to the hotel. We get in, he starts driving and I'm thinking "where the hell is he going?"
I let him drive for a few minutes and then I ask him where he thinks we're going, our hotel is the other way. He goes "Oh, Mama Mia. I see the pretty girls, and I go the wrong way." I just said, "You're not charging us for this." Hilarious now but he was an idiot.
We got back around 11:30pm, safe and sound. I uploaded the pictures right away because I loved the weekend so much.
Tonight I'm going to a play with Holly and my host mama...I'll write more later, need to get dressed!!
<3<3
Friday we got up and got ready to get ourselves to the Ferry by 9:15am. We rode the ferry over and a half an hour later we got to Capri. Capri was very cute once you got off the ferry. The whole city is basically built into the mountain. Our guides told us about this market near where we got off with the best Caprese sandwiches, I can't even explain how amazing they were. It was fresh mozzarella, tomatoes soaked in balsamic vinegar and basil, and also basil leaves. I had them add a little turkey on mine. The flavor was so amazing. Our guides also told us that if we wanted to see the Blue Grotto, guaranteed, it was probably a good idea to do it right away because sometimes the tide can get too high.
We had to make a decision because we originally wanted to do the intense hike up the the top of the island but I couldn't pass up the Blue Grotto. We debated on renting a private boat but we only had 6 girls and it would've been semi expensive. Instead, we took a smaller boat with other tourists and it was a lot cheaper. All of us girls took over the bow of the boat and chilled up there. Chloe and I tanned in between the sights. We boated around the whole island and the boat drove into different grottos. The way the light hits the water in a grotto is amazing. We went through the tunnel of love and before we hit that we drove by this huge boulder rock with a statue of a person waving at us. Our tour guide told us the story goes...to say "Ciao" and you'll make love tonight. I think he just made it up and he really wanted to get laid by one of the six of us. (All the other people on the boat were older...he could be into that though...ha)
As we got closer to the Blue grotto we came across a cave that had two outlets, I immediately asked if we could swim in it. He said "shhhh" and then let us jump in! It was SO amazing. The water was still warm on October 1st and so blue/ green. All 6 of us jumped in and were making a lot of noise, everyone was so excited.
After we climbed back in we headed to the Blue Grotto. We split up and got into small row boats...there were four of us in my boat. It's funny because they have a boat near the small cave entrance that housed 3 men. These men had a table on the boat and were there to charge you 11 euro each to go into the Blue Grotto for about 5 minutes...haha. I didn't care though, I had to see it. My mom and dad have been telling me about how they saw it on their honeymoon.
After we paid, our paddle guy told us the quickly lay down and we slinked are way into the grotto. It seemed like a roomy cave at first but as we road our way in the magic happened. The water was ELECTRIC blue...nothing I've ever seen before. Pictures that I'd seen before made it look cool, but actually being there was unexplainably glorifying. Our guy had a beautiful singing voice and sang us a beautiful italian song. It was perfect. I wanted to swim but there were a lot of those damn pink jellyfish that day. We got back to our big boat and climbed back in...I was all smiles. Everything was perfect. After we got back to the shore, Chloe, Olivia, Emily and I hiked up to the shopping center of Capri. We looked around for an afternoon snack since we ate a huge sandwich at 10am. We found a cute caffe with homemade goodies. We also found a limoncello store that gave out free samples, that was fun. At the caffe I had my first cannoli since I've been abroad. It was very yummy. Chloe and I bought some postcards and the four of us window shopped. We headed back down the island to take the ferry back to Sorrento. We hung out with the little time we had left and bought some touristy t-shirts that said Capri on them. The ferry was relaxing and gave us time to rest our legs. We found an amazing seafood restaurant that our guides recommended and went to dinner there. I had 'fish soup' which was actually a bunch of steamed seafood with seasoning and olive oil...the freshest seafood. I even was able to have squid! I loved it, and the prices weren't terrible. Dinner with the girls was a lot of fun. Olivia ordered crawfish which she didn't know how to eat (they were shelled).
Later on, we met everyone at the Old English Pub down the street which the tour company got us drink specials at. The bar was in a rooftop garden. Drinks were good and hanging with friends was fun but the DJ sucked. Seriously sucked. Other than that it was a good time. The four of us took a taxi home and our taxi drived played Lady Gaga's Alejandro for us...when we were singing he told us "No, no, no...we're in Italy...Alessandro!" So we were all singing that, it was hilarious. Then 'we no speak americano' came on and that beat pumped us up, ahhhh good memories. We all came back to Chloe and my apartment. We sat on the step with some wine and nutella (random but good). It was a good night.
Saturday, we got up a little later and took a taxi to the bus station. The taxi rolls up to pick us up and it's a Mercedes van. We get to the bus station and he tells us he'll give us a deal to take us privately to Positano, that was an obvious yes. The drive was super windy but really pretty. When we got there we had sandwiches for breakfast again and I had my favorite cannoli so far. By far, much better than the day before. The taxi had to drop us off at the top of the island which meant we literally walked down hill for about 30 minutes just to get to the beach. It gave us a chance to see a lot of Positano I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, so in all it wasn't a bad thing.
Once we finally got down there we met my friend Kelly and joined a group of people from the SUF program. We rented a private boat, 17 of us. We went out on the water and pretty much immediately went cliff diving (that's a story in itself). When we got to the cliff jumping spot, I hopped off the boat right away... I was so pumped. I went right up the the 40 ft cliff. They told me to make sure I did a pencil dive. I had that in my head but got to the edge and realized there was a ledge about 10 feet below me that if I didn't make sure my jump was far enough out, I could hit it. So now my mind was all on the ledge and making sure I jumped out far enough instead of the damn pencil dive. A guy behind me said, "Sometimes in life you just have to jump" and I just jumped. I remember feeling this rush of free falling which was amazing and at the same time trying to catch myself because it was my natural instinct. As I fell towards the water, my butt and legs slammed against the water. Hitting water from 40 feet up is basically like hitting concrete. I couldn't move my legs and used my arms to pull me towards shore. A couple of my girlfriends pulled me the rest of the way. I got on the boat and my legs were bright red. I was pissed. I wasn't pissed that I did it, I was just pissed at how much pain I was in. I sat there for about 15 minutes and then every one got back on the boat. We drove over to a beautiful grotto and I jumped back into the water. I wasn't going to let the cliff jumping scare me away. I swam through the grotto and then broke off from the group with 3 other girls and explored a grotto around the corner. We got "Gino" our cute boat driver to come in the water with us and he took us into an even smaller cave, it was amazing. To be in that tiny cave and look out at the huge sea rushing in, I will never forget.
The four of us and Gino got back into the boat. We hung out and talked for a bit before we picked up the rest of our friends while yelling 'Ciao' to them as we drove by like we were gonna leave them. We went to the next grotto which I quickly took my cover up off to jump in the water. I was the only one in the water and I was yelling to everyone to get in the water!! They finally got in and we same into this small cave that was FREEZING cold. I told myself to just deal with it because it was probably beautiful inside and it really was. Everyone was screaming in excitement of the cold water and the water was this gem colored blue green. It was really unique once inside because warm water was mixed with the freezing cold water. We stayed in there for a good few minutes. Everyone loaded the boat but I went to go check out this little opening I saw. I found a secret cave and swam in it for a minute. It was one of the coolest experiences ever because I didn't know what I was going to find inside.
When I got back on the boat Gino, the boat driver wanted me to drive the boat. Once I dried off I came over and sat next to him. I drove his boat ;) He told me, "You are a great captain, and you're very beautiful." I blushed, haha. We talked for a little bit while I drove us back to the shore. When we got to the dock, I was the last one off and he took my hand, said "Ciao Alex" and kissed both my cheeks. It was adorable, a perfect ending to a perfect day :-)
Once we got back on shore, I broke off from the group and bought a bathing suit. I also got some yummy gelato and went back to lay on the beach with Kelly. She left with her tour group at 5...Olivia, Emily, Chloe, and I left on the Ferry around 5:30. It felt so good to sit down...my legs were starting to bruise at this point. We stopped for dinner once we were back in Sorrento and had fresh pizza. A tourist was taking a picture of the Italian waiters and then randomly took a picture of the four of us girls. It was pretty weird but we all laughed...he was older and there with his wife, lol.
We bought a couple bottles of wine after dinner and were planning on playing cards back at the bungalows. Chloe and I went back to the apartment to take a 'nap'....that nap ended up not ending until 7am the next morning. I slept so well and was so rested for Pompeii....which ended up being a good thing because we had an adventure there as well, omg.
We got up pretty early to spend the day in the ancient city of Pompeii. We had to be back at the hotel by 4pm so we could hit the road and get back to Firenze. We got off the very rough and uncomfy train to Pompeii. I popped four advil because my legs and butt were killing me.
The tour company we traveled with told us the day before that we should grab a sandwich and fresh squeezed orange juice right outside the gates of the ancient city. We did that and I was obsessed with the orange juice. I want orange juice like that everrrrrry day!
Pompeii was SO vast and spread out. I've never really seen any type of ancient ruin so I was pretty overwhelmed by the beauty. After a couple hours, we found a fresco of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodites. I was really happy we found it because
1. I didn't know it's home was Pompeii
2. We had just talked about that Goddess and that fresco in my Classical Mythology Class
Later on we tried the find the brothels and horror houses. We had no idea where they were so I went up and asked a tour guide. He told me the directions. Afterwards, I realized how crazy of a question that must of seemed to him, hahaha. We ended up somehow follow a legit yellow brick road and left the ancient city. We still don't know how...
Anyways, we got lost in the residential side of Pompeii and the 'young' city. We had to slink our way down tiny streets and the locals kept beeping at us...scaring me many times. At first I didn't mind the detour but after a half an hour of walking my legs were starting to hurt from the bruising. I was not happy. I was determined to get back to the train station so we stopped people to help us with directions. Probably another 45 min. later we finally found the train station.
First thing was first, we needed water. After we got hydrated we stopped again for another fresh orange juice and amazing sandwich. We caught the train back to Sorrento with plenty of time to spare. When we got back to Sorrento we found a taxi to take us back to the hotel. We get in, he starts driving and I'm thinking "where the hell is he going?"
I let him drive for a few minutes and then I ask him where he thinks we're going, our hotel is the other way. He goes "Oh, Mama Mia. I see the pretty girls, and I go the wrong way." I just said, "You're not charging us for this." Hilarious now but he was an idiot.
We got back around 11:30pm, safe and sound. I uploaded the pictures right away because I loved the weekend so much.
Tonight I'm going to a play with Holly and my host mama...I'll write more later, need to get dressed!!
<3<3
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