mercredi 23 juillet 2008

To the Beach: Days 20-25

Day 20 –
So in the morning, I headed to the train station in Rome with the intention of ending m day in Sorrento. I got a ticket to Naples and was told to then get a ticket to Sorrento in the Naples train station. On the train I met some people and talked to them about accommodations in Sorrento. I realized that even though Sorrento is supposed to be beautiful, I really wanted to go to a town closer to the beach. So when I got to Naples I hopped on a train to Salerno, even though it wasn’t highly recommended by my book.
I am so happy that it did. Even though the trek from the train station to the hostel was pretty hot and not so pretty, I later found that the port town was absolutely breath taking. After cooling off at the amazingly chic hostel, I decided to walk along the water for a bit. The town has a beautifully paved promenade along the waters edge, where you can see the fishermen and the boats, and a sweeping view of the Amalfi coast. Salerno is the southernmost city on the apparently star-studded Amalfi coast. For the first few hours I was in Salerno, I heard no English spoken and it wasn’t until I got to a little restaurant on the promenade that I ran into an English speaking couple.
That meal was delicious; I tried one of the regional favorites, gnocchi Sorrentina. I completely fell in love and was pretty much ready to marry any fisherman that may have asked, wink. I walked back to the hostel through the boisterous Centro Storico (historic center) and had, you guessed it, some more gelato. I met some of the girls in my dormitory and chatted with an Australian named Ann for a while. I am happy to have met them after getting to see the city a bit by myself, you know, the lone explorer.
Day 21 –
The next morning I wanted to check out Salerno a bit, so I left the hostel and thought I had everything I needed. I ran into a beautiful piazza and at this point realized I had forgotten my camera at the hostel. Oops. I guess it was for the better, though. On returning to the hostel I laid down for what felt like a few minutes and I later came to understand it was a few hours. I think I was just exhausted. After Rome, all of my tourism gusto just petered out and I was ready to relax. I am the perfect example of overdosing on vacation! The initial plan was much more intense; two days in Salerno (one to be at the beach and one day trip to Pompeii) and then back up north to Siena, Perugia and finally, Cinque Terre. I decided the night before to stay five days in Salerno and two in the Cinque Terre region.
So after my power nap, I was pretty hungry, so Ann and I headed to a restaurant that was Lonely Planet recommended. It was the most awesome relatively inexpensive appetizer buffet ever. I had octopus, okra, and various other delicious little bits. We spent the afternoon browsing the shopping street. We walked the promenade again and at the local beach, there was a soccer game going on. It was pretty funny, Italy v. Croatia (all Italian players). The funny/scary part was that every so often a player would find a piece of glass on the pitch and throw it off. Yeah, I don’t even like playing when there might be dog poop, but pieces of glass, no thank you! It was cool how a lot of the locals were watching. I just really loved the community feel of Salerno. It was great.
Ann and I decided to hit the town, seeing as it was a Saturday night and the ratio of men to women was remarkable, probably close to 4 to 1. The drinking system was kind of strange too, none of the bars had people in them, but the streets were filled. Ann and I ultimately figured out that people get their drinks to go and then walk around with them. Very strange Italians. It was a really fun night out.
Day 22 –
I had another lazy morning (ok, I’ll admit is was a pretty lazy day)– using the internet and reading about things to do. I eventually got motivated and decided to brave the bus to one of the towns with a free beach, Atrani. I waited at the bus stop in anticipation and met a man who was an English speaking tour guide. He was super nice and talked to me about different things we were going by on the bus. About the bus ride, it was an extremely windy and small coastal street. The busses had to continuously honk to make sure that no one was coming in the other direction at most of the curves and we nearly got into a few accidents. It was an adventure for sure!
Once I got to the town, I descended the stairs to the beach and it was incredible. I was swimming in a bay and you could just look back and see the towns literally hanging from the cliffs. The water was refreshing, but still pretty warm. I was back on the Tyrrhenian Sea (in the west coast) which was just as warm as the Adriatic on the other side. The beach is just so cool!
I had some dinner in the town and it was mediocre at best, but I was hungry and pretty exhausted. I caught a bus back to Salerno and pretty much just passed out that evening. I am pretty sure that there is some kind of sleep drug in the water here.
Day 23 –
I was supposed to go to Pompeii, but in my patheticness couldn’t muster the strength and ended up going into the town of Amalfi and back to the beach. Ahh, the beach (that is ahh, like ooh’s and ahh’s, not ahh, like, Ahh, I am afraid! – in case you were confused). We decided to take a ferry, which was smooth, quick, and pretty. Getting to the ferry was a bit different. We ended up at what I would call a commercial port and had to flag down some people. They were very helpful. One guy lead us to the right spot on his Vespa. It was pretty funny, he had to keep stopping and waiting for us to catch up.
Once in Amalfi, Ann’s goal was to get some governmental stuff done, so I followed her around to some government offices and then we had lunch. Ann was pretty funny (I hope she gets my note to read this) she had a better, but still limited grasp on Italian and would try and really figure out what was on the menu. She asked the waiter a bunch of questions about each item and would finally make an educated choice. I would just kind of look at what was familiar and try it. The funniest part was that in two of our three meals together Ann had expected something different and not really liking what she got. Oh that Ann!
We then went down to the beach and people watched (yeah, we all know that is was more like man watched) for a bit. The most unexpected thing to me was the height of most Italian guys. They are strangely short.
We ferried back to the hostel, both very tired, and had a few beers. I got to talk to some very funny French guys. The coolest thing was that I went to the same school in Paris as one of their sisters. Small world, I went all the way to Italy to hang out with Frenchmen.
Day 24 –
The next morning I was going to Pompeii and Ann came with. We took the train to the city of Pompeii and had some lunch. When we finally got to the ruins, it was mesmerizing. I cannot believe the preservation. So the story of Pompeii goes like this. About 2000 years ago there was a town just going about its daily business when all of the sudden the volcano a few km away erupted and the town was, well buried in lava. In the last few hundred years it was rediscovered and has been a UNESCO preserved site ever since. The ruins are really crazy, there are frescos nearly perfectly in tact and structures, it is an entire city. The creepiest part is the bodies. I am not totally sure how this worked, but the people’s bodies made molds in the lava. I am not sure if they were petrified bodies or what, but there were Plexiglas boxes with bodies in them. You could actually see the pain in their faces and their contortions. One was a pregnant woman. It just makes it all so much more intense. I mean yeah, ancient Rome is there and you can imagine Julius Cesar walking around, but you can’t actually see him.
So Pompeii was pretty cool and I got back to my regular tourism, although I did make Ann do all the reading and mapping for the day. We had the same Lonely Planet, so that worked out pretty well. We made it back to the hostel where I once again lucked out in my dinner choice, while Ann had some trouble.
Day 25 –
Day 25 was devoted entirely to transport. I left Salerno in the morning, got to Naples and took a slow train to La Spezia, outside Cinque Terre. So on the train from Naples to La Spezia, I was the only person in my cabin until we got to Rome. It was pretty funny and a bit lonely, but the entire ride was along the coast. The water was crystal clear and blue. I ended up getting to La Spezia around 11 and all of the inexpensive hotels were booked, so I splurged for a few days. It was nice, but also a bit strange to not meet as many people (or any people for that matter). I got some pizza from around the corner and went to bed.

So that was days 20-25 and as usual, I am behind schedule. I will try and write the last 5 or so days and a blog about “re-entry” as soon as possible (or as soon as motivation comes) and post them. I don’t want to overwhelm, so I will space them out a bit. OK, well I hope everyone is well. Oh yeah, I am back in Granite Bay, CA now, enjoying the relatively small amount of things to do.

1 commentaire:

Anonyme a dit…

Your travels sound absolutely amazing Kathy! I'm so jealous, the only trips i've done have been relatively planned out... it all seems so fantastic to just wander around where ever you want, taking things as they come and meeting some awesome people.
I've got the travel bug bad, but your blog has made me want to explore Italy that much more!
Hope you're enjoying being home again:)
Natalie