Another successful weekend trip. After midterms and all that good studying stuff, which i might add, i would not recommend if i came over to europe again, we took a relaxing weekend to go see the Amalfi Coast of Italy. I had been looking forward to this trip the most out of all of them, mainly because i wanted to see the Blue Grotto, which just happens to be one of the 7 Natural wonders of the world.
So, we finally got to Sorrento on Friday afternoon and got settled into our campsite (which we pretty much paid for a piece of land to sleep on... more on that later). Sorrento was beautiful and we decided to stop at a restaurant with an awesome view of the water. We had pizza for the first (and not the last) time on the trip and then headed more into town to see what we could find. We ended up watching the sunset go down over the water which was amazing and made me miss the sunsets from home even more. Then we got Gelato (of course) and walked around the streets into all the cute little shops until we got so tired and went back to sleep. So like i said, we were paying to sleep on a piece of land, since we obviously didn't have a tent and didn't want to pay the extra 20 euro for a bungalow. so we were out under the stars sleeping (i surprisingly slept very well) until the night watch guy comes over and stands above us and yells HELLLLLLLOOOOOO!! HELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO!! for the longest time until we all woke up. I was wondering what the heck was going on and finally i realized that it had been raining on us! So he was trying to wake us up and take us to sleep undercover. After we all wake up and realize what is going on we move undercover to sleep.
The next morning we headed out early and hopped on a ferry boat to the island of Capri. When we finally got there we got tickets right away to see the Blue Grotto and decided we would take the boat that went all the way around the island so we could see everything. It was amazing and SO beautiful. Just hills upon cliffs upon hills, right along the water. and the water was the BLUEST water i have ever seen!!!!! Then we finally got to the Blue Grotto and it was even more amazing. We hopped into these little row boats that held about 4 people plus the rower guy and we had to go through this tiny opening that was just big enough for the boat in order to get into the sea cave. the waves are coming in, so you have to wait for just the right time to pull the boat through and the rower guy was telling us to keep our hands in the boat. We had to practically lay down on the bottom of the boat so we wouldn't hit our heads when we went through the opening. So the driver decides that we should go through the opening right as a wave comes and he is still standing up but bending down, and he pretty much almost gets his head chopped off. but he is yelling MAMA MIA!!!!! MAMA MIA!!!!!!! MAMA MIA!!!!!!!! and i am thinking oh my gosh we are going to die! but we made it in the cave and it was amazing. the sun reflects off of the water and makes it the most electric blue color i have ever seen! i tried taking pictures but they didn't turn out really good. some people got to go swimming if they paid the drivers extra, but we only got to stay in there for about 10 minutes and then came out again. But it was amazing and really cool to see! Then we headed back and hung around capri and layed on the beach for a while. The beach was all rocks though, no sand, as i am realizing that no beaches in italy have sand, just rocks. but it was fun. that night when we got back to sorrento we watched the sunset again after dinner in a different spot and got some amazing pictures. Then we went to sleep in the same undercover spot that we did the night before, and at about 1230 at night, we hear these enormous BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMS! it seriously sounded like we were in the middle of world war three! it was so scary! it turns out that they were setting off fireworks really close to the campsite and it echoed off the hills so it was super loud. it went on for about 20 minutes and they were the loudest fireworks i had ever heard! it was crazy and scary and we all didn't know what was going on, but that was the second time i thought i was going to die on the trip! haha
The next day we went to Pompei which is this huge city of ruins. It was really cool. We had a tour guide and we walked around the ruins and learned a lot of stuff. For instance, did you know that the city was covered in ash by two volcanoes that errupted at the same time? or that down the middle of the road there were strategically placed rocks so that the enemy chariots couldn't go into the town? pretty interesting stuff. the most interesting part to me, was when we saw the people covered in ash that had been preserved. it was crazy and sad. in one of the people that were covered with ash, you could see the skull coming though, and then another one was crouched over covering his nose. it was pretty intense. but overall, it was cool to see the whole thing. So that was our trip to the Amalfi Coast... here are some pictures...
Getting ready for the camping excursion...
The view from our campground...
We DO like our Gelato...
The view from where we watched the sunset the first night...
The girls watching the sunset...
The sunset the first night...
The sunset the second night...
Capri...
The Three Musketeers - Me, Bri, and Nicole...
Rebecca, Nicole, Emily, Me, and Bri...
This one's for you, Danielle... we saw a pirate ship!
This was the color of the water, and this wasn't even the blue grotto! it was electric!
More awesome blue water and caves...
In line for the Blue Grotto... (the small cave in the middle of the picture is what we had to go through on those small boats!)
Ready to head in the cave!
Inside the Blue Grotto... this isn't the best picture, but it gives you an idea of the color of the water...
The view from the city of Capri up on the hill...
Pompei....
