Sorry I haven't blogged the last couple of days.
Thursday was my birthday: We had studio ALL day and then we all made it home just in time to eat a snack and get ready. Frances and Jessica brought gorgeous flowers and my name spelled in chocolate, which was really sweet! We all met up at our apartment and went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner which was AMAZING! I got a hamburger and fries, which reminded me SO much of home. And then everyone chipped in to get me a cake there, which ended up costing 40 euro! It was SO good though! Over all, a VERY good birthday! I'm going to go buy myself a leather jacket tomorrow as my birthday present to myself. :)
We left Friday, April 3rd and went to Naples, Capri, and Mount Vesuvius.
Our hostel in Naples was the best hostel we've stayed at so far! It was clean, had really nice people behind the desk 24 hours a day, and it was right by the docks so we could just cross the street and get on the different ferries. Naples is really pretty along the coast and towards the southwest, but there are definitely not so pretty areas. However, I've been told horror stories about Naples being like a third world country and really unsafe, but I never once felt threatened or anything... no one even tried to pick my pockets.
We pretty much just walked around all day Friday. We went to the "acquarium," which was more like a room that had a couple fish tanks in it. It was only like 2,50 euro to get in, which should have been a sign... It was fun though; it had eels and squid and an octopus... pretty cool but definitely not up to American standards.
We tried a local Neopolitan place last night that the guy at the hostel recommended. The pizza was good, but I decided I was going to try something new and got linguine with shrimp... It definitely tasted like gross fish mixed with oil. Not like the shrimp I'm used to. I'm glad I tried it though.
This is a view from walking along the coast to the restaurant in Naples
We went to Capri yesterday; it was definitely my favorite day I've spent since I've been here. Everything was just immaculate and beautiful. We went to the Grotto Azurra, which is the Blue Cave. You go in through this three foot high hole in the cliffside by rowboat; it's so tiny! But once you get in there, the only light is coming through that hole and the ridiculously blue water and so it makes the entire cave glow bright blue. It was really hard to catch on camera, but I bought a postcard that I want to frame or something!
After that, we trecked up to the city of Capri and ate at this ristorante that overlooked the harbor; I put a picture below from our table. :)
We walked around and shopped afterwards and then visited the Giardino Augsto, which is Augustus' Garden. It had the most breathtaking view of the other side of the island, away from Naples. I tried to capture it with the photomerge below but it really doesn't do it justice. The water was beautiful; the Gulf definitely doesn't compare to the Mediterranean!
After the Garden, we took a trip to Anacapri and wanted to take the chair lift to the highest point on the island, but we got there 9 minutes late! :( So I just bought some handmade sandals and ate some gelato. Shopping and food makes everything better. :) I really want to go back to Capri and go to the beach and just see more of the island. They had these tiny, winding, surprisingly clean streets with Chanel, Fendi, Roberto Cavalli,... it was crazy!
On a not as exciting note, we went to Mount Vesuvius today. We went to Ercolano where they're supposed to have good prices on coral jewelry, however we forgot shops and pretty much everything but food is closed on Sundays so no jewelry. From there we road in a "taxi" about halfway up the mountain. I ended up sitting on a wooden school chair in the back of a van... not legit, at all. Then when we got there, we only had an hour and ten minutes to hike like 800 meters up the mountain and back down. It was cool, but definitely a letdown after yesterday. I think I should have gone to Pompeii or the Archeological Museum in Naples and maybe I would have been more excited. I don't know... I got a really good picture from the train back to Rome though of the mountain; it reminds of the moutain from Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I went there. :)
Anyways, awesome weekend vacay. I needed a relaxing weekend just to do what I wanted to do. :)
