Four days at the beach

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So after Rome we had a very hectic day of travelling. Apparently when we had booked the train the day before the man didnt tell us he didnt speak english and booked us on the train for the wrong day. So after much confusion we ended up sitting near the washrooms... I didnt realise until about 2 hours into the train ride that my butt was soaked and it smelt funny where I was sitting. I clued in that we were infact sitting near the washrooms and then spend the last half hour of the train ride sitting on the metal steps off the train. It was pretty brutal. We then arrived in the train station in Naples and realised that we had to take a private train all the way to Sorrento. This was the typical ghetto spray painted train, we didnt have seats and when we finally got seats we had all our baggage on our laps... interesting train ride. We then took a crazy bus from Sorrento to Positano which was the craziest ride through tiny streets and cliffs. We were relieved to finally get to our hostel which was realitively nice and we were greeted by a pretty decent looking guy. Things were looking up. We decided to check out the beach realising that it was a loooong way daown (850 steps or so) but worth it. We were almost all the way down when a thunder storm hit positano and we began to get worried when we could actually see the lightning striking.... so we ran up the stairs (so tiring) and took shelter in the little bar near our hostel and got an english newspaper and began reading about whats going on in the world (something I quite regret). We spent a good amount of time in the bar until it cleared up outside and then found a bus that takes you down to the beach (my favourite discovery). We found cute shops, cheap gelato .... good times all together. They have a lot of cute local things here.... everything is about Lemons on the amalfi coast.... they even have a lemon liquor called lemoncello which is pretty decent.
The evenings are kinda meh here... mostly because at our hostel which actually could make a reality tv show out of the gongshowness.... it is like a cross between temptation island and big brother. Madness.... I go to bed pretty early most nights. OUr room is shared with 10 people which was not so good the first night when we went to bed a found one of the beds occupied by more then one person. Slightly awkward especially for Amanda who had to crawl up into her bunk on top of their bed... hahaha. Now we have some cool people that we enjoy sharing the room with.
The next morning was beach day... finally the moment I had been waiting for... time to relax. We got a beach chair and umbrella for 3 euros, but lets be serious there was no way I was using an umbrella. We got a great day of sun and swam in the ocean... pretty nice. We randomly made friends with some of the guys who worked at the beach, mostly older men who would give us good deals on the prime beach location.... and one (Alessandro... who later asked Angela out hahahaha) found us a nice floatation device... which prooved to be not so good for Darlene as she turned quite an ugly uncooked bacon colour out in the sun..... hahaha... kinda funny though. By the end of the second beach day everyone (except me obviously) was a little tired of the sun. We did take one day to explore Pompeii. My favourite is the whore house... haha... and the penis carved in the streets that point you in the right direction. I wasnt feeling that great so I left the others to explore Pompeii (and its wild dogs) while I headed back to the hostel. I hung out with some of the new people in my dorm. One a school teacher who will be staying in a small italian town to teach history in english. Definitely something I would be interested in doing.

All in all our time in Pompeii was pretty great. The pictures I have will no where near do justification to the beautiful scenery. If it werent for the curvey roads that make my ill I might want to stay there. The town is great and full of great people.... the tourists maybe not so great though and our hostel was definitely random. But overall good times.

After Positano we took t he night train to Venice. It left Naples at 8pm and we arrived in Venice at like 5 am which was lame. BUT this time we splurged and got out own couchette so the ride was alittle more enjoyable. We got to Venice and checked into our campground, where we were delighted to have our own little camper thing. Still not the best sleeps but nicer then a tent. Darlene and Amanda went home after an amazing few hours of shopping. Apparently they had quite the adventure getting to the airport. I am excited to hear how the rest of their flights went.... apparently they had planned to hit up the slot machines at Heathrow airport hahaha.
Angela and I have spent the last few days taking our water taxi thing to and from Venice and shopping our little hearts out. We found the best gelato place here and have found too many things that we want to take home with us. Oh well.... i figure I can make the extra room... maybe get rid of my soap etc... who needs to bath when we have pretty things from Venice.

We leave Venice tonight and head to NIce. I am excited to be going back to France, where I have a better understanding of whats going on. I love Venice but need more beach time. Fingers crossed the weather is nice. Oh another random thing.... our campsite last night had one of the Contiki tours stop by for the night which Angela and I soon found out meant.... an episode of Girls gone wild.... but with no good looking people at all... just random! And people were letting there children watch this. I am either getting old... or this was all just over the top. It definitely kept me entertained for a good hour...just watching how ridiculous people can be.

Okay thats it for now... 10 more days till home time.... I have added more pictures to the other blog to check out!

Ciao from Venice

Gabrielle

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Photos

Positano
Beach time

Positano
Beach time

Pompeii
Whore house... Darlene doesnt charge too much.

Random
Girls gone wild beach party at the campsite????

Comments

[MOM]

I wish I was there at the beach with you!!!!
Wow, Great pics Gabrielle...I am sooooo glad to hear that you are having such an awesome time. What a great place to people watch. Isn't it so interesting that there are so many different types of people in the world. Travelling allows you to open up your eyes and actually see more!!!!! What a great thing that you have given yourself, Gabrielle....Ti amo e manchili!