Heading South but Back for New Years!

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On December 27th Tanya and I got on the 10am train. To my very pleasant surprise the tickets to Naples were only 19 euro, instead of the 40 euro as listed on the TrenItalia website. The train ended up taking about an hour longer but I think 21 euro are is certainly worth an hour of my time. It breaks down to only slightly less then what I get paid per show (without bonuses) anyway. We caught the train in Foligno and said an slightly anxious good bye to Jerry and Phil, I don’t think Lin Wea was too worried. However, Tanya has never traveled without her folks or a responsible party before, never stayed at a hostel either, and as new things are always a little scary, though exciting, this trip was a little more monumental then I had anticipated. We took the train from Foligno to Rome. Then caught the another train a little after noon from Rome to Naples. Only had enough time to grab a slice of pizza, the famous Naples pizza, from the train station, which was still VERY VERY good before we caught the commuter train from Naples to Santa Angelle, where our hostel was. The commuter train was another hour. Despite our excellent directions it took T and I about 20 minuets or so to find our hostel. Seven Hostel in Santa Angelle is one of the best if not the BEST hotel I have ever stayed in. After looking at other hostels in the area and reading reviews, Seven was not only the best deal but had the best customer ratings by far. Feel free to look it up. Free breakfast, free internet, delicious 5 euro dinner, drink discounts (the bar in the hostel was by far the most happening place in sleepy little Santa Angello), clean, and stylish dorm rooms, super clean bathrooms, and a really really friendly, helpful staff. I can’t imagion how beautiful it must be during the summer. They have an AWESOME view from their roof deck, yes I said roof deck. Seven is snuggled on a corner between a football field and a lovely old church, so weather you prefer to look at sweaty footballers or nuns, if the travelers don’t do it for yah, you are covered. So checked in, chatted a little with the two other American girls sharing our room. Their names escape me but they were both on holiday break from university in France where they were studying the language. Nice girls, eat dinner with them our second night there but didn’t hang with them too much. Tanya and I took ourselves to Sorrento after we settled in and washed up from traveling all day. Walked around the SUPER touristy town that is Sorrento. To be honest did feel a little out of place without my mink but what can you do, once your there darling, just go with it. Saw an amusing street band and an impressive student art exhibit. Eat a tasty dinner at a little wine bar called The Garden. Tanya had Pizza and I had cream of pumpkin soup and a pasta dish. The one downer about staying in St. Angello is that the latest you can return by public transportation is 12:40am/00:40 so we had no mad nights out, but we were surprised when we got back to Seven around 1am to find the bar packed with locals. There was also a live concert that night. The bar doubles as a swank restaurant and bar which is how they stay a float (probably more then a float) during the off season. Honestly, I think we were never more then two out of ten or twelve other guests in the whole place during four days there. We stayed up a little longer in the bar, but when the band started playing more covers, Tanya and I felt more and more like we were at a Bat Mitzvah and not a bar in the south of Italy. We took ourselves up stairs to get some sleep as YMCA blared into the night. The next day we woke up to rain, drizzly cool rain. We barrowed some umbrellas from the hostel after our breakfast of tea and chocolate bisckets and made our way to Pompei (only the English spell is Pompeii). We saw the same stray dog from the day before in the train station. Like the north of Italy has stray cats, the south has stray dogs. Only, saw one in Pompei though, we spent the about five hours walking through the ancient city. We had English audio guides and despite some very cold moments for fingers and toes and the on again off again rain, we had a really good time. We saw countless houses, and wall paintings. Saw the amphitheatre and arena. Went to the villa de mysterio (the mansion of mystery) and saw the petrified mud people, which I remembered from the Eye Discovery book on Volcanoes from my second grade class room. It got very dark very quickly and as there is not lighting on the street we headed back to the exit around 5pm/17:00. Travelers Note: If you want to visit Pompei you have to get there before 1pm/13:00 I think, although you can stay until after 5pm/17:00 you must enter before 1pm. Two girls we stayed with showed up at 1:10/13:10 and weren’t allowed in. Also if you are an EU citizen or the ticket office thinks you are an EU citizen under twenty four years old, you get in for free ; ) When we turned in our audio guides there was only one other ID waiting to be claimed. We took the train, which is right next to the entrance, back the hostel for dinner. Eat with the American girls and then took ourselves out to Sorrento again, with suggestions of where to go from the bartender. Unfortunately, we were too early out, Italian like to start going out around 11ish/23:00 and the off season crowd spreads pretty thin, pretty quickly. So the places that were suggested were either empty or closed, thankfully Tanya and I had one another and as we wandered entertained one another. Eventually, we returned to the first place on our list around midnight and found the Blues Lounge open and not empty. Chilled in the atmosphere for an hour, got a good deal from the bartender and took the bus back to Seven Hostel. Hung out in the bar and chatted with some Italians, one guy with particularly bad breath, I wish I could say something nicer but his breath was so overwhelming I can’t really recall much else. The next morning our American roommates were gone and were replaced with two sisters from South Korea. One was studying English in London. Her sister only spoke a hand full of English words and like me relied on hand gestures and lots of smiling when trying to communicate with those who do not speak the same language. Slept in a little later on the 29th and made it to Sorrento in time to catch the 13:40/1:40pm ferry to the island of Capri. I was bummed to find out that the water was too rough to see the Blue Gratto but we were both siked that we had a sunny day. We met a couple from Cape Cod and chatted with them while we were waiting for the ferry. We parted ways when we boarded as we wanted to sit on top and they chose to sit inside, honestly, they were pretty stale company. However, we saw them again as we were disembarking but soon left them after we were asked by a local boat guide if we were interested in a private tour of the coast. He spoke…okay, English and gave us a pretty good price. It’s awesome to be a girl in Italy, and though we probably could have haggled for less, we didn’t have a ton of time to see the Capri. So I got to see “baby” Blue Gratto along with a lagoon and a bunch of interesting forts, buildings, and rock formations along the coast. Our guide grew up on the island all his life and was quite a funny little character. He spoke to me in “English” but most of the time to Tanya in Italian, checking in every once and a while to see if I was following. More or less I could  and Tanya was so good as to fill me in on the parts I didn’t get. He was always joking and every other sentence was followed by “I only play with you” or “just a gjoke”. At the end of the tour he told Tanya (translated) “you are the intelligent one” and then looking at me “you are the nice/likable one”, we had to laugh, as if an intelligent women couldn’t be nice as well or that a nice person who doesn’t speak Italian couldn’t possibly also be smart. Ahhh well, it was a laugh. He was very kind and told us to please call him if we got lost or needed anything while we were in Capri. He told us what to do with the time we had on the Island, and gave us a map (although it was in German) which was helpful. After seeing Capri from the ocean we took the vermicular up to the old city. We walked through the VERY posh shopping center, and eat our midday snacks on a wall, while we listened to a band rehearse for an evening jazz concert. I was a happy happy traveler. We walked down Via. Kroop a beautiful windy road along the opposite side of the island. Tanya and I have decided that we couldn’t pick a house to buy, when were rich and famous, so we’ll just buy the whole island. We walked down to a beach, where I saw an old man picturesquely sitting on the beach, I walked closer hoping to discretely take a picture ofthe movie like human moment on this abandoned beach, only to almost walk onto a live film set….oops, yes indeed it was picturesque, like a movie…because IT WAS A MOVIE. Not a huge one, there were not trailers set up, just about four crew member and the old man actor with one camera. Tanya had a good giggle at me while we walked back up to catch the bus back up to the old city. We had about half and hour before the last ferry left for Sorrento so we watched these kids doing a holiday performance. It was difficult for Tanya and I not to get critical and snarky, but more or less I was entertained. We took the vermicular back down and ran into guess who as we boarded the ferry. Cape Cod. They had a good time as well, seemed surprised to hear we enjoyed the boat tour, and wished us well, again opting to sit inside instead of sitting outside. The X-Mas lights as we cast off from Capri were lovely, didn’t get to see a whole lot of Capri but for an afternoon we got a really good taste. Back to Hostel, eat dinner with the Koreans and then went out in search of gelato. We were unsuccessful, as it was Dec 29th and all, but did find ourselves some lovely hot chocolate and pastries. The next morning we had to check out, we met some Americans at breakfast, and then ran into them again in Amalfi. Backtrack, we took the bus from Sorrento down the Amalfi coast Amalfi. On the suggestion of the American girls we sat on the right side on the way there. The bus ride was about one and half hours but the sensory was spectacular! We had about an hour in Amalfi before we had to catch the bus back which would give us time to catch the train which would get us into Foligno just before 10pm/22:00. So after we saw the oliver twist like gangs of boys singing for tourists, saw the cathedral, checked out the beach, and grabbed some munchies for lunch, we saw the American. Had a pleasant ride back, and once on the train, both our iPods dead we entertained ourself with the alphabet game. 1min 30sec to think of as many boys names, girls names, plants, places, animals etc. starting with one letter. If you have the same one you cross it out. If you think of one the other person didn’t, you get a point. We made it through the whole alphabet and I, as usual in this game, kicked serious butt. Though Tanya was a very worthy advisory. Made it home in one piece, despite almost missing our train in Rome, forcing me to steal a fork, knife, plate, and bowl from the self serve restaurant I had just bought dinner at, when Tanya told me we had 2minuets, not 32minuets to get on our train. We made our train, I eat my dinner, and now am the proud owner of a very ordinary plate, bowl, knife and fork. I wasn’t going to leave it there, do you know how expensive train station food is? And it was buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes and a salad, not exactly dry food. Ow well, no serious harm done, and had a really really nice trip. We were all five of us together for new years. Tanya and I slept in late on the 31st. The first time I heard about Gaza was when I got back, and was up late, trying to check in with everyone I know over there, and as far as I know everyone is okay, though I am still waiting to hear from a few people. However, both my friends in Beer-Sheva and Askalon are safe, Grates Dio, but needless to say I was up late reading the news and writing e-mails, facebooking and then took a while to finally get to sleep. When I finally did get out of bed around noon, I eat a little brunch and then got back into bed and finished reading/listening to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, which was quite good, thanks for the recommendation Mich Mich. In the evening, all of us made dinner together. We made spinach and ricotta gnocchi with cheese sauce, with lots of yummy veggies and of course cheese cake for desert. We had a nice little ceremony where we wrote all the things we wanted to get rid of in the past year on a piece of paper which we then burned and then lit two candles for things we wanted for in the coming year. After we sat in quiet thoughtful candle light for a little while, we all watched the Cohen Brother’s “Raising Arizona”, I had forgotten how funny it was. Around midnight we walked to a friends house and watched the fireworks from all over the valley. It was a really beautiful and quiet new years. Tanya and I stayed up after and had a really nice talk.

So I generally tend to be a pretty private person when it comes to personal goals, but I figured in light of the new year I would like to do a little extra to push myself and keep on track. From now on, at the end of every weekly blog entry will just be a little update on how I am doing on my goals. I think it will help me stay on track if I know other people may be monitoring my progress. They will be listed at the end, so feel free not to look at them if you’r not interested, its more for me then anything else, but you find your self interested by all means, look there right here. “Admitting to your __whatever’s__ is the first step to fixing them” Right? Really just a little motivational fear, something to be held accountable for. Your smart folks you understand.

GOALS FOR THE NEW YEAR OF 2009 ARE:
-Get back down to 140lbs
-Be able to do the splits, run 3miles without stopping, and do five pull ups
-Be able to have a full/good conversation only in Italian

So in closing HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! May 2009 bring you all the happiness in the world. Hoping it will be a year of peace, growth, and joy for all.

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Photos

Tanya and the Michlen Man
near our hostel

dogs
strays in the station and owned ones in church

X-Mas
musicians

Playin for the kids
I know that feeling

Awesome pen work
from student gallery

Yes they are
yes this is real pompelli wall art