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Published: September 15th 2005
hey everyone!! i'm finally able to update. i tried in italy twice. the first time, the page wouldn't load and the second time it wouldn't recognize the @ sign on the foreign keyboard. but, i am staying at a hostel that has a US keyboard. my back hurts from carrying my pack, which we decided to name (my packs name is jerome) since they were the weight of midgets. i have blisters on my feet, bug bites EVERYWHERE, and sunburn, but i couldn't be having more fun!!
so...so much has happened since i left a little less than a week ago. because sarah (the friend i am traveling with) and i are crazy, we decided as soon as we landed at rome that we were going to take a train directly down to naples so we could save time. needless to say, we were two tired chicks when we arrived 20 hours after we had departed from the states! we didn't even officially begin to "see" italy until sunday, the 11th. we decided since we have slept late to catch a train to sorrento and go to positano. both were beautiful, by the way! positano was absolutely breath-taking, the further and further you wound down the streets, the more beautiful it became. it was in positano where we had our first gelati. let's just say i'm a big fan and plan on sampling every flavor!
when we were ready to leave, we decided to skip the bus (puke!) and took a water taxi back up to sorrento. we stayed outside to take pictures and when we finally got off an hour later i had the biggest hair EVER (think fran drescher from the nanny). after wandering positano, we were extremely upset we were stuck in naples again for the night. naples, i'm sorry to say, was absolutely disgusting. i wouldn't recommend it to anyone. it was dirty, scary and crowded.
but, since we knew we were leaving the next day we weren't too concerned. we lugged our midgets to check in at the train station and headed to the naples museum. we thought they had the casts of the victims, but they didn't so it was pretty much a waste of time. we then headed down to herculaneum, but decided to skip due to a time crunch. but, we did go to vesuvius!! that was amazing. the views were spectacular!! it took 40 hard minutes to get up to the crater. i thought i was going to die. i felt lame when old people and women pushing baby carriages up were passing me. but, i made it. it was worth it. it was cloudy up top, so we couldn't see past 5 feet over the side, but looking into the crater was amazing.
after getting back down vesuvius, we took a train to pompei. i don't know what i was expecting, but i didn't expect it to be that expansive. you really got the feel what it might have been like to live there. we could have explored there all day and not have seen everything.
we left pompei and caught an overnight train to venice. we shared a sleeper with this cool girl named michele. she told us all about where she'd been and where she was going, and we mentioned that we were thinking about going to switzerland. it just so happened she had just come from there! after showing us her pictures, we were sold. we weren't sure when we were going but we knew we wanted to. we went to sleep (god bless earplugs) and pulled into venice at 5:30am (yuck!). nothing was open til 6 (including the PAY bathrooms) so we hung out then got some breakfast which we took to the front steps and watched the first morning rays of sunlight glint off the grand canal. it was amazing! we took our midgets and went to check into our hotel (since all the hostels were booked) and dropped our bags. all of us, including our new friend, took rick steves advice and bought a day pass for the vasporeti and took the #1 taxi which takes you all the way down the grand canal. we were lucky enough to get the back of the boat which was completely open. and the three of us and these cool french tourists took turns taking pictures of eachothers with venice as the backdrop.
we got off at the last stop and mailed some postcards and got back on to walk along the canal to san marco. we stopped along the shops, and when we came out i think all the tour groups and cruise ships had gotten there because all of a sudden the nice quiet walk we were enjoying turned into this loud mass of people. but we trudged on and hit san marco. and yes, we did feed the pigeons! i was caught between complete hysterical laughter and being scared for my life. but, i did it twice.
we browsed more in the rialto area where i bought a venetian mask from the artist who created the masks for the movie "eyes wide shut" his work is amazing! after browsing a little more, we were getting cranky and tired since we had been touring for about 10 hours and hadn't showered in....a while. so we split up. michele was going to paris and we were going to nap. which we did for quite a while, but got up and walked down to san marco where we sat an outdoor cafe, sipped wine and listened to the "dueling orchestras". it was such a moment. it was finally cool, we had wine, we had music, the moon was hanging out just about the piaza. it was perfect!
the next morning we took it easy, not really sure where we wanted to go next. we hit the internet cafe, and all of a sudden we were going to switzerland! we ran down to the train station, bought a ticket to interlaken, switzerland, got the midgets and boarded our train! late that night we got in. let me tell you, they have the coolest thing. there is a free hotel information kiosk which shows you where you are on a map, you enter the number of the hotels they have listed above and it blinks where it is. then all you have to do is pick up the phone (for free) and call to see if they have space. we found a really cheap hostel that was above this bar, and we ran down there. we walked into the bar....right in the middle of a soccer game! everyone probably hated us as we checked in, but we didn't care we jus wanted the midgets off our back! we got the last 2 beds and went to check out our home for the next 12 hours.
it was small, but clean and met this kid josh from atlanta. his mac card cracked in half that day so he was working on his last few euros. sarah and i could not let him sit up in the room staring at the ceiling so we told him we'd buy him a beer. so we walked down to the bar, and since the soccer game was over, we could actually move and relax. we had the local beer, zwickel, which was SO good. we had a few and since the bars here close so early, we decided to go upstairs and continue drinking limoncello we had brought with us from venice. our entire room got into it. within the hour me, sarah, josh, osum (from japan), ray and sun (from china) were all sitting on the floor passing the bottle around and talking as best as you can when half of you don't speak english. it was great fun!
this morning we left our happy home since we already had reservations for bacpacker's villa (still in interlaken) and went to book the reason why we came here in the first place....jungfraujoch....top of europe. it's the highest point in europe and it takes 2.5 hours to get there. but it was worth it! up top they have an ice palace. you walk through it and EVERYTHING is ice....the floors, walls, and ceilings...they even have sculptures of everything. and...since we were planning on the weather being in the 80's since we were staying in italy, we were also freezing our butts off! we bought some long socks and another fleece. our hands and our faces were FREEZING. lol. but, it was so much fun.
we stopped at all the observatories. one of the outside ones we almost went flying off the side of the mountain since it was so cold the snow was freezing over. we did go all the way to the topmost point you can go 11,792 feet in the air! we walked all along outside and were fine until we looked down and realized that the metal grates we were standing on were being held up by beams....and nothing else. then i wanted to cry. but we pressed on and took pictures from every angle. it finally got to the point that we were feeling really sick...light headed and breathless fromt he altitude and decided to head back home. and here we are...safe and happy in our hostel!!
we're leaving interlaken tomorrow. we were going to stay through another night but it's ridiculously expensive here and i don't think we could afford to eat here another day. so we're going to catch a train to somewhere in germany. we're not sure yet. we're going to go to the trainstation and see what they have when they have it and just go. so, who knows where i'll be writing you from next!! any guesses?
well, i have to go. the little time clock says i only have a few more minutes of internet fun left and i'm going to check out some german sites.
until next time, ciao!
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MomG
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jealous!
I'm so happy for you! It sounds like you're having such wonderful adventures. I do miss you, though. Keep having fun. I hope the time doesn't fly by too fast for you. Lots of love!