Amalfi, Naples and the Journey Home

Hey crew, sorry it took so long for me to get back to this.  It has been a hectic week since my return to the US of A.  Let me rewind all the way back to our departing of Rome...

We caught the 11:00 AM train out of the city on Friday, June 29th, and took it to a town called Salerno.  From th ere we jumped on a bus that took us into Amalfi.  THen we took another bus that brought us to a quant little town that we would stay in called Agerola (we never quite figured out how to say it correctly, but we're pretty sure it was a soft "G" and maybe a couple of other letters that you wouldn't think are in there?) Anways we got to the quaint little town in the mountains not far from the sea around 5. Not before we of course got lost, got off on the wrong bus stop and had to hoof it to the hostel (it was only about a mile away, but still the bus drops off 20 feet from the hostel we were staying at.  It was a mistake we only had to make once) Once our stuff was properly dropped off we talked to a few other people that were staying in the hostel, and they highly reccomended a place to grab some pizza (not surprised are you?) that was right around the corner. Obviously that was the next stop then, so we grabbed some pizza and a bottle of wine there (Wine was only 2 euros here - in the restraunt. WHAT?) and then we had a nice relaxed evening.

The next day, Saturday, we had a beach day.  Perfect weather, and we were blessed with another rocky beach - oh well.  The water still felt great.  Apparently personal space isn't a thing on the Amalfi coast, because people put there towels down litereally right next to us - it didn't matter that there was plenty of room on the beach not 2 inches from us.  Maybe we looked good, or smelled good? I don't really know.  After our fill of the sun and the beach, and narrowly escaping a nasty sunburn we headed back to Agerola for some dinner.  Pizza again, you guessed it. It was at a different restaraunt this time though. The pizza was even better, and the wine was still just 2 euros, so there was no complaining out of our mouths.  That night there were fireworks that went off as we were having our late dinner.  We aren't sure why they went off, but we assumed it was the festival that went on in the town a few days later.  After dinner we headed back to the hostel, and made friends with our fellow hostel mates, shared some wine, and called it a night.

The next day, July 1st we woken up by church bells early in the moring, and every hour after that.  We took the day to just relax, get some reading done, and go on  small walks over to the coast and around town as we scavenged for food.  We also played some card games with our new friends, and we were amazed with how early the celebrations started for the finals of the EuroCup (although if the Chiefs made the superbowl I would probably start early too)  So after the day of just relaxing and hanging out we grabbed an early dinner.  Guess what we had? Wrong, we got pasta tonight, which was very delicious.  Although I guess you were part right on your guess, we did get some more wine (When in Rome right? - well close enough here) So after dinner, which we timed experly, we went to the town square to catch the game.  It was a much more mild crowd than what we had in Rome, which is probably good, because Italy unfortunately got smoked.  4-0.  An Italian guy told us after the game that he would have felt lucky if they beat Spain, so I suppose its good that they had a good attitude about it.  After the game we talked to our new friends for a few more minutes before we headed into bed.

Monday the 2nd we were up, out the door, and on our way into Pompeii before 10 AM.  It took us a little over an hour to get to Pompeii, and once we were there we jumped on the first bus that took us to the famous Volcano that destroyed the town, Mount Vesuvius.  The bus took us part way up the Volcano, and from there we on our own to climb it.  After making the climb up the mountain/volcano we spent about an hour marveling at the power of it, and how mighty the explosion must have been to blow the top off the mountain and destroy the town 7 miles away, and add in all the sea shore. (it added 5 miles of coast, because Pompeii used to be a port town before the eruptions) After climbing around there all day we headed down into the city of Pompeii.  The best preserved Roman city, because well, it was covered/preserved by volcanic ash and rock.  It was all very cool.  Anyways after we wondered around the city for another few hours we headed back to the station to make our way back on the 5:15 bus.  We didn't make the 5:15 bus, so we had to wait to get on the 6:30 bus.  It all worked out ok though.  We got back around 8 and we had one priority at that point.  Get food, we were both so hungry we were getting sick.  So we got back and our new friends joined us for the meal.  When we headed back a bunch of new people had showed up to the hostel.  They were all British, and closer to our age, so we went out on the portch and introduced ourselves to them, and socialized for our last night in the Amalfi region.

The next day we woke up, and took the bus into Furore, where we were ablot to see the Marisa Cuomo vineyard.  We knew very little about it, but it came highly reccomended.  We found out on arrival, that it was one of the top up and coming vineyards in Italy and definitely one of the best in the southern half.  So after we picked up a few bottles to bring home, we headed back to our hostel to pick up our stuff and head into Naples to catch our plane home the next day.  It took until our final stop to not have to wonder at all to find our hostel.  Thats right folks, we found it on our first try, no asking for help or anything.  So we got checked in and asked where the best place to get pizza was.  There is no need to be judgemental on this pizza order, this is where pizza was invented.  So we were pointed in the right direction, and took off.  The pizza was the best we have ever had.  I'm not sure i can eat another pizza and consider it good after this work of art. Infact, the pizza place had awards everywhere and pictures of the presidents from the United States of America that had visited the restaraunt.  After that we found some delcious canolis for desert, and saw a little bit of then town of Naples as well as picked up a few souveniers to bring home on our walk back to the hostel.  We got back around 10 and watched a movie, that well, it had no ending, so we think it was going for an indy/artsy angle? Whatever.  We had one more glass of wine to celebrate the end of a great trip, and a local drink called lemoncelo before we headed to bed.

The next day, the 4th of July, we declared our independence from Europe and tried to head home.  With hopes to see the 4th of July concert in New York City featuring Katy Perry and Kenny Chesney as well as the biggest firework display in the country set to the tune of various patriotic songs.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of this because our plane was 4 hours late taking off.  Once we finally did get in though, and made it through customs, and waited to get our bags we headed to time square.  It was cool and patriotic, but we were both exhausted and worried about making our flights, so we said goodbye to eachother and Grant made his way towards LaGuardia Airport and Michael made his way into Newark, New Jersey.  We both reached home on the 5th safely around 1 PM central time.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, and reading our blog throughout our journey.  Hopefully you enjoyed it, it let you follow us, or hopefully gave you laugh or two.

On top of Mt. Vesuveus - the Isle of Capri is in the top right corner

Same shot without Michael in it

This is the Vinyard we visited and picked up some wine.

We don't know why there were fireworks exactly, we think a town festival or something.  Or maybe they were just early for the 4th of july.

A shot from the vineyard towards the ocean.

Pompei with the volcano that destroyed it, Mt Vesuvius, in the background

The pizza we had in Naples was award winning... And it was that good

Inside of the Volcano

Pompeii

The town of Naples from the top of the Volcano

The town of Amalfi

Pompeii

Venice and Rome

After our wonderful overnight cruise/ferry where we got to watch Italy beat England in the quarterfinal match of the EuroCup, we landed in the beautiful city of Ancona (it wasn’t really that beautiful at all) and jumped on the first train out of there to Venice, the city of pigeons and tourists. I am convinced that no one actually lives in Venice after visiting, and it is all American, German and Canadian tourists. Anyways so we showed up to the city with nowhere to stay, so first step was taking care of that. How do we do that you ask? Simple wander aimlessly in one direction until you reach an internet café, and then book a hostel (our overnight ferry unfortunately didn’t have internet to our dismay). So once that was taken care of, and our stuff had been properly dropped down carelessly we headed out to see one of the most famous cities in the world, and take in the Venetian Culture. The first stop (because it was close) was the famous Rialto Bridge before we headed towards the Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark’s Square) to take in more tourists, and more importantly more pigeons and street vendors. Oh, I suppose there was some famous old stuff and churches too, and the canal or whatever… If you’re curious how to navigate the alleys and canals and confusing-ness of Venice, it’s a very simple science. You just walk in a general direction for a while, and if its something famous you’ll start to see signs for it. Anyways after we had walked and wandered enough for one day we went back to the hostel to freshen up for a little bit before hitting the town… Except that its not a party town at all, so what we really did was grabbed some dinner, and this orange drink we had seen everyone drinking all day (apparently its some famous venetian drink called spritz, we didn’t like ours but maybe that’s just the place that we ordered it from) anyways we then got some Italian gelato as we took in a Venetian band playing everyones favorite classical Italian songs on Saint Marc's Square.

The next day was the twenty sixth of June in the year of our lord two thousand and twelve, the day we sacked Roma, or arrived, same thing. So to back track we woke up in Venice with train tickets that left at 12:36, so we woke up at our hostel after sleeping till 10 and walked back over the bridge, got some water and breakfast heading to the train station. Luckily we booked ahead so we were on the fast train, which brought us into Rome at 3:30 and it reached speeds of 180 km/hr. By far the fastest, nicest, most well air conditioned train we have been on yet. Once we reached Rome, we used our trademarked navigation skills to make our way to our hostel (yeah it involved wandering, and more time than it needed, but not too much. Seriously what did people do before iPhones). Standard procedure now, we got our stuff dropped off and we were told it was only a 15 minute walk to the Coliseum, so obviously we wanted to do that. We were both impressed, just in very different ways. From there we were starting to get hungry, since we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast way back in Venice and the time was starting to push 8 something PM (or 20 something PM if you’re on military time) and we really wanted to take in some of the famous fine Italian cuisine (yes, we went out for pizza and ice cream, duh). Before turning in for a long summers nap (seriously it’s really hot, not as hot as you guys have it (+1 point to us (for those of you keeping score), but we don’t get air conditioning most places (+1 to you guys)). More accurately, we got back to the hostel and Grant went to sleep while I stayed up till 3 catching up on Game of Thrones (totally worth it, but makes me less likely to read the 2nd book after completing the first one that me, and everyone else we’ve met is reading (seriously).

The next day we woke up after dreaming of the ancient Romans, gladiators, and Caesars, so we headed off to see the Coliseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. So upon arrival we signed up for a guided tour of the three sites that lasted from 11:30 till roughly 4:00 PM. After there we made our way towards some other famous sites, such as the Trevi Fountain, where we tossed one coin in for a return to Rome and 3 in for true love… Supposedly. It collects €3000 a day, so maybe they were just smart in Italy when they made that up. We took our chances with the coins anyways though. From there we headed towards the giant plaza, that isn’t that old, but has something to do with the president, and hit up the pantheon after that. A truly full day in Rome wouldn’t be complete without a stop at a small Italian Restaurant/bar, where Grant was able to enjoy some Pasta, Michael enjoyed some lasagna, and we took in yet another soccer game (ugh - Michael's opinion only)… Anyways after dinner and soccer we headed back to the hostel for the night.

The next day (yesterday 6/28/2012 or if you’re anywhere but in America 28/06/2012) was dedicated (the first half of the day anyways) to the smallest country in the world. Michael woke up early for his tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel which started at 9:30 so I was out the door by 8:45 to make it there on time. Grant slept in and we agreed to meet by one of the fountains in St. Peter’s Square. Fun fact of the day, did you know the entire coliseum could fit inside of St. Peter’s Basilica? The Catholics wanted to build a new and bigger symbol of Rome that trumped the coliseum, so they built the basilica right over St. Peters tomb. Anyways, the Sistine Chapel lives up to the legend, although it is very different than what I anticipated, and it is almost hard to appreciate how holy and sacred of a place it is because it is so crowded and there are guards shushing (shhhhhhhhhh) the whole time you’re in there. Anyways if you don’t know, that is the famous ceiling Michelangelo painted and it is where the pope is elected. So we met up at the fountain at 1:00 PM and were about to go see the basilica, but since one of us (Grant) wore a cut off shirt, they weren’t allowed in by the Swiss Guard or the Vatican Police, or something. Anyways, after we met up for the second time, we headed back to the hostel to recuperate and grab a quick bite to eat before seeing a few more sites, grabbing some food, and finding a place to watch the game. We heard that the public viewing wasn’t a big deal though, so we didn’t bother to check where it was. On the way though we saw a few guys waving Italian flags so we decided to follow them (that sounds creepy…) After stalking them for the better part of a mile we found ourselves in a square not too far from the Spanish Steps in the biggest viewing party I’ve ever seen (my estimate is easily over 10,000 people) Good news! Italy won and is headed to the championship game of the EuroCup! (sorry Fabian) Immediately after they won the town went crazy. Instant parades taking place, flares (yes, like road flares) being lit all over the place, air horns, flag waving, and constant car honking everywhere. Apparently it’s a thing to get in your car and drive around and honk your horn after you win the game. We’ll post videos when we have better internet and full access to a computer (at home). Anyways the parades brought us to midnight, where it was once again time to turn in for bed.

We are Headed to the Amalfi Coast tomorrow, with plans to visit Pompeii, maybe Capri, hopefully a vineyard, and definitely a beach. Today also marks the 6 week point in our trip, and we’ll be back in the good ‘ol US of A in 5 days,(right after the Twins/Royals series fuels a rivalry in us) so I wouldn’t hold hold your breath for another post until we're back.

More of Croatia!

After two days of hiking and staying in a bungalow at a campground at the national park, we made our way by bus to southern Croatia and the coastal city of Split. The bus ride took about six hours and stopped at just about every little city and town, but the scenery on the way down was great--mountains and sea. When we got off the bus and arrived in Split we had to dodge dozens of people trying to get us to stay in their "hostels" since we already had one booked. After some careful navigation through tiny alleyways, we found our hostel and were luckily given a newly renovated room which was pretty nice.

We then quickly unpacked and got settled and of course headed to the beach. The beaches were just a short walk from where we were staying, but they were different from most beaches that we have been to. All of the beaches in Croatia are rocky, not sandy. The same goes for Split, with the exception of one beach which imported a thin layer of sand. After scoping out a few of the beaches we found a nice spot to lay down our towels and finally escape the heat by diving into the sea. This beach was pretty cool because there were a couple of big rocks you could swim to and relax on or jump off of. You could also see a couple of Croatian islands in the distance. After the beach we went to a nicer restaurant for Grant's birthday and then made some new friends from Holland and Finland to go out with.

The next day, we spent the whole time people watching, swimming, and laying around the beach. That night, we headed to bed after the Euro Cup game.

The next afternoon, we took a fast ferry to the Croatian island of Hvar, which is rated one of the most beautiful islands in the world. The trip took only an hour and our hostel wasn't difficult to find as the city of Hvar is not big at all. Our hostel was filled with friendly beach bum Aussies and British and had a great atmosphere. The island itself is kind of desert-like and is pretty rocky. There are also hundreds of sailboats and yachts docked and anchored at the island daily. That night we actually made dinner for the first time and hung out with our British roommates.

The next morning we got an early start and did what you're supposed to do when in Croatia, go to the beach! We walked a little ways and found a nice spot on the rocky beach to rent some lounge chairs for the day (unlike the states, you have to pay for your lounge chair!). After spending too much time in the sun and becoming lobsters, we decided to head in and make dinner again. After, we hung out at a pub with our British friends to watch the Spain/France match.

The next day we had a relaxed morning and eventually said goodbye to our island life and caught a ferry back to the mainland and Split where we took yet another overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy.

Plitvicka Lakes National Park in Croatia

Not a whole lot to tell here, we went hiking all day today, here are some pictures