Amalfi Coast! (end of week 14)

Thursday, after eating Mr. Pizza, we all headed to the SMN Station to meet our tour group at 7:30. We ended up leaving closer to 8, and it was a 9 hour bus ride full of movies. We got to Seven hostel in Sorrento at around 2:30 and went straight to sleep since we had to get breakfast and be out of the hostel by 8 am!

Being pulled inside the Blue Grotto

So Friday morning, we headed down to Capri by ferry, where we had a two hour boat ride all along the island and saw many highlights, including the island's famous fire coral, a few different grottos (one in which a mysterious natural rock stands that resembles the Virgin Mary), and the "Love Tunnel" a natural rock tunnel where you're supposed to make a wish when going underneath it. Our last stop was at the Blue Grotto, which we paid extra to go into. The Blue Grotto is not always open because the entrance is so small that if the water is rough, it is impossible to get into without being hurt. Luckily for us, we came to Amalfi during the perfect weekend, and were able to experience the inside of the grotto. If you're unaware of what it looks like, the water is a brilliant blue color inside because of the sunlight that reflects it. We got into these small boats that held about 5 people, and the guy pulled us into the grotto holding onto a chain. Once inside, he and a few other boatmen started singing and it was just a very interesting experience. We only stayed inside there for about a few minutes, but it was still very cool to see.

Inside the Blue Grotto

View from the chairlift!

After our tour, we went up to Anacapri, which sits above Capri, and we got to try their famous limoncello and lots of chocolate. We then went to a restaurant for lunch that our tour group recommended, and although the food was good, it took foreverrr for me to get my meal. Although I really do like how Europeans take their time relaxing through their meals, when I'm on a trip and have lots of things I want to see, I don't really have time to appreciate eating late, especially when I'm also hungry. Can't help it, it's so American. Finally, after lunch, we took an amazing chairlift ride up to the top of Mount Solaro, where we saw beautiful views of Anacapri and the coastlines. It was absolutely breathtaking when we got to the top and I really enjoyed the chairlift ride up as well. We ended up chilling up there for a while, taking pictures, and just enjoying the sun. Eventually, Ashley and I decided we wanted to check out the beach back down at Capri before we had to head back to Sorrento, so we left the rest of the girls to do their shopping and found the beach and tanned for a little while at Grand Marina. For dinner, our tour group took us to this one place they said we should all go to; however, once we got there, there wasn't room for all of us, so we ended up going to this other restaurant called I Giardini Di Tasso. It was a little more expensive than the other restaurant, but it was much more beautiful. The restaurant used to be a monestary, and we were able to walk around the courtyard where orange and lemon trees grew. It wasn't so warm out at night, so we just strolled around it while we were waiting for our food. I ended up ordering Gnocchi Sorrentino (with tomato sauce and mozzerella) which was delicious... however, once again, our table ended up being the absolutely last ones served. However, we did get unlimited amounts of bread while we waited, and there was live music which was nice, and best of all, the tour guides felt bad for us and had the waiters give us free limoncello shots! Yum! We were all pretty tired from our limited sleep the night before, and didn't go to this beer garden place that we had the option of going to. Instead, we headed back to the hostel, where we found to our surprise, turned into an extremely loud bar till about 2 am! The noise didn't bother me so much, but it was just so loud and we could hear the music clearly from our rooms.

Positano

On Saturday, we left at 10:30 for the black sand beaches of Positano. The beach ended up being more rock than sand, which kind of hurt to walk on, but it was beautiful there! We tanned for a bit, and then decided to take a 10 euro private boat ride to cave swim and cliff jump. I was hesitant about the cliff jumping in the first place, but I went along for the ride anyway. When we got to the area, the cliff didn't look too high to me.. I think I was expecting it to be a ridiculous height, so I decided to go ahead and do it. I kept being indecisive about whether to jump from the higher or lower point, and finally decided to jump the higher one. Once I got up there, I got slightly nervous, but it was too late... the only way back down was to jump. I finally jumped thanks to the countdown of Katie and Meghan, and it was probably the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. The water was SO cold, that once I got up to the surface, I tried looking up to tell Katie and Meghan that I was fine, and found that I couldn't catch my breath to talk. After that, I didn't want to jump again, but a few of the other girls went a couple more times. Afterwards, we had the option to cave swim, but the water was so cold that I sat in the boat with Melissa and became the picture-taker for the others. When we got back to the main beach, we got paninis at Vini and Panini, one of the recommended sandwich shops. The rest of the day consisted of me relaxing and getting tan. That night, our hostel happened to be hosting a buffet dinner, so we ate at the hostel. We sat on the rooftop bar for a little while, but then Ashley and I decided to go to this club Africana that night, which is a club inside of a cave. I was really excited about going, but for some reason, when we got there, I felt really weird and tired and it wasn't as fun as I expected. The shuttle that took us back ended up coming later than I thought and we got home at 5 am! We had to wake up at 9 the next day, so I was annoyed at the idea of getting little sleep again.

Sorrento, on our first morning in Amalfi

Sunday, we packed our things and left the hostel at 10 for Pompeii. We went on an interesting tour that lasted about an hour, and then went to get lunch at Pompeii Pizza. However, once again, since everyone in our tour group went to this pizza place, we were the very very last to get served, and had to actually take our food to eat on the bus! The pizza happened to be really good though. On the way home we watched movies once again, and we got back home around 9ish, which was earlier than I had thought we'd get back. I wanted to be productive and do some work in advance for my finals, but that didn't happen at all. Overall though, I loved Amalfi.. it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to!