Strange Things About Europe, Volume 7
1) Men who wear Capri pants and think it looks good.
2) On the train ride from Sorrento to Naples we were made fun of by an Italian teenager. He did this by asking us what time it was in English. That’s killer material man.
3) Italian children in general are strange, I’ve decided.
Quote of the Day: “Brooke, I heard you was pregnant!” — Brooke Hayes, who was herself quoting someone else from her high school days. It’s a long story.
I’ve got a lot to talk about, so get comfortable. 
This weekend was awesome! Finally, a trip in Italy that wasn’t planned out and dictated by the university. We got underway on Thursday afternoon after that bear of an Art History test. Well, five of us got underway. Jessica and Angela met up with us on Friday morning.
The EuroStar train ride from Florence to Naples was pretty uneventful. One quick story: I had had my headphones on for a good bit of the trip because the girls were gossiping. At one point I pulled my headphones off of one ear to listen in. They were talking about some pretty crazy stuff. Eventually someone says something about me and they look over and realize that I’ve heard it all. Funny stuff. 
The ride was about 4 hours, but it really didn’t feel like it was that long.
Once we got to Naples we got on a train to go to Sorrento. Or so we thought. In fact we got on a train that took us deeper into Naples. Fortunately we only went one more stop because it was the end of the line, and we realized we had gone the wrong direction. We found a train going the other direction and hopped. This train ride was a little more than an hour. On the way we got a great view of Mount Vesuvius.
We got to Sorrento and took a cab to our hotel. Now let me set this up a little. The rooms that we got were very affordable, and were in a 2 star hotel (I think). We’ve been staying in a 3 star hotel in Florence, so I’m expecting a pretty big step down. We pull up and I’m floored. We are right on the water! I mean right there. The view was extraordinary. We arrived when the sun was beginning to set. Right outside the hotel’s main door was the hotel’s restaurant. It was immediately decided that, regardless of price or quality, we were eating there. We got up to the rooms and they really weren’t that bad. My room even had air conditioning. The beds were more comfortable than the ones in Florence. It was noisier because it’s on a busier street, but that was really the only noticeable negative change.
The meal needs to be discussed a little bit. The restaurant was pretty good. Nothing special; the best thing about it was the view. But I’ve got to mention dessert. You see, the ladies I was traveling with all have a sweet tooth. We ordered a piece of lemon cake and a piece of something called rumababa. The lemon cake wasn’t too good. But the rumababa was horrible. It was a rum cake, but it was drenched in rum. Every ‘bite’ was like taking a shot. It was pretty gross. We all decided never to order rumababa ever again (it’s on the black list).
Friday we went on a 1-day mini cruise up the Amalfi coast. We went to two towns: Positano and Amalfi. Both were cute little coastal towns. The cruise itself was pretty nice. It would have been perfect had it not been for those meddling kids. There was a class trip of 12-year-old Italians on the ship. At least 30 of them. And by the time we were headed back they were all taking shots of Limoncello (a lemon flavored shot). So you’ve got a ship full of hyper Italian pre-teens that are drunk. And we’re a bunch of Americans. Where were the chaperons? They were there, also drunk. So they were encouraging them to act up. They were teasing Brooke pretty badly (in Italian of course, but you could tell) because of her height. They were really loud, and all I really wanted to do was take a nap out in the sun. Oh well. At least it was a sunny day and the view was incredible. I got some sun, nothing too bad, but I’ve got a little more color than I usually do.
That night we went back to the same restaurant for dinner because we had Jessica and Angela with us this time. Dinner, again, was okay. It was the view that made up for it. But we’re determined to do better with dessert than we did the previous night. The first night they didn’t have anything with chocolate, but this time they had a chocolate cake of some kind. So we order two of those. Salita and Brooke each take one bite. Salita’s gets to her taste buds as Brooke’s is hitting her lips. Salita’s eyes get big and she say, “It’s rumababa!” Brooke now has a piece of cake sitting on her lips, not wanted to put it in the rest of the way. So we made sure that Jessica and Angela get their fair share since they didn’t have it the night before. But once again we did poorly in the dessert department.
Saturday was all about Pompei. I was pumped to get there. This is one of those things that I had been learning about since middle school, but I never thought I’d be there. It lived up to the hype. It’s an incredible city. It’s just so ancient and yet it seems like it’s not that old because it’s in such good shape. The only disappointment is that a lot of the frescoes and plaster people have been moved to a museum in Naples that we weren’t going to have time to go see. But there was enough still there that you got a good taste of what it’s all about. We all split up and gave ourselves our own tour (with the help of one of those keypad tour guide things).
The most bizarre thing about Pompei didn’t have anything to do with what I saw there, but rather who I saw there. I was walking down one of the streets and I see someone I think I recognize. All of a sudden I realize that she was in my graduating class at RHAM. I couldn’t remember her name, but I flag her down. Those of you who have known me since high school know that I look just a bit different (my hair is about 6 inches longer, down to my shoulders, and I’ve got a beard). So she’s looking at me trying to figure out if she recognizes me, which of course she doesn’t. She thought she remembered my name. Her name is Elizabeth, though I didn’t ask for her last name. She was with a friend, though I didn’t catch her name. The friend didn’t go to RHAM. But man, what are the odds? She was in Pompei the same day I was. We were walking down the same street (Pompei’s no small place). And at least one of us hadn’t changed too much to the point of not being able to recognize the other. The odds are basically 0. Let’s hear it for beating the odds! 
While Chelsea and Salita chose to stay a little longer, the rest of us took off at about 1 PM. We took the train back to Sorrento and walked around looking for some place to eat. We found a burger place that was cheap. Now I know what you’re thinking. “How can he eat a burger? He’s in Italy! Eat pasta!” Listen punk, after eating pasta every day for a month it starts to get really gross. So I’m all about some good old fashion red meet. I order a Funny Burger. Note to self: never order food with ‘funny’ in the name. It was a burger with bacon and ham. So we get our food and it is gross. I mean, it’s just bad. But we’re all so hungry that we stomach our burgers despite the taste. Man, we’re not doing good in the food department on this trip.
We head back to the hotel. I take a nap, take a quick shower, and we all go out to dinner. We decide to try a place that Dr. Carribino recommended to us before we left. Let me put it this way: best food in Italy to date. Everything was done well. Even their wine was better (partly because we got a white wine for once). I got tomato soup and eggplant. It was so good. Yes, better than our restaurant in Florence, I’m almost sad to say. Part of it I think was the atmosphere. It was in the basement of a building, basically it was in a wine cellar. Finally we did good on food. Even the dessert was really good.
Okay, here’s where the drama begins. It’s Sunday. We’re making a quick trip to Capri just to see the Blue Grotto. Jessica and Laura decide not to go; they’re both really tired. The rest of us get to Capri without a hitch. We get our tickets to the tour, and as we do we ask them how long the tour will take. We only have about two hours. The tell us that it will take one and a half hours. So we’re up for it. We get on the boat and shove off.
The tour begins without any problems. They take us around the island, showing us the various beautiful scenic views. We get to the Grotto itself. For those who don’t know, the Grotto is basically an underwater cave. It’s cool because the sun makes the water inside glow a shade of blue that is incredible. But the boat we took to the cave is big; we have to get into a row boat to get into the Grotto. There are three smaller boats in front of ours, so we have to wait our turn. So we wait. Then we start to notice that other ships are going ahead of us. We sat there and waited as other boats went ahead of us for about 45 minutes. Remember that we’re on a schedule. We finally do get into the row boat, but the next thing that slows us down is that our rower gets into an argument with a bunch of other rowers. So we waste another 10 minutes that way. We were in the Grotto for only about 5 minutes. Yes, it was beautiful, but it wasn’t worth that much of a wait. After the rest of the boat goes in we manage to get moving back towards the coast. It’s going to be close, but it’s still possible to make the ferry we need to catch.
We get back and find that the ferry left about 5 minutes before. This royally pisses off Chelsea, Salita, and Angela. So they go to the guys selling the tickets and complain that it took two and a half hours when they said it would take one and a half hours. Brooke and I just watch them yell at this Italian guy who really doesn’t understand much of what we’re saying. They manage to get half of our money back, but as we’re leaving some other guy who was watching says, “That’s right. United States always wins.” That’s why I wasn’t all pumped up to go argue with him. Because it just not worth it with things the way they are right now. So I was mad at them for doing all that for a mere 4.50 euro per person.
Now we had to turn our attention to what we could do. We could catch the next ferry and still technically make it in time, but we’d only be arriving with five minutes until the train left. Thank God Jessica and Laura didn’t go to Capri, because we were able to call them and ask them to take our bags to the train station so we wouldn’t have to go back to the hotel to get them. When the ferry came we got on and rode it back to Sorrento. I thought we were all taking a cab to the train station. Salita and Chelsea say they want to save money and run. What? But if you don’t make it and the ones in the cab do, one of the people who gets there on time is going to have to stay behind to guard your bags. Great. Fortunately it didn’t come to that. They did manage to get there in time by running. We got on the train that was headed to Naples, but we still weren’t out of the woods yet.
We actually took that train one stop to far, to the same place we took it when we first got to Naples. So we had to go back one stop to the correct train station. We got to our EuroStar train with about two minutes to spare. We had made it. But it was anything but easy.
The trip back was uneventful. We did get delayed in Rome for about 45 minutes, so we got back to Florence late. By the time I got back to the hotel, which was about 10 PM, everyplace to get food was long closed. So I didn’t eat any dinner. I had some snacks before I went to bed but I still was pretty hungry. Fortunately I was really tired so I didn’t stay awake long.
Monday it was back to school. Despite not finishing the reading for Grand Tour I still knew all the questions on the quiz. Modern Italy was good. I got a 90.5 on the first test. But Dr. Carribino tossed out a curve ball at the end of class. He announced a test on Wednesday. We all whined and complained and got it pushed back to Monday of next week. For me that’s really not that much better because I had wanted to go on a day trip on Sunday, but it looks like I might spend the day studying instead. We’ll see.
Today was a weird day. I had Art History, which is always an adventure. We only saw two things today in Santa Maria Novella. We then went back to the classroom and learned about a Botticelli painting. Then Mrs. Duckworth decided she wanted to teach the class some Renaissance dance, which seemed a lot like a line dance to me. Whatever it was, she dragged us all up out of our seats and made us dance. It was after this that we got our tests back. I got an 80%, which is about what I thought I would get. Since I’m taking it pass/fail as long as I get a 73% or higher in the class I’ll pass. But then she told us that on our comparisons she had marked off specific parts that she had particularly liked and she wanted us to read them aloud, much to the chagrin of the class. I had three things to read, one of which was actually any good. She did write a comment on my test asking if I was burned out with school, because it was evident in my answers. Yeah, when you take three classes in six weeks after having taken four classes in 18 weeks you tend to get a little burned out.
This afternoon, before typing up this monster post, I typed a paper for my Modern Italy class. It wasn’t took hard, but it was due today at 5 PM, so it needed to get done.
Be praying for my trip to Rome this weekend. It turns out that President Bush will also be in Rome this weekend, and there will be a lot of anti-American protests as a result. So if you could be praying for the safety of everyone going and the safety of President Bush I would really appreciate it. It’s kind of scary, because I’ve felt the anti-American feelings a little bit, but this weekend I’m sure to feel them worse than ever.
