Mi scuzi

The last few days have been fun/frustrating/interesting/amazing. On Sunday, since it was Easter, the entire town shut down and we did nothing all day except discover that the "beach" of Portici is the smallest, dirtiest, rockiest "beach" ever. Since we couldn't take the train to Sorrento, we just napped and hung around the hostel, walked around the town a bit and watched people go to church.

Yesterday was a lot more exciting. We hopped on the train (dramatically named Circumvensiavania) to Sorrento, where we hoped to find beaches and beauty. We found beauty, but not much beach. The tourist-y town was really nice but it was packed with people (we were told that "today is day where Italians make picnic" whatever that means). We headed for the shore and found that the only beach amongst the ports was filled with rowdy Italian teenagers. We decided to try and find the Amalfi coast, of which I've heard good things. In waiting for the bus, we met a 20-something sassy-as-hell New Yorker and her husband. It was nice to be angry Americans together (and Dane swears my New Jersey accent and her NY accent got thicker the longer we talked). She suggested that we go to Positano, a town that was a lot closer than the Amalfi. So we get on the bus and swerve down the cliffs into Positano, where we have to descend many stairs/follow the main road to the shore. Finally we found a beach and it was nice to finally lay in the sun and put my bathing suit to good use. I didn't go in the water though beacause a) the water was cold and b) I didn't want to leave my backpack alone. On the beach there were a good amount of obese Italians who had no business sporting bathing suits, and some who went topless. When we were ready to leave, we had to go back to the middle of the cliff where the bus had dropped us off. We waited for quite a while, then some extremely nice Russians came along who spoke English very well and we talked to them for a while. There were also some younger Italians from whom we asked directions for the bus, they were very nice/intense and didn't speak much English. However, the one girl spoke some French (hilarious with a thick Italian accent) so we were able to communicate a little. I miss French/Paris and being able to communicate. After a 2 hour process of trying to get home, we visited our 300 pound pizza man. The pizza and pasta here are really good obviously but I'm getting sick of them and need some vegetables in my life. There is a semi-restaurant at the hostel though, and their food is really good, had a great gnocci dish with eggplant and fresh mozzarella.

Earlier today we decided to walk around downtown Napoli, which ended up being really disappointing and I decided that Italy is relatively dirty and I'm kind of over it. The coast is really beautiful, but the city areas are worse than New York. It's hard to get around because there are never ever signs explaining what things are or where they are, so you either have to know, ask someone (if you know the language, that is), or guess. Tomorrow we leave for Rome to meet up with Anna and Reese, it will be nice to reunite with our fellow "Parisians." Then we leave for Athens on Saturday to meet up with even more of our group. I probably won't be able to get online after tomorrow.