Roeming: South Side Represent…

I'm not sure if I'm still in school or not. It's been a week since I've had class. Do I go on vacations for a living now? What a living that would be... Anyway, it started as a class trip to Naples on Thursday morning, about a two-hour train ride. We stopped at a couple museums there. Some nice paintings. Some perverted crap in the other. Good job, Naples. You're the armpit of Italy.

Nice.

From Naples, it was a bus drive to Sorento, which was much cleaner and picture-esque in comparison. And both of these are coastal cities! In Sorento, we stayed at a convent for the evening. The elder nun there is about 4'6", but don't let that fool you. The way she played that piano, it was like she had the energy of a teenage girl on Red Bull. The sisters there were very nice though, and served a delicious breakfast the next day.

Picture of the convent. I wish I had taken some photos of the sisters there.

Before that though, we went to a class dinner at a restaurant called The Lemon Tree, Thursday evening. This was a full Italian meal, the whole five courses and wine to boot. Best meal of my life, thus far. I am continually surprised by the quality of the food in this country, so I can't say for sure. Bruschetta followed by spinach and seaweed puffs (delicious, believe me) followed by pasta followed by one hell of a fish dish, finished off with a rich white cream cake, all interspersed with some damn good white wine. It's gonna be hard forgetting a meal like that.

The next day, we said our goodbyes to the sisters at the convent and took the tram to Pompeii, famous for being lava-steamrolled by a belching Mount Vesuvius. The city ruins were larger than I had expected, but it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be. A decent tour guide (like I dunno, maybe Terry Kirk) would have made it a lot better. Plus, lunch was a giant bend-over operation in terms of costs and getting to something when the only restaurant located IN the city is closed down. There were some interesting ruins though, and some glass cabinets depicting the molds of the dying bodies gruesomely twisting in agony as they were enveloped by liquid-hot magma. I'll spare you those images for now.

Here's wall paintings instead!

Area outside one of the amphitheaters.

Probably the best part of the trip was when the class part was over and our group of up-to-no-goods went to take the ferry from Sorento to the island of Capri. Ever imagined what an island paradise looks like? Capri is basically it, plus a lot of touristy-trap things to ensnare your wilted Euro notes. That said, the place was a paradise after too much spelunking in ruins and museums. We roamed the small streets, taking little orange busses to get around the entire time (that €1.40 each ride starts to hit you after about the tenth time). Took some of the most beautiful pictures I've had the pleasure of taking, despite having a dust spot in my camera (good excuse to splurge on a DSLR before I leave?).

Friday was mostly chill, we just went about the island trails and snapped some pictures. Went to AmericanLand for dinner, which was bleh. I was scraping together euro cents to pay for everything since I hadn't taken any money out of the ATM before arriving (sorry guys). Saturday we took a bus to the beach (which wasn't actually there apparently) and stood on top of rocks overlooking the ocean instead, where the winds buffeted us while waves crashed down below. I have never felt peace like I did here, nor an appreciation for the raw power of nature as the waves crashed mercilessly on the sharp outcroppings of rocks. That evening, we ate at a posh restaurant with some friends who were also staying in Capri. Later on we went to a club called "RED", where a supremely boring comedian joked in Italian. I missed out on the dancing that went on later; that'll teach me for drinking my wine too fast. Fell asleep in the hostel we were staying at, a pleasant little place in Anacapri (basically the sister town to Capri). The staff were extremely friendly.

Sunday we made our way up the "ski lift" to the top of Capri. Took some amazing photos here. Later we made our way to an actual beach, and each of us did a "cliff dive", which was not actually a cliff dive but just jumping off of a rock twelve feet up in the air into the ocean. I usually don't do awesome stuff like this so for me it was pure thrill. Swam out of that water as fast as I could though, as some of my friends were getting stung by jellyfish (Tim and Sarah, you kids are troopers).