Moving on. Sunday was Spencer and my birthday! So our darling friends decided we should road trip to the Amalfi Coast to celebrate. We left bright and early on Friday morning. Adair and Anna rented a wonderful little Fiant Punto (http://www.cuboauto.it/gallery/fiat-punto/1138.html) Jenna and Spencer brought the snacks, I made 10 fabulous mix CDs and we were off on our 6 hour trip to Sorrento! My CDs really were fabulous, I must add. [most successful crowd pleasers: Hakuna Matata, Build Me Up Buttercup, Livin' la Vida Loca, Hot in Herre] I forgot how much fun singing and dancing in cars with friends is. The time really flew, and before we knew it we were wedged in a tiny cobblestone street in Sorrento and learned that Italian cars don't reverse the way American cars do... so we put the car in neutral and put our teamwork to the test. Success.
Our hostel was absolutely awesome, and after we checked in we headed straight for the beach. After a few lazy hours on the beach we tried some famous Sorrento pizza. I actually switched things up a bit and went for these things. Wonderful decision. Still having food flashbacks to those (Riz, you know what I mean, and I know Charlie would too, if he could read this.) When we got back to our hotel we hung out at the sweet rooftop bar, and returned to our room. Unfortunately we were staying in a room for 6 people-- and there were 5 of us-- so when I was being a liiiiitle rowdy when we got back I was informed by our (clearly European) roommate that "If I wanted to make party, I needed to go elsewhere." I proceeded to laugh hysterically at his word choice before Spencer apologized for us making party too loudy...he stayed there both nights that we did. Super comfortable.
Saturday morning we caught the first ferry from Sorrento to the island of Capri and essentially felt like rappers-- or wealthy retired people. Our question of the day was, "Why are we allowed to be here?" It was (drumroll, please) the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. I don't understand why water is so much prettier over here, but it really is.
Our first stop on Capri was the chairlift that someone told Bear was something we absolutely HAD to do while we were there. I'm so glad we did! It was so cool-- it was like a single-person ski lift up the mountain that gave you such an incredible view of the island. I think the best part of the whole thing was the security, though. No lock or anything, just a bar that you can lift up at any point. Things that
wouldn't fly in the U.S. I love it though, such an Italian idea-- basically saying, "If you're stupid enough to lift this bar up and fall out of the chair you deserve to break all the bones in your body." Good for you, Italy. (Excuse me while I channel my Babbo.)At the top of the mountain you could wander around and get some incredible views of Mt. Vesuvius and the rest of the island. Not a cloud in the sky. This is all happening while Holy Cross is taking finals...What? These are our "being on Capri instead of in Worcester" faces.
After we took our lives into our own hands and journeyed back down the mountain via death-trap-chair-lift we treated ourselves to a delicious lunch. I decided to immerse myself and had the most delicious Caprese pizza that's ever been created. Dramatic enough? But seriously, this pizza was really good. Then we found a sweet little beached and bummed around again. That's a theme for the trip, if you hadn't already noticed. Our return ferry left in the early evening, so we made sure to get ourselves a lemonade slushie before we left Capri behind us. We returned to our hostel after a solid walk and stop at the supermarket for the essentials: bread, cheese, mostly vino to prepare for birthday celebrations. Because our birthday was on Sunday, 6 hours of which would be spent back in the ol' Fiat, we decided it would be best to celebrate on Saturday night instead.So we made ourselves a lovely little picnic on the rooftop bar, Anna, Jenna and Adair surprised us with adorable cards and a birthday tin of cookies.. haha.. but it was wonderful, and a few
rousing games of asshole commenced. Shoutout to the Gobbledy Goose. Not long after we were joined buy a couple of Italian guys who obviously couldn't help but hear how much fun we were having. Unfortunately, asshole was a little much for them and they ran out of vino pretty quickly. So they hung out for a little while and taught us some Napoletano. Mostly swear words, but it still absolutely blows my mind that all of the regions of Italy have their own dialect. I mean, accents, fine. I'm used to that. But essentially a completely different language? People calling "soda" "pop" in different regions of the US is strange enough for me. I don't know how these guys do it. I guess it'd make talking about strangers that much more fun... Man, I love strangers. After a few games of cards, a lot of laughs, and some really interesting rounds of "would you rather" Anna, Jenna, and Adair we
nt down to the hostel room for something, and when they came back they found this... Spencer and I slept through our midnight birthday celebration! Pretty anticlimactic for Lauren Evans' 21st birthday celebration, right? You all thought I'd be arrested or dead or something. And instead you got this. haha. No regrets, though. It was a perfect birthday- and as I was reminded recently, this means I no longer have to worry about law enforcement in Pittsburgh!So the next morning we woke up early and headed for Polsitano, which is an adorable little village about 30 minutes down the Amalfi coast from Sorrento. The drive along the Amalfi Coast is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. It seriously rivaled the PCH-- as a Californian, I feel blasphemous saying that, but it was seriously
breathtaking. Breathtaking? What has study abroad done to me? I'm so cheesy now... Sorry, I couldn't delete that because it was so outrageous. But Anna handled the drive like an absolute champion, Bear was a wonderful navigator, and we arrived in Polsitano without any trouble at all. The weather was still absolutely beautiful and after wandering around the city for a little while, pausing ever few steps to take a picture and say "why are we allowed to be here?" we found ourselves on a wonderful sandy beach (surprise) and hung out for most of the afternoon. At around 3 o'clock the Fiat found itself full of five little lobsters, but they were very content lobsters 
The drive back was equally uneventful, which is usually a good adjective for car trips, I think. Eventful car trips make for better stories later, I suppose, but a lot more stress at the time. (The Moron's "honeymoon" comes to mind.) So I prefer it the way it went down.Now I have three weeks left in the Flo. Last night we had our final dinner with our cultural adviser (slash the tutor who couldn't stand us during Museologia- same person) where Adair, Jenna and Kristen who have been taking a cooking class all semester prepared a lovely meal for us. We had Pappa al Pomodoro (my favorite Tuscan bread/tomato soup), Pesto Lasagna, some awesome meat wrap things, salad and cheesecake. They did an absolute bang up job, and I can't wait for them to cook for me next year-- in order to keep the dolphin-shaped Study Abroad Bod
intact. Unfortunately, our last dinner also meant the due date of our cultural project essays. This is the essay about the CCD class of which is 40% pictures (of absurd things like this) and in which I actually typed a smiley face into Microsoft Word (bet you didn't know you could do that) and I have since learned that it was supposed to be taken somewhat seriously. So, it'll be interesting to receive feedback from that..Tomorrow after school I'm heading to Milan to meet up with Scate! They're still on their eurotrip (as is the Goofy Gobbler) and they're heading back my way (kind of). So I'm going to take a train to Milan a
nd they're going to pick me up in their car and we're going to drive to Munich, Germany and then to Zurich, Switzerland. I'm so excited! Not only to see these goofballs (and Munich and Zurich) but to hear about their shenanigans over the last 3 weeks since I've seen them. I think that will actually be my last trip, too.It's unbelievable to think that this wonderful experience is really coming to an end. The Fun Express is on the home stretch.
Vi voglio bene, ragazzi! Baci :)
Oh, I felt I needed to share the adorable birthday card that Jenna made me, depicting my friends celebrating my birth in their post-Italy body shapes...hilarious
No comments:
Post a Comment