Capri-cious Weather

After bad weather the day and night before, I decided to check the weather forecast the morning that our Contiki group was heading to Capri. We would be taking the ferry to the island and then catching a smaller boat once we got there to take us on an optional cruise around the island with the opportunity to swim and to visit the Blue Grotto, which required an even smaller boat again. So, as someone who is not great on boats, you can imagine my apprehension as the weather report predicted thunderstorms.

When we made it to the island there were still no signs of this impending weather. I had managed to feel only a little queasy toward the end of the ferry ride, aided by my trusty Travelcalm and a stash of Polo mints I still had in my bag from Scotland. When it was time to hop on the smaller boat I was feeling great and was more worried about getting burnt than anything else. We started off towards the Blue Grotto and luckily it was open because the weather was so good. We hopped in the little row boats in groups of 4 and when we got to the entrance of the Grotto we all had to lie down on top of each other, including the guy who was paddling us. It was really pretty inside, the cave is like an upturned bucket on the waters surface so light can't get through from the sun directly above but instead from comes through indirectly, reflected from the surrounding water. The resulting effect is a beautiful cobalt blue light that illuminates the water below you and the dark cave that surrounds you.

We got back on to the group boat and headed off again further around the island. This was when the weather took a turn. The waves were BIG. Not "A Perfect Storm" big, but big for a boat where there was barely room for the 51 of us to sit down. And you know that phenomenon when you watch or hear someone yawn, and you have the sudden urge to yawn? Well imagine watching everyone on a tiny boat starting to yawn one by one. Except instead of yawning, they are all vomiting. Joy.

I managed to get through with my breakfast safely where I left it and so did Shereen, although for the last 20 minutes from when the captain decided to turn back, she was adamant that she couldn't turn to look at me or even open her mouth to talk to me, so I guess she wasn't felling as ok as I was. We did manage to have one swim stop when we found a sheltered bay, and I encourage those people feeling sick to jump in because the cold water would help. When they all refused I gave up and just begged them not to throw up while we were all swimming.

On the boat I had started chatting with an Australian couple named Kayla and Paul, and when we got off the boat they joined us for lunch at a nearby restaurant. They were from Townsville and Shereen and I were pleased that there were finally some more normal Australians on the tour with us.

After lunch we all set off in the cable car to reach the little town up on the hillside. After some exploring and magnet shopping (it's Shereen's "thing" while she is traveling) we made our way to the gardens Vinny had told us to visit while we were there. I don't know why everyone makes you pay to visit gardens in Europe, but it's stupid and infuriating, especially in cases like this, as well as the time in Cordoba with Ray, when you have to trek to get there in the first place. Anyway, these gardens were only a euro and they were set on a pretty spectacular cliff whilst not being that interesting themselves.

 

That night Shereen and I paid for one of the optional dinners of the trip. The restaurant was set high up on the hills overlooking the coast and it was really beautiful. Shereen and I tried to get on a table with Kayla and Paul again, but they had sat with the two American couples and there was no more room on the table. In the end we sat with a French-Canadian couple and two girls, Alia and Jen, who were traveling together from Toronto. The girls talked our ears off about where to go in Canada and the USA when we got there, but they were really fun and sweet.

We headed up to Florence the next day. More on that in my next post.

Ciao xx

 

Simply Italy

After a delayed plane, full of annoying teenagers on a school trip, and a long luggage wait, Shereen and I got on the bus to take us from the airport to the centre of Rome. We arrived very quickly but had to take a metro to get to the regional train, and once we got to the regional train station we found out that the trains come once every half hour and we had just missed it. So after a grueling day of travel we checked in to our hotel in Rome where we were to meet up with our Contiki group the next evening.

We were very hungry so we just went close by for dinner, and while we were in the restaurant the girl sitting at the table behind us asked us if we were Australian. We said yes and asked her if she was here for the Contiki, and when she said she was we invited her to eat with us. We finished our meal together and Shereen and I were encouraged by our first interaction with someone else from the group. We had said to this girl that we were worried about the kind of people we were going to meet because we weren't the biggest party people, but she said she had done Contiki before and it wasn't as bad as people said.

The next day threw us a bit, because after having a pleasant day at the Villa Bourghese and surrounding park, we attended the welcome meeting for the tour. A couple of girls were sitting at the back of the group, completely drunk with plastic cups of wine in hand, whooping at every sentence our guide got out, all at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The group included the girl Shereen and I had had dinner with the night before, and Shereen and I really began to wonder if this was going to be our thing.

There was no planned dinner that night so Shereen and I just went out for dinner by ourselves.

The next day we hopped on the bus for our first journey together. We had a full bus. 51 tour members, our leader Vinny and Lino our driver. It was a bit of a reality check as to what bus travel was really like, after we had been spoiled on our Topdeck tour by only having 24 people which allowed us to spread out a bit.

Our first group activity was a guided tour of the ancient ruins of Pompeii. I was really excited for this, but my excitement turned to worry as it started pouring with rain and lightning started striking as we pulled up in the bus.

I was really cold as I had only worn shorts that day, but I did luckily bring my raincoat. The rain slowed to a drizzle as we set of into the ruins, and luckily the weather only got better for the hour and a half that we spent there. It was incredible to see how well everything was preserved including amazing stucco friezes and the casts of bodies buried buy the ash from Vesuvius.

Our tour guide was very good but he would walk off quickly and I ended up getting lost, as I was looking for Shereen who had gone on ahead without me realizing, so I got left behind. Luckily there were a couple of other people who had also gotten separated and we managed to find our way back to the group.

That evening we arrived in the town of Sorrento on the Amalfi coast. We settled into our rooms and had time to get changed and admire the view before heading to what Vinny enthusiastically promised to be a PIZZA PARTY!

Before dinner we were taken to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea where we were given free Prosecco and appetizers. When we got to the restaurant the tables were set up in groups of 10. Shereen and I didn't really know where to sit but we decided to get as far away as possible from the drunk girls from the night before. The people on the table we ended up choosing apparently had the same idea, as the first thing they said when they all sat down was "good work getting a table away from those annoying Australians". Before things got too awkward I leant down the table and said politely "um, actually, we are Australian". They started to back track but Shereen and I assured them we understood where they were coming from, we promised we were definitely the best Australians they were going to meet on the trip and that we weren't "naughty, naughty" as Vinny had labelled the other girls (which they loved).

On our table we had 2 married couples: Jess and Brian, and Megan and Jake; another American guy called Todd, a South African girl called Leisle another American girl called Christine. We had a great time that night, we really liked the American couples and Leisle, and most of the pizza was really delicious. We were invited back into the kitchen to see the pizza being made, which got a bit messy as you can see...

We all received shots of limoncello with dessert which nobody really took to except Jake.

All in all, it was a pretty good first day. Read about our day trip to the island of Capri in my next post. Xx

 

Czech-ing In

We arrived into Prague at about 10pm and as a result we missed the last bus that went straight from the airport to the city centre. The bus timetable at the airport indicated that we could catch an alternative bus which would take us to the "main station" so we decided to hop on believing that by "main station" they meant the main train station in central Prague. No such luck.

We stopped at this dodgy looking train station which was the closest one to the airport, and we were told it was the end of the line. We walked inside and tried to read the train information which was all in Czech, then tried to ask the attendant who wouldn't get off her mobile to say more than two words to us. In the end we figured out how to get to the right station but it was going to take two changes on the train. We had directions as given by our hostel, but they were so convoluted that we were sure there must be an easier way. They suggested that once we arrived at the main station we take a tram, but as we stepped out of the station I knew exactly where I was going from my last visit to Prague with my sister Gemma four years ago. It was only a 5 minute walk to our hostel from the station, and I found myself walking past so many familiar buildings only to end up at our hostel which was literally around the corner from where I stayed the last time.

Our hostel was awesome, it was brand new and smelled like cold concrete, which I loved (I told you I love the industrial look). We had a four person room to ourselves because no one showed up until the third night, and we even had two toilets in the room. After the state of our rooms in Liverpool and Amsterdam it was like staying in a five-star hotel.

The next morning I got up early to do some much needed washing while Shereen slept in a little. When I was done we wandered over to Wenceslas Sqaure to find some breakfast and Shereen was exposed to her first Czech dining experience complete with people at the table next to us drinking beer and coffee at 10am. We both chose pretty tame options, however, and proceeded to the Old Town Square when we had finished.

We watched the Astronomical Clock strike the hour, which Shereen was less than impressed with, and headed over to the river for her first glimpse of the Castle. After a couple of photos we headed back to the square where we met up with a free walking tour. Our guide was from New Zealand and we were thanking our lucky stars we had her and not the super annoying American girl who had been talking to us at the sign up point.

 

The walking tour was only of the old town which I hadn't really explored the last time I was there. It was really interesting learning about so much of Pragues history. It's a city that has been subject to take-over after take-over. After centuries of foreign rulers Czechoslovakia was finally proclaimed an independent country at the beginning of the twentieth century, only to fall again under the rule of two different successive dictatorships, the last of which it escaped from only 22 years ago to become the Czech Republic. Seeing as this was the year I was born, the stories hit pretty close to home.

We were shown around the old town including the old Jewish Quarter and learned about what life was like for the people of Prague both under Nazi and Communist Rule.

Shereen and I both said to each other how close you felt to the history of the city. To think that some of the most dramatic events in the city's history took place in the lifetimes of our parents and siblings is quite scary and it makes you appreciate even more the freedoms that you often take for granted in Australia.

For dinner Shereen found a place that had good reviews on Tripadvisor And we had delicious traditional Czech meals. To start we shared a wheel of baked Camembert cheese with apple and balsamic vinegar, I had duck with red cabbage and potato dumplings and Shereen had beef cheek with mashed potatoes.

The next day the weather was dramatically different. It had been beautiful and sunny the day before and I had thought how different the city looked in summer compared to winter when I had been there before. That day it rained ALL day. Sometimes drizzling, sometimes pouring, always precipitating.

Unfortunately we had booked ourselves on a walking tour the day before that took us up to the Castle, and as we had already paid for it we had to go. It was like travelling back through time to when I was there years ago, except it was slightly warmer and there was no giant Christmas tree outside the church. On the way down I decided to take a photo for my sister, the same as she took of me 4 years ago.

That night we tried Czech beer (I hated it, as I hate beer in general, but it was free so...) as well as Beef Stroganoff with traditional dumplings, and Pork with Sauerkraut.

My next post marks the start of our Contiki tour of Italy! Stay tuned xx