Monday, May 19, 2014

Easter Break Part Three: Love

Hello everyone! Now that I have finished my exams and am in the middle of saying goodbye to my friends, I have enough time to share with you my last part of Easter Break, which was now over a month ago....whooops.  At least I'm finishing it at all!

When we last left off, we had battled the treacherous waters on the ferry of Positano and we begin today with the absolutely amazing sites of Mount Vesuvius and the remains of Pompeii.

As an anthropology major, Pompeii is kind of the end all be all archaeological site and therefore I was stoked to see it.  If you aren't up to date on  your ancient cities, Pompeii was a city that got buried in the process of Mount Vesuvius erupting in the year 79 AD.  In the 1700s, it was unearthed and excavations are still happening today.

That morning we awoke praying that we would be blessed with good weather.  Here we were in Italy with Irish weather and meanwhile Ireland has Italian weather.  Just our luck.  I blame Kelsey, who is notorious for having terrible luck.  After getting ready and eating breakfast (we were really tired of rolls and cornflakes by now) we loaded up on the bus to head to Mount Vesuvius.  The drive was pretty short, I want to say it was under an hour.  The drive was incredibly scenic and gorgeous.  Ireland and Italy are both beautiful, but in completely different ways.  If I had to choose, I think I would end  up in a straightjacket in a  room with padded walls.  But, I will say that the drive from Sorrento to Mount Vesuvius was absolutely flawless and is definitely in my top 5.  The view from the top, though, was practically spiritual.

The bus took us some of the way up the volcano, but we had to walk up a good portion of it.  Enough for Jess and I (lagging behind) to nearly cry on the way up.  Once we got to the top, we had a phenomenal view; we were so high up the clouds looked as though you could just reach out and grab one.

Climbing the volcano.  The city you see in the background is Naples, which we went to on Monday (the day after this).

Looking into the volcano.  I was really really hoping to see some lava and so I was disappointed.

I think ESCI1001 should go on a field trip here.  Count me in.

Selfies for Dad!  Notice my new necklace...it's made out of basaltic rock. Whaddup.

There is smoke. SMOKE. From the VOLCANO.



I wasn't kidding about the clouds. Like cotton candy basically.

Part Three: Love brought to you by my amazing best friends.


One more before heading back down.

We were only supposed to be on Vesuvius for 30 minutes.  Well, we got screwed over by the ticket counter and therefore we had even less time than everyone else.  Because of this, we decided to say screw it and we spend as much time as we wanted on the top.  Stickin it to The Man just like my dad taught me (;

So after we had our fill of the gorgeous view (impossible, really) we walked back down the mountain and got in the bus to head to Pompeii.  Outside the ruins is a bunch of street vendors so my friends ate lunch and went shopping and my broke butt watched.  It's a good thing I can pretty easily appreciate beauty.

After lunch, we headed inside the ruins.  We had a wonderful guide that was Italian but spoke very good English and I didn't struggle much understanding her accent.  One of the best things about Italy was that everyone spoke English, but in a way it was so weird hearing it all the time when I was expecting to hear nothing but Italian.  Leah attempted to teach me some before I left but I suspect her intentions were malicious.... Good thing I never used any of them! (;

The ruins were so cool.  It was simultaneously hard and easy to imagine people living there thousands of years ago.  While there, we learned that the only survivor was a man named Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from afar and later wrote about it to a historian.  He was clearly in the right place at the right time.  We also learned that the Romans who lived there had no idea that the mountain was a volcano; there was an earthquake about 18 years before the eruption happened and that probably contributed to the eruption.  But overall the Romans were clueless.  Bit of a surprise I'm assuming.  Mount Vesuvius was actually three times taller then than it was now; the eruption was so explosive that most of the top of the volcano was blasted off.

Entering Pomeii

Inside someone's house.

They had a nice garden.

I love that you can still see the paintings in some places!

The town square.


One of the main streets.




More paintings! This one is in the food market.

The mummy looking thing is a plaster cast of someone who was buried under all the ash that consumed Pompeii.  Most people who died in the eruption were suffocated by ash and poisonous volcanic gas.


A warehouse of vases and of course more body casts.


A scale in the town square

We also went into a brothel.  Apparently it was like a catalogue of paintings and customers just pointed to the walls to tell people what they wanted.  This is totally inappropriate and I hope my children never read this and ask questions.

A well.  Apparently the water was supposed to come out of that guy's mouth.

Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius.  It looks so ominous.


Another view of the volcano.


On our way out.

The tour was absolutely amazing and I am so happy that I paid the extra money (sorry Dad) to see everything with the guide.  After a long day of being out in the sun (YES!) we took our sunburnt selves back to the bus to get back to Sorrento.  We were planning on going to the hotel pool afterwards, but it was little shady and cold.  Also, I had to use that time to register for my fall classes. COOL. Just what I wanted to do on vacation.  It's cool though, I'm not bitter.

That night was a barbeque in the hotel pool area that night.  My friends all got food but I sustained myself on pretzels and joined them after.  Apparently I wasn't missing much because food kept running out.  Score another point for broke Caroline.

That night was really fun.  We stayed in our room and just talked and laughed together.  At the time I am writing this, I have said goodbye to both Kelsey and Jess, who left for America last Thursday.  When I came to Ireland, I wanted to get attached to as little as possible, since I am terrible with goodbyes and always develop a blistering case of nostalgia very soon afterwards.  Well I got super attached to these girls.  That night in Sorrento just made me really realize how important friendship is.  Each of us left everything to come study abroad; our whole lives, our friends, our families, to start over in a new country.  I think being somewhat alone helped bond us together and it has really shown me how special your friends are.  They're the family you choose, and I know these girls will be my sisters forever.  I apologize for the super sappy post, but I don't care. "Love" really is the perfect title for this blog as I am truly going to love these girls forever.

That night we all fell asleep feeling loved. The next morning was our last day of the tour, so we had to completely pack up and come to terms with leaving Italy (something none of us wanted to do).  That day we were spending a bit of time in Naples, the same city we overlooked when we were on top of Mount Vesuvius.

Naples kind of has a bad reputation, and once I got there I could see that a little bit.  The one thing I noticed was that it was kind of, like, dirty.  I'm not sure how to describe it but I didn't feel 100% safe there.  Not like I felt safe in Rome either, but whatever.  It was very unlike Capri and Positano.

The first thing we did when we got there was follow some guides to a castle right on the coast. It was GORGEOUS.  I'm so happy we did it.  On the way we got some great views of the coast and some really cool mountains.


In the main square. You can't really tell in this picture, but Naples was PACKED.



Yes that's Mount Vesuvius!



The castle, where all the following photos were taken.

On the other side of this railing, there were a group of kids swimming.  The water was so clear and blue and I think My Strange Addiction should do an episode about me and this water which exists pretty much everywhere except America.


VESUVIO.  


Caroline-Vesuvius selfie for Dad. Might be another good framed one

It was so beautiful here.  Some random boy grabbed Kelsey and asked her if she was American.  When she said yes, he insisted he take a picture with her.  Probably one of the strangest things that happened on the trip.

After the castle, one of the guides took us to an authentic pizza shop (Naples is the birthplace of pizza).  I think his cousin owned the shop or something like that and gave us a discount.  It was realllllllllllllly good.  We learned that authentic pizza is given to you in a piece of newspaper-like wrapping because in WWII no one could afford plates.  Now that's just how they've made due.  So with these super hot pizzas burning our hands, we set out to eat it by the pier, but we couldn't get into it without a ticket. Total bummer.  So we ate it on the sidewalk and set out to find an ATM before we left the city at 2pm.

Pizza pic courtesy of Jess.

With about an hour to go of the trip, disaster struck.  We all went to go get cash from an ATM.  Kelsey went first...aaaaaaaaaand her card got stuck in the machine.  This is not a drill, people.  Since it was Easter Monday, the bank was closed and we had no one to call to help us open it.  So after some tears and panicky faces, Kelsey called her mom to cancel the card.  Seriously, this girl cannot catch a break.  But, she had enough for some food and the bus back from Dublin to Limerick, so it could have been much much worse.

While Kelsey was talking to her mom, I meanwhile purchased the best cappuccino of my entire life (I don't even like them that much, but this one was iced? IDK it was great) and later we headed back to the bus.

The bus ride back to Ciampino airport was about 3 hours and we just watched Entourage the whole way back.

We knew we would be staying over in the airport that night, as our flight wasn't until Tuesday morning at 11 and we didn't want to spend the money at a hotel.  What we didn't account for was how completely terrible this idea was.  We spent 19 hours at the airport, cold, tired, and crabby.  It was the worst end to the trip possible, but so worth it.  By the time we got back to Limerick, we spend a full 24 hours traveling.  It was awful but I feel like it was necessary for us to learn that lesson.  If you are considering sleeping overnight at a small airport, please save yourself and abstain from that.

Anyways, what's happened since then is a lot of final exams and goodbyes.  I'm going to post one more blog about Ireland, and then most likely a series of blogs dealing with the Great European Adventure that my parents and I will be going on.  They arrive in just two days and I am beyond excited to see them!

I'll write soon; also the video should be up shortly!  Anymore questions for me? askcarolineireland@gmail.com


Slainte!
Caroline

Friday, May 9, 2014

Easter Break Part Two: Pray



Hello everyone! Sorry for the slight delay in getting part two up, but I'm dealing with exams right now!

When we last left off, it was the end of our last day in Rome.  After leaving the zoo, we went back to our hostel to grab all of our luggage and say goodbye to the beautiful city. It really is one of my favorite places in the world now.

After night fell, we got back to the train station to catch our bus back to Ciampino, where we were meeting with our next tour group for the Amalfi Coast tour.  If you're not sure where the Amalfi Coast is, here's a helpful map.



We would be based in Sorrento, where we had a beautiful hotel and got to enjoy the nightlife a little bit.  We were picked up at the airport at 11:30 that night, and we just slept through the bus ride, getting to Sorrento at about 2 a.m.  Cue the immediate passing out.  I'd never been so happy to see a bed in my life.

The next morning we were to be ready to head out by 7 a.m. This was torture after our exhausting 3 days in Rome plus the lack of adequate sleep the night before.  However, after a little breakfast and an attitude adjustment, we were prepared to take on the day!

The first day we went to Capri, an island about an hour's ferry ride from Sorrento.  I'd heard so much about Capri and how beautiful it was, but I was so unprepared for everything we saw and did.  This region in Italy is famous for limoncello, a really strong citrus alcoholic drink, and caprese salad, of course.

The view from our hotel room.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.

The first thing we did in Capri was take a boat tour around the island.  We got to see a lot of really beautiful sites.

The water. SO BLUE. You can literally see feet til the bottom.  This is the blue grotto, one of Italy's most famous.  We were supposed to be able to go swimming in it, but the water was really choppy and was deemed unsafe. Booooo.




Hello, gorgeous.

This is Anacapri, which is another town on the same island. We went to both towns this day.




Once landed, we headed up the mountain to get to some shops and to get lunch. This view was divine.

The first thing we did in Capri was explore a little bit.  The other girls got grenada, which was a kind of fruity drink that I tried and didn't like very much.  They drank, we sat, and enjoyed the view.  It looked like something right out of a fairytale.  It didn't feel real that we were all there.

After enjoying our relaxation, we headed with the others in our group to get to Anacapri.  We all crowded into tiny buses that were really just vans, and took a seriously questionable route which involved a lot of cliffs with zero guard rails and some seriously questionable driving that had me saying what I thought were the final prayers of my life.

But, we made it to Anacapri unscathed! Yesssss!
It was even more beautiful in Anacapri, which was higher on the mountain.  We enjoyed the cute little shops and the other girls picked somewhere to eat lunch.  As I was on a budget, I had a little peanut butter tortilla and an apple and was all set.  At the restaurant, the girls ordered ravioli and pizza, which looked amazing.  Each of their meals got dessert with them, and a waiter who wasn't the one who took our order gave me a piece of cake as well.  I stopped him and told him that I didn't order it, but he shrugged and said it was fine.  Free cake? I'll take it. But then the waiter who we had originally demanded I pay for it.  Obviously I wasn't going to take that and explained the situation multiple times before he finally understood he was not about to get his way.  Perfect example of how much more assertive I've gotten since I arrived! (;

After lunch, we browsed a few more shops, but our main focus was on our activity for the day, which was chairlifting up the mountain for the best view of Capri.  I was a little bit nervous because the chairlift looked slightly run down and I am really freaked out by heights and falling, etc.  But of course, it was fine.




The four of us at the top! (:


Flawless.

Selfies for Dad.



One last look before we headed back down.

After we got back to Anacapri, we moseyed on over to the bus stop to head back to the pier and return to Sorrento.  Since the buses were so small, we waited nearly 30 minutes for one and we were still crammed in, zero personal space was a thing.  But we made it to the pier in one piece and all was well.  The only bad part about Capri was that my camera ran out of batteries, and I (foolishly) left the rest of them in Limerick.  Oh well.  So the rest of these pictures are taken with my iPhone.

Back in Sorrento, we decided to go with the group out for dinner.  We went to a nice restaurant and got pizza and wine.  Afterward, we had a few drinks at the bar in the main square and had a great time. Afterward we went back to the hotel and were in bed by 10:30.  

The next day, we were up at a decent hour and headed for the beautiful coastal town of Positano.  We were hoping for a nicer day than we had in Capri because it was a little chilly and we had some slight rain.  However, our wishes were not granted.  Regardless of the situation we wore shorts anyways.  Wishful thinking at its finest.

We took the ferry over, and due to really choppy waters it was not my favorite situation, but we got to Positano in about an hour and a quarter.  It was truly beautiful, every little brightly colored house built right into the mountain.  It always makes me think of the first people who ever lived there, and how they got on in such a rocky landscape.  Anyway, Positano was extremely beautiful, but I think Capri was my favorite up until this point.

The fog was so badass.


This was right next to a little panini shop where we got the best sandwiches of our lives.  This is not an exaggeration.  The BEST sandwich of my whole 20 years of life. This is not a drill, people.

After our panini, we headed into this cathedral (pictured here).  We were heavily judged for wearing shorts by some old ladies.  Apologies to the country of Italy for showing my knees.




Pretty sure we weren't supposed to take photos but I like to live dangerously.



This is right on the beach.  It was too cold to go in, but the sand was so neat and nice to sit on.  The sand was nearly black, hence the name "black sand beaches" that Italy has a lot of.



Possibly the coolest photo of us in existence.

It's crazy that you can't even see a lot of the island because it's too foggy.  There's a mountain behind that fog, guys.

Overall, despite the chill and the constant drizzle (I thought we escaped this when we left Ireland?!) we had a great time in Positano.  I even got myself and Katie a little souvenir...hopefully she loves it as much as I do.  I wanted to bring her back a piece of Italy so that she knows it's still waiting for her whenever she decides to return (:

After consuming arguably the best chocolate gelato of my existence, we headed back to the pier to ferry back to Sorrento.  However, we ended up waiting on the dock for about an hour; the waves were really choppy and dangerous.  Considering the next few events, we really should have taken the bus with the other half of the tour, but apparently we got the short end of the stick.  Once the ferry docked, it was a struggle to get everyone OFF, which should have been the first sign we were in for the single worst experience of our lives.  The gang plank was furiously bobbing up and down and each of us had to go single file, with crew members literally supporting us just to get on the boat.  After we got on the boat, it was so choppy that it was like going down in an elevator...every 5 seconds for an hour and a half.  COOL.  So two of us (names will not be shared to protect identities) got sick and so we were happy to be back on land after that whole ordeal.  I'm so happy that this was the last ferry I will ever have to take if I so choose, because the next few days were all places we drove to in the bus.

That night was pretty relaxed, as we didn't feel like going out.  We went back into Sorrento city centre to look around at some shops.  Because Easter Sunday was the next day, there were a fair amount of people.  We looked around in some shops and then went to a gelato shop (obviously).  I decided to have a cannoli, because the ones in Rome were so fabulous and I wanted to compare.  I picked out what I thought for a chocolate one. (Backstory: I gave up Nutella for lent)  When I bit into it, however, it was clear that it was not a chocolate cannoli, but a Nutella one.  So I lasted, technically, 39 days without Nutella.  At least it was an accident!  Then, since I was already done for, I got a Nutella crepe.  Dinner, in  my opinion, is always best when you have dessert first. 

That night we (actually) went to bed at a decent hour in preparation for our trip to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.

Easter Sunday, we woke up excited for our adventure to see the longest running archaeological project in history....
and that's where I'll pick up next time.  I realize I didn't actually include Easter in my "pray" section, but just being in these places are so breathtaking and makes me realize how completely blessed I am to have seen these places.  There are millions of people on the planet who have only dreamed of seeing everything I saw, and I was in Italy for a whole week.  It really made me aware of how good God is and how fortunate I truly am.  Regardless of struggles and how exhausting travel is, I would never give it up for anything.

On that note, I'm sure many of you realize my time in Ireland is dwindling.  It is 11 days until my parents get here and our Great European Adventure begins.  That said, I'm probably going to start my Ireland video within the next few days.  So, if you have a question you want to ask me and have me answer in my Top 5/Bottom 5 video about my semester abroad, please email your question to askcarolineireland@gmail.com .  It can be any question, about anywhere in Ireland, about Italy, about my experience, anything you want.  I will probably start the video in about 3 or 4 days, so you have until then to email me!

Slainte! Next part, Love, will be up early next week.

Caroline.