After yet another poor night's sleep, the eight of us woke up bright and early to catch the first bus into town. This bus would take us to a bigger, nicer bus that would travel on a 45 minute journey to the town of Positano. Poistano is another small town along the coast of Amalfi, similar to Sorrento. I ended up "sleeping" for most of the bus ride there. I was extremely tired and couldn't help but nodding off, literally. However, I woke up startled when I heard a bunch of commotion in the bus. I opened my eyes to see another Astro bus, trying to pass on the extremely narrow road. The two bus drivers maneuvered back and forth, back and forth, until one of them finally felt comfortable passing the other. And did so...with maybe 3 inches to spare. I'm pretty sure I heard on of the tires from each bus nudge each other, that's how close we were. Once we regained our position on the road, the bus broke into applause for the driver, who just nodded humbly. I'm sorry, but if I was our driver I probably would've burst out in quick chorus of "All I do is Win" or "Dirt Off Your Shoulder".After what seemed like an eternity of winding roads and perilous cliffs, we made it Positano. We were not on a guided tour today, so we would be responsible for finding the times of the buses that go back to Sorrento and making our way to the bus stop at the appropriate time. Within 5 minutes of walking down a street, we stopped in a bakery for canoles. I'm personally not a huge fan of canoles, but my group said that they were delicious and I believe them. The streets in Positano are much more...angled than the streets in Sorrento. Walking to and from little shops requires a moderate quad/hamstring/glute workout. One of the shops we visited was playing Aladdin's "A Whole New World" in Italian and Jennifer and I felt the need to burst into song and dance. (small portion can be found in Jennifer's video on my Facebook wall). I am so glad that there is someone else in my group that just enjoys being extremely goofy. My favorite store we found was full of paintings. Particularly, of trees. Now anyone that truly knows me knows that I have a small obsession with trees. These paintings were absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, by this point in the trip my camera had died so I don't have any pictures of them, so you'll have to take my word for it. (Like you have another option.)
By 1:30 or so, Jennifer, Kaleb, Shelley, and me were completely exhausted. A few days of no sleep and extensive walking around will certainly take a toll on the body. We decided to make our way to the bus stop after a quick sandwich for lunch. Our timing for the bus was impeccable. We may have waited 5 minutes before the big blue bus came around the corner and picked us up. The brief amount of air conditioning on the bus was a relief and we made our way back down and around the mountain. Our little green cabins welcomed us back with open arms, but we didn't stay long. A quick freshening up and we were headed back down to town, on yet another bus. It was safe to say that by this point, we were feeling pretty comfortable with this whole "public transportation" thing. Dinner tonight was at a small local American place, where I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. Praise God for American food. Every now and then, there's not much better.
Tomorrow, Melissa, Joanna, and Katie would head out early to spend the day in Naples before catching our evening train. Jenn made her way back to Rome this evening to meet up with her friends for the weekend. Kaleb, Jennifer, Shelley and I would spend the morning at the pool and then make our way back to the Naples train station.
June 10th, 2012
The night before was the best sleep I had in our little green home. I think I may have gotten a solid 6 hours. The remainder of our group spent the morning lounging by the pool, where we all got some good color. We had lunch at the same American place as the previous night. I know, I know. We repeated and that's against the rules. Sorry. We were just looking for somewhere quick and filling before catching our commuter train to Naples....and I think we all wanted some more American food. This go round I had a hot dog and fries. Best hot dog ever. What makes it the best hot dog ever you ask? Well, 1) It was huge. 2) The bun was two separate pieces of a giant hoagie roll toasted and 3) it was only 5 euros for the hot dog and french fries. Success. We hopped aboard the commuter train exactly one minute before it was scheduled to pull out of the station. We were officially public transportation professionals. An hour later, we arrived at the Naples train station where we proceeded to wait for two hours for our departing train to Rome. While in the train station, we befriended a stray dog. I was told not to talk to strangers as a child, but stray dogs are fair game. Our train back home was a vibrant red like the Hogwarts Express, but there was still no sign of Hagrid. After an hour train ride, there was something about stepping of the metro and onto the street in Rome that was extremely comforting. We obviously had an amazing weekend away from Rome, but there's something to be said about coming "home". After a much needed shower, I threw my hiker's backpack in the corner, turned my sleep machine on, and passed out on my bed.
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