Sorry I haven't posted anything recently, the hotels in Naples and Capri caused my charger to get a little hot and I didn't charge it very often!
We're back in Barcelona now. Our flight from Rome to Barcelona last night was delayed, a lot. We were supposed to leave at 9:30 and ended up leaving at 1:35 A.M. But, that's ok, we met two women from Australia and chatted with them while waiting in the terminal. They've been all over the world, I'm so jealous. Anyway, I leave tomorrow morning for Madrid to meet my group and mom and Aunt Donna stay in Barcelona another night. But now I'll talk about Capri...ah it was amazing.
We had to go to Naples and stay the night there to take the ferry over to Capri the next morning. Naples is similar to Rome, only a lot sketchier and unsafe. Luckily, we were staying by the water so we didn't have to walk far to catch the ferry. We took a fast ferry over to Capri, which was interesting; it was set like a plane in that all the seats were inside in horizontal rows. When we arrived, we took a cab to the Piazza near our hotel. There are large parts of the island that only allow pedestrian traffic, so we could only get dropped off at certain points. Piazza Umberto is a huge shopping/restuarant center right near our hotel: Gucci, Channel, Prada, and tons of other name brands were in that area. Needless to say, I didn't get anything.
Our hotel, Hotel La Palma, was so beautiful, as is the entire island of Capri. The only drawback was that there was no pool. While it seems a little silly to go to a pool when you're on an island, the beaches are not sandy, they are rocky and you have to take a bus or walk 30 minutes downhill to get there. On the first day, we just wanted to relax, so we went to another hotel and used their pool! When I post pictures, you'll see one of me in the pool in front of the glass windows they had in it.
On our second day, we did a lot around the island. First, we caught a bus down to the Marina to catch a boat tour around the entire island. We saw so many great things. Lookout for pictures soon. Unfortunately, the Blue Grotto wasn't open because the water was so rough near there. The entrance to that Grotto is only 5 meters high and you need row boats maneuvered by professionals to enter. When we came around to that part of the island, the water was crashing up against the opening and filling it completely...good thing it's closed, otherwise that would be bad.
After we finished our tour, we went over to the beach near by so that we could swim in the Mediterranean :) The water is really salty! It was a little difficult entering and exiting too because of the rocks, it hurt your feet! But once out there, it was gorgeous. And, already being a good floater, I basically sat on the top of the water the whole time! It was cool. Then, we dried off and took the bus to Anacapri, the other side of the island, where we ate lunch and went on a chair lift to the very top of the island... That was by far one of the most beautiful and incredible things I've ever seen. If you ever go to Capri, ride the chair lift. It is a little scary because it's a single lift and you do go very, very, VERY high. But, it's totally worth it. I'll definitely post pictures from the top so you can see.
After all this sun, we were tired so we went back to the hotel to take our siesta. Mom and I slept for a while, and then we went to dinner. The next morning, we got up and caught the fast ferry back to Naples. From Naples, we got our car from the parking garage (great idea to put it in there, a lot safer than parking on the street), and headed to Herculaneum. Like Pompeii, Herculaneum was destroyed by Vesuvius. It is right on the water and was once a resort village; however, it's a lot smaller than Pompeii. A lot of these ruins were more preserved though because as the hot mud dried, it turned into a kind of thick compact blanket, which adhered to every household structure which preserved everything, including wood. It was pretty cool.
We left Herculaneum with plenty of time to drive back to the airport in Rome. We arrived 3 hours before our flight was to depart, but just used the time to eat and sit. With 30 minutes until our scheduled boarding time, we realized we were no longer at the correct gate as our plane had moved. So, we headed to the correct gate and found out the flight was to be delayed until midnight. Then, it moved to 12:40, and finally 1:35. At boarding time, 12:55, everyone noticed there was a gate change...back to our original gate. So, we all rushed over there and finally were able to get on!
While, yes, we arrived late, we slept in a little this morning, so that was good. We're still tired though, since we stayed up a lot later than usual! Today, we went around Barcelona. We did some shopping, I got a few things a store called Mango. Then, we went to see Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family). It was gorgeous. It looks like a castle mixed with a church mixed with a sandcastle that an elaborate sandcastle-maker created. Again, look out for pictures soon!
Now that I've caught you up on our travels a little more, it's time to go to bed so that I can wake up in time to catch my 8:30 flight!
Buenos noches!
