Spring break began in the hotel lobby in Paris. People began trickling out after a few hours, until it was just me, Katie, Lauren, and Madeline left waiting... And then Madeline and Lauren left around 10 or 11pm. Half till midnight, we decided we couldn't wait in the lobby anymore. Katie and I had booked a 30 euro flight to Naples that left at 6am and had the brilliant plan to be homeless for the night to save on a room. We slowly made our way to the airport, and were checked in by 1 am. Unfortunately, security was closed till 4am so we couldn't get to the gate. All of the chairs outside of security were full with people with the same idea as me and Katie. We set up camp on the floor against a free wall just outside of security. I have to admit, it wasn't that uncomfortable. My massive parka is basically a portable sleeping bag. We slept in shifts, so one could watch our things while the other napped. Finally security opened, and we made our way to the gate. Once in Naples, Katie and I thought we could walk to the hotel from the airport, but after about 5 minutes we gave up and hailed a cab. Driving in Italy is chaos, I was happy to get out of that cab...Our hotel was in a slightly sketchy area, but perfect location, as it was close to the central station. We left our things at the hotel, and took the subway out to the coastline. First thing we did was get gelato to brighten our moods; being homeless for a night tired us out. We walked into this cool castle right on the water, called Castel dell'Ovo. It had a great view of the Naples coastline. We stopped for pizza, and continued walking. We passed by a beautiful dock, a small beach, and many brightly colored buildings.
The next day, Katie and I got a later start, and had pizza for lunch again to no surprise. We took a ferry to Capri that afternoon. Capri is gorgeous. A waiter at a cafe told us to visit the top of the Island for great views. We ended up taking a bus halfway up, then found a chair lift that brought us to the top. The view was incredible. Katie and I found a trail, so we hopped over a small wall blocking it off and started walking. We saw an old fort, a look out hut, and these neat rock formations on the other side of the island. When we had finished walking around, we began to make our way back to the chairlift. As we got closer, I noticed no one was in the lookout area. The place was deserted, and the chairlift wasn't moving. It was getting late, so we decided to follow a trail marked for Anacapri. We passed some Italians on our way down who assured us we were headed the right way. We continued on and bumped into a little gang of mountain goats. There were six or so hanging out on the side of the cliff; I managed to snag a few pictures before I felt like they were getting territorial and might try to ram us. We caught a bus back into town, and thankfully made the ferry back to Naples.
On Monday, we caught a train to Sorrento. We had originally planned to spend half the day in the ruins of Pompeii, but prices were ridiculous, so we backpacked around Sorrento instead. Katie and I were determined to get down to the coastline. I think we walked about 8 miles with our luggage strapped to us. The scenery was beautiful, making all the walk worth it. Towards the end of our hike, Katie was fed up with her bag and chucked it into some thick brush, saying she didn't care if it was stolen at this point. I convinced her to keep her bag on her haha. Anyways, we found the beach...only to find a short stretch of sand, with a big barge sitting in the way of the view. We made our way back up this monstrous hill, and gave up on walking back. Katie and I caught a bus to Amalfi, and saw the amazing coastline on the drive there. Once in Amalfi, Katie and I pretended to order food in a cafe to get the wifi password, then walked out and leaned up against the restaurant wall, so that I could contact our hotel to come pick us up. A man in a cart showed up a few minutes later, and said what I thought sounded like my last name. I convinced Katie to hop in the sketchy cart, and luckily it took us to the hotel. We walked up and down the coastline that night and got gelato.
The next morning, Katie and I hiked to Valle delle Ferriere, a waterfall near Amalfi. The trail was great and not crowded at all, and we had a lot of fun hiking and yelling out songs. Katie came up with a rap on the way back down. Little did she know that a lady was walking behind us and heard all of it. When she passed us, she told Katie she enjoyed her singing. When we got back, Katie and I walked into this beautiful church in the center of town. We bought some gelato and sat on the stairs to the church, enjoying our snack. Little did we know that there was a funeral going on inside. A few bites into our gelato, a man starts yelling at us in Italian. I turned around, and saw the procession carrying a casket out of the church. Katie and I sprung up, and ran down the stairs out of the way. We felt bad, but couldn't help laughing at the awkward situation. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant. I had some delicious seafood pasta. Of course we got more gelato after dinner, and sat on the stairs to the church again. We talked to a couple Italian guys, then went back to our hotel, as I had to catch a cab early in the morning.
Katie and I went parted ways the next morning. She was meeting up with her sister, and I was joining Maddie and Lauren in Barcelona. I caught an expensive cab in the morning to the airport, and made it to Barcelona that afternoon. It was a hassle trying to find our airbnb as I was wandering around Barcelona without wifi. I walked in circles for about a half hour, before I ran into Madeline and Lauren by coincident. After dropping my things off, we walked around the city, seeing Parc de la Ciutadella Fountain, Arc de Triomf, and Montjuic Castle. That night we ate a La Pepita, a tapas restaurant Lauren had been to with her family. The food was amazing.
We started our day walking to Sagrada Familia. This church is absolutely beautiful. The outside is nice, but the inside is stunning. The architect wanted to make it look like a forest, and he definitely accomplished this. The ceiling looks like a kaleidoscope. We walked around Park Guell, visted the Picasso museum, and sat on the beach close to our hotel.
The next day, we missed our train to Madrid, and had to take a long bus ride there instead. We stayed with a family friend of Lauren's (Damaris) in central Madrid.
On Saturday, we walked around the capital, and saw a Palace, Gardens, Church, and several town squares. That night we saw a musical, The Bodyguard, that Damaris was in. She had a lead role in the musical, that was filled with a lot of Whitney Houston songs. Maddie, Lauren, and I had a blast watching the show, which was in Spanish. We had front row seats, which was perfect for some of the dance scenes.
I flew back to Bonn on an earlier flight than Maddie and Lauren on Sunday. I spent the day unpacking and preparing for the week back at school.
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