We took the bus to Aversa train station, took a train to Naples, hopped on the Circumvesuviano and rode that all the way to the end of the line in Sorrento. From there, we got on the bus to Amalfi that took us along the gorgeous coastline. The bus ride lasted about 2 hours. We had left from our apartments at 8:30 and got there around 2:30. It was a lot more travel time than we had expected, but at least the view from the bus was amazing.
On Saturday, we pretty much just ate food, hung out on the beach, and went shopping. I had a sandwich (or a "panini") with hot dogs in it. Yum! We stayed in this cute little hostel in a town right next to Amalfi that was called Atrani. When we wanted to get back over to Amalfi from Atrani, we were going to go back the way we had go. But I had a better idea, the genius that I am. I saw a sign saying that Amalfi was this way, and since it was pointing to some stairs, I figured it would just bring us right back up to the main street... wrong. There were some stairs, then more stairs, then more, then more. By then we figured out that we were way above the streets, but since there were still signs pointing the way to Amalfi, we kept going. Until we ran into a snake, that is. I screamed my bloody head off. It scared me soooooo bad. I had thought it was just a lizard until it hissed at me and slithered into a corner. Yikes.
Overall, it made a five-minute relatively easy walk into a 20 minute hike, but it was worth it just to walk through all those little back alleyways and to randomly get a very nice view of the coast. So far, the Amalfi coast is my favorite place we've visited here in Italy.
On Sunday, Alli and Kristen left Amalfi to hit up Pompei since Kristen hadn't seen it yet and it was on their way back. Me and Krystina, on the other hand, decided to do a hike that was called "The Path of the Gods." Our very nice hostel owner gave us a map and directions, and we took the bus to a town along the coast called Praiano to start our hike. Going up into the town, we asked a hair stylist, a hotel receptionist, and about six other people where the trail starts and if we were going in the right direction. There are honestly no street signs there that are very helpful. And because all the towns along the coast are built going halfway up the cliffs, this whole time we were trying to find the trail we were walking uphill. Then, we finally reach where the trail begins.... and the stairs begin.
Krystina counted, and she said that we climbed about 1700 steps. Ugh. While she was counting, I was focusing on not dying. I told her I didn't want to know how many steps we had climbed. Sheesh. Those stairs were not fun. But then we made it up into this convent, and there was a really gorgeous view of the coast from there. Then we climbed a few more stairs, and we finally made it up to the Path of the Gods. (Apparently, the climb up to the convent didn't quite count). From there, the hike was pretty easy. Mostly flat trail with a few ups and downs and really really pretty views. We were so high up!
It was funny, because there was no one on the trail, and then right when me and Krystina decided we had to pee, we hear voices coming our way and two guys are coming up the trail behind us. Perfect timing.
At least we didn't run into any more snakes!
Towards the end of the hike, we finally made it to a town called Nocelle, and from here, we had been told that we could either walk the rest of the way to Positano (our final destination), or we could take a bus there. Well, I bet you can guess which option I wanted. But I didn't know that Krystina wanted to take the bus too, so we started going down the steps to Positano before we even talked about the bus. By then, there was no way we were climbing back up those steps to get to the bus, so we just kept going down. And down and down and down. Probably 1700 steps back down. Ugh.
It was so funny when we finally made it to the bottom because there was this one spot where Krystina wanted me to get a pic of her, but I had already gone down about five steps. She goes, "Oh, wait, wait, wait... nevermind," because she knew there was no way in Hell I was going to climb back up those 5 steps. I surprised her, though, and took a rele good pic if i don't say so myself. Good times.
Then we went back to the hostel to get our stuff, had a couple milkshakes (Nutella milkshake? Oh yeah.), got back on the bus, got on the slowest and hottest and smelliest train I have ever been on, then made it back to our apartment around 9 at night. Whew. Long trip, but definitely worth it!
I'm bummed I didn't get to talk to you today, but glad you got to talk to Dad, Nana and Papa. We took Dad to Outback for his bday dinner and came back home for banana cake, yum! So, how is your foot after all that hiking? Sounds like you had a fun weekend. Do you have any special plans for your birthday? I hope we can Skype on Wednesday. Love you!
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