I woke up early for my trip to Capri. I have been dying to see this place. Being as stubborn as I am, I refuse cabs. So I walked to the ferry and I got so very lost. I mean LOST. And sunburned
When I found the ferry terminal, it was the slow ferry terminal. The fast ferries leave from somewhere else, but damned if I was going to try and find it.
I did a quick picture post here:
http://iputmylifeonashelf.com/2013/05/03/quick-picture-post-capri-italy/
Today started off really great. I woke up at 2:00 am to get ready to be picked up by Supershuttle at 3:30 am. As I am showering, I manage to FALL in my bathtub. It was the weirdest fall ever. You know how when you start to fall, one foot slides and you try to grab onto something to balance yourself? Well first off, there is nothing here to balance myself on. Not even a shower curtain:
Second, both feet gave out at the same time. One minute I was standing, the next I was sitting.
To add insult to idiocy, I could not get back up. There was nothing to hold onto. When I would try to stand up, I would still slip on my feet. This was probably comical but at the time, I was sure I was going to die. Or at the very least, have to invest in a Life Alert. Finally, I got myself out of the tub.
Next up: leaving my room at 3:15 am. They know I am leaving at this time, I told them the night before. So it makes total sense that when I get downstairs, there is no one there. That is fine. Except that the door is automated and it is locked because there is no one there. The lights are also off. I start panicking. I need to get out of here. I go behind the desk and try and find the light but I cannot find anything because it is pitch black. I envision my shuttle coming and the driver coming to the door with only a piece of glass separating us before he has to leave because I can not get out.
There is a garden out back. I think I could maybe go out there and climb a fence or something and then make my way back to the door and ring the doorbell that is outside the door that I can not get out of. Finally I have made enough of a ruckus that the guy who works there comes out and lets me outside. WHEW.
I am flying to Naples today. The flight was super quick. Upon arrival, I took the shuttle to Garibaldi Station and attempt to find my hotel. This took about half an hour. The hotel is pretty much RIGHT AT where I got dropped off. But the combination of not reading a map and lack of signage made me take this long to get there.
My hotel ruled. It was only about 10:00 am when I showed up. They were still serving breakfast to last night’s guest . They were so kind that they took me in and made me coffee and offered me breakfast. Then I got brought to my room. I already posted about my fabulous room, check it out here.
From here, I took a nap. It was so wonderful.
I went out to walk around. I was sitting in a populated square in Napoli. Some drug addict came up and tried to talk to me, go away. Then he grabs my hand and tries to kiss it. I jerk it away and say in a really calm voice “Do not do that.” THEN. He grabs my boob! So I just impulsively kick him. His leg buckled a bit and he walked away casually as if nothing had happened. I looked around and either zero people saw or 100% of everyone who did see was acting like they didn’t. It was a bizarre experience for sure!
It was at this point, I gave up and decided that spending my evening on my enormous terrace was the way to go. Turns out, I was right.
Happy May Day – the day where everything is closed.
Today is so cold in Paris. I long for my winter coat. It was so painful walking around in just a hoodie.
I got up and walked around Paris for a while.
Some pictures from my morning walk:
In no particular order.
1. Do not go to Eastern Europe if seeing stray dogs upsets you.
2. Bulgaria has the nicest people on planet Earth. This cannot be stressed enough.
3. Going through the Turkey border was so annoying that I eventually ended up having a meltdown that left me talking out loud to myself on the bus.
4. Bulgarians are either the new leaders in the fashion world and are bringing back hair crimping, or they are so far behind fashion times that the 80’s just got there.
5. I managed to get a passport stamp for every country I visited this trip (except obviously for Vatican City). Take THAT Schengen Agreement!
6. Duvel is delicious.
7. I am already going through withdrawal from liters of San Benedetto Peach Iced Tea. It is even more delicious than Duvel. I need to find me a European who is willing to act as my San Benedetto mule.
8. The world wide web is not world wide!! It amazed me to do a Google search in Bulgaria that pulled up a bus company that lets you book tickets online AND even pick your seats, that never once came up during the 893249837483276289463 times I did the same exact Google search before I left.
9. I packed 99.9% perfectly for this trip. There is not one item in my bag that I did not use. The only things I needed to buy were eye drops and a replacement for my lip balm that I lost (and found about an hour after buying a new one)
10. I hate Rome.
11. I love Naples
12. Capri is a very beautiful place, a natural tourist attraction. They know this and it is reflected in the prices.
13. Belogradchik, Bulgaria is also a very beautiful place and a natural tourist attraction. However, they are a bit more humble and the prices do not reflect its worth at all.
14. Every person in Istanbul starts conversations by asking you where you are from. There is also a large amount of people here who seem to have relatives that own carpet stores in Houston.
15. I wanted to do 25 facts since I was here 25 days, but I am getting too tired to type any longer.
Today I wake up really early. I go to McDonalds for breakfast and wifi. One of the breakfast options is a croissant and coffee. This is what I want. This is what I try to order. No one behind the counter seemed to understand me. Pointing gets me nowhere. I get annoyed and leave. Around the corner is a Quick, which is like McDonalds only not like McDonalds. I get a coffee and croissant no problem here. They advertise WiFi. Guess what, it doesn’t work. The WiFi. Guess what else? I spilled my entire coffee all over myself. I want to cry, I really do. I go back to my room and decide that if this is what today is going to be like, then I am not going to try a combo of Versailles and Catacombs. I will go just to the Catacombs to be safe. Good thing I did since the line was way over two hours.
I walk inside and slip twice. The first time was no big deal. The second time, I now fear that the rest of my time in here will be me trying to not fall. The third time I slipped, I went to grab the wall to stop myself. Only now, we are at the skulls. So I am grabbing human skulls and bones to balance myself, it was awful.
Later on, we get to where water is dripping and the floor is now wet. I start walking like a 397 year old woman because I am deathly afraid of falling.
I am going to be going out of chronological order with this one but I am just dying to post about it.
Yesterday afternoon, I took a bus from Sofia to Belogradchik. I got picked up at the bus station by the owner of the guest house I was staying at (Drakite Guest House). For a whopping $19 usd, I had a very nice room with private balcony and a shower so big that you could take every shower I have had to so far on this trip and fit them all inside.
This morning I am up so early go to see the fortress. I cannot wait. I pause to take a morning photo from my balcony.
Then off I go. To get to the fortress is a very strenuous walk uphill. Up many hills. But the walk features GOATS!!
I woke up in Brussels, Belgium about thirteen minutes before my alarm went off. I was still tired but it’s getting better. Shower, repack, head to Brussels Midi train station to take a Thalys train to Paris. I board the train and someone is in my seat. Not only is she in my seat, she is completely settled in. It looked like she had some manual, a lot of paper, a calculator, highlighter, pen and phone all out. She appeared to be working very hard. I’m not sure how she had the time to get all of that out since the doors had opened two minutes earlier, but there it was.
I stand over her, she doesn’t look up. I say “You are in my seat.” Nothing. Again, louder “YOU ARE IN MY SEAT!” She looks up and says something in a language I don’t understand. I put my ticket in her face and point to the seat number. She repeats whatever she had originally said that I didn’t understand the first time. Someone trying to pass by tells me “She is willing to exchange seats with you.” Oh here we go again. No. I have the window seat. I chose the window seat. You could have done so just as easily. But no, you decided to take my seat. This is so obnoxious. Not even the part about wanting to switch seats. The part about getting all settled before even asking. This is disgusting human behavior. So I make it clear, NO. She then has to gather up all her stuff and get out of my seat. Ugh.
I passed out as soon as the conductor checked my ticket. I woke up in Paris. Today’s walk to the hotel is three minutes. Get this. I do not get lost not even one time. Not even for one block. I found it no problem. I am psyched!
My original plans for Brussels were: Get Starbucks, check into my hotel, go to the Atomium, come back and have a nice quiet night in my room to recover from Groezrock. Then I could fully start the vacation portion of this trip well rested.
Yesterday, I had taken my camera out to use it for the first time this trip. I discover that the LCD screen on my camera was cracked. Are you kidding me? We can probably assume this happened during the flight of death with the SCREAMING kid. Oh, did you miss that rant? Here you go.
But I will take the blame for this one. It is the second time I have done this. The last time was just in September. So this seems to be new recurring problem in my life. Hello idiot, buy a camera case. So I now have to buy a new camera. Oh how I did not want to do this at all. I don’t like buying anything without insane amounts of research. I don’t like spending money on new things when I can fix the old things for under ten bucks. I don’t even want a new camera at all. I LOVE my camera. This was going to be a very painful purchase.
Sarajevo is a very bi-polar city. As you are walking around, you see many beautiful buildings, such as this one. It is the Sarajevo Academy of Fine Arts, housed in a former church:
Beautiful, right? In fact, it is so beautiful that you may have overlooked this bridge in front of it:
Festina Lente bridge. It is so freaking cool looking.
Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons where Lisa becomes a vegetarian? The family starts out at a petting zoo. A lamb walks up and they all “Awwwwwwwwww” it. Then a smaller lamb comes up and the “AWWWWWW” gets louder. Then the third….and then when the poor first lamb returns, they have seen so much cuter that Homer “Get out of the way YOU”s it?
Capri Island is that petting zoo.
First you get off the boat and you are at the Port of Capri. Oh wow! Look at this! You take like fifty pictures, it is so beautiful.
