Tag Archives: solo female travel

Goodbye Rome, Hello Sarajevo!

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Today I am leaving Rome and heading to Bosnia.  This section of the trip is both where I got all frustrated while booking it, and then even more frustrated living it.  I originally wanted to go from Rome to Puglia and take an overnight ferry to Dubrovnik.  Well today is Wednesday and guess what day of the week that ferries do not run?  Yes.  Wednesday.  So I opted to fly to Bosnia.  This was the start of several days where I watched my “Best Travel Planner EVER” crown turn to rust before my eyes.

Hotel check out is at 11:00  My flight is at 4:05.  I decide to go to the airport this early because I don’t want to be in Rome anymore. Plus my flight has changed and I am not all that sure of the new time because there is no wifi in my room and I am limited on what I can see on my phone.

There was no one upstairs when I checked out of my room. I just left the keys there.  I had to restrain myself to keep from leaving a note about YOU LYING BASTARDS. THERE IS NO WIFI HERE.

I walked downstairs and the dude who checked me in is out there!  He asks me how my stay is.  I say “there is no wifi” and he says “yeah…”  in this sheepish tone that causes me to FLIP OUT on him.  I am so pissed off,  I am yelling about how I never would have stayed here, this is bullshit and false advertising.  I basically just keep yelling at him.  He basically just keeps standing there.  I finally walk away while giving him the finger.  I am still so mad about this.  It is so irrational but I hate liars and to knowingly lie about having wifi when you don’t just really set me off.  The hilarity of all of this is that this is the first trip ever in my life where I have brought a laptop type thingy.  On any other trip to any other place I have been to in my past, I wouldn’t have even known that this hotel is a liar liar pants on fire.

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Rome, Italy: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City

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Today is my last full day in Rome.  I will not lie; I am looking forward to my stay here being over.  I am just dying to go east.  I am doing that thing again where I wonder why the hell do I keep coming to places that are not even in my top 100 places to see before I die.  I keep getting sucked in by famous tourist spots. Like how can I not go to Rome and see the Sistene Chapel or the Colosseum?    I need to guide myself away from doing this in the future.  The three days I have spent here could have been spent anywhere east of the Adriatic and I would have spent these three days in absolute heaven.

But then I think of things like my time in Naples or last year in Florence.  I fell in love with Florence.  I loved my time in Naples and all its surrounding areas.  I wasn’t really expecting either of those things to happen.  I am so glad I went.  I love finding new places I love that I hadn’t planned on falling in love with.   It makes me feel like I am learning about the world and growing as a person.  I guess I am bipolar about my vacation destinations.

But anyway, less deep thoughts with Jennifer and more back to Rome.

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Rome, Italy: Vatican Museum, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps

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After completely losing my mask of sanity on my first night in Rome, I was awoken at around 5:30 am by a thunderstorm.  I went to make sure my window was closed and that’s when I remebered my window doesn’t even go outside, it goes into the hallway and across from that is an open window.  I am not so sure my sanity will return to me today.

I get up and get ready to go out.  My hotel leaves your breakfast for you the night before.  I went from fresh breads, fruit, smoothies, yogurt, pots of coffee and home made deserts in Naples to this:

breakfast

I leave a note for someone to please fix my WiFi and I head out.

Today is Vatican City day.  I do not have much of a personal interest in seeing the Vatican Museum, but I am in Rome.  I have to go, right?  So I do.

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Rome, Italy: Train Mishap and Where is My WiFi Dammit?

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I do not like Rome.  This is not entirely Rome’s fault.   I acknowledge that.  But I do not like it.

I was leaving Napoli today.  I last left off leaving Castel Sant’Elmo.  I had to go back to my hotel and pick up my luggage.  Dying, hot, sweaty, death.

I walked back over to Centrale to buy a train ticket to Rome.  The next train was leaving in ten minutes, I wanted a tiny bit more time to do things like buy an ice cold drink (DYING, HOT, SWEATY, DEATH) and smoke a cigarette.  I look at the later times and see prices €40 and up.  What the hell, I thought it was going to be like €10.  Then I notice the too-soon train is only €11.20.  Perfect, I will take it.  Who needs a cigarette and ice cold drink when you will be in Rome in about an hour for only €11.20?

Ugh.  Did you know they have slow trains between Naples and Rome?  I didn’t.  I am now on a three hour train.  I boarded late so there are no seats left.  I am sitting outside between the two cars, burning hot.  There is a guy selling cold water, he does not have change for a €20 bill.  I don’t have anything smaller since I just put all my change and smaller bills into the ticket machine.

I did see some cool scenery though:
View train from Rome to Naples

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Naples, Italy: Castel Sant’Elmo

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My last morning in Naples.  I wanted to spend a few hours here before leaving for Rome.  Especially since I have now mastered the fine art of not being murdered by a Vespa when crossing the street.  (Hint:  walk with a local in between you and the direction of oncoming traffic.)

Naples chaos:

naples chaos

After a last game of catch with the cute dog who lives at my hotel, I was off.

b&b doggie

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An Easy Side Trip to Sorrento, Italy from Pompeii and Naples

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I last left off in Pompeii.  I wanted to go to Mount Vesuvius.  I know it is cold there, always.  This should have been a draw since I was slowly dying in the heat in Pompeii.  But I could not get my mind to believe that a volcano would be cooler.  So I decided to go to Sorrento, which was burning hot of course.  Meh, whatever. At least I had the joy of being able to switch my plans last minute and not have to deal with anyone else because I am solo lalalalalaaaaaaaaaaa.

Leaving Pompeii and buying a train ticket for Sorrento was a bit difficult.  The ticket booth guy was not at the window, but instead could be seen from the window gabbing it up with his coworker.  The maniac behind me in line starts smashing at the window. Of course, the guy thinks its me since I am the one standing there when he comes over.  Great.  I ask for a ticket. He gives it to me and tells me “You need to run to catch the train”.  Yeah well I wouldn’t have if you had been here instead of over there….whatever.

Since it is later in the day now, the Circumvesuviana train smells even worse than it did earlier in the day.  I am from New York, I can handle this.

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Naples, Italy: Side Trip to Pompeii

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Today is one of those days where I am reminded how much I love traveling solo.

My original plans for today were to overdo sightseeing.  I was determined to go to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius all in one day.  The internet says it can not be done, I say it can.  I guess we will never know now though because I ended up making a very last second decision to go to Sorrento after Pompeii, rather than keeping my original plans.  Changing plans last minute always seems to be so easy when you are solo and so difficult when you are not.  I didn’t have to confer with anyone, all I had to do was get on the train.

First stop:  Pompeii.  I took the Circumvesuviana train here from Naples.  At the Naples train station, some random guy approached me and asked me if I was looking for the ticket booth.  I made the mistake of saying yes.  Oh here we go. He then tries escorting me through the train station, out the other side and down a new entrance. I do not want him to do this because I know he is going to ask me for money.  I actually say to him “I am not giving you any money, I can make it the rest of the way by myself”.  He ignores me.  We get to the ticket window and he tries to pay for my ticket.  I think the trick  here is that he pays for my ticket (it was something like €2.40) and then would hope I would not have exact change and give him a €5 bill).  I keep insisting “DO NOT BUY MY TICKET” and he will not stop.  So I then yell to the booth guy “DO NOT SELL HIM MY TICKET”. Then I think I will outsmart him and pay with a credit card.  No change, no cash, sorry guy.  But the Circumvesuviana does not take credit cards.  ARGH.

So I pay in cash and turn to leave.  My unwanted escort asks me to buy him a cup of coffee.  NO.  I find it so completely annoying when people do things like this.

The train comes and its every bit as run down and rickety as the internet told me it would be.  It was also hot as hell on there.

We get to Pompeii.  Walking from the train station to the entrance is about a five minute walk, during which you are offered to purchase a bunch of things such as slushies, sun hats and souvenirs.  I almost bought an enormous sun hat as my 100 spf sun screen is not working and I am so burned up.  But I resisted.

Pompeii is HOT today.  Burning hot.  There are just about zero spots with shade inside here.  I had to keep reminding myself “you know, people here died from being buried under volcanic ash, I bet they would love to trade spots with you”.

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Naples, Italy: SideTrip to Capri

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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/

swing chair lift to monte solaro summit, capri island, italy

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From Almost Dying in Paris, France to Getting Groped in Naples, Italy

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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:

bath tub

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.

Sweet Sleep Bed and Breakfast Naples, Italy

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.

Paris Day Three – May 1, 2013

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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:

Hôtel de Ville paris

La Conciergerie clock tower, Paris France

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