Oh yeah.. blogging.

So I don't think I have posted about anything for a bit, not too much has been going on. I've been to some cool places though of which you will have seen pictures on facebook for sure. (Climbed the Duomo, went to Boboli Gardens, Pisa, etc) I got sick this past week and only recently got visited by a doctor. I just got my meds and have only taken two doses but it's amazing what that and a good night's sleep will do. I had the best night of sleep last night that I probably have had in the last week so that's good. I just want to get through this week so I can go on the API trip to Venice and Verona! I am so excited!

Almafi Coast in Full

Thursday Night:
7 PM -We pack up and head out for the bus that was waiting for us at the train station, which is about a 7 min or so walk from our apartment. Myself, Diana (my room mate,) Kristina and Aubrey (my suite mates) begin the adventure to the Almafi Coast. We meet up with the trip leaders who work for Bus2Alps, the program we booked the trip through. We get some teal wristbands to represent our accommodations for the weekend. Me, Diana and Kristina booked a place called Hostel Seven. We get on the bus after a little bit and are given the rundown. 3ish hours into the bus ride we will stop for food etc then continue until we get to the destination. The bus ride is around 7 hours or so.

Friday:
We get in around 3 AM. They want us up at 6:30 AM. Needless to say we were not very enthused with this news but we were able to get a couple hours of sleep before waking up for breakfast. The hostel is set up so we have huge rooms of around 10 to 12 people per room. Then the floor has a shared bathroom, one for women and one for men. I basically felt like I was back at camp or in a dorm again. Waiting in line for the sink or the toilet.. ANYWAY.

So we leave for the island of Capri. We get on a ferry style boat with tons of seating in the cabin and above the boat. We take the cabin. This ride had to be one of the bumpiest ferry rides I have ever experienced in my life. Picture Port Jeff ferry but a tiny bit smaller catching air on the water... Yeah, it was not good, we had tons of people getting sick and everything.

We finally make it to the island of Capri. My suite mate Kristina had to stay off the tour boat of Capri because she was still feeling very bad. (she doesn't do well with boats or buses..)  So me, my room mate and my other gal friends take the boat tour of Capri which was just amazing. We didn't get to see Blue Gratto because the tide was way too high and choppy. There was little of the cave that was actually visible. Twas a bummer  but not the end of the world.

We get off the boat and walk a lot of stairs to mid-mountain. We hang out, look around, snap a few photos and are bussed up to the next part of the mountain (Ana Capri). Here we were able to eat lunch, buy some souvenirs and go on the famous single chairlift ride to the tippy top of the mountain which had some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my entire life. We were basically in the sky. We couldn't tell where the sea ended and the sky began. Just incredible.

When we were finished in Ana Capri we had to walk alllllll the way back down the entire mountain basically. Here is a picture of the mountain we walked down. Yeah good times. It was all stairs too so our legs were noodles by the time we finished. 

So, after a long day at Capri, we finally made it back down to the ferry ride to get back to our hostel. That was also a better ride, not as choppy. Going on as little sleep as I was, I passed out to the back and forth motion of the boat and awoke as passengers were getting off about 40 min later. 

That night we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, where they had all of the bus2alps kids go, so it was a little hectic. It was pretty good. I got pasta with broccoli and sausage. Then we followed directions on a map that we were given to another place called the Beer Garden. It was okay. Not my scene. People were drinking and dancing and what not. But I was having trouble staying awake because of what little sleep I was going on. So me and my suite mate Kristina left early to go back to the hostel. Mind you we had to find our way back with the crappy map that they gave us. It was about a 20/30 min walk... Yeah. nuff said. 

Saturday:

We woke up and took the bus to Positano, which by the way, was a gorgeous ride! The scenery was amazing! We were up really high on a windy road and had multiple insanely beautiful views along the way. 

We had to get dropped off a lot higher up because of the complicated roads and non-vehicle friendly places so we walked all the way down to the beach in Positano where we hung out for a bit. Me, Kristina and one of my friends named Angel Rose signed up for the earliest cliff jumping time. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos to prove it because no one I knew was on the boat to take a picture of the 3 of us. :( But maybe if I do it again, I will have someone ready with a camera haha. Anyway, that was amazing and scary at the same time, truly awesome. Then we kinda just took the rest of the day as a beach day. We went swimming, hung out, got lunch and bought some souvenirs. I got some delicious nutella and kinder chocolate gelato on the way out. ;) 

That night they had a buffet style thing going on at the hostel for 10 euro, unlimited food. The food was alright, some stuff better than others, but there were french fries which made us all very happy indeed. After that, we were literally zombies, all extremely tired, so we all just hung out and talked in another group of girls' room that was quite nice. 

Sunday: 

We took a bus to Pompei where we got a guided tour of the ruins. It was a bit long but it was kind of interesting to learn about what had been there. As some of you may know, I am not big on history. haha. Our tour guide was really funny and exciting so he kinda kept my attention through the whole thing for the most part. Then after we went to get some awesome pizza and I bought 2 necklaces from a woman vending on the street. She said I look Italiana and I told her my recently gained knowledge of where my grandparents were from in Italy and she gave me a huge discount! That's how I roll. 

Sorry this took so long! I am going to try to update this more often so I don't feel so lazy to write everything out! Ciao! 

A tid bit about Almafi Coast

This isn't goin to be a full fledged blog post since I am posting from my phone, but I just wanted to update everyone on some recent activities!

This weekend we (me and a bunch of my friends) took a bus2alps trip to the Almafi Coast of Italy. The first day, Friday, consisted of taking a boat ride to the island of Capri and spending the entire day there. The views were AMAZING. Today, we went to Positano. I am still getting over the facts that A) I visited the place that a restaurant back home near me is named after and B) I jumped off a cliff into the Medditteranean (def spelled that wrong..) Tomorrow consists of a short visit to Pompei and then back to Florence. Let me just say this is probanly the best $345 ever spent! (thanks to grandma and papa for leaving me with travel money for this amazing experience)

More details and pictures coming soon! Just thought you guys would enjoy the update :)

Ciao!

Weekend Excursion: Pisa and Cinque Terre

So it's late, but I need to remember to keep this thing updated!
This is going to be short, sweet and to the point but a summary of my weekend none the less.

This weekend was one of API's excursions that is included in our program. We went to Pisa and Cinque Terre this weekend and they were both phenomenal. I will start with Pisa, which we visited first. We took a bus to Pisa and got a tour (that lasted a little too long.. so we ended up ditching and getting pizza, hah!) We got the obligatory picture next to the building itself as well.

Fun Fact: (One of the only facts I retained from the tour...) the leaning tower of Pisa was made by like 3 or 4 ..or 5? architects over a span of like 200 years (or something like that). Isn't that just cray? Yeah, it's cray.

ANYWAY.

Next we went to one of the nearby beaches where the free beach was literally a sliver of area compared to the gigantic mass that was the beach. Most of API was hangin in the water having fun. An italian man proceeds to get some American chicks by pulling 2 dead jellyfish out of the water. I, however, was not falling for this tactic. I did not want to get near those things, even if they were dead. And let's be real here folks, these were not some east coast jellies here. Let's just get an idea of what it looks like...

Yeah. 

SO moving on...

We leave the beach and head to the hotel close by, have a pretty decent dinner and then go into the town of Lucca. It is the cutest little thing you have ever seen in your life. There are pretty much no tourists which was so nice. All locals and it was just beautiful. The whole town is engulfed by walls that were built a really long time ago, and they've made the top of the walls into a park now where people can go and walk around. We wandered around the town from 9 until 11 at night and had a quite grand stroll.

Also, I got to ride an ostrich:

As you can see, I was pretty happy about that. 

The next day we explored the five lands, known as "Cinque Terre" (pronounced cheen-kway ter-ray) Make sure you roll them R's ! ;) We unfortunately landed quite a cloudy day but the scenery refused to be anything but breathtaking. We went on a hike, then proceeded to visit each (except for one) of the five lands via various means of transportation. One of the lands, we stopped to eat and got a lot of time to hang out. I saw my first Italian boy and just died right there, he was so beautiful. :P (oh yeah, the food was pretty good too)  

The boat ride ended the day as we strolled off, exhausted from our adventures of the weekend and proceeded to board the bus back home to Firenze.

Ciao for now :)

First day of classes!

So! I started my classes today. I had Intro to Classic Photography ( my film camera class ) which was a little long because it was mostly review. But it happens! I also had my Italian class as well. I learned how to introduce myself in Italian ! :)

Ciao! Io mi chiamo Kaitlin. Sono Americana di Connecticut. Abito a Firenze in Via de Ginori. Ho venti anni. Sono una estudentessa di graphic design.

WOO!

We also went to a fancy welcome dinner tonight at a beautiful hotel. I took a lovely picture with some of my room mates and fellow API students.