Day 18

Last night I went to bed early because I wasn't feeling well and when I woke up I felt like I had a fever, joints hurt and some head pressure.  Not a great day to be feeling bad, considering the plan for today was to go boating from 9-4.  Even worse we had to climb down even more stairs than normal(around 650) to get down to the place where the boat took off.  It was raining and anyone that has ever been on the water during a rainstorm knows it is like little pellets hitting you at high speed.

Oh well, no sense in turning back on something like that, just need to keep my head down and ride it out.  Man am I glad I kept that attitude.

We had a covered boat, which was very nice for me because I could go underneath and still was cold.  To not bore everyone with me being sick: one of the girls gave me some advil and after awhile my fever went away and I started feeling 100x better.

This is a beautiful picture of leaving port on a rainy morning in Positano.

 The boat driver had obviously been through the area many many times before, and knew where to take us to show us the best sites.  Here is a cave that we could swim through and he would pick us up on the other side if we felt like it.

It is really hard to describe how gorgeous the water is, so I will just let you enjoy the picture.

Our boat was large and fit the 12 of us and 4 other people.  The neat thing though was that they only rode with us until we got to Capri, which means we had the boat driver for the rest to do whatever we wanted.

Here is another beautiful rock formation that you could drive your small boat through.  It is weird, but these rock structures literally rise right out of the ocean.  That means that the water right next to these rocks could be anywhere between 20-50 feet deep.  That will play out importantly in a few minutes...

Just another beautiful view of us leaving the caves.

A view of the lighthouse as we approach the tourist island of Capri.  There was no bridge to Capri, just ferrys and quite an active port and town.  Very pretty and is not a dirty place at all.  Many many stores and taxis.  As a matter of a fact in the middle of the city is a whole row of stores with high-end luxury stores that everyone knows.  Louis Vutton, Prada, etc.

Spent around an hour and a half in Capri(mostly eating under an umbrella) before returning back.  The rain had finally stopped as we were leaving and I was feeling so much better than earlier.  What does that mean?

That means cliff diving.  I am the last on the right. Checking exactly what I am getting myself into... It was not easy getting up there, many people got cut up on the coral and were bleeding pretty bad. It is a pretty good 18-25 ft drop into the water.  Though about doing my backflip into water or something cool, but I could easily screw that up and end up going around too many times and landing on my back.  There is a picture out there of me jumping, just waiting for one of the girls who took it to put it up on facebook for me to steal it.


Made our way back after this because one of the kids on board got seasick really bad and thankfully we were pretty close to port.  This wrapped up our time in Positano. It was time to attempt to head back to take a bus to Sorrento, a commuter train from there to Naples, then a real train to Rome.  Shouldn't be a problem, we planned this with plenty of time....did I mention how much I hate Italian public transportation?

Our bus ended up showing up 25 minutes late, that's okay we still have plenty of time.  Turns out as we are getting into Sorrento, a popular soccer team was being escorted by police through, stopping traffic for around 30 minutes.  As soon as we got to the bus stop we made a mad sprint to the train station and were happy to see our train still there.  But we still needed to buy our tickets just to be able to get through the gates.  Of course some idiotic American was arguing over the 4 Euro train ticket in front of us and we watched as the train left without us.  Which meant that we would have to wait another hour for the next one, which wouldn't be a problem if we didnt already purchase expensive tickets out of Naples on a real train for the very last train of the day. Wow I have never wanted to hit somebody as hard as right then.

Waited an hour and I literally knocked people out of my way attempting to get onto the train as the others followed as we hoped that we could make it back to Naples in time for our train.  It was a 30 stop mini train, although it would only be at some stops for less than 15 seconds.  6 stops to go...and it was already too late.  We called our roomate in Rome and had him jump on the internet, one train left.  The high-speed railroad out of Naples 9:30 PM, 15 minutes later.  Otherwise we would have to wait in the ghetto train station and my most hated place-Naples- until 4:45 AM the next morning.  All we had to do is rush off and go try and book tickets on the bullet train.  I was not getting stuck in Naples.

Sprinted off the train and ran to book tickets...only to find no tickets available.  "I am NOT getting stuck in Naples", I kept telling myself.  All options looked spent.  Well...not all options.  I could stowaway on the bullet train and just hide in the bathroom for the two hour train ride.  Well, that's what I will do.  While jumping on, we stopped to talk to a lady that checks tickets on the train, and although she spoke broken English, she seemed to indicate we could jump on and stand and just pay a fine. Not sure what kind of fine, but I am getting on.

She comes by halfway through the train ride and I notice her talking to an Italian that seemed not to have a ticket in front of us.  I looked at the charge, 86 Euro!!! We only payed 12 Euro for our original train tickets, I dont even have that much on me!!! Ughh, maybe I should run to the bathroom and hide still.  She got to us and remembered us, I showed her my original ticket and asked for the damage.  Turns out because I had an original ticket and just missed my train, it was only 22 Euro.  What a relief!!

We speed through the countryside under the cover of night at almost 175 mph, but thank goodness I am out of Naples and on my way back to my Rome home.  We arrive after two and a half hours, all relieved(although one did lose his ticket and did hide in the bathroom the whole time).  Back in Rome!  A few of us were so happy we went straight to the McDonald's across the street and bought Big Mac's.  Took a taxi home from there.

Well that was the trip, more of a story towards the latter half of today, but one hell of an experience.  No love here for Naples.  Sorrento was a pretty place.  Pompeii was incredibly historic.  Words cannot describe the beauty of Positano, I swore to myself that I would go back to it sometime in my life.  Great trip.  Thanks all for reading, and as always check out facebook for more pictures of us boating and the waters in Positano.