Sorrento, Pompei, Capri, Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre/ Vernazza(Round 2)

So on my way back towards to the South of France from Southern Italy I stopped again in Cinque Terre and spent 5 days relaxing and hiking in one of my favorite places in the world. As I have said before in my previous blog about being in the Cinque Terre, what you do their is nothing, just enjoy being there!

It was different to be there in the fall, instead of August. Although it was very pleasant during the day(75°) during the evenings it was chilly and you could not wear shorts, and there were alot less people which was nice.











Sorrento, Pompei, Capri, The Amalfi Coast

My next stop after Croatia was the Southern Italy

My home base for the 6 days I was in Southern Italy was the city of Sorrento. During most all of my travels in Europe, I have been using the website Hostelworld.com to book all of my hostels. For those of you who have never heard of this website, this website allows you to choose the country you are in along with the city you want to stay in and the dates and the website comes up with a list of Hostels that are available. The really cool thing about this website is that each hostel is rated by fellow travelers who have stayed at the hostel before. So you know if you are going to be staying in a dump or not! When I searched Hostelworld for Sorrento, this Hostel called 7 Hostel came up with a 97% rating, so naturally I decided to stayed there. This hostel was extremely fancy, the nicest I had stayed in by far. It just opened in June of 2008. Rumor has it, that the owner of the hostel has several 5 star resorts in Italy, and wanted to create a 5 star hostel... well I think he accomplished what he wanted to do!

During my time in Sorrento, I did day trips out to different areas around Sorrento.

My first day trip was to Pompei and Mount Vesuvius. Pompei was a Roman city that was destroyed 79AD by the erruption of Mt Vesuvius. Today the ruins of Pompei remain. In one of my pictures you can see the mold of a human( in the crouching position) that was barried during the erruption. Every time I see Roman ruins( particularly in Rome), I am always impressed on how advanced the Romans were for their time, and this was still the case for Pompei. After touring Pompei, I went on a tour up to Mt Vesuvius. The Bus took us almost all the way to the top, but we had to hike the last 1/2 mile. There were some fairly unfit people in the tour, and needless to say some made it to the top, and some didn't. From the top of Vesuvius you have a grand view looking over Naples, Sorrento, the Island of Capri, the Bay of Naples.

Capri

I got up early purposefully to avoid the large crowds on Capri, unfortunitly I was not sucessful in my mission. Apparently other people read Rick Steves' Italy book and there was already alot of people who had the same idea as me. Capri was the island where many Roman emporers went for holiday and has become known as a very posh place to go to for your holiday.

When I arrived on Capri, I headed straight for the Blue Grotto. Thankfully the water was calm, so the Grotto was open. From my pictures you can see the Grotto. I was told that the Grotto is blue due to the suns reflection on the bottom. It was really cool. The rest of Capri was very touristy and crowded. I took a single seat chair lift up to the top of the mountain. At the top, the view was amazing. You could see Sorrento to your left, and down the Amalfi Coast to your right. It was great to visit Capri, but I don't think it would be a place I would visit again.

The Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast consits of several different towns, the two largest being Positano and Amalfi. I visited each of these towns on two different day trips.

To be completely honest, I wasn't really impressed by either of them, but if I had to pick one, Positano was by far better than Amalfi. Although the views were amazing, they felt very touristy to me. I perfer the Cinque Terre. When I did my trip to Positano, I followed Rick Steves' advice and took the bus out and the boat back. I have never been on a more thrilling bus ride than the one from Sorrento to Positano. On one side you have a cliff, about a 800 ft drop down to the sea below, all the while vespas are passing you on the inside. The road is so narrow in some points, that there are police officers directing traffic so there are not accidents. At one point when we passed another tour bus, the buses had to fold in their mirors to be able to pass eachother.

Croatia

Hello Everyone!


So I know it is has been over a month since I blogged last, my apologies! But let me share a little bit about my time in Croatia!



For those of you who do not know where Croatia is, it is across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. It is a fairly small county which got its independence from Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Surprisingly for being such a new country, I found Croatia more developed than I expected. There were towns along the Dalmatia Coast, which did show signs of Communism, but many buildings looked fairly new and non-communist looking.

I arrived in Split Croatia from Rome on Croatian Airlines. I assumed that Split would have a big airport, but the airport was basically one building, not too fancy. I only spent a night in Split before heading out to Hvar Island in the morning. Split was alright, nothing to special, except for the old fort/ castle that is in the middle of the city, and the sulfur smell by the water front.








Hvar Island( pronounced Var) was my second stop in Croatia. I had heard from my friend Trevor, who was in Croatia earlier in the summer that I must stay at Lucas Place because it was really cool and alot of fun, so I did! Luca was really cool. He was born on Hvar and then immigrated to the U.S. Once Croatia gained its independence in the early 1990s he came back and opened his place. I guess it is a really famous place to stay at on Hvar, as there was a travel writer staying there for Outdoor Mag.

My time on Hvar was spent mostly relaxing, sitting on the beach and exploring around the town. Hvar is considered to be a party island, but since the summer was over, it was really quite at night.

Probably one of the most interesting meals that I have had on my trip was in Hvar town. I ate the equivalent to Croatian Tapas. It was really good, but very interesting. My meal was composed of stuffed peppers and eggplant, curred meat and bread that had some short of tomato sauce in it.






The highlight of my time in Croatia was sailing with the Nichols on their sailboat ' Loose Change'. Sailing the Dalmatia Coast was great! I met up with the Nichols (Carla and Dean) in Zadar, which is north of Split. I spent a couple days on their boat sailing. It was really nice to be with some people that I knew and also to have some great home cooked food(thank you Carla :) I even stayed in my own state room!

Sailing in Croatia reminded me of the San Juan Islands. There are many small islands along the Dalmatia coast, with many small bays. One night we ended up anchoring in a small sheltered bay. It was really cool, although Dean was worried about how much water we were anchored, but we ended up being just fine! I was amazed at how clear the water in Croatia, I have never seen anything like it before. It is cool because it allows you to see the sealife below you.

I was also surprised how many sail boats there are in Croatia. It is very popular for other Europeans to come to Croatia and rent a sail boat for a week. We saw many guys leaving Zadar Harbor, headed out for a guys week, loaded up with lots of food and beer. I also noticed that there was not very many super yachts in Croatia, just mainly sailboats, which was a nice change from what you see on the French Riviera. You will notice in my pictures that the Nichols fly an American Flag off the stearn of their sailboat. Since their sail boat is registered in the States (Edmonds in fact !) they are required by international law to fly the flag of the country thier vessel is registered in. I thought it was very cool to see an American Flag all the way in Croatia. I think some people were very surprised to see it as well, especially when we were going in and out of port.



When I left the Nichols, they sent me on the way with some JIF peanut butter. I have been dying my whole trip for a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, so it was really nice to get some. In fact the peanut butter is halfway gone now! I had such a great time with Carla and Dean, and being with them on Loose Change really made my trip in Croatia!

















Dubrovnik was my last stop in Croatia. Dubrovnik is located down in the southern corner of the country. You actually have to go through Bosnia, then enter back into Croatia to get to Dubrovnik!


Dubrovnik is a very cool town. It's old town is inside of an old walled fort which dates back to the 1500's. During Croatia's war with Yugoslavia in the early 1990's, the walled city provided a place for local residents to live and hide during the 8 month siege of the city. Today the only sign of the fighting is the new roofs on most of the buildings.


One evening I went out to the edge of the wall by the water and had a beer. It was literally on the rocks, just out side of the walls. Rick Steves claims that when Bill Gates visits Dubrovnik, he can be found there having a drink there. The ambiance was great along with the sun set! I highly recommend that everyone that visits Dubrovnik visit the Rock Bar 2.

On one of my days in Dubrovnik, I did a day trip to Montenagro. Montenagro was a very beautiful country, and reminded me a lot of Croatia. Unfortunately my camera battery decided to die before I could even take my first picture!

Visiting Croatia was a great experience. I truly enjoyed Croatia and hope everyone gets a chance to visit it someday!