Wednesday, November 25, 2015

A sign of the times ahead...

I am glad Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  For one, there's so much turmoil going on in the news.  I just want to hangout with my mom and hope she will be ok.  My mom lost her husband earlier in the year and I know lately she's been more emotional due to the holidays arriving.  It won't be easy for her, but I want her to know that me and my brothers will take care of her the best that we could.  As far as the state of the world, it's heartbreaking there's been more terror attacks since Paris less than 2 weeks ago.  I am saddened that there seems no resolution in the near future.  And now, as far as Chicago is concerned, our local news has spread throughout the country with the release of the dash cam video involving Laquan McDonald.  Our city was on high alert for possible rioting last night.  The mood here has completely changed.  It's impossible to look forward to the holidays when there's so much tension in the air.
What a difference a few months makes.  I wonder now if traveling will ever be the same for me.  Especially when I try my best to adjust to my surroundings.  I am learning so much from other people from different parts of the world.  I pray that we can have a peaceful holiday tomorrow with friends and family.  Love can conquer all if we try harder with one another.  I believe this!
Back to recapping my trip to Italy.  We checked out in the morning after we had a fulfilling breakfast at our wonderful hotel.  We asked if we leave the car there with our luggage and they were fine with it.  See?  It doesn't hurt to ask!  We found the spot where we could take the ferry out to Capri.  A word of advice.  We should have bought tickets the day before when we first arrived in Sorrento.  We didn't and now we were standing in line worrying if we were able to get on the next boat ride out.  Luckily we got on and were excited to checkout the island of Capri!
First of all, I am nervous about boats.  I will say that it was a 20 minute ride and I  don't feel much movement (yay!).  We landed and knew we were restricted with time.  We had to catch the 4pm ferry ride out.  Unfortunately the 6pm was not available today.  With no explanation why, we had no choice.  We did a quick walk through of Capri.  For me it was the most pretentious place we've visited here in Italy.  I'm also embarrassed to say I also saw many Americans and they were not the nice ones either.  Lots of Paris Hilton/ Brandon Davis types.  Rich and spoiled.  Capri is catered to celebrities as well, so there is a lot of people watching going on( with each other).  At one point I felt everyone on the island was sizing each other up.  There was a Italian actor walking around but when people came up to him to ask for his autograph he shooed them away and ran off.  Oh well. 
After a while we figured there must be something else we could do here on Capri.  We couldn't go shopping for everything here was high end, such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton.  My friend also had a bad feeling about the restaurants here fearing we could be stuck with another tourist trap.  We decided to hold off on lunch and headed to find the Grotto Azura (Blue Grotto).  That itself was an ordeal.  It was getting close to 1pm and we figured we could squeeze this in.  We had to take 2 buses to get to this place, not to mention we still had to WAIT for these buses to take off.  We killed over an hour to do that.  Once we arrived we had to scrounge up some cash since they didn't take any credit cards.  We waited for about 20 minutes in line.  We were pressing for time, but we figured we already went through all the trouble to get there.  I would advise to knock this off FIRST then walk around.  But what can you do? 
When we FINALLY got on our little row boat, I was nervous as usual, but felt that I would be safe since there were a lot of people around.  We huddled together so we could fit in this little cave opening and there we were!  The Grotto Azura!  The water was an electric blue!  People were paying extra just so they can jump in the water!  It was magnetic and definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life.  I was enlightened! 
Now it's time to head back down to catch a ferry.  That part sucked.  First, you can't just jump in any cab.  You have to call an order one.  We did that, and luckily waited only 15 minutes.  But the ride down was about 20 minutes and it cost us 50 euros.  OUCH!  We were practically running down the dock to catch our ferry.  Lots of anxiety but we made it.  Once we landed in Sorrento, we had some dinner before driving back home. 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I'll resume blogging on Friday.  Be safe and love one another!   
Breakfast in Sorrento!  I bought my dress there the day before for 20 euros.
Our ferry boat to Capri!
Waiting to get in the Blue Grotto...
Making our way down there.  See that small opening?  We had to squeeze through with our row boat...
Here we go!
It's beautiful inside!!  
Peace out!!  I had a blast!  

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Thanksgiving is right around the corner...

It's Tuesday here in the present and it is a short work week for me.  I am excited about being off but at the same time, I know my mom is hurting because she is missing her husband dearly.  He passed away earlier in February, and last year for the holidays he was still with us.  I feel so much has happened this past year.  It's hard for me to recap events 2 months ago.  I go back and forth in my mind making sure I don't get things mixed up. 
Back to recapping my trip in Italy, me and my friend left out early to head to Sorrento.  From Napoli it was about a 30 minute drive, and what a difference that makes!  Since we were driving on a mountain side, it could get hectic up there with the narrow roads and moped's passing you up.  My friend was determined to stay in Sorrento besides anywhere else in the Amalfi Coast because it wasn't so expensive.  She made the right choice since I did end up falling in love with our hotel.  We parked nearby and decided to walk around the central to look for a hotel.  We were getting hungry again since we had a light breakfast earlier.  We stopped dead in our tracks when we found a café serving gelato.  It was delish!!  Double scoops of heaven!  That held off our hunger for a while.  We sat outside a restaurant and ordered some coffee to wake us up a bit.  We used their wifi to look for hotels nearby.  The price point jumped high in Sorrento, so I kept that in mind since we're now in a tourist attraction locale.  We opted for the Grand Hotel Europa Palace, by the cliff side.  I LOVED IT!!  It was so beautiful and scenic!  We couldn't stop taking pictures. 
On our way to Sorrento!  Took pictures on the side of the road.  Too pretty!

In Sorrento having some gelato!  Definitely one of the best I've had in Italy!
Overlooking il centro in Sorrento...
Lemons galore!

Our view at the Grand Hotel Europa! 
I enjoyed our stay at the Grand Hotel Europa.  Friendly staff and were very helpful...

We checked in and tried to figure out our next move.  We were only planning to stay one night, so we wanted to take advantage of all the amenities.  At the same time, we were restricted with time.  We decided to go down below and get some sun action.  We were not going to lay out too long.  We wanted to head to Positano and have lunch.  Positano is small so we figured we'll spend a couple of hours there. 
Once we freshened up we headed back out for our drive.  Now a word to the wise.  Driving to Positano is not for the faint of heart.  There were many twists and turns heading down there.  My friend had anxiety by the time we finally parked.  Unfortunately, since she is the only one who drives stick, she did all the driving.  I felt bad that I couldn't help out. 
We did a quick walk through of Positano.  My friend was still pretty anxious, so we decided to finally have something to eat.  We decided to keep it light since my friend didn't want to stay there long.  She wanted to head back to Sorrento before it got dark.  She noticed there weren't any lights on that crazy road, and we didn't want to stuck overnight and getting another room to sleep in.   
We stopped at a restaurant and quickly ordered some wine.  The man who ran the restaurant came by and chatted with us for a bit.  I love hearing his perspective on life in general.  He was in his 60s, but apparently he's lived in Positano practically all of his life!!  I can't imagine!  It's such a small town.  I'm surprised he never branched out somewhere else.  Regardless, Positano is beautiful, so I can see why he stayed.  
Positano is magic!!


A glass of wine to help ease the tension from that drive!
We had a glass of the Furore Rosso.  It was delish!

Window shopping in Positano!

Found a perfect place to take more pictures!  We had to head out since it was getting dark. 

We made it to Sorrento to catch the sunset from our hotel.  My friend didn't want to risk driving on that road in the dark.

We did some light window shopping and headed back to Sorrento.  Since we had some light bites earlier, we wanted to treat ourselves to a BIG dinner!  We freshened up again (it was HOT in Italy) and headed back out in the town.  With the recommendation of the front deskman, we settled for a sea food restaurant nearby.  A mini bus picked us up and we arrived shortly.  My friend got discouraged because she wanted an authentic Italian dinner.  She felt we got stuck in another tourist trap.  I feel that Sorrento in general is catered to tourists anyway, and doubted we would have been able to find that type of restaurant.  It is what it is. 
After dinner we walked around to find some nightlife action.  We heard some loud music in the background and tried to find out where it was.  It turns out it was a wedding taking place in a hotel.  A woman was screaming from the outside to shut the party down because she couldn't sleep.  Good luck with that one!  Italian weddings could last til dawn!
It was after midnight and we headed back to our hotel.  Check out was at 11am, so we wanted to take advantage of the breakfast before we left.  It was an exhausting day but well worth it!    

Monday, November 23, 2015

Monday Motivation...

The holidays are upon us and I'm already losing track of time.  I've put up my Christmas stuff over the weekend since we had a mini blizzard.  We're now in the end of November and the next couple of weeks are going to get hectic.  I'm trying my best to finish up blogging about Italy.  I left off that me and my friend were beginning to get into tense situations.  We decided to go out of town and head to Napoli to stay with some friends of hers.  It is now Monday and I still had a week left to make the most of my trip. 
Napoli was a pretty long drive.  Our first destination was to head to Pompeii and check out the ruins.  My friend warned me that there's so much to see and we would spend a couple of hours there alone.  We stopped at Avelino early into our drive for some gelato.  I'm seriously missing some right now!!  It was a hot day as usual, and that was the perfect treat. 
I AM lactose intolerant, but I never had a problem having gelato in Italy!

We got to Pompeii around 3pm.  We found the ruins right away, but the town in general was breathtaking!  I'm surprised how preserved and well kept everything was!  It was if we had stepped into a time machine.  We checked out how they lived back then, as well as the local market.  I learned so much that day! 
We were getting tired.  The sun was really beating down on us that day.  We knew we still had a drive to get to Napoli.  My friend did not want to get there so late.  
Haunting images from the ruins of Pompeii

I fear these people suffered as you can see how they tried to take cover. 

They had no time to escape the volcano's devastation...

Peaking out into a typical apartment in Pompeii...

There is a winery here as well...

So beautiful! 


I wore a maxi dress that day, but it was very hot regardless...
Painted murals...



Checking out the local market...
Add caption



The ruins of Pompeii!


Taking a little rest before I continued on.  We could have spent hours here but we were on a tight schedule...
A brick oven!

A beautiful fountain!

We arrived around 7pm and parked the car to take a quick passagiata around la central.  We wanted to check it out before the sun went down.  My friend did not feel safe around there, but I think it had to do more with the quantity of people there.  It's huge, almost like New York.  There's people everywhere.  It was overwhelming.  We picked up some desserts for later on and headed to her friend's place.  But that alone took another 2 hours just to drive to her house!  The traffic was horrendous.  So many people around, plus we got lost too.  We were starving and tired.  When we finally arrived it was 9pm.  Luckily they had dinner waiting for us.  We finally turned in after 11pm, but there was so much noise coming from the outside.  A group of teenagers were at the corner of the street and would not stop yapping.  I'm assuming people tune them out, but it was hard for us to sleep.  My friend closed the windows to block out the noise, but as the night went on, we both tossed and turned because the room got hot.  She eventually opened the windows around 3am but before you know it, it was time to get up.  It was 8am and we had to leave out with her friend.  We quickly got dressed and headed off to our next adventure.  Too bad Napoli left us tired and groggy...
Checking out the madness of Napoli...

So many people all over...


Tomorrow we are heading here to the Amalfi  Coast!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

A Saturday Night Dinner Party...

Since my friend got drunk at the BIG PARTY, she had a terrible hangover the next day.  I was tired myself from being out all night.  We bummed around the house til we started to feel better.  That wasn't into later in the afternoon, around 5pm.  My friend wanted to keep it low key that night, so she suggested cooking a big dinner.  She invited some friends to come by, and they all agreed!  It was a nice change of pace from the night before.  She made some eggplant parmesan which was delish.  Since she knew I'm not a cook at all, she had me prepare some of it so I could learn.  I hope mine turns out as well as hers!  Everyone loved it!  We stayed up past midnight talking and had a lot of laughs.  As awkward as it sounds, sometimes things do get lost in translation, and it comes out funny if anything.  At this point, I can understand Italian about 50% of the time, compared to nothing at all when I visited last year.  I've been taking up lessons on my own, but I need to be consistent.  I want to keep learning so the next time I come I can be more fluent.  The part that's hard for me is to speak it back to someone.  I'm hopeful that I will be able to learn this language without sounding bad.  The next day we had some good sleep and decided to drive to a nearby town, Matera.  This town was one of the locations where the Passion of Christ was filmed, and I can understand why!  Everything looks preserved from the biblical times.  Beautiful stone homes and scenic views.  I felt closer to God there.  It was scorching that day too!  We walked a lot and decided to squeeze in another town nearby before we headed back home.  We drove to Altamura and did some window shopping.  It was an awkward day in general, for me and my friend started to argue about stuff.  It's hard when no one is wrong.  As any relationship goes, there comes a time when no one is right.  Looking back, I'm glad we put this behind us.  I love her too much to argue over something that is beyond our control... 
We ended up passing by Bari before we drove into town.  Since Bari is a metropolitan town, we checked out the Mac Store for some makeup.  My friend cannot find this stuff in her town.  She has to make a trip out here in order to get her products.  We made up that night.  We decided to checkout Napoli the next day.  We needed some more adventure for our trip!
The dinner table is ready for the evening!











Adding the layers to our eggplant parmesan...



Beautiful Matera!

An attempted selfie.  At this point you can see the tension in my face...

Sassi di Matera

No pics allowed but I did sneak this one in...

Window shopping in Altamura...

The central church in Altamura...

An evening in Bari made everything better...

Monday, November 16, 2015

Pray For Paris...Pray For LOVE!

It's hard for me to watch the news since the terrorism attacks on Paris.  I think about the people I interacted with during my time there.  I pray that they are safe.  I'm also mourning the loss of the victims involved and everyone else affected in this senseless tragedy.  The French are tough.  There's no doubt about it!  I'm saddened by the state of our nation; the state of our world.  So much suffering in all walks of life.  I don't know whose right or wrong anymore.  All I know is that innocent people are trapped in the middle and they are the ones who are dying everyday in a war that we have no control over.  How do we win?  How can we live on this earth when so many people are angry at one another?  My heart breaks.  I can't help but pray for peace over and over again. 
I haven't gotten a chance to talk to my friend in Italy.  To be quite honest, she did not want to meet me in Paris.  She was afraid something was going to happen.  We argued about it for weeks til I finally gave up trying to convince her.  I went alone.  I thought she was over reacting.  Never in a million years did I think the unthinkable.  I felt confident I'll be fine.
I WAS fine in the end.  But I feel I missed a close call.  Living in Chicago all my life, we've had our share of threats.  I feel immune to the news.  Our local crime makes national headlines.  It's a tough city to live in.  I've become jaded to our way of living here.
I am grateful I've had the experience to get to know Paris.  And I will return one day.  Now that we are in high alert, it's something to think about in the future as far as traveling is concerned.  It's time to lay low with friends and family and wait it out.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Back to recapping my trip to Italy, me and my friend headed back to town after Monte Sant 'Angelo to get ready for the BIG PARTY.  It's the last party for the winery til next year, so we needed to make an appearance.  I wore the same racerback midi dress I wore for my birthday, except in red.  I loved the fit and wanted to buy another color, especially since it was a steal.  I love forever 21.  Sometimes you can find great pieces SUPER CHEAP!  I take care of my stuff so I can make it last a bit. 
We arrived at the party around 9pm.  People were barely making their way there.  We found our table and decided to start drinking.  I didn't want to get too crazy because I wanted to stay out late.  It's Friday night for pete's sake!
Luckily we got some food as well, as the wine started to make us giggly.  I missed my friend so much.  We laugh about anything.  She was happy for a change.  It's been hard for her to make friends out there.  I completely understand.  Americans and Italians are so different.  She feels they don't understand her.  Not to mention she's been the one adapting to their lifestyle.  It's hard living in a world that's not your own.
The band came on, but unfortunately, they played a lot of slow songs.  I think people were hoping they would liven things up a bit, but that was not the case.  It wasn't what they were expecting.  Me and my friend on the other hand were drinking too much to notice. 
Once the band finished, the party was dwindling down.  Me and my friend tried to mingle but that's when we realized she was pretty drunk.  Some friends were going out to a club, but she passed on the idea.  She did however, encourage me to go along, since she knew she wanted me to have fun out there.  I went and I had a blast.  I danced outside in a club playing house music!  I was so happy!  I felt good and I needed this desperately.  It wasn't the same experience as going out on my own in Paris.  That was more for my curiosity.  But here I was, dancing and mingling with strangers!  I felt alive!
I got home late that night.  I knocked out hard.  Looking back, I can definitely say I had one of the best times of my life that night.  As you get older, you realize it doesn't happen very often.  And now, in this state of terrorism,. I can't help but think if something were to happen, I've lived a great life.  It's sad to have to think in those terms of living everyday to its fullest.  You never know when it might be over. 
Love my dress although it's not forgiving...

Our table with some friends!  They were nice...

I miss her a lot.  She's tough on me but I need it sometimes...

All smiles at the big party!

A night to remember...