18 August 2010

catch up part 3: kyle week part 1

All right, I promised you Kyle Week, and now you're going to get Kyle Week.

I took a night train to Rome on the Saturday after camp ended. A reserved seat in second class cost a little less than 40 euros, and a private bed cost 70, so I think you can guess what I went with. Now I can safely tell you, as you probably already know, that there are few experiences more miserable than trying to sleep upright, sitting at a ninety degree angle. Painful.

Anyway, I arrived in Rome and hailed a cab to the hostel (I didn't fancy walking even 15 minutes with my suitcase, pack, and purse). I guess when I told my cabbie to go to Cesare Balbo, he got mixed up and started driving towards Cesare Lollo or something instead, so after about 5 minutes he goes, "Oh miss I'm sorry, I was confused, but it's okay, I'll restart the meter, I'm so sorry, turning off meter now. . ." and I was going to be like, "Oh no, it's fine, I know I would get so lost if I had to drive through Rome. . . but then again, it isn't MY JOB." I didn't say that though.

Post-check in, I walked back to the train station and caught a train out to the airport (14 euro a ticket!) and found KYLE!!! Can you imagine someone being crazy enough to spend the money to fly out to Europe for only 5 days?! I know. BUT I am so glad he did. We took the train back into the city and got settled. He showed me all the things he'd brought from home and we exchanged stories and got caught up and all of that. And then. . . we went to the Colosseum.

For being in Europe for the first time, Kyle acted remarkably unfazed. I gave him a grand tour based on the hilarious things Josephine and Liam had said last year when we were there, and we took so many cheesy pictures. We even took pics with a guy dressed up as a gladiator (set us back 5 euros but I think it was worth it). Then we got dinner and I had him try real Italian pizza and a real calzone. Also caprese salad. Delish.

The next day, we got up early to pack so that we could head to the AMALFI COAST. We had reservations on a Frecciarossa (red arrow) train to Napoli, and then we had to get on the Circumvesuviana (definitely a downgrade from the Frecciarossa, which is air-conditioned, has electrical outlets so we could watch movies, and was, in this case, impeccably clean). At the end of that line, in Sorrento, we took a bus to Praiano. We had enough time between the train and the bus, however, to sample some gelato (Kyle's first!). I think we tried strawberry cheesecake, blueberry, vanilla, and something else. Anyway, Kyle loved it, but that's no surprise.

Okay, I'm taking up too much room in my hostel's kitchen, so I should leave this for now. But rest assured, I will tell you the rest of the adventure very, very soon.

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