We were brave now, and felt that we knew reasonably well how to get about. So we left our hotel, bags in tow, and headed to the bus station to catch the 64 to the train station. We had to go a little farther than we thought, but not very far at all, about a five-minute walk. The bus wasn't crowded, which was good, since we had all our stuff, and we got there without any issue at all.
Getting the tickets to Naples was also dead easy, and I do love the Freccia train lines - express train lines with booked seats, all fast and wonderful.
We were befriended on the tracks waiting for the train to Naples by a young couple (or possibly brother and sister) also heading that way, but to Pompeii. It was their first time travelling out of England, and for some reason, they latched onto me as if I knew where I was going. Suddenly, with a couple more chicks to shepherd, I really felt responsible to know what was what, so I stepped up the game, and assumed all kinds of confidence, which actually worked very well. I had done my reading and knew to go straight down the stairs to get tickets for the small train to Sorrento, and we all got settled nicely, telling small 8-10 year olds selling junk on the track to buzz off (they were REMARKABLY persistent and annoying).
The young couple got off a few stops ahead of us, and Caroline dozed off (as she always did on the train). The small train line was pretty scruffy, but I'd been warned and didn't really worry about it. No one hassled us, and I was able to stow my gear nicely under our seats, where I could keep an eye on it. A gentleman travelling partway down the line struggled to speak with us in his broken English and my broken Italian - good practice for us both!
We almost got on the wrong bus leaving the little train station in Sorrento, but sorted that out and got on the right one and to our resort fairly simply. The hotel was very pretty, and we were happily settled quite quickly, and even happier to hop on the hotel shuttle bus to get back into town, once unpacked, to explore. We didn't have a ton of time, because it was already mid-afternoon - we knew we wouldn't have a lot of day with our travel days, so we weren't disappointed. Sorrento quickly became rather stressful, but just at the moment, it was feeling very good. We were slightly awestruck to confirm that yes, the mountain that had been "following us" nearly all the way along the train tracks from Naples down to Sorrento was Vesuvius. I didn't think it could really have been anything else, but it was pretty cool.
The harbour at Sorrento. Very beautiful, with some swimming that looked fun in a beautifully clear set of shallows....
There's Vesuvius, way off in the background!
Gotta have the girl with Vesuvius, of course. We have many that ended up much better, but this was a start.
We have so few pictures together before we met up with Cheryl....usually scruffy selfies. We took SO many pictures of other people, but they rarely offer to take them in exchange.
She was feeling very happy as we settled in to eat. At this point, I was trying to bury some pretty severe stress, because a bank machine had just failed to give me any money, but appeared to have processed the transaction (it had, and it took me nearly two weeks to get it back...and I couldn't get any more out, because I had already taken out my daily maximum....so I was feeling anxious and thrown, and couldn't make any calls out on my cell, and so...
But the girl was happy, and that's good....
I think she really enjoyed the dinner we ordered. We got scammed - my own fault...we looked at the menu and everything was nicely affordable, and I was feeling all flustered about the bank machine and didn't ask when the waiter was describing the specials, and didn't ask how much they were. So instead of paying the perfectly reasonable 8-12 euros that almost everything else was, we ordered specials that were both well over 30....so frustrating. Caroline said hers was really good. Mine was not bad - the sea bass was pretty good - but the lemon sauce was too bitter. I was fascinated watching him cut it for me at the table, though. It could have been worse, it's just that with the bank machine acting up and then being taken for a dinner that was WAY more money than I had intended to pay....I was feeling a bit negative about my short time in Sorrento already.
After dinner, we went back down to the harbour to look around, and it was pretty...but there wasn't a lot going on. Lots of street life, but all shopping, and nothing very interesting. I couldn't quite get into it. I was still too tense, and I wasn't liking the feel of the place very much.
We were both tired, and we went ahead home, deciding that tomorrow would be a fresh start, hopefully seeing The Blue Grotto on the island of Capri.
No comments:
Post a Comment