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Capri

4 September

The first place we were excited to go to was Capri which is an island located a short ferry ride aware from Naples, Italy. We got into port at 8:00 AM and we made our way to the ticket counter to get tickets to Capri which was about a 5 minute walk from our boat through the hoards of cab drivers. Once we finally figured out which line to get in Christie got in line and I decided to stand back since people were crowding the area in anticipation of the window opening. Once they started selling tickets people were trying to cut but Christie was dropping elbows on them to keep her spot. When she was second in line the guy in front of her was taking his sweet time so the ticket agent helped Christie while the guy in front got his act together.

We had about 20 minutes until our ferry started boarding so we found a bench (in the shade of course) to sit on. While waiting a lady came around begging for change and went away empty handed and went back to talking to her friends. We are pretty sure she had a ticket for the ferry but was asking for money anyway. Crazy Spanish people. The ferry ride was quite uneventful, which is a good thing, and we got to Capri in one piece (each). We wanted to make sure we could get home so we found the counter to get return tickets and took care of that so we wouldn’t be stranded on a beautiful island with fantastic food because that would have been terrible.

We decided to take a boat tour around the island to take in all of the sights. The boat traveled much slower than I would have liked but it was very pretty. We saw the grotto’s that they had but would couldn’t swim in the famed Blue Grotto because the tide was too high. The skill of the boat driver was very impressive as he was able to navigate the boat into and out of caves without being able to turn around and he never hit the rocks either. When we got back we walked past a girl who apparently lost a major argument with her stomach.

After finishing the tour we rode a cable car up into Capri Town and found a nice little cafe and ordered some lunch. I am still amazed at the quality of food in Italy. We ate at some of the most random places and the food was amazing. After lunch we rode the bus to Anacapri which is a separate town much higher on the island. The bus is made to handle about 20 people but they manage to squeeze, oh, I don’t know and I’m not very good with numbers but, about 86 people in there with all but 6 standing up. This also isn’t a very gentle ride as the road hugs the cliffs and that doesn’t phase the driver one bit. I’m not talking Colorado scary, I’m talking Mt. Kilimanjaro scary. I wanted to take a picture to demonstrate this point but I couldn’t spare a hand because one was holding me up and the other was holding my wallet.

We got to the town and walked around looking for a chair lift that would take us to the very top of the island so we could get a 360 degree view. The book Christie has said to walk down through  the town but that wasn’t right. Maybe we got off at the wrong stop or something but we could see the lift going up and we were walking down. We decided to through caution to the wind and walk in the direction that the chair lift should be located. Low and behold we found the chairlift exactly where logic would say it should be and we got on. The ride up was awesome. Every time I thought the view was amazing I would look back and it was better (see pics below). The chairs actually go over a lot of backyards and I found this little gem.

The top was amazing and the pictures will prove it. I didn’t realize how hazy it could be in the middle of the Mediterranean but the water was an awesome blue and yes, that is my favorite color. We planned on hiking down (well, Christie did at least) but unfortunately (not) we didn’t have enough time. We went to the bus stop and hopped back on the bus of doom to get back to Capri Town. When we saw the line for the ride down in the cable car we decided to try our luck again in the bus.

When we loaded the bus we got about 30 people in there and the bus driver was telling people to move back so more people could get on. I was already in the back and expecting to be packed in like sardines when the guy right in front of me blows up. He starts yelling at the bus driver and has his hand in the air touching all 5 fingers together like a stereotypical Italian would in an argument. Well, this was exactly like I imagined an Italian argument would be. The guy and the bus driver were both yelling at the same time making the same hand gesture and I had to do everything I could to not laugh. The last thing I wanted to do was anger and Italian guy making funny hand gestures; people have died for less than that.

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