Here's the latest of typing from the train. So I left off after a lunch at luigis I believe. We dined on our snacks and then back to the room for a pit stop. We ran into rebecca and clem aj and clems girlfriend from poland- monika. They had spent the afternoon on the beach and were just walking in. We told them we would be back for a late drink after we went to amalfi and andrea.
We sat and talked more with rebecca about music and life and just the regular girl talk we all enjoy. Men-specifically italians currently do come in beautiful packages. With only one full day in each stop of the trip we have to keep moving all the time to fit everything in. We grabbed our bags and back over the hill to the paper muse.
This was facisinating. Amalfi was one of the biggest paper producers in the world at one time. Of the 60 paper mills open amalfi had 18 of them. I will say feeling the texture of their paper makes you believe this was the best. My favorite was in a corner sat their original coffee pot from the mill. And not much has changed. Its a little pressed coffee maker.
We left the mill and thanked the cureator for tour. On to shop for postcards and maybe stamps. Oh and maybe some gelatto too.
With cards mailed and gelatto in hand (I hade coffee jess coconut and banana) jess ordered a large cone and if you had seen the look on the ladies face you would have laughed. I get the feeling its only boys who indulge with that size cone.
Ah well back to atraini and over the hill before an evening of vino.
Back at the hostel we get dressed in less smelly clothes for the evening, brush our hair and add an extra swipe of deoderant for good measure...... And walk back over the hill to amalfi. This was a day we were going to hike to the next small town but walking between the 2 was enough!
It was 902 and we strolled towards the church steps. Before we even reached them there was andrea all dressed and looking sharp. Ciao ciao to us and he showed us over to the local restaurant where people were closely watching the milan soccer game on tv. Andrea got wine for us and explained his friend marco is a liar and he did not show up. His loss. We sat and talked with andrea and learned about his life. He was a man who love the big citys and wants to be out in the world but sick parents meant he had to return to care for them. I think he must long for visitors to connect him to the outside word he misses so much. I too would become lost in his position. Don't get me wrong these towns are great for a day or a week maybe even a month but they are so small this is all there is. We sat til about 11 and then farewell as jesse was falling asleep. Don't forget we had our mile treck back to the town we are staying. I hope andrea enjoyed the evening as I did learning a bit about him.
The walk back was bitter cold. Being that close to the ocean has its perks- the beach- and downsides - the coastal winds. We made it to the town square in atrani and were greeted by luigi and our rag tag gang of traveler friends. Instant we join them and tell of our wine in amalfi we pull up seats and join in. We discussed everything from politics to vino to luigis green jacket and what everyone at the tables story was. Ohh I almost forgot to mention duke.
While hiking in the hills of a neighboring town the day before aj came across a dog. He looked hungry and starved for attention so aj obliged on both counts. The dog now named duke per aj followed him through the hills until he reached the end if his trail. Aj shooed duke away and off into the town he went and aj returned to amalfi. The next day while playing with clem and monica on the beach who shows up and runs up to aj????? Duke. So he left his town and came after aj!! For the rest of the afternoon and evening duke hung out with us all. A permenant guard for us. Luigi has a no dogs in the restaurant rule but duke follows no rules. when luigis head was turned at one point duke walked into the bar under our table and sat down by aj. We had barely noticed and it was not til almost 2am that luigi would notice either.
5 bottles and 5 hrs later it was 4am and even luigi looked tired. We paid and took one group picture and headed to our rooms. Dragging behind us was duke who I'm sure thought he would have anitherr cold night in the streets. Clem monika and aj who's rooms were down the hall from us waited outside and tooks their coats and covered duke and snuck him into our hotel. He stayed quiet as a mouse the whole time. Well what I should say is duke was quiet. Aj and clem made so much noise the english woman on the first floor came out yelling.... She was not happy to be awake. It was going to be a brutally early morning for us as well.
Up at 7 the eat and check out and hike to the bus stop. Thanks to some good sdvice from andrea we had a shorter but more senic drive to the train station in solarno. Hopped the train and away we went onto florence. Of the train rides just make me feel like I'm waisting time. Instead of romaing around the city absorbing it all. Next trip will be different. So onto florence. The train ride included sitting in the wrong spot 2xs and getting yelled at my the ticket taker. What can I say I was tired and forgot to date my euro rail. Hello did she not understand I was up til 4am with a bunch of people drinking wine!!!!
Aahhh well. We finally made it to florence around 5. Yes all day on trains and buses. And now in florence we had to find the hostel. With megar directions we hop on the bus. The WRONG bus. Two stops later in the wrong direction with our packs on our backs and we wander around for anouther 1/2 hour until in rush hour bus traffic we get it right. Nothing more fun than being sweaty from a day of schlepping and the be squashed into a bus with other sweaty unhappy people.
We reach our stop and a sweet lady points to me and then to the hostel sign. Excellent!! There it is. Well almost. Now its about 7 and did I mention since we arrived in the afternoon its been raining. So we pass through the entrance and see a mile long winding road in the rainy dark night in a forest leading to what could be our hostel or a serial killer in the bushes. Jessica already thinks I walk too fast and now she knows I can go even faster. Soaking wet we round the bend and there is a house enrance straight out of the sound of music. Seriously. All brightly yellow and light up in this dark rainy night. Good thing the outside was cheery because the man at the desk was much more adams family lurch that happy bell hop. Sigh. Our keys our sheets and our bed number are thrust into our hands. Now only 2 more flights of stairs and ill be able to unload this pack. If my cardio ability has not increased greatly from lugging this pack around I don't know what will.
Into the room-
We are again in a sparce ymca style room with 10 beds. It smells like hippie. Really. Pacholie is everywhere. I fling open the balcony door to releave it a bit but only briefly because its freezzing cold out side. We dump our stuff and make our beds and decide to head out for a bit in the town maybe find some dinner.
Walk back down the hill a mile to the bus and we headed to the duomo in the center of town. Since things are closed on mondays anyway we took pics of the outside kniwing we would be back the next day for more. We llooked at the high priced eateries open and opted for a smaller selfserve type place. Big mistake. We should have chosen mcdonalds instead. Not even heated all the way though the food was medecore and bland. And they never offer veggies or salads here. Its pizza pasta and sandwich and that's all. I need vegetables!!! if I'm in the center of italy you must do better than bland and give me a side salad or a pepper or somerthing.. At least we finally had something to eat.
With rain coming down harder now we ran for the bus and headed back. Ugh....the mile to the hostel. If you thought we walked fast with the bags on our back you should have seen us with out them in the pitch dark. Once back in the safety of lurches conclave of hostelers we decided we should do laundry. I've worn my clothed so many days they may escape on their own. And so we grab the piles pay 6 for the was and dry (6 I know but I needed clean clothes!!). And headed downstairs out the kitchen doors aroubd the back of the hostel house in the dark down a long path marked it show you laundry this way to a stone basement hallway 100 yrd long and with a weird light switch. If we felt unsafe in the forest now we felt worse. We shoved the clothes in hit start and ran back to the warm safe hostel. For 35 minutes until we went back to dry. I got the better washer and dryer by chance. My clothes were almost dry from the crazy spin cycle and the dry was on fire. Jessies was wet clother in a warm dryer meaning when all was finished she layed out her cothes to dry in th room. Oh well you win some you lose some.
We prepped for bed and got to know some of our bunkmates. The aussie who's traveling around just hitting the "reset" button so to speak. She's a weathered 45-50 and tough as nails. She's spent the last few weeks going around the northern part of italy.
We also met snadra from sweden. He english was very good and puncuated with pop culture words like yeah and ahh cool! She also gave me new slang to use to describe some of our fellow travelers multi-culti. She's taking time to travel before going back to school to do childrens phys therapy. She is a hoot!!
Well it was time for bed and with clean clothes and bags put away it was time to sleep for tomorrow would be another early morning of museums and walking.
Onto the tales of florence and my hunt for veggies in the next email.
Ciao hrh zp!
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