Q: Are these europe posts ever gonna finish?
A: Erm, yeah, very soon!!! This is the last day already!
Yeah, so let me give you a brief recap. We're still along the Amalfi Coast and have just left Amalfi town. It's already 5pm, but thankfully the days are long in the summer, so we still have time to check out Ravello. It's on the top of some hilly area so we have to drive up a little.
We were surprised to see a traffic light in the middle of one of the slopes up, causing some kind of a jam. Probably for alternating between the up/down one-way traffic due to the tiny lanes.
At Ravello..
We peeked into a little grape vineyard.. I've never seen a grapevine before!
The stupid kitty ran up the tree and was stuck there! Had to be rescued by its mummy (or dad?). We had a drink here while I fed Italian mosquitoes.
Here's Villa Cimbrone where we paid like 6 Euros each to explore.
I still can't believe that these are real grapes. Or are they fake?
Where our helicopter landed
So that was Ravello. The weather was fantastic and the sun + blue skies + blue waters were perfect!
We're back down on the coast and traveling East. We see this hugeass bus coming and I thank the heavens that I'm not the one driving.
Everyone slows down and I hold my breath as the monstrous thing squeezes through.
We finally arrive at Vietri Sul Mare, a little town on the Eastern end of the Amalfi coast that sells loads of ceramics. This is our last stop on the Amalfi coast and actually, our last real stop in Italy.
This is the messiest minimart I've ever seen.
So rubbishy right, how to find the stuff you need?!
Our last Italian gelato!!!
Picked up some cheapo pizza to eat as we drive towards our Naples hotel
We happily followed the gps' instructions to go up this highway when we realized that something was horribly wrong! Can you guess from the above pict?
These 2 cars in front of us have their reverse lights on! They are actually reversing on the ramp that leads to the expressway. Very dangerous, since we are supposed to be speeding up to get to the expressway.
These 2 cars in front of us have their reverse lights on! They are actually reversing on the ramp that leads to the expressway. Very dangerous, since we are supposed to be speeding up to get to the expressway.
The cars behind us too, had to reverse. We have no inkling of what on earth happened but it seems that we can't use the expressway! Wahaha.. Hopefully our gps could somehow help us. It was getting late and dark. However since the nearest landmark we had was our hotel, it was difficult to set the gps to take the smaller road (if there was any). Didn't help that Naples is probably the least safe city of all that we visited.
To cut the long story short, we drove around, roughly in the right direction. When we could, we asked some guys for directions (which were given in Italian). And somehow we managed to get on the expressway again towards our hotel!
So we're on our expressway and finally we reach Naples city. But now.. Naples != Hotel Joyfull, where we are supposed to be staying for the night. And we learn the hard way, that these little hotels in Italy are not like the Best Westerns and Travelodges of the US which are definitely in the GPS map. Even if you have the address, the Street of hotel (probably some little alley) cannot be found in the GPS!
We tried our best to navigate in the dark (and crime infested) streets of Naples. At one point, we drove into a little bus depot where there were a few bus captains in uniform to ask for help. Hey these guys are the bus captains so they should know the area well right?
Enjoy this little clip of me understanding his directions despite knowing only 2 words of Italian: ponte (bridge) and grazie (thank you).
So we're on our expressway and finally we reach Naples city. But now.. Naples != Hotel Joyfull, where we are supposed to be staying for the night. And we learn the hard way, that these little hotels in Italy are not like the Best Westerns and Travelodges of the US which are definitely in the GPS map. Even if you have the address, the Street of hotel (probably some little alley) cannot be found in the GPS!
We tried our best to navigate in the dark (and crime infested) streets of Naples. At one point, we drove into a little bus depot where there were a few bus captains in uniform to ask for help. Hey these guys are the bus captains so they should know the area well right?
Enjoy this little clip of me understanding his directions despite knowing only 2 words of Italian: ponte (bridge) and grazie (thank you).
You can see how dark the place was! In the beginning as I approached them, I happily rolled down my whole window and asked for help. One of them were so nice as to gesture to me that I should not roll down my whole window cos it was bloody dangerous. Only then that I realized that if they were crooks, they could have bashed/shot me/pb unconscious or something and we would never had made it back to S'pore. Yeah, it hit me that we're too sheltered and don't have such simple common sense as to protect ourselves.
I realize that I write more about these little stories than the place of interest itself. I suppose these are the memories that I take back with me from these trips!
So of course, after listening to his Italian instructions, we did manage to find the place in a dark little street. Thankfully, it was a really nice (though cheap) hotel! We didn't have much time to enjoy it since our flight was damn early the next morning and we had to wake up at like, 6am.
I realize that I write more about these little stories than the place of interest itself. I suppose these are the memories that I take back with me from these trips!
So of course, after listening to his Italian instructions, we did manage to find the place in a dark little street. Thankfully, it was a really nice (though cheap) hotel! We didn't have much time to enjoy it since our flight was damn early the next morning and we had to wake up at like, 6am.
Hotel Joyfull
No comments:
Post a Comment