Positano & Amalfi - The Journey's End

It may have been October, but in Positano, it was still warm enough for the beach :)

How do you even build a city like this?

mmmm pretty water. It was possibly the clearest water i've ever swum in. (swum?)

It was so clear that I could see the seaweed on the bottom when it was too deep for me to pencil-dive down to touch it with my feet. impressive. 

This guy was painting boats :) 

So i photographed the same boats!

I made friends with this dog, of course :-P

He's cute enough to deserve two photos

After swimming and eating (duh) we hopped on a ferry to the town of Amalfi. Here's a parting shot of Positano from the boat

We arrived in Amalfi a bit before sunset

I have a theory that Amalfi would be more well-known if their duomo was easier to photograph. It's so crammed in between buildings that you can't get a good angle on it

But its portico is cool and has lots of photographic opportunities

Arches and columns and stripes, oh my!

(did you see Nina in that one?)

And to end the fall break journey (and, wow, all the blog posts from Europe....)...

Thanks for keeping up with my blog, guys. I made myself write it to really keep track of my adventures while abroad, and it was that much more exciting to be able to share it with you folks and hear your thoughts :)  I may post now and then if I find myself traveling or taking photos I want to share. Until then, Arrivederci! 

Shut the f*** up, Capri.

Capri is a tiny, cliff-filled island off the Amalfi coast. And it is ridiculously beautiful. 

The water is beautiful

The boats are beautiful

The trees are beautiful

The women are beautiful

And everywhere you turn there is a new stunning view

Seriously, STFU Capri.

We wandered up staircases and through tiny alleys, following little signs we discovered for some random restaurant.

Turns out the food is beautiful (and delicious) too

found a cool sundial,

an awesome windy road up a cliff

a great photo op spot

then another "STFU Capri" view

seriously, you can't make up how stunning this place is.

we found a beach, with a bathroom building that matched Nina perfectly :-P

I tested the water a bit (it was really cold)

And Nina had a personal dance party

We happend to time our ferry ride back perfectly at sunset. I even climbed on the roof of the ferry because there were no signs telling me not to. then i got yelled at in Italian. but I did get this sweet photo, looking back at the island.

Seriously, STFU Capri.

VOLCANIC LAVA (was here at one point)...POMPEI

Because there just aren't enough ruins in Italy, we checked out Pompei

It's weird how you can just walk around an ancient, desolated town, with rubble and pillars and crumbling painted walls everywhere...

There are also vineyards. Perhaps grape vines are volcano-resistant?

We were walking quite a bit, so we took refuge inside one of the buildings for a bit. Look at this pretty girl :)

Then, IN WALK MY UNDERGRADUATE BUDDIES! Seriously they just showed up in the building where we were chilling. Everyone, meet Brantley and Caleb!

It was a useful and productive chance meeting - we compared notes on what we'd seen and where the good spots were in Pompei. And by that I mean C&B told us where to go, since we'd just been wandering aimlessly.

(Nina gets credit for that photo)

Also, there are palm trees in southern Italy. It's pretty awesome. Especially in October.

 

There were also a ton of very well-behaved dogs roaming around the ruins. This one was my favorite. His eyes are different colors. 

He followed us into one of the amphitheaters (there are 3!) and hung out with a buddy of his.

Then I sniped this photo of an adorable older couple relaxing in the theatre.

Ok here's the cool thing. If you go to Pompei, after you seen the ruined city, walk into the real, current city. It's beautiful, but I bet few tourists actually see any of it.

We discovered it because we were searching for food. We found some. We also found an awesome fountain/mosaic/median in an intersection.

:)

Nimo and Me: Sorrento

I was lucky enough to spend my fall break with Nina Moses (biff!) in the towns along the Amalfi Coast!

We made Sorrento our home base and stayed in a great little hotel there.

Not that hotel. Ours had a better paint job but a worse view. 

From Sorrento, you can get to all the other towns along the coast by either bus or train. We spent some time hanging out at the train station, and entertained ourselves with our cameras

 Ain't she lookin' fly?

Sorrento (like all the towns in the area) is built on sea-side cliffs, so you get some really crazy architecture built into the rocks...

It's also an old port city, which would explain this awesome anchor that is (unfortunately, though artistically) strangling this tree.

The view wasn't bad...

The locals weren't bad either!

Just Wandering Around Paris...

Ok, here's the weird thing. As I was planning my epic month of travels for June, I found out that the Tim Burton Exhibit that I missed at the MOMA was going to be in Paris for a while.

I literally asked myself "Hmm... should I go to Paris for a couple days, too?" and answered "Yeah, why not! It would be super cheap!"

What is my life?!

Thus:

HUZZAH! Not only did I get to see an awesome exhibit, but I also got to see THIS GIRL:

Oh Sara Black, how I love you, and your dog, and your family.  (disclaimer: this photo exists because I was trying to snipe a photo of a random weird guy on the street and needed Sara to be a diversion. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the guy, and no longer remember what was so weird about him. bummer)

The night I arrived, Sara took me to a lovely french restaurant for dinner. The next day we went a-wandering, and happend to stumble (seriously we weren't looking for it) upon the Lapin Agile!

We also wandered through a beautiful park, and (surprise) I took photos of flowers :-P

And i'm glad I did, because I think this is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken:

For the last day or two I was there, Sara jetted off to Vienna so I wandered through the beautiful city on my own, mostly. And I found some cool things:

And of course I had to stop by Notre Dame. I literally took only one photo of it though. I'm not your typical tourist :-P

I was less interested in the church because I was really only there to meet up with yet another amazing person, Beth Fagan! The two of us chatted for hours about physical theatre, met up with her boyfriend, then gathered a delicious picnic feast to take to the edge of the Seine.

And after hours more of talking about (and demonstrating!) physical theatre on the banks of the Seine, we watched the sunset and finished the wine...

then ran to catch the last subway trains home. Perfect :)