When you fall, get up oh oh...

A big delayed hello to all my friends and family! I apologize for my complete lack of a post in over two weeks, but honestly, nothing much blog worthy has happened.  Jess and I are currently working at a hostel in Brindisi, Italy, and let's just say we had a rough start.  When we arrived, there were two other delightful workers here through workaway, Amy and Sara.  They are both from England and studying Italian at a top notch University in England.  On our first night here we met Amy, Sara, Maurizio (the hostel owner), and his girlfriend, Steph.   Also living in the hostel is Maurizio's 21 year old daughter, Marianne, and her fiance, Luciano.  A frequent visitor of the hostel, Maurizio's slightly neurotic ex-wife, Elaine, was also "introduced" to us during our first few days.  She's nothing but nice to Jess and me, but let's just say things get loud when her and Maurizio are "talking".  Sometimes she brings along Maurizio's other daughter, 15 year old Julia.  It was a very strange arrangement to us at first, and a little awkward while they fought, but once we got to know Maurizio and his daughters better, things became a bit more comfortable.   The daughters are both lovely and speak perfect Italian and English, thanks to an Italian father and English mother. Jess and I eat lunch and dinner every day with Maurizio, Steph (whom we love!), Marianne, Luciano, and whoever else is working in the hostel.  Sara and Amy left about a week after we arrived, but not before they taught us everything we need to know about running the hostel.   There's checking in the guests, making reservations,serving breakfast, stripping beds, laundry, serving drinks at the bar, and just attending to the guests in general.  Maurizio has a cleaning lady come do all the dirty work and she's quite the character.  Between the hours of 12 and 3, whenever is most convenient for her, Ensa the cleaning woman meanders in, cigarette in hand. We've told her in Italian several times we don't speak any Italian (It's the only phrase we've learned; "Non parlo Italiano"), but I think she's in denial.  Amy and Sara warned us that would happen and to ignore her.  So Jess and I look at her blankly and say yes and no in random combination.  It seems to be effective because she just goes back to work, always with a cigarette in one hand and a cleaning rag in the other.  If anything, her antics break up the day, which can be very long and boring.  
            Maurizio, Steph, Marianne, and Luciano get up at six to open Maurizio's latest business endeavor, a bar/mini mart/coffee shop.  It's about a one minute walk down the road and seems to absolutely devour their time.  Jess and I, and our recent addition, Susannah, watch the hostel from 7:30 until 1 AM.     At first, Jess and I were pretty miserable.  After Amy and Sara left, it was just us two for about a week and a half to run the hostel.  Maurizio's a really a great man, who's a barrel of fun and seems to really care about his workers.  The problem is, with his newly acquired business, he doesn't have much time to be at the hostel.  The work load is easy enough, but when it was just the two of us, it was difficult staying in the hostel morning, day and night with nothing to do.  And even if we did get out, Brindisi is not the most prime location.  There's a pretty main street with lots of shops, but that's pretty much it.  In the beginning, the guests were minimal because of the close of the summer season and for some reason, there were a lot of 50+ couples staying here (in a YOUTH hostel).  Not that there's anything wrong with being 50+, it just wasn't what we were expecting and they tend to whine a lot more than the 20 year old backpackers thankful for a bed to sleep in.  Despite the less than ideal situation, Jess and I made the best of it.  I've been keeping busy by utilizing my newly found organizational skills and revamping a lot of the storage areas in the bar and kitchen.  There's a lot of "stuff" here (hoarders heaven you could say), and I'm doing my best to rearrange things in a more aesthetically pleasing manner (and also trying not to give into my very strong desire to throw everything away).   We have each made lunch for everyone, both a great success I might add, and Jess has whipped up a lunch for just us a few times as well.  Jess insists on doing the morning shift because that's when the most work needs to be done and that girl just can't sit still.  I try to help out, but I usually become hyper-focused on one chore and end up spending hours on it.  In the afternoon, Jess likes to sit on the roof, go on walks around the city, or take the occasional nap, while I sit in the lobby and watch over things.  I've gone on a couple of runs and walks, but mostly I just sit in the hostel.  After only a few short days, Jess and I were looking to get out, but Susannah's arrival has greatly improved things.  She's from Richmond, Virginia and taking a gap year in college just to travel around.   She's very upbeat and perky, which is just what we needed here.  Also, since her arrival, we've had a lot of young guests who have been really amazing to meet.  At night we play cards with the guests or just talk about our different travels and lives back home (a favorite point of conversation with EVERYONE is the drinking age in the States, which we enjoy discussing as well).  The three of us got a couple hours off one night and we went to a festival in Brindisi, which was really fun!  There was live music, lots of lights, live infomercials, tons of unhealthy food, and just a bunch of stuff for sale (purses, jewelry, birds, snakes, and any other small animal).  Susannah also watched the hostel for a whole day while Jess and I went on a day trip to Lecce and Otronto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otranto, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecce,_Italy).  Both places were really beautiful and totally worth the mess of transportation that it took to get there and back.  There was a 45 minute train ride to Lecce, a two hour train ride to Maglia, then a 45 bus ride to Otronto.  It was a hassle, bus as I said, totally worth it.  We had some DELICIOUS sea food in Lecce on our way home.  I had "pasta with seafood", which was a linguine pasta with shrimp, mussels (I finally braved those terrible smelling creatures), and squid.  Jess had swordfish and we both devoured our food with relish.  That trip was a couple of days ago and now we are back in the old swing of things.  Now that things are going so well, we are sad to leave (which we are doing earlier than planned), but we are also highly anticipating our next workaway undertaking in southern France!  We both leave Brindisi on Sunday, Jess heading to Rome and I to Interlaken. We will then meet up a few days later near Geneva and spend a long weekend helping out a couple with their bed and breakfast.  Jess will travel after that and I'm heading to Spain for the month of October to help out at a horse farm.  But as you guys know too well, plans do change.  In summary (I'm sure all my English teachers are all cringing at that conclusion intro haha), Jess and I had a rough adjustment period here, but we evolved and found solutions.   Our time here is quite enjoyable with the new company and more vibrant guests, but Jess and I remain restless during the day, hence our early departure time. I promise to let you guys know how Switzerland/France is once I get there!   

Pics of Ancona, Amalfi Coast, and Pompeii

All By Myself...

Bonjourno everyone!  I wrote this post while sitting on a train last night and am just gonna post my travels until that point, because it's long enough as is.  I meant to post something days ago, but the hostel I was staying at the past few nights didn't have free wifi.  Anyway, I have a lot to tell, but I'll try to keep it short.  I spent a full day Wednesday exploring the parts of Florence I didn't visit four years ago (I know, poor me having been to Florence twice in four years and having to seek out new sites).  My favorite spot by far was the Piazza de Michelangelo.  It was quite the trek uphill with heaps of stairs, but nothing I'm not used to and the view was totally worth it!  The plaza is located on the opposite side of the river than all of the main sites in Florence and situated in the perfect location to look over the whole city in all of its glory.  The views were simply breathtaking!  Of course, after one picture from the Plaza, my camera died:(  Also, in the very center of the plaza is a replica of The David.  Up some more stairs, and you can reach two beautiful churches.  One had an all marble facade and giant marble columns supporting the beautifully painted ceilings.   After descending the endless flights of stairs and crossing the river, I took the long way home and napped to complete my sleep recovery from the night train two nights previously.   Later that evening, I met up with an Australian and three girls from Santa Barbara.  We stayed out in the courtyard till late and then eventually head out to a dance club.  It was quite the experience and let's just leave it at that.  The next morning we all went on the walking tour the hostel offered for FREE!!!!!  It covered the main sites and the tour guide was excellent!   After the tour, the train whisked me off to my next location, Ancona.  Ancona's a port city on the east coast with a lot of ferries going out to Croatia.  The city itself is not very nice, but I was aching something fierce for a beach, and a beach I found!  Friday morning, I embarked on my quest for the ocean.  You wouldn't think it would be that hard, considering I was in a port city, but it proved to be quite the walk.  I got completely disoriented, even with map in hand.  The Italians seem not to think it important to label their streets but once every three miles.  I was a determined young lady, so after two hours, and two stops for directions, I found the beach!  And oh what a coast it was.  To get down to the beach, I had to walk down numorous flights of white stone stairs all descending from a humongous monument standing at the cliff's edge.  The water was crystal clear, the beaches were made of white smooth stones, and there were little houses built into the cliff side.  It's hard to explain, but I took lots of pictures.  I definitely stood out with my lighter than chocolate colored skin, and as they say, when in Rome...So I roasted in the sun (with sunscreen of course) for a few hours and I would say I'm one shade closer to being Italian.  The walk back was long and hot, but I made it back before sun down, which was imperative considering the neighborhood my hostel was in.  I went to bed shortly after getting back, but not before I did a little last minute planning for my next destination.  Based solely on last minute hostel availability and my one requirement that my next stop must be on the coast, I decided on Salerno.  Salerno is on the west coast of Italy, south of Rome and in the same region as Amalfi, Pompeii, and Naples.  Salerno turned out to be a great location, offering tons to do near by.  Sunday approached, and I caught the earliest ferry I could to Amalfi (traveling alone has made me resort back to the olden days when people planned their days around when the sun was up.  I'm up around 7 and back by 7:30, before nightfall).  This was by far the most beautiful ferry ride I've ever taken!  The 35 minute ride was chalk full of views of the famed rugged Amalfi coast with all of its cute little villages.  After a little exploration of Amalfi, I started my long and treacherous route to Praiano.   The Amalfi coast technically covers the coast from Positano in the north 17 kilometers down to Amalfi in the south.  Praiano is about halfway between the two.  I assumed there would be numerous walking accommodations (sidewalks, shoulders, paths, etc.) alongside the cliff edge road that runs between all the coastal towns.  You know what they say about assumptions.  But I braved the narrow, trafficked road in the mid day sun determined to to find the two most famous geological features along the Amalfi coast, the Emerald Grotto and the Furore Fjord.  A few kilometers and a few scares later, and I happened upon the grotto. I somehow got lumped along with an Irish tour group on the boat excursion, but not to my dismay.  They were loud, welcoming, and most were afraid of the boat, which made for a fun ride.  I felt very at home.  I said my goodbyes with some longing as they boarded their deluxe air conditioned bus and I continued on my way to the fjord.  A couple of kilometers later, and there I was.  Not a minute after I arrived at the fjord's beach, the "beach manager" (yeah right, I think he was just a waiter at the beach's restaurant) greeted me and gave me a lounge chair on the house, along with a glass of wine and a cappacino a little later.  Being an American girl alone in Italy is not all that bad (as long as it's in broad daylight).  I lay on the beautiful beach for a few hours before deciding I best get going if I wanted to get back to Salerno before dark.   I continued in the northern direction for a few more kilometers before I happened upon the little town of Praiano and its bus stop.  Not knowing I had to have a bus ticket, I boarded with money in hand.  The bus driver scoffed, but let me on anyway (best free bus ride ever!)   I had now scene one of the most infamously beautiful coast lines by ferry, on foot, and by bus.  I caught a second bus to Salerno, showered, and crashed.  The next day was Monday, and I was planning on meeting Jess later that night in Brindisi, but I couldn't leave the Salerno area without visiting the most famous archeological sites in the world, Pompeii.  Pompeii was absolutely incredible, but after about 1 1/2 hours with tired feet and the sun beating down on your slightly burned shoulders, grandeur palaces of centuries ago turn into crumbling brick after crumbling brick.  I was out of there by one, caught the short train back to Salerno, gathered my stuff back at the hostel, and caught my long train to Brindisi.   Sorry this post was so long, but this past week was crammed with amazing sites and amazing people!  I didn't mention them in my blog, but I met countless people along the road that have helped me with directions, travel suggestions, train schedules, or just lent a friendly ear to a girl who loves to talk.  A wise man once said that the only adventures worth experiencing are the ones that scare the bejeezus out of you at first, or something like that.  As much as I've enjoyed this week on my own, I'm really looking forward to spending more than two nights in one place, eating at least two meals a day, and having someone to fully communicate with. I'll update you soon on how my work is going in Brindisi!

Ciao!

Katie

The hills are alive...

Long time, no blog everyone.  I'm glad you all are enjoying my blog and I REALLY appreciate all the emails you are sending me.  Especially after a day like today, it's good to have them in my inbox.  But forget today, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...I left off with me just arriving at our Hostel in Salzburg on Friday evening.  Jess and I enjoyed a scrumptious dinner followed by a little tumble off the curb (on Jess's part) and then an early bed time.  Jess was a real trouper the next day, Saturday, and still toured the sites with me ALL day.  After scouting out a good bakery, we brought our bread and yogurt to the Mirabell Gardens (http://www.visit-salzburg.net/sights/mirabellgarden.htm) to eat.  I'm going to try this whole link thing so you guys can read a bit more about the sites I visit if you want, but I don't have to bore you with details.  Let me just say it was the most beautiful site to have breakfast!  Also, a scene from "Do Re Mi" was filmed there!  By the way, our entire trip to Salzburg was very much Sound of Music themed, in case you couldn't tell already.  After the gardens, we crossed the bridge right in front of Mozart's birthplace (click here to listen to some Mozart while you read, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZD9nt_wsY0) to get to the "old town".  This was basically the cutest little town ever.  There were no cars, lots of horse drawn buggies, and a huge market selling fresh fruit, veggies, and of course, hot dogs!  There were also a lot of beautiful churches, one being St. Francis (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/salzburg-franziskanerkirche-franciscan-church.htm). The building itself was a tad more spectacular than the one in Raleigh, but I'm sure the parishioners aren't half as good haha.  We navigated through the narrow cobbled alleys to get to the main attraction of town, the Hohensalzburg fortress (http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/hohensalzburg/).  This was my first castle/fortress in my life and it fulfilled all my expectations!  There were cannons, watch towers,  and even a torture chamber with some torture devices on display!  We also went on a little audio tour and found out the "Salz" in Salzburg means salt and apparently salt mining was very important to the formation of this little town. After the fortress, which took a great while to get through, we headed right next store to the Nonnburg Abbey (http://www.visit-salzburg.net/sights/nonnberg.htm, where Frouline Marie attended. Starving, Jess and I trecked back down the mountain to gets some lunch in the fresh market.  On our way to the market, we stumbled across the magnificent graveyard the escape scene in TSOM was filmed.  What a lovely surprise for us!  Sandwiches in hand, we headed back to the Mirabell gardens to eat and while doing so, met the most wonderful lady who enlightened us a little about Austria, jazz, and classical music. We then stumbled across a baroque fair in a public park not far from the gardens. Salzburg had a slight obsession for Mozart, which Jess and I gladly would have traded for an obsession with The Sound of Music.  Despite my love for music, this fair didn't hold our interest long, and we hiked the way back to our hostel.  We met up with our roommates (a girl from Australia and one from Wales) for dinner and stayed up late talking about the differences among our countries. I'll spare you that discussion.  Anyway, the next day we rented bikes and biked to both the Von Trapp house (Schloss Leopoldskron http://www.schloss-leopoldskron.com/en/) and Hellbrun pallace.  These sites were a few kilometers (so European, I know!) outside of Salzburg, but they were SO worth the bike ride!  We naturally got turned around a few times, but when you're traveling, it's not getting lost, it's discovering new parts of the world. I HIGHLY recommend you just go to the link about Hellbrun pallace, http://www.hellbrunn.at/hellbrunn/english/start/index.asp.  It was just WAY too cool to descripe via blog post.  The trick fountains are the main attraction for most visitors, but for Jess and I, the Gazebo from the "16 going on 17" scene was a close second.  This palace had huge gardens surrounding every side, with carp filling the crystal clear waters.  It was really something to see.   Our train departed at 4 that day, so we returned our bikes and headed to the train station for our next town, Balzano.

We arrived in Balzano, Italy  at around 10:30 Sunday night and checked in to our hostel to find that we were rooming with a 50 year old cycling couple from holland.  One word for that: interesting.  I was awoken by him adjusting the blinds in his next to nothing underwear.  But they were both very nice, and that's what counts I guess.  After a good nights sleep and the complimentary breakfast (which we turned into breakfast and lunch), we headed out to explore the town.  This town was also very cute, but a little more modern with a very nice shopping area.  I got the impression that only wealthy people lived in Bolzano.  Jess and I fit right in with our sneakers and t-shirts. Though we did put our scrub clothes to work by hiking up a small mountain to get to one of the many castles in the area.  We then walked along the river for a bit and then retired to our hostel to eat some lunch and regroup.  We both booked our train tickets to our next locales for later on that night while we were back near the station.  Gelato sounded like a nice reward for all of our walking, so gelato we ate in the beautiful park right on the river bank.  We read for a few hours in the park before dinner, which we actually sat down for and had someone serve us.  Dinner was great, our first taste of Italian pizza on this trip, and knowing that we had a lot of time to kill (our train was at 1:09 AM), we lingered.  We then grabbed a drink with one of the guys in our hostel and discovered the little town of Bolzano had quite the night life.  At around 12:15, we headed back to the hostel, packed up and boarded our train.  It was PACKED!!!!!!!!  I managed to get a seat, but it did no good with the sleeping situation.  There were too many legs in one small space, too much noise, and too bright of lights to even dream of sleep  Jess was out in the aisle leaning on her bag, and needless to say, no sleep was had by any. The train did however get us to Florence, where we went our separate ways, Jess to Chinque Terra and me to Perugia.  I arrived in Perugia at around 9:30 AM with an unwanted parasite.  This Italian man sat next to me on the empty train and would not stop talking to me, even with my nose in my book!  I managed to shake him off in Perugia by shuffling to the lady's room and hiding out there for a good 15 minutes.  Mission accomplished.  I still had the problem of being in a big city with no hostel booked.  I went to information to ask about hostels.  No one spoke English.  They pointed me to the bus tickets booth...where no one spoke English.  There was literally NO ONE at the train station that spoke English.  I was down and out, but then spotted those famous golden arches glowing straight ahead.  I crossed the street to the McDonalds, and low and behold, the woman taking my order spoke English.  She pointed me to an internet cafe where I searched for an available hostel.  No luck at all.  Considering my very negative opinion of the customer service and tourist accommodations of the town after the first five minutes being there, I just decided to go elsewhere.  I checked availability for hostels in pretty much every town in Italy, and decided to hop a short train back to Florence, where at least I knew I liked the town.  Of course, the train I took ended up going the really long way to Florence, so it took me more than twice as long to get from Perugia to Florence than it did to get from Florence to Perugia.  Oh, and the twists keep coming.  The train ended up arriving at the station on the opposite side of town from the main station, which I was sure to get a hostel close to.  I walked about a mile at 1:30 in the afternoon with all of my stuff to get to the hostel.  But I'm here, and everything was worth it!  The hostel is amazing!  There's free wi-fi everywhere, a restaurant attached, people who speak english, and most amazingly and importantly, AC in my room!!!!!!!  I'm so exhausted from all the traveling and no sleep last night, so I'm off to find some food and then bed.  Thanks for all your well wishes again!  They really got me through a rough day today.

Cheers,

Katie