Sorrento

I stayed at home (to be honest, on skype) for a just a few minutes too long on Thursday evening, so rather than leaving right at 6:00pm, I left at 6:08pm. Believe me, those eight minutes REALLY mattered. It takes a definite 30 minutes to walk to the train station. That in mind, I hauled it to the train station to meet the Florence for Fun group. I checked in with our tour guide, and waited in line at the ATM. The line was taking too long, so I had to leave without withdrawing money. Immediately, I was told that to do the "optional" excursions, I would need to give our tour guides another 35.5 euro. Awesome. I had all of 8 euro on me. Our tour guide told me that I'd be able to withdraw money at the rest stop. Guess what? The rest stop didn't have an ATM.

Fast forward a few hours. The bus stopped and I woke up. Our bus driver apparently had never made this trip before, and naturally got very turned around. We later found out that the main road which he had planned to use was closed, and he was utterly confused as to how to use side roads to meet at the same point. After stopping and asking for directions from three individuals who appeared to be severely intoxicated, we came across a police car, which escorted us several miles before leaving us on our again. I wish that the police car had led us all the way to the Hotel Cavour in Sorrento, because then we would likely have arrived by 1:30am. Oh well! It was an adventurous evening. We arrived to the hotel around 3:15am. We had to be ready to go at 8am Friday morning. No problem, right? I can totally function on 3.5 hours of sleep.

For this weekend, I was assigned a random roommate, since I didn't sign up for the trip with anyone that I knew. I had a share a bed with this girl, which was slightly awkward for me. I don't even remember the last time I shared a bed with someone and didn't end up kicking them in the middle of the night. I guess I don't like to share!

I realized that night that it was a bit of a mistake to book a trip alone. It was a lot of fun, yes, but everyone else on the trip was with a large group of friends, so I was a bit out of my element. What will I do for the French Riviera next weekend? I need to figure that out.

So, where was I? Right. I had no money and was terrified that I'd be left behind in Sorrento, unable to pay for the excursions. However, that wasn't the case! I joined the group on our walk from the Hotel Cavour to the dock, where we boarded a ferry to reach Capri. Luckily, there was an ATM on the island of Capri, right as we got off the ferry, so I made a beeline for it, and quickly remedied that situation.