geoff & juliet

geoff & juliet (bummer geoff's eyes are closed - oh well!)

meet geoff & juliet. juliet grew up in the philippines and geoff in australia. they live in sydney, australia. they are in the middle of a two week cruise around italy and are spending a few days in vernazza. they were a gift to me today. (i will come back to them in a minute)

left positano this morning at roughly 7:10am. when the bus pulled up it was full. i needed to get on that bus in order to make a bunch of connections - so i put my baggage underneath and got on. the bus driver told me it was full and i pretended like i didn't know what he was saying. i just smiled and kept saying "sorrento si?":) he let me stay on though - i stood right next to him in the very front of the bus. some of you have been on the road to positano and amalfi  - so you know why i was contemplating my immanent death. but five mins into the drive the lady in the front seat got out - so i sat down. yay! 

leg two of liz's travel day was the public metro from sorrento to naples. that was mostly uneventful. i did get on the wrong train at first - but it only required me to get of and get on another one with no major hassles. 

leg three was train from naples to rome. uneventful. except you know those people when you are traveling that seem to have no idea what they are doing and who they are affecting? like they are dropping their stuff in people's laps, hitting people with their luggage and taking FOREVER to figure out where to put their stuff once they got on whatever form of transport you are on? you know who i am talking about. yep - that was me today. i don't know what the deal was - but i was just up in everyones grill with all my stuff - dropping things and hitting people with my massive backpack. it was quite comical. can i chalk it up to only a few hours of sleep?

leg 4 - i was pretty tired and done at this point. so from rome to la spezia (3 1/2 hour train ride) i booked a first class seat. it was like $30 more than the regular ticket and it was worth it. i got to stretch out, sleep a bit and enjoy the amazing scenery as we traveled through a bit of wine country. totally support my spontaneous upgrade. 

leg five and the last leg - train from la spezia to vernazza. missed that hourly train by about 5 seconds. bummer. but not really. back to geoff & juliet. they missed it too. so we had an hour to chat while we waited for the next train as it is the only way to get to vernazza. on the train into la spezia i had seriously contemplated just getting another train to florence, changing my ticket and going to london early. not b/c i was tired of traveling. honestly i was just tired of being alone. what i have found on this trip is that i don't like to travel alone. once i get somewhere i am okay being by myself - but the traveling really isn't fun and i FEEL really alone in it. geoff & juliet changed that for me. they immediately took me into their lives. geoff was watching out for my bags and juliet was making sure i got to my bed and breakfast. we kept seeing each other in vernazza after we got here (since the town is like three blocks long) and we would stop and chat like we are old friends. i sat at a pizzeria outside for dinner. they were walking by and juliet says, "geoff - its liz! do you want pizza for dinner?" they had bought a bottle of wine - so they shared it with me. we had pizza, drank wine, talked, laughed. i love this on so many levels. a) Jesus knows what i need and always steps in when i am at my end 2) i think it is so amazing that you can strike up a conversation with people who live on the opposite side of the world and end up having dinner and acting like old friends in a period of hours. its really beautiful. when we left the pizzeria, geoff said, "good night dear!" and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. precious!

so anyway -  one bus, four trains, 11 hours and two new friends later i am in vernazza, italy. within a few mins of being here it quickly became my favorite. i will save commentary on vernazza for tomorrow. but i will leave you with a few pics so you won't be too mad at all my words in this post!!

me on the pier in vernazza - its a bit rainy at the moment

huge rocks on the pier  - i really liked this pic so thought i would share :)

my pesto pizza - so good!