Where in the World Wednesday: Positano, Italy

It’s Wednesday and I am taking part in Classy in Philadelphia’s Where in the World Wednesday series!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world…it doesn’t have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

Three and a half years ago I took my first trip to Mainland Europe (I had been to Ireland before). My brother was backpacking his way across Europe for 9 weeks, much like my latest adventure, and he was in Italy when I came over to visit him. It was my first time staying in hostels, first time doing any sort of budget travel.

We started the trip in Sorrento, a gorgeous seaside town near Naples. I highly recommend visiting it. Located about 4 hours south of there was this place called Paestum. It has the oldest Greek ruins in Italy and we had to take the perilous bus ride out there. We went along the Amalfi Coast and while it was raining, I absolutely loved it. It was so beautiful. We had to make several bus transfers and on the last leg we met a Canadian couple who also were staying in Sorrento and ended up traveling around with us the rest of the day.

Paestum was awesome:

On the way back we ran into a bit of traffic and missed our connecting bus in Salerno. The bus we missed was the last bus to Sorrento. So there we were, 3 hours away from where we were staying and being faced with the reality that we may be sleeping in a church or on a street somewhere. Instead, we started hitch hiking.

Initially we had problems. We just couldn’t get anyone to stop for the four of us. So me and the girl, whose name escapes me right now, stood out by the road while her husband and my brother hid in a doorway. Immediately a man stops for us and before we got in, our sidekicks jumped in. Obviously he was hoping he was going to get lucky with two lonely girls but was not happy at all when he realized we weren’t alone. He drove us to Positano but refused to speak to us, even to my Italian-speaking brother.

In Positano we were faced with the reality that a) it was raining and b) there were no cars going by. We stood out in the rain for an hour and a half, taking turns dancing in the middle of the road. That picture up there is from my turn out in the road.

Here’s her husband and my brother:

My brother had to buy food since we hadn’t eaten dinner and he needed to eat every hour.

We eventually got a ride from an off-duty limo driver who was very chatty. We encountered one problem with him though: he hated Americans. Luckily, when asked where we were from, the Canadians answered first. He growled about how glad he was we weren’t Americans and all of a sudden me and my brother are all oh yeah we’re from Toronto…. I had to listen to him bash Americans for an hour and a half the whole way back. But we made it and to top off the night, we had hot chocolate.

Except its European hot chocolate which meant MELTED CHOCOLATE. So thick.

Looking back at the pictures from this trip I cannot get over how YOUNG both my brother and I look. I barely even recognize myself. Is that bad? I now also really want to go back to Italy. I had so much fun! I’m sure these aren’t the last pictures you’ll see from that trip…

Where in the World Wednesday: Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

It’s Wednesday and I have decided to take part in Classy in Philadelphia‘s Where in the World Wednesday series!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world…it doesn’t have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

Your eyes are not mistaking you, those really are bones that I’m surrounded by. In October of 2008 I went to the Czech Republic, mainly to Prague, for a few days while visiting my brother in Germany. I had heard about this Ossuary in Kutna Hora, about half an hour away from Prague and just had to go. It’s interior is made up entirely of human bones. Human bones that were all dug up and left on the grounds of the church in medieval times. Whoever was morbid enough to design a chandelier out of every bone in the human body needed to have his head checked.

One more picture, for a clearer shot of all the creepiness…

That’s a HUGE shield made of, you know, bones. TOTALLY NORMAL.If you look closely there’s a bone-bird picking out the eye of the skull.

Tell me how this is religious?

Anyway, it’s creepy as fuck, especially in person, so I highly recommend going if you are in Prague. (And you should DEFINITELY go to Prague!) The town is also very cute. If that makes you feel any better about visiting a place made out of bones.