AM I THERE YET?

Sorrento
Editor's note: I left in the typos and extra keystrokes as a testimony to D's frustration with the European keyboard and her internet cafe time limit. :)

Hey all,first off, i have 23 minutes left and i,m typing on a keyboard that =20doesn,t come close to our version. See fdk=F2a=E0=F9=E8, yeah anyway.

Well here,s what i,ve been through:
athena - portland 4.5hours
portland - NY 5 hours
NY - Roma 9.5 hours
Roma airport - rome .5 hours
Rome - Napoli 2 hours
Napoli - Sorrento 1 hour
Sorrento - Hostel 45 minutes
And i only missed one train and by the skin of my teeth almost another =20one. WILL THIS DAY EVER END!?!

I have now learned that:
A. There are only so many ways to contort your body in an airplane and train
B. Italians don,t label anything, like directions, or what to do for transit
C. And that having a "level head" means nothing

Nonetheless I am slowly getting acquainted with my surroundings, =20emphasis on slow. I may boycott one of my daytrips because i,m sick =20of traveling and it would be nice to have a day to explore Sorrento. =20I have infact seen the water though, however have failed to figure out =20how to get down to it. My first conversation with a male italian, a =20policeman have you, "Ulysse Deluxe is just around the corner, Welcome =20to Sorrento. You are by yourself, no? Not married, good to see." =20Look dad i,m making friends ;) It has definitely been an interesting =20time so far however.

Larry you did not prepare me for how to work the =20electricity in my hostel. I finally after 2 days of no sleep and =20constant travel finally make it to my hostel and the lights go out in =20like 30 seconds and i,m now awkwardly standing there trying to figure =20out how to turn them back on. Apparantely pushing buttons, my usual =20failsafe, did not work. So at the risk of looking horribly awkward if =20someone were to walk in, I did what i needed to do there in the dark. =20I definitely felt sketchy. When I stopped back in however, i met one =20of my hostel mates and she taught me the key. Anyway, I,ve made it here safe. We,ll see how tomarrow goes.

D

p.s. J. Don,t read this if you want to discover the route of =20traveling on your own, but if not read the following: To get a train into rome, follow the exit signs of the airport until =20you see train signs, then buy a ticket at the station for around ?11 =20into Rome. Don,t forget to stamp your ticket into the yellow box =20before getting on board. Our railpasses do not work for this jaunt. =20Safe flying, and I,ll see you soon. Finding the hostel could be =20interesting. It took me 45 minutes on foot to find this one, and =20sorrento is relatively small compared to Rome