Creative Musings

I was a bit in disbelief when the actual time came that I was finally going to make it to Positano. The girls and I had just come back from visiting the Emerald Grotto, and it was actually the only chance we had to go because the next day we were going to go to Capri. So, we bought our bus tickets and waited for the bus. And waited, and waited. There was a pretty large group of people waiting near the buses and I hoped that they weren't also going to Positano, but of course, they were. Now, this is one of the tall, tour style bus, where there are 2 seats on each side of the aisle. by the time we were getting on the bus, they asked us how many of us there were (4: Sasha, Emma, Lisa & Lisa) and that we were the last ones allowed on the bus. The aisles were full of people standing, and I was standing directly next to the driver in front of the huge window. Emma was lucky and got to sit in the stairway, but Lisa A and Sasha were very squished behind me in the aisle. I would just like to share that I thought it was sometimes a challenge standing on the buses in Florence, even for someone with good balance. Well, this was 10 times harder. I was hanging on for dear life, making sure that I didn't go crashing into the windshield. If anyone has been on "The Road to Hana" on Maui, Hawaii..... this road is worse. The buses drive fast, and honk around every corner, every once in a while getting stuck due to oncoming traffic not yielding. To finish off the bus story, we ended up getting stuck for a bit because a car broke down on a corner, and then got stuck in traffic for a bit, and by the time we reached Positano it had been around an hour.

By the time we neared Positano, I had somewhat become friends with the bus driver, being that I was standing so close, and we had both laughed when other drivers were being ridiculous. When we reached the first Positano stop, there was HUGE crowd, probably 20-30 people in the road, that all started cheering when we got there. It turns out that all those people wanted on the bus (which had NO room) because they were also continuing on to Sorrento. When they realized that there was no space on the bus, they got angry. I'm not quite sure what they thought yelling at the bus driver would accomplish, because no matter how much they got mad the bus would still be full. At this point the driver asked where we were going, and I told him Positano center. He said we should get off here. I was very proud that I spoke to him all in Italian and even asked him when the last bus was heading back to Amalfi at night, which turned out to be at 10.

Somehow we managed to squeeze our way off the bus and around the crowd, and were very glad to escape and begin wandering down into Positano. This is where the immense beautiful views began. Not that they weren't beautiful from the bus, which they were, but I was too preoccupied trying not to fall that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. This is where the funny picture of Lisa A crouched in a little brick archway comes in, which altered our Positano trip forever. There happened to be a couple walking by that saw this and thought it was pretty funny and decided to come talk to us. It turns out that the guy is semi-Canadian! Some of his family lives in Canada, but he is currently living in Italy. They showed us to the main road, that twists and turns down the steep streets of Poistano, which finally opened up onto the beach.

The tricky thing about Positano, is finding a cheap place to eat. We accidentaly ended up eating at a not-so-cheap place, and had a nice meal of ordering the least expensive things from the menu, while the people from Boston at the next table ordered a 4 course meal starting with the 30 Euro local fish platters (for each of them). I thoroughly enjoyed my 12 Euro Spaghetti with zucchini, and was surprisingly full afterward. By the time dinner was over, it was time to head back up through the windy streets to wait for the bus to take us all the way back to Atrani.

I don't have much more to say about Positano except that is remarkably beautiful city. It's almost dream like. The houses are all painted fun colors, and everywhere has an spectacular view of the ocean. From the beach you look back up at the city, and the hill/mountain that is Positano looks to be entirely made out of the pretty multicolored buildings. I hope to be able to get a photo album posted soon so you can see the rest of my pictures.

Hopefully you can check out my photo album here!

Labels: Positano