Way back in January we planned our weekend to Capri and Ischia for April 2-5. After Italian class at around 1:40 we got on a train to head to Napoli and then get a ferry to Capri. We were informed that the ferry’s are done at 9, we were scheduled to arrive in Napoli at 8. we get to Napoli and its 8:15, so we get a taxi to take us to the port. We get in the car and he is blasting QUEEN! So we are having a good time rocking out to Bohemian Rapsody and we arrive at the port, we get out and we notice there is no one around except for a dog that followed us everywhere and showed us where to go… so for shits and giggles we walk over to the ticket booth and its closed. The last ferry was at 8:12 and we had our reservation in Capri booked for that night.  We meet a guy who is in the coast guard and tries to help us and find another port that is still open but they weren’t. He tells us he is going to get help so after 20 minutes of waiting around debating about whether we are going to stay up all night and hang at the port or spend money we don’t have to get a last minute hostel or hotel to stay in. So we call the hotel in Capri and they were very understanding and didn’t charge us for that night even though we booked the room for it.  The coast guard guy comes back with his friend who is also in the coast guard and they want to bring us on the ship and order pizza. So we head over to the boat because why not you only live once and they seemed nice… well by the time we got on the ship, everyone decided that maybe this isn’t the best idea so we said no thanks, they helped us off and we went to a pizzeria to eat and figure things out. My friend angela calls her mom and her mom looks online for some hotels and gives her the address and number of one. Angela says well guys we are okay my mom gave me the number to this hotel called… The Marriott??? And she had no idea what that was, I said Angela, the fucking Mariott?!?!!? Are you kidding me? That’s next in line with the Hilton, Im not staying there I cant even afford to stay in a 16 euro a night hostel! So everyone obviously agreed and our friend Melissa called her mom to check on hostel world. We get a number, address and we get a taxi to take us over there. He tells us that it is a very bad area and to get inside the hostel quickly. He wasn’t kidding. So we get in and we have to stay in a room with other people and its dirty and disgusting and not in my budget but no one wanted to stay up all night in the port with the rats so we just put our fists in our mouths and paid. We are lying in bed making friends with the girl who is in our room and she was traveling the world instead of going to college and she has been traveling since September. So I made her tell me about everything she has seen and all the places she has been and then we hear really loud horrifying noises from outside the window… My roommate says “oh its fireworks!” I said “Mary, its midnight, no one would be watching fireworks at this time, those are gunshots… probably AK-47’s.” So we just put heads down and hope that it goes away but it goes on for about 5 minutes. La Cosa Nostra must have been doing some damage. “This wasn’t no Michael sit down in the restaurant have a meal and the gun will be in the bathroom, u come out shoot him in the head and leave”…. This was Sonny getting shot up at the toll booth from 5 different angles and semi-automatics. So It finally ended and we called it a night at about 1am. We wake up at 5 because our ferry is at 7 and we wanted to get the hell out of there. We get a taxi and head to the port again. Get on the boat and sleep the whole hour and a half ride. We arrive in sunny, gorgeous, colorful Capri. We try not to get too distracted so that we can hurry to find our hotel, get ready, and start the days activities. We find our gorgeous hotel and they were so nice!! They let us check in, we didn’t have to pay for missing the night before even though it was on the reservation, they served us breakfast and told us about all the things they recommended we see and where they are. Months ago when we planned this trip I had read in a book about a chairlift that swings you above vineyards and terraces all the way up to the top of the island. No one wanted to do it but LUCKILY, he suggested it and everyone loved the sound of it so we made planned that into our day. We also planned the Blue grotto, of course… and to watch the sunset at the southern tip of the island on a beach called Faro. So we headed off to the blue grotto first. We took a tiny bus that seated 6 people, but for some reason the bus driver let on about 20, and in now way how am I exaggerating. Down the mountain, twisting and turning, I am the most car sick I have ever been in my life from this and all I can do is look out the window and watch dirt and rocks fall over the edge of the road and plummet a few miles down into the ocean. This ride went on for about 15 minutes… We got off and made our way down to the grotto where there were boats waiting to rip us off. I sware they have a contest of how many people they can rip off in one day. The 6 of us get in a tiny little row boat that is about to tip over from the ways of the Mediterranean Sea and they charge us 10 euro a person. Understandable… you can’t come to Capri without seeing the blue grotto… So we all have to lay down in order to get into the grotto and once we got in there was breathtaking luminance blue.  The boat is rocking, waves are coming into the cave, the Italian men who row the boat are singing opera and telling us all about the history of the inside of the grotto and why its blue and then they take you out, leave you about 5 feet away from the dock and tell you they are charging another 5 euro a person just for his service. The opera song wasn’t even that good so we only gave him about 2 a person in fright of him taking longer and keeping us sea sick girls in this tiny little boat the size of my kitchen table. After the grotto, we made our way through the town and shopped a little bit, had some lunch and went to the chair lift. Any description you could ever find could never compare to what this thing really is. So I will try my best to justify that amazing experience. Without a doubt it was the coolest things I have done in my LIFE! It definitely rates as number 1. So, we pay 7 euro for this chair lift… thinking its just like at the shore and about 3 or 4 people can get on one, the guy takes our ticket, puts my friend on the 2 feet marks and we watch the SINGLE chair swing around and scoops her up and takes her away. Then Sarah, then me, then Melissa and then Angela… We are all on our own chairs and thinking we were just going to a little hilltop somewhere we got excited. We watched the island pass up by below our feet and slowly escalated up to the top. Not knowing when the top was going to get there, about 20 minutes later, I look behind me and I can see the entire chain of Italian Islands, the Sea and basically the entire island of Capri. I started to get a little freaked out the closer we got to the top because of this shaking, rusty, metal chair taking me up to the summit of the island with bags and purses and video camera and snap shot camera strings around both wrists and nothing holding me in, but a bar that I could lift up myself! So we got to the top and we were so high, I could jump up and touch the clouds!…again, no exaggeration there. It was gorgeous; we looked down over the rocks and saw nothing but gorgeous blue and green coral in the water.  We hung out at the top where there was a wine bar and beautiful views of the North South East and West parts of the Mediterranean. After taking thousands of pictures we got back on to go back down. We landed safely and decided to walk around and shop some more and then go back to the hotel and get dressed really pretty for the sunset and then after have a nice dinner. After getting dressed we get on another crammed bus  up to mountain and down and around to the tip of the island where there is a gorgeous lighthouse! We watch the sunset and I can honestly say I never thought my first time watching the sunset would be on a beach on rocks in Capri with GIRLS! Maybe I would imagine my first sunset on a beach in Capri but def not with girls. It was still nice though =]  After we spent the next hour and a half finding a restaurant open to serve us dinner. We landed in one and it was horrible. I ordered rice with asparagus and a side of eggplant parm. The rice was decent until it got cold within 4 minutes and the eggplant made me want to vomit!  So we called it a night after dinner. Woke up on Saturday, had breakfast and got on a ferry to Napoli, and then on another ferry to the island of Ischia. There is usually a ferry direct from Capri to Ischia but only in the summer. At this very moment I am in the library writing this and someone in skyping her friend and saying that the blue grotto is one of the 7 wonders of the world! Haha, been there! 6 more to go! ANYWAY, so we get to Ischia which I liked even better than Capri because there was an actual SAND beach that we layed on all day and swam in the sea, picked up sea glass and looked at the gorgeous coral. Then we had lunch, walked around and shopped and saw the Castle of Argonese wich is a castle on an island that you can walk to from a little bridge. It was gorgeous but we couldn’t afford to actually go in. After spending the whole day in Ischia we headed back to Capri at about 5:50 after receiving info that this 1 hour boat ride will drop us off in Napoli at 6:50 and the LAST FERRY TO CAPRI leaves at 7. so we had 10 minutes. We had already discussed that we were NOT spending any money whatsoever in staying in a last minute hostel and that we would stay up all night in the port. Luckily we got there on time and made it back to Capri on time, We also made it into Capri around 9 just in enough time to hit the LAST bus to our hotel. So we hung out in the room and talked of all the crazy things that happened and got ready to leave the next morning. On the train ride home we decided it would be a good idea to calculate how much we spent this weekend, and then convert it into dollars…. BAD IDEA! We then calculated the average of how much we have spent for other long weekends… another BAD IDEA.  I don’t even think you want to know BUT I can’t write about it and not tell and who cares, you only live once, with what I have spent here I could single handedly bring the American economy back up above the red. My weekend in Capri was somewhere between 400 and 500 euro…. THAT’S 600 AMERICAN DOLLARS! Who spends that much in one weekend and doesn’t even have a job!?!?!!?!?!?!?! Life is good =]