Massive & Long Awaited Capri Post (Pt #1)

Sorry this took so long. The Internet was down at the 'The Bassi'. Anyway, after the Museum in Naples, we walked to the port and, after being attacked by gypsies, got on a ferry to Capri. Me and a bunch of other people had already made reservations for a hostel in Anacapri (Latin for 'Poorer-side-of-Capri-with-significantly-less-Gucci-stores') for both Saturday and Sunday night, while other people were staying with us for the first night and then moving to an enormous suite in a hotel in Capri proper. We took all took a bus to the hostel, singing the Phantom Planet song, California (you know, the O.C. theme) with Anacapri substituted for California. Brilliant. The bus ride along sheer cliffs with scooters and other buses whizzing by us on tiny streets wasn't too bad either.

The hostel, Bussola di Hermes, was awesome. Rita, it's proprietor, has gained minor celebrity status in guide books for being even more awesome.
Immediately on checking in she informed us that right now there was a small window of time where we could, being poor college students, get into the famous Blue Grotto for free, as the boat trips for the day were over because the tide was coming up, but the water wasn't quite high enough yet to pose a serious threat of, you know, drowning us. We had to hurry though, cause there wasn't much time. We took another bus there, and went down some metal steps that just sort of stopped when they got to the water, with a big sign reading swimming prohibited. The sign actually spelled prohibited with a K somehow, but more of a problem than the rules were the jellyfish. As we were walking down the steps with a few middle aged tourists hanging out on them, we met a couple of other students who told us the water was teeming (that's right, teeming) with jellyfish, and they had the stings to prove it.

When we got all the way down the steps we saw that they were very much correct. The water was full of the suckers. There were about 15 of us, half clothed, standing on the steps, trying to work up the cojones to jump in this water and swim into this dark, partially underwater cave, that we couldn't even see. There was a chain leading in, but that was about it. We stood around for about 20 minutes, when a random Australian dude jumped in from about 25 feet above us and told us it wasn't too bad. That shamed a couple of guys (Rico, Carlos and Pete, I think) from our group into jumping in, but they got stung by the jellyfish and cut by the coral, so they jumped out about as quickly, without really going into the cave.

In the end, it was good old fashion sexism that saved the day. One of the girls, Jane, looked pretty serious about going in, and I just couldn't handle a girl being the first one in the cave, so I jumped in (careful to avoid the coral) and swam into the dark cave. And man was that cave dark. A couple of other kids , including Jane, came in right afterwards, but my masculinity (and all men's!) was secured.

The Grotto itself was phenomenal. Facing inwards, it was impossible to see anything until my eyes adjusted, but facing outwards I got the whole blue thing. I guess the floor is blue or something, and the light reflects off it, making all the water shine this deep rich blue that you see in this picture of other people I stole from someone else's website. I stayed in there for about half an hour and generally pretended to be mature and concerned for everyone else's safety (I model myself off Ben, when I can). Only a few people were badly stung, most, especially Crys got cut by the coral when they jumped in (and thrashed around to avoid the jellyfish), but I got out without a scratch. Ok enough with the pseudo-bragging.

After the Grotto, we went back to the hostel, had dinner at a cool little (read:cheap) place in Anacapri, and then basically had a party, as it was Pete's 21st birthday. It worked out well because the rooms were pretty big and we had a courtyard between them.