Day 17 - July 16

 Saturday. Beach day!!!! We get to sleep in a little bit to wake up and get ready to go to the beach :) YES!! The place we are going to is called Positano and it is unbelievable as well. I have found that everywhere here is so amazing to me because the midwest doesn't exactly have anything to offer like these places do. Even the California people were impressed because their ocean and vies are nothing like the ones we saw this whole weekend. So we take another short bus ride after breakfast just so we can walk all the way down a mountain to get to the ocean. Not kidding my legs were literally shaking from all the walking and steps that we did combined with yesterday's amount. Being sore was not even a
question. Seriously, uncontrollably shaking. It was a litle humorous. Anyway after walking through the whole little beach town we get there and it is a small part of the beach with black, rock shores. There is no sand. It was scalding hot, but it was really nice because the rocks just brushed off you...it didn't stick like real sand does at the beach. The water was as clear as it could be. Like if you needed to readjust your swimsuit...everyone will see you because that is how clear the water is. Just beautiful though. So we hung out there for a while soaking in the sun with nice breeze and some fresh fruit from the really good panini shop next to us.

Literally paradise, but it only gets better. At about 1 oclock it is time to go meet to go....CLIFF JUMPING AND CAVE DIVING!!!! Yay!! We took a boat ride around the mountain a little bit to find a spot where we climb up the side of these rocks and, well, just jump off! I was terrified. Absolutely scared to death, but I knew I would always regret it if I didn't try. The first jumping spot was about 10 feet high so it was the baby one in most people's eyes. In my eyes...I was having a heart attack. It took me a good 10 minutes to convince myself to actually jump. AMAZING!! I loved the adrenaline rush and couldn't get enough of how it felt sooooo I immediately got back in line to do it again, but from a higher point this time. There were so many people that I only got to jump twice but that was more than enough. All my roommates went up together the second time to the next highest point, which was proabaly around 15-18 feet above water. I was on the high side and was freaking out again. I seriously am so happy that I got to do it though because it really was exhilerating just to fall into the water. So, cliff jumping can be crossed off my list of things to do before I die...YES!

Next is cave diving. Which was crazy because the boat just brought you up to this little cave, you jumped off the side of the boat and just swam in. There were no floatation devices, there were no life jackets, no rocks to hold onto. They said if you aren't a good swimmer don't do it, so obviously I was like the first person to jump into the water. I mean I was a swimmer all my life and a lifeguard...I was practically a professional cave diver. It was so cool...literally. It was cold, cold water in that cave. We swam through until we got to this little rock where you could stand up and climb through a hole in the cave to get out on top of it. I was barefoot and in my swim suit climbing up this hole and all over the rocks. I felt like I was about to do a model photoshoot when we got out though because it totally had rocks to lay out on and the waves were crashing in behind us with the sun coming down and nothing but ocean in the background. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera!! Dang it!! Someone else did so we took one picture, hung out there but then had to go. The boat was taking us back to the beach for the rest of the day. It was sooooooo worth the 15 euros I paid to do all of that because I may never get to do that kind of stuff again. It was such an amazing experience.

Once we got back to the beach we slept...and I got burnt. Oops. I applied sunscreen like 4 times to my shoulders, but it was inevitable that I was getting so much sun and I was in the water so much that it could never stay on long enough. Oh well...I wasn't all that bad to be honest, but I was a little red. We eventually had to leave :( and went back to the hostel. I was so covered in salt that my shirt was stuck to my back, I mean this quite literally. Shower, get dressed, and then dinner and bar at the hostel. We hung out there for the night. At midnight it was one of my roommate's birthday, Liz. She turned 20 at the most beautiful place in the world...jealous!! They were also shooting off fireworks and sending up lanterns into the sky while we were on the rooftop so it was such an amazing view after the sun went down. I love this place and it was a lot of fun, but sleep was definitely on my agenda. I went in early so I could update people about my trip, let mom know I was having a blast, let dad know that his catcher didn't hurt herself cliff jumping, and let JJ know that he totally is missing out and should have come to visit me like I said!!!! Haha but I did get to bed and got to sleep for like 7 hours. That was huge compared to normal sleep time here. I was as happy as can be. :)