I turned 21 this weekend!

Note. I turned 21 this weekend in Italy. More specifically, on the Amalfi Coast. It was a dream come true. What isn't nowadays?

My birthday was Friday, the 30th, and granted that day wasn't exactly made of dreams. My roommates and I woke up at two thirty in the morning to catch three different types of transportation to make it to our flight on time. Once we landed, we had to take a bus to a train to another bus to a taxi to get to our Airbnb on a teeny, tiny town nestled on the coast called Cetara. It was a lot of scrambled, half-broken Italian and Fiats stuck in traffic. Worth it.

My favorite day of the weekend was decidedly not my birthday, but the day after. We called a cab (because we could not be bothered to trust the public transportation anymore) to Amalfi. It was picturesque. Postcard worthy views. We walked up and down the crowded, narrow streets, for once praising the fact that we were in the company of other English-speaking Americans. We each had at least three different types of gelato and I bought a heaping bag of lemon candy that I happily munched on throughout the day.

But the best part was the beach. We brought giant towels we borrowed from our host and laid them out on the rocky shore. The water was lukewarm and crystal clear, I could see tiny schools of bright blue fish swimming around my ankles. At one point, I swam out far enough that when I turned around to face the beach again, I could see all the brightly colored buildings that made Amalfi spread out across the cliffs. It was definitely a bucket list moment and a truly happy birthday to me.