Pompeii, Italy

October 8, 2011

Who ever though I’d climb a Volcano? Dream Big.

A Better Day…Pompeii and the Ruins.

8:01 AM

I’m saying good bye to Naples right now, but not for long… We’re up early and on our way to Pompeii. The morning is beautiful, the air smells great and we’re on the train on time! I hope it only gets better after this, we deserve this day!!

7:38 PM

The moment we stepped out of the train station this morning in Pompeii we were so excited. It was so pretty. We saw flags from different countries everywhere.

Not only that but we walked past a pastry shop and saw a huge croissant!!! I wanted it so bad, but omg, can you believe how much butter that is? So I passed it up, sadly. Then we put our bags away at the hostel and decided to go to Mount Vesuvio–The Volcano! On our way there we approached many souvenir shops; they were everywhere. We also kept seeing these 3 African dudes pushing a weird wheel barrow used for tree wastes. One of the guys was staring SO hard at me, all i could do was laugh because it was funny. Surprisingly, where we had to get to was the same destination they were approaching! But along the way we had scattered off somewhere and then we forgot all about them and didn’t see them anymore. Then we went to the police station to ask where to find the bus to take us to the volcano. When we got to the bus stop we saw 3 African dudes cutting branches down from trees. My first glance at these guys wasnt anything shocking. But the second time i looked I was like omg, aren’t those the guys that we were following & staring at me?? Judith and I started cracking up!! Then some dogs came up to me and I got so scared I was walking into Judith and then went inside the nearest souvenir shop until they left; Matt and Judith joined me. We left shortly after and went back to the bus stop and then a bug flew on my jacket. I yelled and snatched off my jacket and Matt took it off of me; it was only a lady bug. Then a freaking cricket jumps on my shoe and I start kicking my feet. While all of this is happening to me, the men on the tree are laughing at me! Great, I’m entertaining them!

8:43 PM

The bus finally arrives and we hop on it. The view going up the mountain is PERFECT! We could look over the whole city of Pompeii and Naples. The water and the buildings were beautiful. When we got to the mountain, we had to hike to the top for 30 minutes. The sound of the rocks under my feet had me so excited. But on my way up, I couldn’t help but breathe in that beautiful moment. At the same time, I was literally and physically dying. The hike was such a work out. When we reached the top, we saw nothing but beauty. There was steam rising from the inside of the rocks, the rocks hugging the mountain were red–lava rocks! We took lots of nice pictures and finally made our way back down!

When we finally reached the city center, we checked in the hotel and wrote out our postcards that we bought at the top of the volcano. I wrote one to my grandma and my pastor. I miss my grandma SO much! It hurts to live without her, but I know she’s glad I’m taking in this experience. I can’t wait to see my family.

We finally get to the ruins and wow, it was sad how much destruction was present. An entire city was just gone. It was definitely a sight to see. I  was sad but I appreciated my opportunity to be there. Even with the volcano and all the destruction it caused in the past. How sad… So we walked around ruins for a couple of hours, played with a few stray white dogs and then we headed out for pizza.

Now let me remind you, this was our third day in a row eating pizza ! I still can’t believe it. The pizza was OK… It definitely wasn’t as good as the pizza from the days before. When it was time to pay for the pizza, I thought the waiter was over charging us because he was telling us what to pay without a check and to me I’m not about to pay for anything until I can SEE what it is I’m paying for; I was so confused–> STRIKE ONE! So the waiter is trying to explain who owes what–over and over again. We had to pay a service charge of €4. You know I was mad; they were ripping us off because we clearly weren’t Italian–>STRIKE ONE/HALF!

Afterwards Matt and I went around to find some stamps to mail our postcards so we walk to the nearest tabacchi shop but the worker tells us to go the post office a few blocks down. Again, I was confused, instead of telling us that he didn’t have anymore, he kept telling us to go somewhere else to get stamps and I couldn’t understand why. So we go to the post office but it was closed! So we go back to the same tabacchi shop thinking maybe he didn’t understand, so I pulled out my post cards and pointed the stamp area and again he told me to go to the post office–> FAIL! So we hurried to another tabacchi shop before it closed. The worker there told me the tabacchi shop doesn’t sell stamps, only the post office and they are closed on Sundays–> STRIKE TWO! So Matt and I won’t be sending our postcards from Naples anymore, now we have to wait until we get to Rome. From there we started to venture out and found a 9/11 memorial. It was a piece of one of the twin towers and a plate honoring the lives that were lost during the attack. I fell in love with the sight and my country; oh how I missed America! We took lots of pics and then walked around the city. I was laughing and talking and some girl walks past me and mocks what I was saying to Matt. I didn’t realize she was mocking me at first and then Judith told me. I turned around to look at her; she’s glad she was far away already–>STRIKE THREE! We continued walking and then we found a super cheap gelato place. It was sooo good and we had at least 3 times the normal size cup. So we went to the fountain just to eat it. It was nice to sit there and take in the moment. Pompeii was really beautiful! Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Once at the hotel, we decided to book our the rest of our trip for our second break! I’m so excited for Venice and Greece!!! I also texted my boyfriend since I hadn’t talked to him since Wednesday– that was a whole 3 days. We got into some arguments because he said i told him to leave me alone and I said well that’s fine I can do that. It got more argumentative and then he ripped up our picture and sent me an email of it. Oh boy how crushed my heart was. I tried so hard to act like I didn’t care when I really did. Then he called me on the phone and we started talking shit to each other just to really say that we missed each other.

It started getting late and all of a sudden Judith comes out of the room freaked out about ghosts and someone slamming open the door to the balcony. When we asked her if she at least locked the door to the room she said she did, so when Matt and I go to scope out the room the door was NOT locked!! When it opened a little bit I jumped back and yelled and Matt jumped and flew back. I was laughing so hard, it was so funny. We were making so much noise while other people were sleeping. I went back to the door and it was all fine, no one was there. I hurried up, grabbed my bag and her camera and then ran out the room back to the lobby area. I stayed for a few more hours and talked to my boyfriend again and then went back to that creepy haunted room and took a shower. Finally I got in the bed and went to sleep. I was gone! It was still a good day…