Day 2, Naples and reflections

Naples Day two, beware of tourist traps

I woke up a bit later that I would have liked our second day in Naples, it probably had something to do with the night before :)

Anyhow we got on the road slow anyway, thanks Lars. We backtracked to Pompeii where we could catch a bus for Mt. Vesuvius, seeing as its like 15km away from our hostel we decided to climb it. We wandered to the first bus we saw that said “Free trip to Mt. Vesuvius” of course someone came up to us telling we we couldn't go on the bus. Of course we were very confused.

The day was uneventful mainly because there was so much travel time involved. I forgot my shoes at the hostel in the rush out and had to climb the mountain in my sandals. It turned out fairly well, no rocks in my feet or anything.

But now let me talk about the “climb” that we did. I think its best presented in Iteninary form.

20min: wait for bus up mountain (we looked for water, but nothing eventful happened)
1 hr: bus ride up mountain (I slept)
20 min: get off bus and wait.

Here we had to listen to an 85 year old guy tell stories about the Mountain in an attempt to get money from us. Here keep in mind that we were talking public transportation up the Mountain and this felt like a very unplanned stop. I think the bus driver was bribed or something. Eh it was funny, what ever.

20 min: continue bus ride to top

15 min: walk up to crater, but not the summit.

30 min: stroll around the summit eat lunch and get some nice pictures.

10 min: walk back down

1 hr: wait for the bus to come again. (according to some people it was over a half hour late.

This puts us at around 3:00. We planned to be on the train to Rome by 6:30, plenty of time.

1 hr: bus ride down

1 hour 30 min time to wait for the train, accadently take the express, take it 1 stop to far, decide to take a “shortcut” back, and instead find out we took the wrong line, wait for the train back, and the next connecting train back and finally walk back to the hostel.

Those of you keeping track will notice that we have about an hour to catch out 6:30 train.

I don't remember the exact times anymore but it turns out we only had about 30 min to get to our train by the time we left the hostel, which was in a hurry I might add.

Its a 20 min train ride from our hostel to the train

We got to the train station about 3 min before our train left. We ran up the stairs and out to the station proper and arrived just in time to see our train leave the station.

Thankfully another one was leaving 10 min later.

A 3 hour nap later and we were in Rome. All I did that first night was check into the hostel and talk to some people in my dorm room. Hostel name: the Navigator. I was tired and grumpy so I went to sleep while Lars and Jeff took a night walk to the Roman ruins.


Before I forget, I need to write why I love to travel. I haven't had the best time traveling with Lars and Jeff, its been fun for sure, but sometimes one of them or another does something thats bothersome, or I don't get to do what I want to do. I realize that this in part stems from me being difficult to be around when traveling sometimes, but thats another entry entirely. Anyhow tonight I remembered why traveling is so amazing.

For the entire trip I've felt isolated, completely un-at-home, ignorant of whats going on around me and in generally confused as to whats going on around me. Tonight I was sitting alone at the Trevi Fountains and on the Spanish Steps and realized thats exactly what I liked about traveling before.

Being completely alone, no English in sight and being able to reflect on everything, what you've seen during the day, life in general, what to do next when traveling. Thats one of the things I really loved when traveling and I'm sad I missed it this trip. I should have wandered off more by myself, not seen the tourist things, but really wandered though the city, and in general been around my friends less. Being alone and seeing stuff alone when traveling brings a clarity of experience that can't be had when traveling with a group.

Granted group traveling has its advantages, but traveling alone is better. I think I might wander Rome by myself tomorrow.

Thats one more issue. Lars always talks about how much it sucks to do things with a tour group, waiting for everyone to be ready. Well what he didn't realize this entire trip, was we weren't doing things at our pace, we were going things at Lars pace, which is much slower and gockier than I would like.

Tourist sites must be seen and then must be moved away from quickly. Thats my travel philosophy and Lars and Jeff just don't agree.

I've been on the Lars tour of Europe for the last 3 weeks and should have taken charge more, navigated more and gotten lost more. I'm a shit navigator, but thats what makes things fun. I love back streets and running into things you've never heard of before. Thats what makes traveling worth it for me.

Ok back to my regularly scheduled travel writing.

I've got 15 min before my battery dies, I'm going to try and finish by then. (thats what she said)