I am going to start out with a minor freak out. As of yesterday, I have ONE MONTH left of my program!!! How on earth has time gone so fast?!?! It is so beyond scary because I can also plan out every weekend up until that point and after that things aren't very set in stone (as of yet). I still do not have my return flight home, so I am feeling just a little unsettled. I am going to Spain in two days, though, so Katie and I are going to really sit down and book flights and all that for this amazing summer to come! An ounce or two of homesickness has finally stuck into me and it made me realize that this has now been the longest I have been away from home. I am used to going home at least once every 10 weeks and it has now been almost 3 months here. Easter is also approaching by the end of this week and just knowing that for the first time I won't be opening my stuffed easter basket in pajamas with my family in the morning, or fighting with Jess and Nikki over how many eggs they got, or watching Tanner and Sam have their own hunt, or eating all the delicious food at my grandpa's house has got me a bit sad. There will be plenty more to come, though, so I am attempting not to fret too much about it. Many people's families in my program have also been visiting these past few weekends so that doesn't help this situation much either. Gr, why is flying to Europe so expensive?!
I gotta just pump this blog out now because I have very little time today (a presentation tomorrow, packing, printing all my info, etc etc) and this blog of mine has the tendency to run on and on and on :)
Okay so! I was originally planning on not going anywhere this weekend and maybe seeing a friend nearby, but that didn't work out, so I last minutely tagged along with my housemates' plans. After class and a test on Thursday I packed up my tiny backpack and then we all headed to the train station around 5pm. We took a looooong ride (3.5 hours) to Rome, booked into our HUGE hostel (unfortunately I had booked separately and was in a separate 1o person room than my housemates), spent way too long figuring out the keys to my door, threw our stuff down, and booked it to the Trevi Fountain. Rome is so magical during the night! Granted, I haven't seen it in the daytime (yet) but walking the emptier, wider and well list streets was a beautiful to catch just a glimpse of Rome. We arrived to the Trevi and were met by a HUGE group of people surrounding the famous fountain. This is where they all had been hiding! We wiggled our way through the crowed, took our necessary pictures, gazed at this famous fountain I am so used to seeing in pictures and on TV, and then headed to the Spanish steps nearby. At one point we were stopped by an older couple who asked us where we were from and we found out they had just gotten engaged at the fountain! They looked so beyond happy, it was very refreshing to talk with them. So the Spanish steps were....cool? I honestly don't know the history of them and at night they weren't very magnificent or anything, but it was still cool to walk up them and see the Vatican in the background. We meandered back home (it was now about midnight) and I proceeded to have a night full of a lot of sleep interruptions (10 people coming in and out plus an open window with cars/ambulances passing below), but all was good.
My roommates woke up early and visited the Colosseum (I decided to skip that part because I will be back to Rome in the summer time) and then we all met up at the train station as planned. We hopped on yet another 3+ hour train ride to Naples but were met with spectacular hillside and oceanside views to make up for it.
Preface: I was very worried about going to Naples. I had heard from many people (usually Italians) that this city was the most dangerous in all of Italy and it was not uncommon to be held at gunpoint or to just be mugged in general. There is a log of mafia in this city as well. But....it is also known for the BEST pizza in the WORLD, and we decided to only go for a few hours during the day.
So we get off at Naples (backpacks and all) and proceed to try to find a well known pizza place that I had looked up beforehand. We got a bit lost, as usual, and I was definitely uneasy by some of the looks we received from people we walked past, but we eventually reached the famous street and began to look for our pizza! Long story short, we had the wrong place all along but asked a local his favorite place instead and had a lovely and relaxing lunch. The pizza was AMAZING. Definitely the best I have had in Italy so far. Maybe note quite as good as I had expected, but still amazing! (side note for those of you who have read "Eat, Pray, Love", the pizza place she ate was just a few streets down! But I had been warned it is now very touristy and it wouldn't be the same). After pizza we meandered down streets and it was just SO italian! There were no tourists, only Italian was swirling all around us, clothes were hung from every window, and the drivers were as crazy as ever. We really enjoyed the culture here (worst part was the trash just laying on the street everywhere, it really was very gross) and by the time we got back to the train station our backs were killing us from our backpacks and we were full and ready to head on.
Now the exciting stuff happened. We are waiting for our train to Pompei when over the speakers, it is announced (in Italian) that there is a train strike and the train is no longer running. I was on the border of freaking out. I refused to be stuck in Naples, of all places!!! We asked around, found a bus that might go there, waited for the bus for a while (unsure if it even went to Pompei), and once the crowd started getting rowdy and scary, and the sun was almost down, we decided to head back to the station. We met our angel here, an employee of Trenitalia, who saw our scared faces and took our tickets from us, stamped them with his official seal, and led us to a different train and company that would be departing in 10 minutes. What a sweet, sweet soul!
The city of Pompei was adorable!! It was so small and just quaint and so safe feeling. Our hostel was amazing (we had our own bathroom, yes!) and we spent the night walking around the town that was largely deserted at that hour, having a drink, and eating some good southern italian food.
We woke up early the next morning, left our stuff at the hostel, and walked a mere 10 minutes to the site of the ruins! We were a bit bummed to find out we had to pay 11 euro to get in, but it was well worth it. We had a map and we just set off! I was a little bummed because I felt like I was looking at these amazing things without actually knowing the history behind it, but I will be back and next time I want to take a tour. This place is HUGE by the way! I didn't realize it was literally an entire city preserved and it took us a good 4 hours to see just a small portion of it. We had to speed walk to the places we wanted to see most but the day was perfectly sunny, the tourists weren't so bad, and the sights were just breath taking. I still can't believe the state most of these buildings and artifacts and PEOPLE are still in (more than 2000 years later!).
After about 5 hours we grabbed our stuff, hopped on a train to Naples (again) and decided on the way that since we would have an extra hour in Naples we should run into town and get a pizza to go :) So Christine and I dropped our stuff off with Vicky and Anna and proceeded to get horribly lost and look like insane idiots (people were seriously looking at us like we were aliens or something) as we ran through street after street looking for our pizza place. We eventually got there, "Di Matteo" was the name, and a huge crowd of people were waiting outside. I snuck my way into the chaos, ordered 3 margheritta pizza's to go from the actual chef, stood in the middle of complete ITalian craziness as pizza's and fried things were passed over and around me, and finally got my pizzas! Christine and I paid the whole 9 euro for all 3, ran back to the station with pizza boxes in our hands, and made it to the train! Before I was even able to catch my breath, we realized that I had booked a different train than the other girls and there's didn't leave for an hour! So they left me with my pizza (I was still content) and I had a nice 3 hour train ride all by myself. I actually really enjoyed this time alone and want to travel somewhere alone before leaving Europe. It is a completely different experience.
After that everything was pretty uneventful. The trains were long, of course, but we talked the entire time and time went by quickly. We got back at around midnight and I conked out. Sunday was a catch up day, like always, but I did make a point to go on a walk outside in the sunny and hot day. I discovered an entire carnival down the river, along with a gorgeous park and some trails! Who knew!
Now I have to go, so much to do with so little time, but Spain awaits!
Ciao!
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