Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius

JAKE (I've made this blog. . . interactive!!!) : So we decided to see some old stuff, some well-preserved old stuff. We boarded a fairly full bus to Pompeii right in our town of Atrani. Our first annoyance (because annoyances are funnier) was that the bus wasn't full, but there were not two seats together. Julie and I had to split up. We later learned after our Pompeii stop that some spouses weren't sitting together, which is why we couldn't.

SIDEBAR #1: You don't need your own seat on a crowded bus, especially if you're traveling with someone. Julie said we saved some couples marriage by forcing them to sit together once we got back on and chose to sit next to each other. Not only did we save their marriage, we saved them from looking like a bunch of jerks for forcing people to split up.

Anyways, we had a random tour guide who spoke as we were driving there which I don't like because it keeps me awake. Once at Pompeii, we were both surprised at the size of it. It's like a sprawling metropolis, albeit a destroyed one, but quite large. Our tour comprised of us having these little wireless receivers so we could hear our tour guide as we walked around. It was really cool to see, but two hours was a little excessive. One of the highlights was one of the couples on our tour got separated. We could not find this guy's wife, and he kept calling her on the phone trying to figure out where she was. ("Where are you??" "I'm by some crumbling wall with some rocks on the ground." "Which wall?" "The one that's falling down." "Where?"). That's how I imagined their conversation going. It was funnier because they were German and he had those creepy glasses, you know, kind of like this? They were finally reunited and we couldn't tell if they were arguing or just being German (like this). Next, we had lunch at some awful looking cafeteria, where our tour guide kept telling us what a great deal it was to have a pizza, a drink, and a horrible cake for 13 Euros (about $19). I would have rather have scored this deal, though our's did not come with complimentary diarrhea. The upside of our lunch is that we met some delightful Aussies. We educated each other about our respective countries. Their 7th grade daughter wanted to know if it was true that you could get burgers anywhere. Very funny perspective from Aussies (since they're from the Isle of Criminals, I made sure they didn't take anything. . . they didn't).

Next stop, Vesuvius. An active volcano that hasn't erupted since 1944. Julie was a bit nervous about the hike up to the top, since she didn't want to be a part of a future Italian museum. My bigger concern was the wind, which was amazingly strong. I would gust (pun intended) it was blowing around 40-50mph. However, if my biggest weather condition complaint on a volcano is the wind, I guess I should shut up. It was a rather steep hike, but not too long. We were able to see smoke and an amazing view of the sea and cities below. Unsurprisingly, we crossed some Europeans smoking at the top. Pretty sure these people would be lighting their cigarettes with the lava flow as others run past them.

SIDEBAR #2: Port-a-Potties are the second-lowest form of using the restroom, just above peeing outside. However, there should be a decent gap between the two. We both needed to use the restroom and there were Port-a-Potties at the base of the mountain. Of course, it being Europe, these needed to be a bit off. Instead of a hole, like most toilets, they wanted you to pee on a sort of conveyor belt and hand crank it past a brush or a some type of spray thing. Perhaps this was a great idea 95 years ago, but the hole is sufficient. It is not an improvement to see someone else's refuse pass by smashed into a conveyor belt. Just a tip in case anyone reading makes these, though I hope they're still not in production.

We then got forced to go to some crappy factory/showroom where they make jewelry, which I can only assume was to pad our tour guide's pockets. Very classy. Remember the German guy? He almost got on the wrong bus.

SIDEBAR #3: Why did we pay for a tour only to have to pay for our own lunch, our hike up Vesuvius, and our tour guide and bus driver want tips? Really? You're going to have to impress me a lot more than that before you get a tip. I did have one tip for our tour guide. She had a cold sore the size of Mt. Vesuvius that a doctor should probably look at.

We ended up at dinner in Atrani at a highly recommended place. Unfortunately, it was not as good as we hoped. It was still a good meal, but not like the last couple of nights. The service was very poor, but we did have some good seafood and good desserts.