6/29 "I'll see you in Pompeii!"

I woke up at about 6 AM feeling so alert! I went downstairs, had a croissant and jam, and packed my backpack for the day.

Everyone else started to get up, have coffee, and get ready to go, too. We left the villa and walked down the road to wait for the 7:25 bus to the train station. We waited. And waited. And waited. By 7:45, we realized the bus wasn't going to come. Paul piled one group of us in his car and took us up to the bus stop in town. We all met up about 30 mins. later.

We had to take a bus from our town to the train station in Sorrento. Then we got on the train that took us to Pompeii. Paul, Leona, and their daughter Leah met up with us about 20 mins. after we got to a cafe at entrance of Pompeii. We waited in line to get our tickets. About 10 mins. into waiting in line, I hear "Hi cousin!" I turn around and give a hug to my cousin Alex, followed by her sister Gabe and their brother KT. Their parents Ken and Becky also came over and said hi. Their cruise ship was in port so we had coordinated seeing Pompeii together, which was awesome!!

We enter the ruins with 2 sick goals: 1. To see dead bodies and 2. To see the brothels. After walking around, taking lots of pictures and sweating our asses off, we found both! The bodies were total creepy. The brothels were disturbing, especially for the fact that the "beds" were made out of stone.

After a couple hours of exploring the ruins, which were really fascinating by the way, we split up our group to go to lunch and the archaeological museum. My cousins had rented a van that could only fit 9 so my family went with my cousins to Naples and the rest of our group headed back toward the villa.

The driver was concerned about his tip now that he had 4 more passengers. Ken assured him he would be taken care of. He dropped us off near the pir and showed us which direction to go to get to the museum. After walking pretty far and having to stop for directions a couple times, we found a nice little ristorante where we stopped and had awesome sausage and pepper pizza.

We made our way up the block and found the museum. It had cool artifacts from Pompeii, statues, and paintings. After taking pictures of us sniffing statues' butts and looking at artifacts for a couple hours, we said our goodbyes to our cousins as they headed back to the ship. We got on the train at the train station and started our hour and 20 min. train ride back to Sorrento. I was soooo tired and couldn't help but nod off only to be awakened by people pushing past me.

It was a relief to have made it to Sorrento. We had to take a bus from Sorrento back to our small town. When we got back, everyone else was already there relaxing. Leah started making dinner and soon after we were feasting on chicken picatta, salad, and bread. It was soooo good! Her secret ingredient?? Crystal light!

After stuffing my face we played our after dinner game: poker. We bet 5 euros each to play Texas hold'em. I never did win a hand. After about an hour, I went all in on 5 and 2 off suit... And thankfully lost... I was ready to take a shower and go to bed. I went up to our "Internet cafe," (the patio area above the villa, which was the only place to get wifi) to, of course check my Facebook and email. After a long sweaty day, my shower felt amazing!!! I think I then fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.