After yesterday's episode with the toast machine at breakfast I was in no mood to get up before 9 and fight over a few bits of bread! So I snoozed like a baby way past breakfast, and it was actually Shaun telling me to get out of bed!
We had planned to go to pompeii today so we had read the guide book and we knew we needed to get this special type of train to the site. We were advised to take some sandwiches to pompeii because the restaurants there weren't very nice, so we went on a sandwich hunt! We ended up with a proscuitto ham and cheese sandwich in a stottie like bread. I don't think there has been a day where we haven't eaten proscuitto ham!! It's literally in everything! So anyway we got on this train, which was an experience and a half! The description that Naples is like liverpool was spot on! The train was packed with rowdy charvers (or chavs for those reading in other parts of the country than Newcastle!)
We got off the train at Pompeii and didn't have a clue where we were going so we just followed the crowd! There were guys outside selling bottles of ice (not water!) so we thought we should buy one to take in, and it seemed to have melted within a few minutes!
We got our tickets to get into Pompeii and we got reduced tickets (half price!) because we were under 26! So if you over 26 in europe your old apparently!
We wondered around Pompeii for hours looking at all the ruins! We decided to get an audio guide each because we got reduced tickets but the guy on the guide (Shaun was adamant it was a woman!) was a bit patronising so that got switched off after a while! When I swotched mine back on to find out about something it had changed to Italian! My Italian isn't that great so I had to do without! We walked around there for about 4 hours with our little sandwich break (which was minging!) My feet were so sore, I don't know how the romans managed with all these cobbled roads!
The size of pompeii was huge! It must have taken years to excavate it all, and some of the things looked untouched. (probably because they had been restored!) There was a huge ampitheatre where the gladiators used to fight (according to shaun's audio guide!) and there were long streets with rows of houses. The only annoying thing was the tour groups going around! We often got stuck in the middle of one, and when they're not speaking English it gets a bit annoying after a while! (if it was English we would have stuck around and ditched our audio guides completely!)
So after exploring the entirity of Pompeii we got back on the train with a bottle of ice! Again the train was full of charvers so I was desparate to get off! We got back to the hotel and the first thing I had to do was go in the shower! Pompeii was so dusty and I decided to wear flipflops, so my feet were black! It doesn't help that my legs aren't tanning, yet my feet have gone a lovely shade of brown (like a chicken in the oven!) so it just looks like I have dirty feet!
We went back to the restaurant that we went to last night because it was quite nice, and cheap, and not too far away! The waiter recognised us and welcomed us with some free dough balls (I think they were just trying to get rid of them!) We both had "the tourist menu" which was a first course- spaghetti carbonara, a second course- veal and chips (although I'm certain it was pork!) and a drink! All for just over €10! There's no chance of us starving in Italy- especially since theres a McDonalds over the road! After we had our meal we decided to find a bar. I saw a place over the road with "bar" in big flashing lights but when we got there it was just a shack with a beer fridge!
Another thing we've noticed about Italy is the driving! Road signs and traffic lights mean nothing at all!! At a pedestrian crossing red means certain death and green means probable death!
So we're back at the hotel bar with two mojitos and the waiters just brought a bowl of complementary crisps that Shaun is munching his way through so I better go and get my share!
Will be back on here tomorrow!
Caio!
xxx