Hey hey hey

Our trip has once again shifted gears and we are now in the land of Ferraris and meatballs. We are in the town of Naples in a dormatory-style hostel. It is a pretty hip and swingin' place, so that uncool and squarish description probably just got me booted. We are near a square with many interesting shops and eateries. Thankfully, we have been able to do a bit of laundry and will be smelling better just as soon as we get some showers, too. Today consisted of lots of sweating, beginning with an early morning wake-up in Corinth, followed by a hectic drive back to the rental car place in Athens, which involved an unknown wrong turn and an, at least in retrospect, exciting misadventure as we struggled through the comically dangerous web that is the streets of Athens. I managed to avoid hitting cars, buses, motorcycles and pedestrians despite all their efforts otherwise. I also managed to only run two red lights in the course of finding our destination. Most of the rest of the day unfolded in a nearly equally frustrating but much less interesting sequence of events which entailed a train to the Athens airport, a plane to Naples, a bus to center of town, a walk to the train station, a train to this side of town and then a short walk to the hostel. We then took a walk around the area, had some pizza and other more mysterious foodstuffs. Nikki had what is perhaps the richest looking desert I have ever seen, a combination of dark and white chocolate in coffee covered with whipped cream and with cookies jammed into its sides. I passed on the dessert. We then took in a brief glimpse of the Mediterranean before heading back. I think tonight will again be an early one as this pace of travel has sapped my energy. The plan for tomorrow is to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Hercolaneum and then a train ride to Rome where we will spend a couple days soaking up millenia of art and history. LATERZ - Maximus