mckay [meets france]: experience: POMPEII & MOUNT VESUVIUS!

^view of vesuvius, from naples

^view from the top of the volcano

[these pictures are SUCH LAME SAUCE compared to the real thing! they seriously don't even BEGIN to do it justice...]

--

today was just absolutely grand in every single, stinkin' way!

I SUMMITED MOUNT VESUVIUS! AND EXPLORED POMPEII!

the rambles begin:

--woke up this morning at about 6am to say goodbye to kiet, my travelling partner, who was headed to the airport to fly back to america... don't remember the goodbye much because i was only half concious... it was sad to see him go, but the prospect of traveling alone was always a bit exciting to me... which brings me to...

--woke up finally and headed upstairs to the kitchen of THE BEST HOSTEL IN EUROPE to eat free breakfast [bread and nutella, baby!]

--sat next to rachel, a traveller from scotland [though originally from ireland]

--hit it off perfectly with her and decided to hop on a bus together to pompeii!

--had one heck of a time finding the bus station and getting a ticket... ended up waiting around for a good 45 minutes on a wonderful blob of rocks next to the ocean and a huge shipyard

--too the beautiful bus ride to pompeii, about 30 mins away from where we were in naples

--showed up and found a campsite, where we set up rachel's tent... SHE IS TRAVELING WITH A TENT! HOW EPIC IS THAT? [i will SOOOOO be bringing a tent with me the next time i backpack through europe!]

--went halfsies on a pizza for lunch... as always, it was divine

--tried finding the bus that would take us up the mount vesuvius so we could hike to the huge crater in the middle of the volcano

--FAILED in epic ways, got terrible directions from a number of strangers, and wound up in new pompeii... don't the name fool you... by "new" they mean "lacking ancient ruins, but still totally ghetto fab"

--wandered around new pompeii for a while and FINALLY realized why it was such a ghost town... everyone was on siesta! [the liesurely afternoon nap time that many european cities grant themselves each day... if only america could get with the program!] siesta time meant empty streets, run down buildings, just enough signs of life to let you know people are sort of around, but not much else...

--> brief description of new pompeii: it reminded me of a po-dunk place in western america, perhaps nevada or something... of course, the architecture was all very european, but the energy was SO small-town-america... i felt a bit at home, even... --finally found the bus after some hilarious wandering

--> finally found the bus station after being told about twelve different ways to get there... rachel and i kept laughing at how animated the italians get when they give directions... and how horribly innacurate many of them are... [though i suppose i can forgive them if they don't know left from right in english, since i don't know a lick of italian!]

--> hopped on the bus and met some WONDERFUL people... one from new york city, one from washington dc, and one from baltimore

--> went up the CRAZY STEEP WINDING road to the top of the volcano! it was seriously just like a roller coaster ride... the bus driver FLEW around the corners honking his horn to warn people that he was coming, as we all looked out the window at the crazy hieght we were gaining and the gorgeous coast below

--> stopped at a little shack on the way up, where a rather eccentric italian woman [in the most amusing accent] told us the history of the volcano, all about how her father was around for its last explosion in 1940something, and on and on... her shop sold THE MOST RANDOM junk you can imagine [we're talking glittery dolphins, sparkly marijuana leaf magnets, shiny kitten statues, barfybarfbarf!] it was very clear that she had some deal with the bus driver... "stop your bus at my little shack so tourists can buy things from me and i will give you all the free drinks you want..." or something like that...

--> AT LAST reached the end of the road, hopped out and started hiking!

--> OMGEEEEE, THE VIEW. basically, we looked out at the ENTIRE southern coastline of italy [ie: the mediterranean/tyrrhenian sea!] it is absolutely COVERED in stunning mountains and greenery like nothing else i've seen. and the buildings, OH the buildings! tiny little houses dot the entire coastline in wonderfully spontaneous ways. i just can't believe how many millions of people are nestled in next to one of the world's most active volcanos... !!!

--> i'm going to keep talking about the view. the sky was so blue, but we were so high that we were literally inside of a cloud at one point. the fog felt INCREDIBLE [take that, italian heat!] and made the experience that much more dream-like and enchanting. the volcano itself was a deep, deep pit of rocky/sandy/lava looking stuff [go figure...] there was steam rising up from within at a few different spots inside the volcano. the fact that we were LITERALLY standing on the edge of the mouth of a volcano still blows my mind.

--> kept recalling all sorts of random facts from my freshman world history class in high school, where we learned all about mt. vesuvius and its destructive eruption over the historical civilization of pompeii

--> had SUCH a good time chatting up a storm with all of the new friends i'd met... chatted about anything and everything you can imagine... even set up a lunch date with one friend for when we're both in nyc next week! the people you meet while traveling literally just make things so incredible and THAT MUCH BETTER... as if things could get that much better...

--> took a few snapshots, wandered all over the top of vesuvius, just gaaaaaazed out at the islands/palmtrees/villages/birds/ocean in the distance [the view was just MASSIVE... you could see SO MUCH for MIIIIIIIIILES, or kilometers i should say...]

--> finally wandered back down to the bus, where we saw another gift shop full of tacky goodies like light-up turtles and golden egyptian heads [seriously, because OBVIOUSLY both of those things will forever remind me of vesuvius... ?]

--> took the bus back down, couldn't keep my eyes off the view, fell in love with some lovely form of BRIGHT YELLOW tree/bush concoction... the smell was utterly lovely

--> arrived back down at the base of the mountain, exchanged facebook info with friends, and headed back to the campsite with rachel to make sure her tent was still in good shape

--> wandered around the ruins of pompeii... SO FANTASTIC! [if you don't know the story of pompeii, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii ] it's so amazing to have all of these things i learned in history class coming to life all over the place in italy! can't get enough of it!

this is going to sound like something i say way too much, HOWEVER, i simply CAN'T EXPRESS TO YOU how much i love this place! [the southern coast of italy!] it is just TO-DIE-FOR. someday i will travel here to spend a few weeks JUST exploring the coast! the cities are all so inviting and the sea here is just one-of-a-kind [not to mention the breathtaking mountains and wonderfully insane cities...]

and now i'm sitting all cozy in an adorable little hostel in the heart of naples with fellow travelers from all over the world.

it's a bit like heaven, i suppose.

=]