So I’m in my train waiting at the station for it to leave, and all the normal fears that I have are surfacing. You know, am I on the right train, what about the car, or for that matter the seat? Actually I know that I’m in the right seat, it’s the train that I’m concerned about. I guess we’ll find out eventually.
This time around I have to say that I feel completely different about Rome than I did three years ago. The last time I was here I felt that it was a little too ghetto for me. It seemed too dirty, too big, and had all the negatives that any big city had. This time though I started to like it. The architecture is the biggest draw for me, it was simply beautiful in most situations. The only thing that I don’t like, and this goes for most of the places that I’ve been in Southern Europe is that it’s way too expensive. I can’t imagine ever living here unless I made twice the money than I do now.
The train leaves in about four minutes and I’m ready to go. Where? I guess we’ll see. It’s kind of funny, there is a young girl on the train that must be curious about me. She’s staring, almost like she wants to talk to me but doesn’t speak English. Kids are cute.
Naples? I wasn’t prepared for this! I guess that I just thought it would be like all the other Italian cities that I’ve been to. You know, old buildings, lots of tourists, a typical European city with an Italian flavor. What I found out was this place is a madhouse. I don’t think that I’ve been to a city quite like it this summer. There are people everywhere, there seems to be no rule of the road, to cross the street you just start walking and hope that the car stops. I saw a Westerner almost get plowed by a scooter just a few minutes ago. It’s so hectic that it is similar to something that you’d expect in Cairo or Mumbai. Cars are double and triple parked and everybody seems to be in a hurry, that is except for the shopkeepers who are just hanging in the doorway to their shops.
I set out to get a map and then see some sites today, so after checking into the hotel, I headed back to the train station to find a tourist center. There really isn’t anything that I know that I “need” to see here in Naples, but I would like to see Pompeii or/and Mt Vesuvius so a tourist center was the best place to get that information. I think I’ve decided that tomorrow I’ll head to Mt Vesuvius, since I didn’t find any information about Pompeii it must either be too far away or there isn’t anything to see.
After that I headed out to see some of the sites that were listed on the map. It seemed pretty straight forward, go straight from the train station and eventually you’d hit the first site on the map. Geez, after about two minutes of walking I realized that there wasn’t anyway that I be able to find my way back without my gps, so I headed back to the hotel. Can you believe it, I got lost just about five blocks from the train station? Instead of backtracking to the station, I went in the direction of the hotel, and after making a few wrong turns, eventually I ended up at the hotel by accident.
