Pompei

So, today I walked around an enormous archaeological site for five hours in the blistering heat. It was a LOT more fun than it sounds. My little trip to Pompei started off fairly disastrously, being caught on the bus with no ticket (through NO fault of my own) and being asked to pay a €50 fine, um, no, I don't think so, mate. I told a few white lies about what my name and passport number was (?!!) after telling him I had neither €50 nor my passport on me. Despite my best efforts to get out of it... wasn't going to happen. I tried being confused, being sad, being cute, I tried to chuck out some Italian to impress him, I batted my eyelids, I tried being funny... nothing worked. I got kicked off the bus in the middle of nowhere with a big blue fine in my hands and told to pay it at the post office. Yeah, sure... NOT. Despite my best efforts at being a bit of a bad-ass in high school... I HATE getting into trouble, needless to say I spent most of the day envisioning myself being handcuffed at the airport on my way out and trundled through the streets in shame while the locals throw tomatoes at me and shake their heads with disapproval. But probably not, hey? Surely not. The deckhand practically fell overboard when I told him what I did and how worried I was about getting into trouble.

ANYWAYS, as I was saying... I went to Pompei. Telling the truth and buying tickets for the bus weren't the only lessons I learnt today. Lesson number three: don't ever... EVER use an audio guide and a map to explore an enormous archaeological site. It's even MORE boring than reading tiny writing on signs.  Just pay the extra euros for a proper guide. It's such a big place and there's so much to see, impossible to do it yourself. I battled with the audio guide headphone things 'cause the lady would be talking about something and then I'd spot something interesting in the distance and walk off and she was still blathering on and then I didn't know where I was or how to pause the stupid thing, or how to get back to where I came from, her voice was so annoying I kept turning down the volume when she was irritating me too much. I was a bit of a disaster, and, despite scoring a first for geography... couldn't use the map to save my life. I need help with these things, poor me, I'm so silly. But I had such a cool time anyways, I started tagging along with other groups and listening in to what they were talking about. It was such a fascinating place you could literally spend days there. Oh, checklist for Pompei: water bottle, sunscreen, hat, lunch. I didn't have ANY of that, it was awesome; sunburnt, hungry and thirsty (winning combo). I'm proud of me, after all that fluffing about in the streets of Naples and all the shopping hoo-ha, I did something so uber educational, I've filled my entire quota for the year! Okay, pictures from my super educational, historical tour of Pompei coming soon. Wait, I haven't told you anything about the history of Pompei and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but you already know about it, right? If not, well, maybe the Neapolitans will trundle YOU through the streets for a good public shaming. Goodnight. (Google it)