My Day in Pompeii

I promise I will buy a postcard

21/03/2011

I woke up early today with a couple of things to do in mind. As I'm making my way out the door I remembered that my stay included breakfast. Sweet! I sat down and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with my coffee before leaving. I made my way to the town center where I needed to find a bank. The ATMs keep giving me 100 Euro bills that are almost impossible to break. So, I enter this bank and I'm looking for a door. Turns out that you need to press a button, step into this tube, wait until the other side of the tube opens, and then step into the bank. It was different. Well, there are two ladies at the teller and one man in front of me who is behind them. I felt like I was in Casablanca because I had to wait.....and wait....and wait.....and wait. It was so bad that the guy in front of me left. It was getting comical and at one point I almost left, but then there was this side of me that had to stay just to see actually how long the teller would help these women. Anyway, I finally got up there and got what I needed done. I walked across the street and grabbed some water, a pear, and a cold sandwich to pack with me for lunch. I got to the cirumvesuviana station just as the bi-hourly train arrived and boarded. I said to myself, "Where were you when I was in Rome?" Crazy! And the Roman metro runs every 5 minutes. Anyway, in a half hour I arrived at my stop. Pompeii!

Walking off the train the entrance to Pompeii is practically right in front of you. I dodged the very persistent souvenir hagglers, paid my 10 Euro, and entered the ruins of Pompeii. I walked in and with the exception of a couple of large tour groups I had the place to myself. I steered away from the groups and explored Pompeii without a sole in sight. I began to walk down the cobbled streets of Pompeii in the eerie silence of the morning. It was amazing! Much of the ruins is closed off, but there is still quite a lot of shops and homes that you can walk into and explore. Plus there is the occasional broken fence or gate that you know your not supposed to go into, but you can get away with it by saying, "Oh sorry, the gate was open". No one ever stopped me.

I always thought that Pompeii was a small village, but it actually was a very busy trading town with shops filled with people and merchants from all over the world looking to sell their goods. There was also a stadium, a bath house, houses for the rich, gardens, markets, a brothel, and a couple of theaters. The fact that Pompeii was so much larger than I thought really hit me since so many more people were affected by the volcano. When you are walking though this place you are constantly thinking about how this place was once covered in volcanic material that killed everyone in the city. Well, the very interesting thing about Pompeii (other than how large it is) is that when they located the city and started excavating it they were finding these odd air bubbles (or voids) in the volcanic material that contained bones in them. They finally decided to fill one of these bubbles with plaster. What appeared out of these plaster molds were the shapes of people and animals. The excavations of Pompeii had uncovered several molds of people in their last moments of life. Some were sleeping, praying, holding their hands up in fear, and, sadly, holding their children to try and protect them. It is quite an experience if you ever get the chance to go. I walked around all day and still wasn't able to walk down all the streets.

Around mid-day I stepped into the ruins of an old home, sat on a rock, and ate my lunch. It was pretty cool just to sit and eat in the ruins.
Another interesting thing about Pompeii is that I noticed that there are dogs everywhere! They are sleeping on the sidewalks and walking around. I didn't think much of it since dogs are pretty much welcome everywhere in Europe....even in restaurants. Well, on my way out I was reading a sign that explained that Pompeii is full of stray dogs. They even have set-up an adoption program to find them homes.

It's hard to explain in any more detail as to my experience in Pompeii. I'd like to read up a little more on this place because it is pretty fascinating. Like I said, if you ever get the chance to go I was recommend it. It was worth every Euro! Like I said, I walked around all day and didn't walk every street. Only 1/3 of Pompeii has been excavated.

Walking back to the train I was checking out the touristy items and the people tending the booths are really in your face. I hate that! I almost turned to one guy and said, "If you leave me alone and not say another word....I promise I will buy a postcard." Crazy people! On my way back to Sant' Agnello the train stopped on the bridge and the doors opened up to the view. I love that part! I got off at my station and walked back to the hostel. I was pretty tired from walking around all day so I just laid low. I chatted with Christie and Alexis for bit about their day and then headed to the restaurant downstairs for dinner. There isn't a whole lot of options in town. I met up with Allyson downstairs and we sat with these three other girls. One was from Australia and the other two were from Venezuela. I was pretty tired so I left the group early and headed back to the room. I packed my gear and drank the rest of my Jesus Tears. Tomorrow I will wake up at 4:45am for a long travel day, but I have something planned along the way.
Me in Pompeii